Penelope Blossom opened the door to find the gold digging grandchild of Noah standing on her doorstep, she'd had hoped Cheryl's latest argument with the demon child would have put an end to the disturbing 'friendship' they shared but alas here the trollop was ready to patch things up with the Nightmare child. "Shouldn't you be at your own house instead of disturbing mine?" Penelope sneered down her nose at the girl.
"Shouldn't you be in the hospital getting surgery to fix all that?" Izzy shot back instantly pointing at the mummified gauze that covered up half of Penelope's body.
There was a beat of silence where Penelope was obviously startled by what was said but she couldn't think of a decent come back so instead settled for more glaring and posturing while asking why she should allow Izzy to enter.
"Because I didn't come all this way to stare at you, let me see her and I'll be gone within the hour," Izzy promised.
"Cheryl your 'friend' is here" Penelope called back over her shoulders still refusing to let Izzy enter the house. "It's good to see that nothing changes when it comes to you, Jason may have died, my husband commits suicide, Thornhill burnt to the ground and yet you still come around trying to hang onto my daughter coat tails" Penelope hissed staring Izzy up and down like she was some type of street urchin.
"Who needs a face, people who love them or even worldly possessions when the fire kept that amazing wit of yours intact," Izzy replied grinning back, she may have spent the drive over thinking about how tired she was but there was no way Cruella was going to get the last word.
Izzy wasn't even prone to lying (maybe not telling the full story at times) so why did no one believe her when she talked about Penelope, they still treated her like a six-year-old telling tall tales like there might be a hint of truth to what she said but there was 'no way' Penelope was an evil cruel monster, adults, in general, were stupid and most refused to believe the word of a 'child' when there was an adult in the room contradicting their statement.
Izzy had stopped biting her tongue when it came to Penelope Blossom and had started given back as good as she got when it came to that woman, she was the absolute worst parent a child could ever have and that was saying something seeing as how Clifford shot Jason in the head to hide his drug empire.
"I can't wait for the day my daughter realise that you are nothing but a gold digging trollop."
"And I can't wait for you to drop dead so I guess we both have something to look forward to." Izzy shrugged still standing in the cold, the snow was progressively getting worse but Izzy would be damn if she asked Penelope to move and let her in.
"Noah really didn't teach you any manners did he, allowing you to talk to any which way to people. You do know I could just shut the door and go about my evening."
Izzy was saved from having to respond as Nana Blossom as she currently rolled through the foyer un her wheelchair."Spending your day arguing with a teenager, really Penelope?" Nana Blossom tutted. "Do you have nothing better to do?"
"Nana Blossom." Izzy greeted with a genuine smile, N.B was the only person in that entire household who didn't have a problem in taking Penelope down a peg or six when her dementia wasn't acting up.
"Come in dearie, tell me did you win that beauty contest of yours? Is all Cheryl's talked about for weeks now, mark my words you will surely be in the finals." It was always a bitter-sweet feeling seeing Nana Blossom especially when her mind was stuck in the past before Izzy could even reply Nana Blossom's mind had already moved onto something else. "Do close the door Penelope you disrespectful child always sneaking out, leaving my doors open like you can afford the heating bill."
Izzy took the opportunity to walk in, not even attempting to hide the fact that she was laughing at Penelope expense despite the fierce glare coming her way.
"Have you come for round two?" Cheryl asked standing halfway up the stairs making her presence known, she looked quite amazing in the silk red pyjamas she had on.
"No, I thought we should talk."
"Fine come on up, you have five minutes" Cheryl granted turning around and heading to her room.
"Leave the door open." Penelope snapped before either girl could take a step. Izzy hated letting Penelope get in the last word but she had bigger things ahead of her to deal with.
x.x.x.x
This wasn't Izzy's first time in Thistle house but it definitely felt like it, despite the numerous argument her and Cheryl had gotten to over the years it had never turned physical, beyond the occasional shoulder bump as the barged past each other when one of them was feeling extremely petty.
"I won't have been able to sleep tonight without finding out what happened," Izzy stated walking into the massive king size room Cheryl had nabbed for herself. "So what happened," Izzy asked throwing her jacket onto the bed before walking to the window seat and sitting down.
"You slapped me" Cheryl pointed out from her position across the room, arms crossed over her chest, a defiant glare in her eyes as if she was judging Izzy and she probably was.
"I did" Izzy admitted nodding.
"You called me selfish." Cheryl pouted as if that was her main concern.
