Arizona

Forsythia Jones, A.K.A Jellybean, knew that something was very wrong long before anyone voiced anything.

Well, to be entirely honest, no one would really 'say' it out loud at all, but things eventually moved so quickly that it didn't really matter. No one would need to say it, and in fact, within just a few weeks, it was almost preferable that it wasn't mentioned more than strictly necessary.

But Jellybean knew early on that things were not good.

Perhaps earlier than anyone else she knew.

Gladys Jones was a very good mother in so many ways. The ways that mattered to Jelly, at least.

She had great advice, she had a keen eye for fashion, and some great Goodwill deals, and she always, always did what was best for Jellybean. The place she sort of got messed up sometimes was in the details, which was always so funny to Jelly, considering her older brother was a stickler for that sort of stuff. She always wondered if he got that from their dad, but honestly, Jelly couldn't really say.

Case in point; Gladys had been planning this surprise vacation for Jellybean for almost a full year in celebration of Jellybean getting the highest marks out of all her classmates in school. It was sort of dumb…she even got a medal and the principal shook her hand. But Jelly knew she was smart. She didn't need society to tell her that. Still, her mother made a big deal about it, and unbeknownst to her daughter, had been squirreling away a twenty here, a fifty dollar bill there, until she had enough for an honest-to-god vacation. And not just a shitty bargain-bin type where they stayed in places with roaches and questionably stained sofas.

Though, looking back, Jelly would give anything for those sorts of vacations.

Anyway, she'd planned it all and was so excited to present it to Jelly that she'd forgotten a pretty important detail…Jelly's school didn't officially let out until a week after they were set to leave, on May 13th.

But Jellybean was twelve. She wasn't even at an important age, like graduating middle school. What was one week of missed lessons in comparison to the coolest vacation ever?

Jelly had of course asked Jughead if he wanted to go. She hadn't seen him in forever, basically, and she missed her older brother. She understood that he was 'old' and 'too cool' for her now, but she was desperate to know him better. She watched all her other friends have fun connections with their older siblings and always felt an empty pang. She had one, but he sometimes felt like a stranger to her. Other than knowing a few basic facts about him (he liked to write, he liked his beanie hat, and he had a girlfriend named Betty who was so, so, so pretty and really nice), he felt estranged from her. And most of that was from stalking his social media pages, which were pretty bare to begin with.

But he'd said he had too much going on. He promised to catch her on the next one.

She'd tried not to let her disappointment show.

"I'm sure he'd love to be here, but he's in high school. He can't just pick up and leave," Gladys pointed out, "We'll have a big vacation next year, during both of your summer breaks." And then, "Why don't you send him some pictures? I'm sure he's so disappointed he's missing out."

So she did.

She sent him only the best photos from her camera roll, though there were many to choose from. Jelly wasn't sure she'd ever get a vacation like this again, so she wasn't going to forget a second of it by not properly documenting it.

Her mom had found them a really nice villa in Arizona, which had a huge pool where all the fun drinks were absolutely free. It also had mini golf, regular golf, tennis courts, and a board game room, where she'd already destroyed her mom two nights in a row in a game of Scrabble. She hoped Jughead was proud of her when she told him her best words! She felt like she could almost take him on…

But then, on the 8th, something in the air…changed.

That day wasn't really off at first, it was just a sense that something wasn't totally right, like someone had forgotten to rest the 'good vibes' at the end of the night.

By the 9th, everything had fallen to shit, but Jelly would only realize that much later.

Gladys had woken Jelly up, instructing her to pack quickly.

She told Jelly that she'd forgotten that her original plan had been that they were going to go to a few different states, as it was on Jelly's bucket list to visit all 50. While Jelly was disappointed she wasn't going to be able to lounge freely by the pool, she was excited for this next part of her journey.

It was only when things were really bleak that Jelly would look back on everything she missed and realize that the Resort was already half-walker-infested by the time they'd left.

Her mother had done her most important job…kept Jelly unaware.

As far as everyone else knew, this would all blow over in a few weeks. Maybe a month if they were unlucky.

No one thought that it would stretch out into forever.

She almost told Jughead.

He texted and asked how the virgin Pina Coladas were.

Jelly, in the car going back towards Ohio (Gladys was lying at this point, claiming their next stop was somewhere in Colorado) typed out a thousand different drafts of a text to her brother.

Mom forgot that we were staying in multiple places. So totally her, right?

Or,

Things feel weird, and I can't put my finger on it. We left really quickly.

Or,

Wouldn't know. Guess we're going to Colorado?

