Veronica hanged back watching as Josie grew impatience before she finally calling an end to rehearsals she had been hoping to catch Izzy for a few minutes to talk about what happened at lunch and mostly to apologise for Archie and reassure her that his behaviour wasn't personal.

"Do you want a ride?" Izzy preemptively asked seeing as Veronica was still standing around instead of being the first to leave like usually; it would be going out of her way to drop her off at home but Veronica did give Izzy a ride home on Saturday.

"No, thanks Smithers will be here soon. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about this afternoon with Archie."

"Don't worry about it," Izzy replied back pre-emptively dismissing Veronica's words if she was going to get an apology she would rather hear it out of the horse's mouth.

"I just want you to know it wasn't personal, Archie is working through a lot of things and I won't normally apologise on his behalf but I'm trying to have a drama free zone so I don't want what happened between you and him to affect the pussycats and-"

"The Pussycats?" Izzy asked looking confused, did Veronica actually think Izzy was planning on kicking her out of the group just because she got into a pissing contest with Archie.

"Veronica, you're fine, we are fine," she emphasised. "I don't want you to apologise for your boyfriend if he has something to say he should tell me himself. Plus there's no way Josie is letting you leave the group before we sing at the winter formal." Izzy joked only half succeeding in removing the tension. "We can still be friends."

Izzy never got to hear what Veronica had to say next because Archie had walked into the room. "I thought I should come to meet you here instead of meeting you at Pop," Archie explained startling both Izzy and Veronica.

There were a few seconds of awkward silence where the girl wonder just how long Archie had been there, it wasn't like they were talking shit about him but it was awkward since they were talking about how he owed Izzy an apology.

Izzy wasn't about to stand in this awkward silence when she could go find Cheryl and make up with her. "See you tomorrow." Izzy threw over her shoulder as she walked past Archie, she had probably made it halfway to the gym before she heard footsteps running after her.

x.x.x.x

"Archie," Izzy muttered irritated that her day had to end with talking to the guy who had spent most of his time insulting her instead of having a few minutes to spend with Cheryl before she had to make her way to Pops and start stalking Shady man.

"Izzy," he replied with the same dead tone she had given him.

"Can I help you?" Let it be known that Izzy was very polite in this interaction, she sounded sincere and curious about how she could be of help to the Bulldog co-captain instead of sounding spitting mad like she still was.

"I came to apologise for today."

"Okay"

"Right see you around," Archie responded turning around and walking away.

Izzy stood blinking watching as that ginger haired bastard actually moved away. "Are you kidding me, where is the apology?"

Archie stopped and turned around, he may not be close to Izzy but a furious girl was a furious girl. "What?"

"What do you mean what, you haven't apologised and now you want to walk away after you decided to stop me from getting on with my day."

"I've already apologised what more do you want."

"That was not an apology, saying you've come to apologise isn't the apology."

"I don't even know why the hell I have to, you were the one who spent the whole lunch making everything about you then storming off after insulting me."

Izzy studied Archie for a few seconds seriously considering if he was concussed or just plain deluded. "See when Veronica said you were going through something and didn't mean what you said at lunch I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt because maybe she was right and you weren't a dick but then you actually stop me, offer me a non apology then come up with your own version of history that makes me out to be the bitch while you are some victim."

"I am not making you out to be anything, if you think that you are acting like a bitch maybe it's because you-"

"Finish that sentence and I will knee you in the dick," Izzy promised glaring back at Archie, she wasn't even sure why she was wasting her time with him, the guy obviously had some sort of issue with her and she didn't care about him enough to find out what, turning around Izzy started making her way to the changing room, by now practices will be over and the cheerleaders will be getting changed.

"So when I walk away it's a problem but when you do it I should be okay with it?"

Was it worth it to waste more time talking to Archie or was it not? Izzy briefly weighed up the pro and cons before sighing either way if she didn't deal with whatever was going on it will become an issue later on.

"What the hell is your problem like seriously," Izzy asked turning around to face him, forget her anger and his insult or all the baggage that was building up. "I actually want to know. What is your problem with me, what did I ever do to you? Before last week we barely even talk to each other and now you are insulting me at lunch, trying to pick fights with me in school corridors implying that I am a bitch, what have I done?"

"You don't even get it do you"

"Get what, what is there to get?" Izzy wondered, she couldn't think of anything that she had ever done for Archie to hate her. "Or are you just acting like a dick to act like a dick." Because that was the only possibility left, Archie wanted to act like an arsehole but had no one to do that to and there was Izzy a relative unknown in his life, she didn't really care about him or him her so he could act like a dick and it won't affect his relationship.

"So make this my fault right. You are so fucking entitled you don't realise it, It is sickening the way you have people wrapped around your finger with that woe is me poor princess act. Do you use it on everyone or is it just Jughead you have thinking that. You act like you are this amazing person, being friends with everyone, getting Jughead a job out of nowhere, trying to be friends with Ronnie and talking shit about me behind my back.

Newsflash you aren't special, you call Cheryl your best friend and you practically abandon her when her brother died, you made her deal with all that by herself.

You click your fingers and expect everyone to drop what they are doing to come to do your bidding but no one can count on you can they. Your friendship is a fucking one-way street, no wonder Cheryl would rather text Veronica for help when she tried to kill herself than reach out to you -"

…..

Izzy was still busy trying to understand half of what Archie had just spewed out during his rant when she registered what he had just said. "What?" Izzy blinked in confusion.

"I didn't. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean that." Archie found himself reach forward trying to comfort Izzy only for her to stumble back away from him.

It was one of those moments where Izzy felt like she was having an out of body experience, like back at the diner during the shooting, she knew what Archie had said, -what he was still saying- she understood it but it didn't seem real.