"It was selfish but I'm not here to pass judgment, I just... I am here to listen. I'm here to hear your side of this."
"Are you?" Cheryl questioned raising her brow slightly daring Izzy in some way.
"Go ahead," Izzy stated confidently giving the floor to Cheryl to speak, she meant it, she was there to listen and understand.
"Why should I tell you anything"
"Cheryl" That one word was both a plea and an order for her to start talking, Izzy hadn't been kidding when she said she won't have slept without knowing what went on.
"I…. It was…. I'm not… I, I was in a really bad place, I just found out Dad killed JJ and then he killed himself, I just…"
Cheryl was struggling to find the words to continue so Izzy jumped in with her own apology filling in the silence. "I shouldn't have slapped you, I am sorry about that." Izzy sighed, she promised herself that she would apologise, no matter how she felt (still feels) about the situation she should never have slapped Cheryl. "I did mean what I said though, suicide isn't the answer Poppy." she continued patting the space next to her inviting Cheryl over. "If you want to. I will always be here, for whatever, whenever just talk to me. Explain this to me, what happened, why did you try to kill yourself?"
"What happened isn't something we talk about." Cheryl pointed out.
"Well we should talk about it, I should… Cheryl your dad hanged himself." Izzy let the sentence hang for a few minutes neither one of them saying anything else because what else could they say, Clifford Blossom had killed himself rather than living with what he did. "So what happened what made you try to kill yourself?"
"Nothing happened, I just had enough" Cheryl shrugged looking away.
It was on the tip of her tongue to say something equally as flippant but she won't.
This was a serious conversation and she won't let it devolve into anything less than what it was. "You just had enough... Enough of what exactly? Because you are still alive"
"I know you don't understand what happened but don't you dare mock me. You have no idea what it was like for me. I was ready to give up but Archie saved me, he pulled me out of the river and made sure I lived and that's what I am doing living"
"The river, you tried to drown yourself..." Once again the sat in silent as Izzy's words resonated within their mind. "Guess that's one questioned answered, you chose to drown…. I wasn't mocking you." Izzy sighed "But that doesn't mean I'm going to accept some bullshit excuse. You tried to kill yourself and it wasn't because you just got tired of living. You didn't wake up one morning bored with being alive. I am trying to find out what is going on… just talk to me." Izzy pleaded, she was trying not to get frustrated but Cheryl needed to explain since none of this made any sense.
The idea that Cheryl would kill herself, that anyone she knew would try to kill themselves, it didn't make any sense.
Was it the grief because Cheryl had lost both JJ and her dad.
Was Cheryl depressed or was she just suicidal or was it something else, something Izzy could watch out for try and prevent. How hadn't she realise what was going on, how had no-one?
What was going on in any of their lives that they didn't see what was going on with Cheryl. Mel, Valerie, Josie, any of the vixens, it was such a small school, everyone practically knew everyone (kinda) even if they didn't how did the rumour mill not pick it up, not one word about Cheryl looking sad or anything.
What else was going on in Riverdale if Cheryl could spend weeks walking around the school after trying to commit suicide without a single person knowing?
That wasn't exactly true was it, a tiny voice spoke up remembering the fact that Archie knew, Archie and Veronica knew and yet they did nothing.
How?
How did they save Cheryl from drowning and then do nothing, say nothing, Izzy had already had a panic attack on the way over and she'd only known for a few hours.
"I changed my mind, I don't want to talk about it. You don't get to interrogate me." Cheryl stated defensively moving away while Izzy stayed where she was, her back nestled against the cold glass as she watched Cheryl pace around the room, moving from the desk to her bed back to the desk and then taking the time to walk the width of the room from one wall to the other and back again.
"You tried to commit suicide and that isn't something that just goes away, you don't get a choice so start talking." Izzy continued more forcefully, Cheryl could try walking around the room as many times as she wanted it still wasn't going to stop them from having this conversation.
"I am fine now Archie saved me," Cheryl replied non chalantly like it answered everything.
"That doesn't change the fact that you tried to kill yourself you do get that right, you get him saving you don't change anything." Izzy was baffled at Cheryl dismissive attitude, there were talking about suicide as in an actual attempt to end a life (failed or otherwise).
