SMOKESTACKS
CHAPTER | SEVENTEEN
"Are you okay?" Savannah asked Betty the next morning, watching as the blonde applied a layer of pink lipstick over her lips.
"No." Betty sighed, putting down her lipstick and pressing her lips together. "Polly won't answer my calls or emails. I mean," She paused to swirl around in her chair, "I understand that she doesn't want to talk to my dad, but what did I do?"
"I don't know, B." Savannah offered a sad smile, picking up the nickname that Veronica had for their friend. "But we'll figure it out, okay? There's a reason for everything."
Betty nodded, determined.
"Up and at 'em!" Alice Cooper declared as she threw open the door, sauntering into the room. "Breakfast is ready."
"I'm not hungry." Betty insisted, sharing a look with Savannah, who merely shrugged in response.
"Oh, enough is enough, Elizabeth." Alice practically sighed, exhausted with her daughter's behaviour. "We have a big week ahead of us. The Blossoms have always been a thorn in our side ever since, according to your milquetoast father, Great-Grandpappy Blossom killed Great-Grandpappy Cooper. Well," She started folding some of Betty's clothes. "It's about time someone brings them to heel."
Savannah stuck her tongue out at Betty, behind Alice's back, to which the blonde bit her lip in an attempt not to smile.
"I'm writing a searing, no-holds-barred take-down of their clan."
"And you think that's going to bring Polly home?" Betty asked in disbelief.
"Maybe, maybe not." Alice placed Betty's, now folded, sweater back on her futon. "But it'll make me feel better. Word has it that the Blossom board of trustees has descended on Riverdale like some cabal of vampires. Why? Now that's a story."
Savannah shrugged and commented, "You do you, Ms. Cooper. Bring down the fearsome Blossoms."
Alice Cooper smiled an almost genuine smile before leaving the two girls in Betty's room.
"Why must you encourage her."
"Eh, why not? Things were getting too boring around here."
"Is it true?" She had asked the next day, the two of them sitting at a bench, her hands clasped in front of her atop the table. "About your dad, I mean."
"That he's a Serpent?" Jughead asked her, to which she nodded. "Yeah, but he said he didn't kill Jason Blossom, and I believe him."
"Okay." Savannah nodded simply, picking up her burger and continuing to demolish it.
Jughead frowned in confusion, "Is that it?"
"Yep."
"Uh, okay." The dark haired boy picked up his own burger, taking a hesitant bite whilst watching the girl, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Savannah tapped her phone before spitting out her burger in a hurry, "We're late."
"For what?" Jughead asked, his mouth still full of burger and bun. A piece of lettuce fell from his mouth.
"Attractive." Savannah scowled at the boy before jumping up and taking ahold of his wrist, "Veronica wanted us to meet them in the common room like ten minutes ago."
"Since when are you and Veronica friends?" Jughead chuckled, allowing Savannah to pull him along the hallway.
"Gosh, keep up." Savannah told him, her voice full of mirth. "Have you not learned that nothing stays the same in Riverdale?"
They burst into the common room, interrupting something that Archie was saying. The two stood there for a moment before breaking apart and sitting in seats away from each other. Veronica's eyes lingered on Savannah's hand.
"Just in time." She smirked at Savannah before looking to Jughead, "We're celebrating."
"Archie was just telling us about how he's going to some super-exclusive music program." Kevin filled them in, everyone watching as Archie tried to hold in his grin.
"Maybe." Archie butted in, "If it happens, though, it'd be super huge for me."
"Do you have to audition for it?" Jughead asked from his position, perched on the edge of Betty's seat.
"Not exactly." Archie shook his head, "Mrs. Blossom came by earlier and said she'd put a good word in for me."
Savannah spat out the tea that she had been drinking, given to her by Veronica, who slid away from the girl with surprising speed. "What?" She choked, taking a napkin from the dark haired girl, "Mrs. Blossom? Why are you talking to, as Kevin once put it, Madame Satan?"
Veronica rolled her eyes at the mention of her little nickname.
"Uh huh." Jughead nodded in thought, "What's she getting out of it?"
"I told her I'd take Cheryl to their family's tree-tapping thing." Archie admitted, his eyes glued to his packet of tortilla chips. "I already talked to Valerie, she's cool with it."
"Cool with you being a gigolo?" Jughead sassed, to which Savannah snorted. He grinned at her and she smiled in return - something that did not go amiss by Kevin and Veronica, who shared a suspicious look.