And there were a million more variations of that text, but Jelly thought about all the stress Jughead was under. Even though Gladys liked to think Jelly had no idea about the state of things (this incident not counting), Jelly perceived much more than adults would think. She was quiet, able to slip close, listen in.

So she knew very much what Jughead's life was like in Riverdale. She knew that the Blossom dad had gone insane and killed his only son and dumped his body in Sweetwater River. She knew that that son had gotten Betty's sister, Polly, pregnant. She knew that the Serpents had a hand in that, more than Gladys thought they ought to. She knew that there was a serial killer in Riverdale, recently unmasked to be Betty's dad. She knew Jughead was taking over their father's mantle as the Serpent King, a job that came with a lot of stress.

That's what kept her quiet, in the end.

She couldn't add to his plate.

She wasn't his problem.

So, Jelly sent none of those.

Instead, she scrolled back through her phone, she found a photo of a shaved ice treat that was practically as big as she was, flavored with black-cherry.

A dessert in your colors, finally, she added as a joke.

Jughead never responded to that text.

At the time, she thought that he was rolling his eyes at it, far too cool with his own complicated life to bother finding the time to text her.

Unfortunately, at that time, Jughead was battling his own demons in Riverdale…literally.

It felt like almost no time at all since she'd sent the text, but in reality, it was just as they were crossing the border into Colorado when they saw one of those things for the first time.

In a lot of ways, this moment how Jellybean thinks of her life, divided in two.

The time before them, and the time after.

By this time, she'd attempt to call Jughead, terrified and feeling extraordinarily small, but the phone lines would already be long down.

Jelly is terrified that she will never get to properly say goodbye to her brother or tell him how much she adores him, so she shoots off a final text, and hopes by some miracle, it'll go through one day.

It does, much later.

But of course, without having to say it, Jughead already knows.

Riverdale (Morning)

Sweet Pea rarely listened to his Mama's advice.

And trust me; he's not as bad of a person as it may seem like it to say that. Truth is that Mrs. Peabody was high most of her life, and hardly was in the right of mind when she spouted off absolute bullshit. Half of her 'advice' was entirely nonsensical, like when she grasped Sweet Pea by the shoulders tightly and told him that 'a flamingo can't play the trumpet if he doesn't get his crackers'. And she said it with such authority that Sweet Pea would spend the next week trying to riddle it out, sure it was some greater meaning, but never figured out any of it. And of course, his mother was furious he didn't understand her gibberish, sure she was speaking right sense.

So, no, a lot of what his Mom said went in one ear and out the other.

Sweet Pea, leading up to her untimely death, merely got better at pretending like he was listening sagely to what she was saying.

The only thing she'd ever told him that he paid any heed to was that when something didn't feel right, it wasn't.

It was more than just 'trust your gut'. It was the sense that their family was semi-psychic (something Sweet Pea believed when it suited him) and that they were picking up on cues from the universe before anyone else. If he had a stomachache, you'd best believe his mother would spend all day looking cautiously around every corner, sure that something terrible was about to befall them, unable to accept that it could just be her son partook in too much chocolate at Toni's.

But he digressed.

May 11th felt strange to him.

And one may argue that a teenager being arrested for murder by their girlfriend's father would qualify as a strange happening, but that wasn't it. That was just straight-up fucked, and Sweet Pea was pretty sure everyone could tell that this wasn't right, even if no one could do anything about it.

No, there was…something else.

God, he just wanted to put his finger on it.

He woke up like that, blinking in the morning light, unsettled.

And thinking of his mother, who he hadn't given a passing brain cell to in years.

But before he could focus on any of that, Fangs was bothering him, asking him all sorts of shit about how he felt about Jughead taking over.

"Bound to happen, wasn't it?" Sweet Pea asked grumpily, "I mean, he is FP's son."

"Yeah, but he's not…us," Fangs motioned between them.

"He wears a Serpent Jacket."

Fangs shot him a furious look, "Oh, now you're defending him?"

"Naw, man, no," Sweet Pea rubbed the back of his neck, "I just…I'm playing devil's advocate."

Fangs kicked a rock around with his shoe, "I always just thought it would be you."

Sweet Pea bit back bile, "I know." He shouldn't try to alienate their new leader, though, he figured, as much as he thought Jughead was pretentious and a bit weird, "Let's just see how this rides out, though, alright?"

If he played his cards right, he'd retain his status as the 'second', in a sense. Jughead wasn't totally 'in the know' about what it meant to be a Serpent, so he'd asked a lot of questions of Sweet Pea. And Sweet Pea had answered, mostly because FP would kick his ass if he was outright rude to him.