"What do you know. About anything?" Cheryl sneered. "The most devastating thing to happen to you was the fact that your mum died when you were a kid but apart from that, there is nothing in your life that isn't amazing. Pop and GG go out of their way to have family dinners with you." Cheryl scoffed as if that was an entirely new and foreign concept to her. "Everyone, everyone in town looks at you like you are the poster child for excellence and why won't they? You go around saving peoples lives like you are trying out for sainthood. You are the one people call when they want someone to be there, you're good and nice and dependable and who do I have? The only person I had was Jason and now he's dead and now I am left with my mum who is just looking for a reason to ship me away. Honestly, you are pathetic sitting here whining about something that doesn't involve you."
Izzy was trying not to take any of this to heart, she really was but this was the second time in as many weeks that Cheryl had decided to mention her mum and it was obviously a deflection tactic, a very good one but there wasn't enough left in her to be angry about this as well not when she was still trying to work out what happened with Cheryl.
"Why didn't you call me?" Izzy asked "If I'm the person people call when they need someone there then why didn't you call? I'm good, nice, dependable your best friend i would have been there so why didn't you call?" Izzy questioned choosing to ignore everything else.
"Because I didn't want your help"
'So you wanted help?" Izzy clarified that was good Cheryl had wanted help, she didn't want to die not really.
"What does it matter? I tried and failed, I'm fine you just-"
"You are not stupid enough to believe that so stop saying it." Izzy hissed getting off the window seat. "Stop pretending that everything's okay, that you trying to kill yourself is fine. I won't be here if it was fine Cheryl, I won't be worried about you if you were fine. I won't have had a god damn panic attack over this if it was fine. You don't get to be in denial about this so accept the fact that's this is fucked up and that you need help."
Izzy thought she was getting through to Cheryl, for a single glorious moment Cheryl seem to understand why Izzy was so worried but apparently not. "Is this because I asked Veronica for help instead of you?" Cheryl quizzed squinting her eyes in suspicion.
"You think, did I... How hard did I slap you?" Izzy wondered she was close to starting a full-blown argument when she noticed the way Cheryl's hands were running over her pyjamas, then she noticed her eyes, her full-blown 'I-am-on-drugs-eyes' "Are you shitting me, you're high."
First suicide now she'd taken drugs, what the hell was happening here? "Okay Cheryl we are going to sit back down and you are going to tell me everything that happened."
"Why would we do that?" Cheryl asked obviously confused, what Izzy had previously thought of as non-chance was obviously the drugs working and making her spacey. At this point, Izzy didn't even care whatever party drug Cheryl had taken would be out of her system by tomorrow morning it wasn't as permeant as the other issue.
"Because you will be dead, do you understand that you'll be dead, everyone would be attending your funeral by now, we would be lowering you cold, blotted corpse into the ground. You would have made us bury you, Pop would have been left wondering how it happened, we all would have. I would have been visiting your grave an actual grave with your body in there so I am not leaving until I get some answers starting with why you would do this make me understand why you want to end your life."
"Why do you even want to know?" Cheryl questioned
"Call it morbid curiosity" Izzy snapped out "Either way I'm not going anywhere until I found out what's going on," Izzy promised. "You've already said you tried to drown yourself so is there anything else, how did Archie get involved"
"If I tell you will you leave?" Cheryl huffed out
"Start talking." Izzy had no plans to just leave Cheryl even with the full story and a part of Cheryl must have already known that seeing as Izzy hadn't agreed to the deal.
"I was tired of living and I just wanted to be with Jason" Cheryl admitted shrugging her shoulders as if what she was talking about wasn't that big of a deal. "He's all I had and I started spiralling after he died but instead of drowning Archie saved me and gave me a second chance at life." from then on Cheryl confessed everything, how she helped Jason plan his escape, how she convinced him not to get Izzy involved as well, everything, she confessed everything including somethings Izzy was better off not knowing like how Cheryl had burnt down Thornhill because her life needed purification.
The more Cheryl said the more worried Izzy got especially the way she talked about Archie saving her like it was a fix-it to her problems or that the drowning was a twisted form of baptism, the old Cheryl had drowned in the river and Archie had saved and bought a new Cheryl to live.
Izzy couldn't even blame this on the drugs, Cheryl was building herself back upon the basis that she didn't die so she now had a reason to live, she was completely ignoring the fact that she'd wanted to die in the first place and all this fake higher purpose bullshit will crumble.
Cheryl's denial clarified a few things for Izzy firstly Izzy herself was in denial about her panic attacks and she needed to tell Pop about them, tonight. Secondly Cheryl needed help, more help than Izzy could provide, third and most importantly Cheryl would try again, maybe not today or even sometime this year but she would definitely try again if she didn't get help, she was grieving and depressed and a bunch of other things and if she didn't deal with it then it would cause another suicide attempt.
