Abby and Sweet Pea were in the soundproof garage with Vegas. "I wonder what that guy wants." Sweet Pea stared at the door. An FBI agent knocks on the door and Fred asks them to go hang out in another room.
"I don't know but I don't have a good feeling. It seems like we can't catch a break." She pets Vegas.
"You're telling me. With the trailers on the line because Jughead sent the head to the Lodges and now your dad might be in trouble." He leaned back into the couch.
Archie came barging into the garage. "What the hell is that guy doing here?"
"We don't know. Dad sent us in here while they talked." Abby informed him.
"I don't like that guy." He threw himself down on the recliner.
"Does it seem like they were almost done talking? We have been here for a while." Sweet Pea asks.
"He said they were wrapping it up." Archie glares at the door.
They waited for a few more minutes until Fred came into the garage. "That agent left."
"What did he want?" Archie squeezed the stress ball he kept in here when he got stuck on a verse.
"The FBI is assisting in a crackdown on undocumented labor from Canada. They think that maybe over the years I've hired some of these guys, paid them cash under the table. Yeah, a couple of times, I looked the other way." He admitted.
"But they can't take you down for that, can they?" Archie couldn't believe how dirty the agent was willing to go to get what he wanted out of him.
"Oh sure, they can. Son, it's the FBI. They've been requesting my files for the last seven years." He looked sick to his stomach.
"Of course the government squashes small businesses for trying to help people out, but they let the large one not pay taxes." Sweet Pea scoffed.
"Would it be jail or a fine?" Abby wanted to know the consequences since he was guilty.
"Probably both." He couldn't look them in the eyes knowing that he screws them over by being a nice guy.
Abby and Fangs were sitting in front of her laptop as they looked at places the boys could rent. Sweet Pea was watching TV next to them. "You think you would be more interested." Abby looked over at him.
"It makes me depressed. Everywhere we can afford are worse dumps than this." He sighs.
"Oh, look there's a building on Franklin and Sycamore that has a lot of vacancies. It's probably where a lot of people are going to move too, so we should put in an application." Abby took a visual tour of the decent building.
"That place is right on the train tracks. The building probably shakes every time one passes. We'll never have peace there." Sweet looks on the downside.
"It's a concrete building, so I'm sure it doesn't shake and if it does we'll get used to the noise. It is our best option." Fangs glare at his roommate.
Sweet Pea matches the glare, mad at him for giving up. "I understand you're upset, you have every right to be. But, you have to deal with the reality that you have to move." Abby sighes at his stubbornness.
"I know that, but looking at these shitty options is pissing me off. It enrages me that our best option is a studio apartment that is half the size of the trailer. It's across town that technically puts us in another school district. We might have to move schools too." He rants.
"Have you researched this already?" Abby and Fangs were shocked that he did it without them.
"Yeah, I took a look when we first got the eviction notice. I've been thinking about dropping out of school to get a job outside of the Serpents so we can afford to move into a nicer place in the district." He had a few jobs in mind.
"FP wouldn't allow that." Fangs remind him. FP had a rule that Serpents under the age of 18 had to stay in school.
"Well, FP isn't helping us so he doesn't have the right to tell us what to do to survive." He snaps. Abby and Fangs were speechless at him speaking ill of the man.
When the shock wore off, Abby clears her throat. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll put an application in for this place and my address on your guy's papers, so you can stay at Riverdale High."
"Your dad is in enough trouble already." Sweet Pea didn't think it was wise to do that when Fred was under the FBI's watchful eyes.
"The guy never came for the papers, so I think he's in the clear." Abby found it odd that the problem seemed to disappear but she wasn't going to look a gifted horse in the mouth.
"Alright, we'll try this new place. But, I'm not signing a long lease." He was willing to compromise.
"Hello bestie, can I borrow your phone?" Cheryl came into the school bathroom that she saw Abby go into.
"What do you need it for?" She pulls her phone out of her back pocket.