Did he think it was sort of shitty that this kid had swooped in, barely six months ago, and was now taking on all the responsibility that Sweet Pea had been carefully collecting for years? Yeah. Could Sweet Pea do much about it? Fuck, no.

In fact, his best path was just to smile and nod a long and hope that eventually, Jughead would realize gang life wasn't for him. He had his writing career, his intelligence, and a perky blonde girlfriend. Sweet Pea meant this in the best of ways, but he hoped Jughead got far away from all this and forgot about them.

He could do better.

But Sweet Pea was very aware of his prospects, so he'd planted himself where he could.

The day itself passed quickly.

If Sweet Pea knew what was coming for him - for all of them - he might have enjoyed his last day of society a bit more. You know, smoked a little bit of weed, ate a full meal from Pop's, went and fucked off and watched a movie with buttered popcorn. Instead, he spent the day trying to pick up the pieces in the camp while Jughead went…god knows where. Well, Sweet Pea knew where, to the jail, to see his Northsider buddie Archie, leaving the Serpents to just muddle on through.

Tensions were high.

Sweet Pea felt like he was playing therapist most of the day, which was not a usual position for him. He was used to his anger, but then again, no one knew how to talk down an angry person like a similarly angry person.

Everyone in the camp was nearly at each other's throats, mostly metaphorically. Except for the twins.

Vade and Jedi were explosive on their own, but like a powder keg together. Sweet Pea feels like if he had gotten his feet underneath him, if he hadn't been so distracted by the feelings of his gut, he would have had the foresight to separate them until the camp tension faded. They fed off it, and then bounced it off each other, escalating even the smallest of disagreements into nuclear shouting matches.

He was pulled into the middle of one of them, which had originated with Vade accusing Jedi of stealing his last zebra cake, and had ended with the two of them rolling around in the dirt, Jedi's fingers curled around his brother's throat.

"I didn't take your fucking zebra cake man!"

Sweet Pea gave a haggard sigh and grasped Jedi by his collar, pulling the pair apart. He was used to taking punches, which is exactly what happened when Vade got up, sputtering and red-faced, and tried to swing at Jedi. Except it didn't hit Jedi, it hit Sweet Pea, right in the nose.

Broken noses were par the course, but always annoying.

"Back the fuck up, man!" Sweet Pea snarled, "God!" Yeah, today was just the day for this.

"Sorry, shit, sorry!" Vade was immediately apologetic, "I was aiming-,"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Wait, Vade…is this your zebra cake?" Toni asked, fishing out a packaged dessert from the side of his backpack.

"You're shitting me…" Sweet Pea ran a hand down his face. He grasped both brothers, manhandling them, "C'mon, idiots!"

FP only had to take one look at the brothers, now glaring at each other with narrowed expressions, to know he didn't even want to ask. He pressed his lips into a thin line. Sweet Pea knew he had too much to worry about than stupid kids getting into stupid fights.

"Jedi, why don't you spend a few nights in Jug's tent?" He said, "And Vade, stay away from him."

"I couldn't sir," Jedi's eyes were wide.

"It's not a suggestion, son. I'll talk with Jug," FP insisted, "Now, either of you need medical?"

The boys shook their heads.

"Great. Scram."

Jedi and Vade took off in separate directions, Jedi mumbling something about annoying an older member for a beer.

"Third fight," Sweet Pea said quietly. And where the hell is Jughead?

"Mhh…" FP sighed.

"There's something up," Sweet Pea tentatively spoke, "I can't place it."

FP blinked at him, tilting his head, "I know what you mean."

"And?"

Sweet Pea leaned in, hoping for some adult wisdom. Instead, FP just shrugged, "And tomorrow comes anyway." He looked at Sweet Pea's face, "You're starting to bruise. Go get an icepack, kid."

That's the thing about adults...no one really knew what any of 'em was doing.

They had just gotten really good at pretending otherwise.

Riverdale

The end of the world did not end with a bang. I did not end with a whimper. The end of the world ended as normally as the end of the world can be.

One day it was, one day it wasn't.

Of course, Betty is sure that it's much more complicated than that. She knows if she still had the internet to look over things, she'd be able to chart the ways it was all leading up to it and no one knew. She's sure that someone had to guess it somewhere, even if it was those previously thought-to-be-crazy survivalists, who she thinks are somewhere out there, but in all likelihood doing much better than she is. She bets those people in their tin bunkers are laughing it up right now, alive and well, while the rest of the world burns above them.

But to Betty and to everyone in Riverdale, it simply ceased to be their world anymore in the span of 24 hours.