It didn't make sense.

One minute Izzy found herself standing in the middle of the hallway with Archie just staring at her and the next she was apparently slapping Cheryl across the face inside the changing room, (luckily Cheryl was the only one left) everyone else had rushed off as soon as practices had finished most hadn't even bothered to change out of their uniform in order to get to the safety of their house that much quicker.

This really wasn't how Izzy thought her day was going to go or how she thought she would handle the news… of attempted suicide.

A part of her did realise that he could just be saying anything to try and hurt her considering all the vitriol he had unleashed during his rant but she knew that wasn't it, the way he looked after he said it … he wasn't lying.

Cheryl had tried to kill herself, like die die.

So there wasn't an obvious right or wrong way to handle the news that your friend had contemplated ending their life and Izzy knew logically that slapping Cheryl was the wrong way to deal with it but she was just so God damn angry, the shock had all but dissipated leaving behind a roaring hot unabashed rage.

"So I guess you still don't forgive me," Cheryl stated clutching her cheek.

"You tried to kill yourself?" Izzy's voice wavered coming out making the sentence sound both like a statement and a question, her whole body was coursing with anger that she couldn't feel the sting from slapping Cheryl.

"What the hell is wrong with you. You don't just, you don't. WHY the hell would you do that"

"Who told you?" Cheryl asked dispassionately.

The smallest part of Izzy that had been holding out hope that this was a cruel trick died, Cheryl hadn't denied it, she really did try to kill herself.

"You've have done a lot of stupid unforgivable things in your life but suicide. WHAT the hell is wrong with you? Why would you do that?

You …you you have me. If something is going on you talk to me, tell me. Don't kill yourself. After everything, everyone has been through this year wasn't burying Jason enough for you." Izzy couldn't finish what she was saying because she couldn't breathe she wasn't getting enough oxygen into her lungs, her sentences were coming out in wheezing whispers by the end.

It wasn't even a panic attack it was just pure rage struggling to be contained, it was taking everything in her not to lash out again and start shaking Cheryl like a rag doll and she would.

She wanted to…

Her hands were already clenched into fists and Cheryl was just standing there, hands on her cheek just staring at her saying nothing, doing nothing… Izzy needed to get out of there.

She couldn't….

This wasn't….

She had a job to do, she needed to get to Pop and go to work and serve burgers with fries and milkshake and talk to Jug and laugh with Joe and go serve irritating customers and be as far away from this as possible.

x.x.x.x

Archie walked back into the music room where Ronnie had said she would wait for him while he goes to apologise for that afternoon. He could see the smile on her face, the look of joy in thinking he had done as she asked and go apologies.

"I messed up Ronnie," Archie confessed slumping down in one of the stools. "I really fucked up".

He hadn't meant to, he really hadn't meant to bring up Cheryl or the suicide.

Honestly and truly his words just ran away from him, he hadn't even realised what he was saying until Izzy had flinched back, she had fucking flinched and the look on her face…. It was the same look she had waiting for news of whether his dad would survive.

Just Blank.

She had shut down and then she had run away and it was all his fault.

"Archie is okay" Ronnie tried reassuring him and he couldn't have it, he couldn't sit there while she reached over and rubbed his back trying to soothe him, thinking he was this upset because of a ruined apology attempt. "We can go to Pop's now, you can try again."

"Ron, she, I told her about Cheryl and Sweet water." He felt the moment she understood what had happened, the hand stopped it's circular pattern on his back, the brows furrowed in confusion then in anger then back to confusion because she was trying to figure out how.

How was it that he left to apologise and came back having told Izzy Cheryl's biggest secret. What had happened?

He didn't want this. He didn't mean to do this. He wasn't a bad guy.

Was he?

He didn't see himself as one, but when he saw that shattered look on Izzy's face, so fleeting, only to be covered up quickly behind a blank look.

He never meant to take it so far.

His fear for his father, his hurt and anger at Izzy and Jug, and his rage at the shooter, everything was fuelling the fire within him.

And it spilt over.

Izzy was questioning him acting all innocent and confused like she didn't have a clue what was going on because she was unburdened, she didn't feel what he was feeling, none of the anger and hopelessness.

He just wanted it to stop, wanted her to know what it felt like to be so angry at someone and having no control over it, he wanted her to know he was the better friend, that she wasn't as great of a friend as she thought she was but not like this, not using Cheryl's action as ….

What was he thinking?

How could Archie do that? How could he?

Was he so bitter about everything that he ended up doing this?

Was he so petty?

Jughead had once compared him to Izzy way back when the two boys were in the middle of an argument, so was this his retaliation? Was this his way of condemning Jug for his choices as Jug has condemned him for his skills, personality, just him in general?

It hurt to know that Jug thought of Izzy as the better person and didn't Archie just prove that, what 'good guy' took advantage of a suicide attempt to destroy someone else.

x.x.x.x

Writer's thought

At first i had Veronica revealing Cheryl's suicide attempt in a misguided way of making sure that Izzy was still there for her friend as Cheryl is very fragile but that no longer made any sense because the end of the last chapter saw Izzy forgiving Cheryl already so after re-writing it so many times figure I had an easy out if I had Archie reveal it instead whilst angry. It made more sense, plus this incident helps Archie snap out of his mood and funk someone said they could see Archie telling Izzy about Hiram if he ever found out so why not have him reveal what he DOES know already.

Also what do you think about Izzy's reaction, believable or not. Was it even reasonable, does she have a right to be so angry at Cheryl for this do you think is because of all the death going on in town or is it because her friend actually tried killing herself. Or is there something else going on

Hope you like it, I still appreciate and comment and reviews even if you didn't like it. I like to hear your theory.