"Because I have to call someone, but I don't have their number. I know you do." She hummed.
Abby wanted to ask more questions but her need to go to the toilet was greater. "Fine." She hands it over before going into a stall.
She was peeing while she listened to Cheryl causing mischief. "How's the lake house? Are you all settled in and spooning yet?" From hearing that she knew she had to be talking to Jughead, that was the only person's number she didn't have that went to the cabin for a romantic getaway. Veronica invited her and Sweet Pea but she declined.
"It's Cheryl, you welfare baby…. Not yet. I just wanna make sure you know that Archie and Betty kissed in front of my house right before Christmas and that it seemed pretty serious. Like, with-tongues serious. That's all. Enjoy your couples-only weekend. Kisses to all, bye now." Cheryl hangs up the phone.
Abby cleans herself up before pulling up her pants. "You are the pity Queen." She washes her hands in the sink.
Toni came in having heard everything. "Did you tell Jughead that Archie and Betty kissed?" "Yes. So, what if I did?" She applies her lipstick.
"Did you at least have a reason?" She asks.
"Because they didn't invi..." Abby was saying when Cheryl put a hand up to her face.
"Oh, that's right... You're new here. Hi. I'm Cheryl Blossom, AKA Cherry Bombshell, which means I need no reasons. I simply am. Feel free to tremble." She put a large fake smile on.
"I have a better idea. Why don't you tell me what's bothering you? Because clearly, you're in a lot of pain." Toni put a hand on her arm.
"Get your Sapphic, serpent hands off my body!" She pushes her hand away before storming out of the bathroom.
"My phone, Cheryl." Abby ran after her.
"I don't know how you let those freaks touch you. I feel filthy. I'm going to need to take a scorching hot shower to get the germs off of me." She looks down at her arm.
Abby took the phone that was in her hand. "You're mad that she saw right through you."
"I don't know what you're talking about." She turns her head to face away from her.
"Stop introducing yourself with your social media tag, it's pretentious." She put her phone back in her pocket.
"It's networking." She snaps.
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "Do you want to come with us to watch Love, Simon tomorrow night?"
"Be the third wheel on your date, no thanks." She scoffs.
"It's more of a group thing, Fangs and Toni are coming." She told her.
"Oh, so I'll be the fifth wheel." She was disgusted at the thought.
"Well, if you change your mind let me know." She turns to go into her next class.
Fangs, Sweet Pea, and Abby were filling out an application to different apartments when FP came into the trailer. "Stop what you're doing, because no one's moving." He closed the laptop when he saw what was on the screen.
"What are you talking about?" Sweet Pea looks up at his leader.
"I got a call from the new manager of this park. Hiram bought it and cleared our debts. He allows us to stay." FP smiled with a beer in his hand.
"Why would he do that?" Abby's eyebrows meet. She figures that Hiram would push them out faster after he bought the land. A trailer park would be an eyesore so close to his new mall.
"Because he must have felt the pressure from Jughead's article. The public was demanding he makes amends. I got to call him." FP's smile was shining in pride. "Come out and join the party." He stumbled out of the trailer.
"This is great." Fangs smiled.
"I don't know. This seems out of character for the guy. This is temporary at best." Sweet Pea didn't believe that the Lodges would help them out of the goodness of their hearts.
"Man, you're hanging around Jughead too much." Fangs got up to join the party outside.
"What do you think?" He turns to Abby.
"I want you to be wrong, but I have a gut feeling you're right. Hiram might wait for the spotlight to be off of him, and quietly push you guys out. By then, there might not be any vacancies at the train track building." She opens the laptop.
"We'll send the application and see what happens." Sweet Pea reaches over to push the submit button.
Abby, Sweet Pea, and Toni walk into the Bijou to see Love, Simon. "Where the hell is Fangs? He's lucky I didn't buy him a ticket or I would be mad." Toni looked down at her phone.