In the chaos of their town, what with her father being revealed as the Black Hood and Archie's arrest, they were all too preoccupied with their own minimal problems to look at what was happening outside of their city limits. But, even if they had, would any of them have ever been prepared? At least right now, Betty can pretend like if she'd known she'd been better off, instead of the reality that nothing could have ever made this situation okay. No amount of color-coded notes or carefully stocked supplies would have made the end of the world easier for Betty Cooper.

It's in moments like this, when she reflects, that she thinks of Jughead. She thinks that she cannot even accurately begin to describe the change in those hours in any real way, she's only able to look at it from a journalist's logical and detached mindset. She can report hour to hour the happenings, but she would have fumbled if someone asked her to vividly tell them about her fear, her hunger, or the rush of adrenaline as she fought for her life. She thinks that if the world ever does end up righting itself and if Jughead is somewhere still alive out there, the novel he writes about this happening will be a bestseller.

The truth of the matter, whenever Betty thinks back to it, is that they were all worrying about Archie and nothing seemed more pressing than the fact that her best friend was being accused of a murder Betty is pretty damn sure he didn't do. One Betty hoped he didn't; they'd all seen him run after the burglar, but when he came back, he didn't have the eyes of a killer. Maybe he's a better actor than she cares to admit. Maybe being trained under Hiram all that time, even as a way to get the better of him, darkened his soul in ways that were inevitable. Maybe he did kill that boy, Betty wonders, and she won't say it out loud but she wonders how they'll go on after that. She remembers sleeping over at Veronica's house, consoling her.

"It's my father, I just know it. I just know it and I feel so helpless," Veronica paced around her room, throwing anything and everything at the wall. Her clothes, balls of socks, jewelry, and finally a bottle of perfume shattered, leaving a little puddle on the ground and the aromatic scent that Veronica once wore every day hanging in the air.

Veronica always has a plan; this is something Betty can depend on. She's gotten herself out of bigger things, so to hear Veronica has no ideas scares Betty a bit. She still tries to be helpful.

"Veronica, Vee…" Betty's voice is soft. Veronica is trying to clear away the broken glass, and she cuts herself, "Hey, leave it for now. Mayor McCoy is going to do all she can for him, right? And his mom is coming down tomorrow, so there's that. He can't go through this. There's nothing, okay?" Betty wants so much to believe it. Veronica is a mess, her makeup running and her shoulders shaking. Betty will never tell Veronica her fears because that's not what Veronica needs to hear right now. She needs to hear the certainty in Betty's voice when Betty tells her that Archie is not a killer and her father won't get away with it. Veronica literally melts into Betty's arms, looking smaller and more childlike than Betty has ever seen her. She pats Veronica's head softly, encouraging her into the white and fluffy bed, and tucking her in. She curls up next to her friend, clicking the light off and finding Veronica's hands, holding them. She's shaking still.

"Let's go to bed; in the morning, it will all be better." Betty whispers, easing her friend into what she hopes is a sleep filled with happy thoughts, "I swear."

God. If Veronica ever found her again, Betty expects she'll have to pay dearly for that lie. She didn't know, which is a fair point.

No one knew.

Riverdale

"Do you want me to talk about me - distract- or do you want to talk about you?" Betty asked, and from her tone, Veronica could tell it was the second time she's asked.

"Console, you mean," Veronica whispered, sitting rigidly on the bed, facing forward, trying to unravel a riddle with no answer.

"Yeah."

Veronica didn't answer. She didn't know. She didn't think she would until Betty started.

"Well," Betty inhaled, "Jughead asked me to be his Serpent Queen."

Veronica turned back toward her best friend. She watched how Betty bit her lip, holding in something like excitement, and how Betty's eyes shined. A very, very, very long time from this moment here, Veronica will stand and remember this moment. But they are eons away from that moment; from when they'll be different people, entirely changed by a world too cruel for either of them, yet, they've still survived it.

"And that means…?" Veronica asked, at that moment in time. Veronica has tried to stay clear of much of the Serpents. She knew that Jughead had fallen into them, and brought many new faces with him. She knew that Betty had integrated herself as part of the community, but frankly, the specifics are fuzzy on what this question is. Is it akin to a promise ring, but one that comes with thugs, drugs, and violence?

"I think it means…" Betty trailed off. Veronica tried not to let the twinge of a smile appear. Yeah, even Betty wasn't sure, "Jughead just really opened up, though. It's a big step."

Veronica didn't doubt that.

At that moment, she knew what she needed.

Betty did too. She reached forward for tissues even before it began. Veronica's eyes filled with tears as she thought about all the amazing things she thought she'd be doing with Archie this summer. Just like that, poof, it seemed those were all gone.