"I'm doing someone a favour for my music, Jughead." Archie said, his eyebrows furrowed in irritation. He didn't understand how his friend couldn't be more supportive. "I need to make connections outside of Riverdale."
"That's the way of the world." Veronica told them, taking a sip of her coffee. "It's all about connections, but Jughead's right. These kinds of favours always come with a price tag. Betty, back me up here."
"I think it's a great idea." Betty admitted, looking sheepishly between her two female friends, who looked affronted.
"Thank you, Betty."
"Yeah, and while you're there, would you talk to Polly for me?"
Savannah snickered into her tea, "There it is." She muttered to Kevin, who nodded in agreement.
"I just wanna make sure she's okay." Betty smiled at Archie.
"Definitely." Archie assured her with a smile of his own, "And don't worry, Ronnie. I can take care of myself."
Veronica pointed a skewer of watermelon in his direction, "Famous last words, Archiekins."
"I like that nickname." Savannah announced, her eyes locked onto Archie. "It's adorable, just like you." She reached over Kevin to pinch his cheek, before taking out her phone and changing his contact name.
Kevin shook his head in amusement at the girl, "What's my contact name?"
"Kevin." Savannah said, simply, putting a little music note next to Archie's name.
"Wow, that boring?"
"I put a little clapperboard next to it for you."
"Gee, thanks."
It was a Friday morning when Savannah skipped into school, looking forward to the weekend. She did had the late shift that night at Pop's, but if she looked past that, then all she saw was a weekend of bonding with her brother, who had been spending less time with Piper.
She hadn't seen her mother in over a week, only catching glimpses of her unconscious body through the crack in her door. She couldn't even remember what it was like to talk to her mother, couldn't recall her voice.
"Oh my god, did you hear?" Kevin exclaimed from across the hall from her, speaking to Betty and Veronica.
Savannah closed her locker and closed the space between them, "About what?" She asked, her face matching the other girls' curious ones.
"Remember when you went swooping in to save Ethel because you thought she might be suicidal?"
"Oh no." Veronica's face paled and she looked slightly green, "No, she didn't -"
"No, but her dad did." Kevin broke the news, watching as Veronica grasped onto her locker for support, feeling her knees buckle under her. "He accidentally swallowed a whole bottle of sleeping pills. He's going to be okay, but, that's why Ethel's been so sad."
Veronica couldn't hear anymore. She pushed past her friends, the ringing in her ears was deafening, trying to escape the voices that swirled around her.
Betty took off after her friend immediately, leaving Kevin and Savannah standing there in shock.
"Is she okay?" Savannah asked Kevin, who looked rather grim.
"Ethel's dad invested in Veronica's dad's company." He started to explain, "So when he was arrested, their family lost everything. Along with countless others."
"Oh no." Savannah cast a glance in the direction that her friend had disappeared in. "You said Ethel's dad was going to be okay?"
"He is." Kevin confirmed, lifting the mood slightly. "Poor Ethel."
"It seems like every family in this town is starting to fall apart." Savannah said, solemnly, with a sigh. "Luckily, mines did before Jason's death."
Kevin frowned, growing worried for his friend, "What happened?"
Savannah pursed her lips in thought, unsure whether to tell him or not. "Oh, uh, it's just..." She let out another sigh and muttered, "My mom was cheating on my dad, she told him right before he died."
He didn't say anything but placed a hand on Savannah's shoulder in support, pulling her in for a comforting hug.
Following their conversation, Savannah left school early, not caring that the school would phone home, it's not like there was anyone there to answer. Her mother was in an alcohol-induced coma and Kyle was at work.
She found herself knelt in front of Jason Blossom's grave, her eyes glistening as they fell over the words engraved on his tombstone.
Her fingers, shakily, grazed the words, feeling the bumps under the tips. They stopped on the word friend. Is that what he had been to her? A friend?
It felt so impersonal for him to be described as a friend. He'd helped her to forget the pain of her father's death and what had come before it. He replaced the ache in her heart with a different kind of longing, one that he also shared.
Despite her betrayal to a girl that she barely knew, she couldn't help but return to Jason each time, finding that slipping into his bed was as easy as breathing.
It had been so long since she had been at his house, it felt odd to think that the time before last, she had been sneaking down the cobblestone path in her bare feet, only for Jason to come chasing after her.
He'd placed a soft kiss on her lips and whispered a goodnight that send goosebumps down her spine.
She had tried so hard to forget him, she'd been pushing him out of her mind by surrounding herself with her friends, by listening to their problems so that she would forget her own.
That she had been in love with Jason Blossom and everyone, but she, had known it.