"He drank a lot last night. He's probably still sleeping off his hangover." Sweet Pea shrugs.
"He was puking his guts this morning." Abby nods.
"I can't believe Fangs bailed on us. Just when I thought we wouldn't have a third wheel tonight." He glances at Toni. Abby smacks his arm while Toni scoffs.
"Don't worry I won't hang around you tonight." She walks off into the crowded room.
"Why do you have to be such a jerk?" She slaps him again.
"Why do you have to hit me in the same spot?" He rubs his arm.
"Oh, she found Cheryl. Hopefully, they can become friends." She watches them from afar. She smiles when she sees them walk into the theatre together.
"Look, we pushed a bird out of the nest and they made a friend." Sweet Pea made like that was his plan the whole time.
"You're so full of it." She walks into the theater. Her purse was full of snacks and two cans of soda.
He followed her. "You should be thanking me. Them becoming friends means that you don't have to separate your time between us and Cheryl." He was going on and on about the good things that could come from this until the light went out.
"Thank you. Now, shut up, the movie is starting." She pops a Li Hing Mui gummy bear into his mouth.
"Now you may think you've mastered the art of silent tears, but I saw you crying during that movie, Cheryl." Toni teases the redhead that was sitting next to her at the counter at Pops.
"I never cry at movies. Real life's tragic enough. But when Simon's mom said he used to be such a carefree kid, growing up, and then at a certain point he stopped being that happy kid because he was hiding a secret, it just... Everyone thinks I'm this loveless monster, but it isn't true. I loved someone who loved me. And my mother destroyed it." Cheryl fought the tears that desperately wanted to be released.
"You mean your brother Jason? I heard how close you guys were." Toni had heard many rumors that said they were too close.
"No, not Jay-Jay. Her name was Heather. She was my best friend in junior high. She used to sleep over every weekend. Until one night, my mother caught us in the same bed. She said I was deviant." She sobs as quietly as she could to not draw attention to herself.
"Cheryl, I am so sorry. But you have to know your mother's wrong. You're not loveless. You're not deviant. Okay? You're sensational." Toni grabs her hand. "I might be overstepping, but is the reason you are so hurt at the moment because you're in love with Abby?"
"No." She let out a shaking laugh. She looked back to see her best friend in a booth with her boyfriend. They were racing to see who could finish their milkshake first. Every once in a while one would have to stop because of a brain freeze. "I love her deeply as a friend. For a while, I wanted to feel more than that for her but I couldn't. I didn't understand why, I mean we fit so well together. But, after seeing her with him I get it. We weren't meant to be. Now, I'm grateful that I don't, because I don't know what I would do without our friendship."
"I don't know how anyone could see you as a loveless monster because to me you seem to be overflowing with it." Toni smiled.
"Hey Cheryl, Toni. Come over." Abby waved at them.
They picked up their milkshakes and joined them. "I thought you didn't want any third wheels." Toni slides in next to Sweet Pea. Cheryl sat next to Abby.
"There are two of you so it's a double date." He grumbles. He lost the milkshake race so he had to deal with them.
"Have you been crying?" Abby looks at Cheryl in surprise.
"The movie got to me." She sips her milkshake.
"Sweet Pea too." She grins at him.
"Shut up. You make up stories. You can't even see in the dark theater." He denies.
"So much denial." Toni giggles.
"There is nothing unmanly about crying. It's toxic when men deny that they do," Cheryl adds.
"I was wondering if Fangs felt like Simon did." He admits. "If he felt like he was alone despite me being there the whole time."
"I don't know any of you personally but from what Abby told me, you two always had each other. Matter when he told you, it would tell you how long he battled it alone." Cheryl wasn't good at making people better, but she was good at pointing out facts.
"We were eight when he told me that FP was a hot daddy." He informed them.
"He's not wrong." Abby laughed.
"I was feeling better, but now I feel gross again." Sweet Pea whines.