I didn't sleep that night. I couldn't get the pounding dance music out of my head, visions of a ransacked dead body played through my mind to the soundtrack of some vapid pop song.
How could my friends have been so stupid? I know they were drunk but still, was Veronica really so charismatic that that she had convinced them all that last night was normal? New questions, new fears, new worries had all be bouncing around my head for the few hours I had after I had snuck back home. My parents didn't even know I had been gone. I wish I hadn't. It was 5am by the time I had got home, it took Jughead and I hours to convince everybody to leave, Jughead took the janitor's possessions from our friends, he said he would handle getting rid of them.
I lied in my bed, fooling myself that I would be able to sleep before I was supposed to wake up at 7am sharp. But how could I sleep?
The police were going to find the body, find everybody's fingerprints all over it, find out about the party, who went to said party, what they had done at the party and then arrest us all.
It was a torturous night, without a doubt the worst of my life. I couldn't face doing nothing though, I went down for breakfast early to take my mind off the night. Like that was going to happen.
"Hey hun, good morning." My dad was already up and dressed at 6am, always the early bird.
Act natural, act natural. "Morning dad, what's up?"
"Sad news sweetheart, a man was found dead at Sweetwater River."
My heart stopped. How could he already know? I had only left that body less than two hours ago. "W-What?"
"One of my sources at the newspaper tipped me off. A jogger found a man's body about an hour ago." An hour ago, we had all cleared out by then. Hadn't we? "The police are at the scene now, I'm heading down there after I have my coffee to get the full story. This will make a great front page for our evening edition."
"That's not nice, dad."
"Ha, sorry, I guess you're right. A lifetime of being a reporter has numbed me to these kind of things. I'm off now, have a good day at school."
I doubted I would.
As my dad went off to do some investigating, I was determined to do the same. Everybody should be at school today and they should be sober enough.
I usually walked to school with Archie every morning. It had been happening less and less frequently since Veronica had come to town but today I wasn't going to let anybody get in the way of our walk. I had some question for my best friend.
I knocked on his door around 8am, the same time we had always met up. "Hi, Betty." It was his dad. "How are you?"
"Good, Mr Andrews. Is Archie ready to walk to school?" I said as perkily as I possibly could. That was my first attempt at trying to act normal today. I hoped it was good enough.
"Yeah, he's just about awake, I'm sure he'll perk up more once he sees you. Archie!" He shouted up the stairs as Archie came running down, already dressed for school.
"Yeah, yeah, Dad, I'm coming." He looked surprisingly good considering he looked stoned out of his mind not 3 hours ago. "Hey Betty," he hugged me, "Bye dad."
His dad hugged him goodbye and we made our long walk to school.
"Archie, how are you feeling?" It was unsettling to see him in such a state last night, for him to show no regard for human life was not like the Archie she had known her whole life.
Archie sighed, "A little tired if I am honest," he half laughed, "Crazy party, huh?"
"Crazy? Arch, it was insane, what on earth happened?"
He scratched the back of his head, the details must have been foggy for him, I'd be surprised if they weren't. "Um, Veronica invited me, she invited everybody around midnight."
Midnight? I only got the messages around 1:30am, a lot could have happened in that time and evidentially, it did. "That didn't strike you as odd?"
"I thought it was a little weird on a school night, but she's new, she just wants to make friends. I bet midnight parties happen all the time in New York." Archie took a breathe, "Then we found the body."
"You found the body?"
"Well, it was Veronica who found it, but then everybody pretty much pounced on it. The Serpents looted his pockets, Reggie and the bulldogs wanted to put make up on him and take selfies. He called it a prank. They took the photos as well, it made me uncomfortable to be honest."
Any photos of the night could sink all of us if they get out. "Why didn't anybody call the police? You understand how sick this all is right?"
"I was going to call them, but then Veronica stopped me."
"Why would she do that?"
"She was laughing, like a lot. She said this was perfect. It was her chance to make this place immortal, to put Riverdale on the map."
"Meaning?"
"Hell if I know, the drinks had started flowing pretty heavily by that point."
"Arch, last night you and the others kept talking about a vampire."
Archie's eyes lit up, "Oh yeah, the vampire. I had forgotten about the vampire."
"Forgot? Forgot what?"
"It was weird, I thought it was weird even after the booze. After she had found him, it was just me and Reggie with her. Veronica took out her eyeliner pen and punctured two holes in the body's neck. To make it look like a vampire had bit him. We even convinced some of the latecomers that a real vampire had attacked him."
None of this made sense. "And why would she do that?"
"That I couldn't tell you, it's the only thing I remember from last night. I don't even remember seeing you."
That was a question that wasn't going to get answered on that day. Most of the class had called in sick and the few who did come in couldn't remember anything no matter how hard I pressed them. Veronica didn't show up.
The whole day felt weird, like the calm before a storm. I didn't get the answered I needed until much later. It was the next day however that changed Riverdale forever…