It has only been a few hours, but Veronica missed Archie. And she's already in mourning.

"Oh, god, V…" Betty shook her head, "I'm so stupid."

"No, no," Veronica reached for her tissue box. She hated how much her hand was trembling, "I thought I was okay."

Betty's jaw clenched. She knew this wasn't true and Veronica knew it too. She wouldn't have asked Betty to stay here with her tonight if not. Veronica knew that Jughead was setting himself up outside the Police Station, or attempting to. Keller says that Archie can't see anyone until he's been processed, which won't be until tomorrow morning. Veronica would be screaming outside the police station too if she thought it would help. She knows it won't.

Veronica clambered for the remote. Just to turn something on in the background, anything, as white noise while she tries to make sense of this.

"What can I do?" Betty asked.

"Go downstairs and get food. I can't bear to see my mom or dad right now," Veronica choked out. She was not hungry, but she knew she should eat.

Betty leaped up, nearly tripping over the blankets to fulfill Veronica's request.

The TV in the background was on a news station.

"And there have been strange reports of unwell people taking to the streets in New York City; acting very strange. Hospitals are overwhelmed with cases of biting, strange fevers, and-,"

Veronica heard none of it.

She will argue later that, to her, there seemed like much more pressing things. Like her boyfriend being accused of murder.

But even if she had been watching the national news, or if anyone in Riverdale hadn't been glued to their TVs to hear news about the Golden-Boy-Turned-Murderer, would it have made a difference?

The timing, though.

Veronica wonders about the timing often.

By the time Betty reappeared with some sandwiches it's clear Betty had made them herself and not with any of her parent's help, the news station was talking about a drug trial for something or other. Betty made a face and clicked through the channels until she found The Office.

"Much better, huh?" She nudged Veronica, "Eat." She said, refusing to take a bite until Veronica took her few bites. It tasted like cardboard.

"We will figure this out. We have to."

Veronica knew that Betty was already likely making lists in her head of who to contact, what laws to double-check, how to motivate the students at Riverdale High to protest for their once-future student body president…and usually, Veronica would be right there with her.

But tonight, Veronica wanted to go and shake the bars of the jail and scream at the top of her lungs.

Which would help no one.

She remembered a quick glimpse of her father as they hauled Archie away. A ghost that was not supposed to be there. A self-satisfied smirk.

That smirk was on replay in her head.

On her vanity is a perfume bottle her father gave her for her 11th birthday. Very expensive and rare.

Veronica stood up suddenly and before Betty could make a squawk of surprise, Veronica hurled it at the wall.

"Fuck you!" She shouted. She hoped her father would hear.

Now that she's found her outlet, she couldn't stop. Betty watched, startled like a deer in headlights, as Veronica threw half of her room at the walls and just screamed.

Maybe Betty thought it was therapeutic. It did make Veronica feel better, but only for a second.

As she came down from her explosion of emotion, she felt an emptiness, the loneliness of Archie being gone that was stronger than ever before. And anger; white-hot anger towards her family. There was also a small tingling of frustration at the pile of shattered goods on her floor. Someone will have to clean that up. Many of those things were close to priceless. It would have been a bigger middle finger to her father to donate them to some very poor people, or to Archie's lawyer fees. Shattered necklaces and half-empty perfume bottles have no value.

"It's my father, I just know it. I just know it and I feel so helpless," Veronica felt her legs collapse out from under her and she slumped like a puddle to the floor. She looked up to see Betty's face frantic; something about Veronica's attitude was freaking Betty out, but she did not have the energy to figure out why.

Veronica crawled over to where the pile of items was, unsure what she was trying to grab. Whatever it was, she did not manage and just cut herself in the process. Veronica stared at the welling blood, sniffling, feeling so young and helpless. She knew you were supposed to feel helpless at this age, but you're also not supposed to be dealing with shit like this.

"Veronica, Vee…" Betty's voice was soft. "Hey, leave it for now. McCoy is going to do all she can for him, right? And his mom is coming down tomorrow, so there's that. He can't go through this. There's nothing, okay?"

Veronica crawled onto the bed. She had never liked people touching her, but when Betty pulled her next to her and started petting her hair, Veronica let her. Her shoulders were shaking and she just couldn't stop. It's like the fear has chilled her heart and it threatens to never let it go. She knew the certainty in Betty's voice was manufactured, but she closed her eyes and pretended it was real.

"Let's go to bed; in the morning, it will all be better."

Betty clicked off the light and pulled the blanket over the both of them.

Impossibly to Veronica, Betty fell asleep.

Veronica did not.

Veronica stayed awake for what she was sure was the entire night.