"I'm in no way qualified to handle all of this," Izzy admitted, she wasn't enough for something like this. "Pack your things we need to talk to Pop." She may not be able to handle this barrage of information but Pop would.
"Wh-"
"Listen Pop will know what to do" Izzy rushed to reassure Cheryl as she literally backed away. "We just tell Pop you need help and he'll figure it out for -"
"No!" Cheryl refused moving away from Izzy as if distance will make a difference to what had just been said.
"He's going to help we can just tell him"
"I said no!"
"Cheryl we need to get you help, you are obviously struggling, you tried to kill yourself"
"Stop saying that!"
"Then just stay over for a few days, take a break from being here, we don't even have to tell him tonight, we can try talking to him on Friday gives you a few days to-."
"I said no, you can't force me to tell anyone when I'm not ready"
"Do you even hear yourself? I'm not asking you to come out I'm asking for you to get help. A functioning well-meaning adult needs to be involved, suicide is a literal cry for help, Penelope doesn't know and even if she did I… Let's just ask Pop for his advice"
This entire day was off the rails from Archie's barbs at lunch to him telling her about Cheryl, the fact that she slapped Cheryl then there was Shady man and now Cheryl was on some party flavours with Izzy trying to convince her to get help, how was all this happening in a space of a day and not to mention the massive panic attack she had whilst driving.
"I'm not telling anyone anything, you wanted to know the truth now you do so go home."
"Enough Cheryl." Izzy snapped, she wasn't going to molly-coddle Cheryl and let this thing get worse by not getting her help, the one person she could always count on no matter what was Pop, so whether Cheryl liked it or not she was going to see him and they were going to tell him everything.
Izzy was already moving away from Cheryl towards her bedroom closet, if she knew Cheryl there will be a suitcase somewhere inside the walk-in. "I know it seems like I am giving you an option but I'm not. PACK. YOUR. THINGS. You are coming home with me and once we sober you up we are telling Pop."
"You wanted to know what happened and I told you. I'm not finding Pop to-" Cheryl refused backing away from Izzy and the suitcase.
"And you don't get to die, you need help. If I have to, if you make me I WILL tell Penelope about this. Pop or Penelope those are your options." Izzy threatened she wasn't sure if she could or not.
Penelope didn't need any more ammunition to use against Cheryl but this situation was bigger than her hatred of Cruella, Cheryl's life was literally on the line.
"Get out"
"Cheryl-"
"I believe you heard my daughter is time to leave." Penelope piped up startling Izzy, how long had she been standing there?
Izzy ignored Penelope and kept her eyes on Cheryl, "I am not kidding Cheryl you need to tell-"
"Or what, are you are going to slap me again."
"You slapped her?" Penelope asked surprised she knew Izzy had a temper but she managed to keep it under wraps (most of the time) more importantly Izzy had never gotten physical with anyone, destruction of property sure but assault, never.
"I'm trying to help you-" Izzy continued not bothering to address the fact that Penelope was there or that she had spoken.
"I don't want your help, how many times do I have to say it. I just want you gone."
"Cheryl think-"
"I believed she asked you to leave" Penelope stated walking into the room.
"Last chance Cheryl, I will tell her," Izzy promised, she was debating the consequences of telling Penelope versus letting Cheryl keep this secret but that would just be disastrous. Izzy hated Penelope but even Cruella would try to get Cheryl help, she had lost one child she would want to make sure Cheryl lived.
"Do what you want" Cheryl stated rolling her eyes before walking out of her room leaving Penelope and Izzy staring after her.
Writer's Note:
Suicide is a VERY serious matter and I urge anyone thinking about it to please call your local suicide hotline or to reach out to someone, ANYONE for help.
I had to re-write this chapter at least ten thousand times because I am trying to be sensitive about this subject but there is only so much I can do while still trying to write the story in the way I envisioned it.
Back to the story: We can all agree that Cheryl is NOT okay and needs help and some adult supervision ie Pop. We have our first Izzy and Penelope interaction as we can see they hate each other. One thing I realised, later on, is how much the show just glossed over the fact that Clifford Blossom died, sure JJ death was the big mystery and Clifford was the bad guy but he was also her dad and from what little we saw about their interaction it seemed like he treated Cheryl somewhat better than his wife did so his death would have also hit her hard. It might have potentially contributed to Cheryl's own suicide attempt because with his death it meant that she was alone with Penelope.
Next Chapter hopefully coming out tonight or in the next few days.