Riverdale Imagines ♡

Archie *Requested*

                         (A/N: What's up guys? I know it's been yet another long hiatus but I have had some pretty eh things happen this year. I got sick so frequently during school that I failed a majority of my classes, which also means I am suspended from my wrestling team until I fix them, which means summer school for me!! Yay. In an effort to avoid getting sick, I come to you live from my bed, post getting my tonsils removed. Anyway, you guys are beyond patient and honestly the greatest ever. I know a lot of you have been waiting for such a log time and I feel so bad about that. It's Christmas break though, so I will try my damndest to get all of these caught up. For now, this imagine is for  Bea.   )

      It seems it always works out like this. My year can start off amazing, with great grades, a loving boyfriend, and amazing friends. It also never seems to fail to all go sour within mere moments. Jason Blossom is dead. Had been, for a while now. Somehow, the effects of his death are just settling in with those at Riverdale High, most importantly his twin sister, Cheryl.  She was slowly going mad, and I couldn't blame her. 

     I sat in class, doodling a mandala flower on the corner of my notes, leaning on my propped up elbow, trying my hardest to tune out the geometry lesson of the day. I was so out of it that I almost didn't hear my boyfriend, the Archie Andrews. 

     "Bea, psst. Earth to Bea. Come in Bea? Bea...we have a problem." He sat right behind me in class, with my other favorite redhead to my left.  I rolled my eyes, but turned around anyway.

    "Yes, Arch. What could you possibly need right now?" He smiled smugly, tucking a note into my hand, then breaking his gaze away to other parts of the room. He was always like this, would pass me notes but then look away because he thought if he looked at me for too long then he would draw attention to us and we'd get caught. As if me turning around in my desk didn't draw attention to us.

    I unfolded the note. It read: "Bea, I'm worried about Cheryl. I think she needs a girls day with you and V?"

    I crumpled the note and looked to my left at her. She did look like she could use a girls day out. I just nodded my head so that Archie could see that I was in agreement.  

     I felt so bad for my friend. Most of the attention had been on Archie and I for the past couple of weeks. He and I won homecoming court, and were expected to win again at the official dance. The school admired us, and we enjoyed that. At the same time I think it'd just a coping mechanism. The school doesn't want to focus on the bad, so instead it turns to the good.

   Later that day, my group, Archie, Betty, Jughead, Veronica, and me, gathered outside in the snow. We just decided to have this day to ourselves and gossip like regular teenagers do. Except we were just hypothesizing about Jason Blossom's murder. You know, small talk.

Out of the blue, Veronica received a text message from Cheryl, the only one missing from our group. She had been facing a lot of adversity lately and had been taking to herself. 

    Veronica gasped and began to read the message aloud,"Thanks for trying, I'm going to be with Jason now." 

   We all stood motionless until Archie said," Where would she go to be with Jason?"

   "Sweetwater River! We have to go NOW!" I yelled, running at full speed.

We got their just in time. The snow was falling and everything around us was covered in a thick layer of white. In fact, we only saw Cheryl because of her bright red hair. She was cloaked in a white dress, skin ghastly pale and eyes pleading for help.

We came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the ice, with Archie putting his arms out to keep us from running any farther. "The ice," he said, out of breath,"It'll break." 

I run my hands through my blonde hair, my fingers getting tangled in the waves. "I don't care," I decided, "That's my best friend!" 

   I began to sprint across the frozen land, hearing ice pop and crackle as I did so. However the only sound my mind could focus on were the soft cries of my best friend. I should have done something sooner. I should have been there to help her. But no, I was too busy winning homecoming court with my boyfriend to even be the shoulder she wept on after her brother died.

I reached her in record time, shoving her away from the ice as it broke, me falling instead.

  These next few moments bleed together, for it happened all so quickly. I thought that this is what I deserve, to take her place. I am an awful friend. But mostly all I could think about was the pain. It felt like thousands of tiny needles were forcing their way through my skin, making me gasp out any air that I had been holding. I felt my body drift underneath the surface of the ice, away from the hole where I fell in.

   I could hear booming thuds on the ice, like someone was punching it and trying to break me out. I should've known that to be the case. Archie pulled me out of the water with bloody knuckles, no doubt a broken hand.

 My eyes were wide, my body was in shock, and I had never been so cold. My breathing was uneven, and my lungs were fighting to even fin air to draw in them. 

  "It's okay Bea, I got you." Archie mumbled pushing my hair out of my face while my friends crowded around me.

  The next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital. Archie was asleep in the chair next to me, pulled up beside my bed. He had a fresh white cast on, but looked peaceful nonetheless. 

  In the bed next to me was Cheryl, who wasn't resting at all. 

  "Oh Bea, I'm so sorry. I thought you died! What was I gonna do if you-" She was frantically waving her hands about and near tears.

   "Hush up, Cheryl. I'm fine. I'm the one that should be apologizing to you. You needed me and I wasn't there."

"Yeah? Well I think you're forgiven, blondie."