Another Love~J.J. {1}

~06~

A Touch of Evil

* * *

I think many of us, maybe the entire town, had been hoping against hope that somehow, Jason Blossom hadn't drowned on July 4th. That we'd come to school Monday morning, and there Jason would be. Or that we'd see him and Cheryl in a booth at Pop's. But that was before the undeniable, irrevocable fact of his bloated, water-logged body, a corpse with a bullet hole in its forehead, and terrible secrets that could only be revealed by the cold, steel blade of a coroner's autopsy scalpel, or the telltale beating of a guilty heart.

* * *

        "All right. Here you go, Vegas." Fred's voice said as Lia and Archie made their way down the stairs, the routine already engraved in their heads. 

        "Morning, Dad." Archie and Lia greeted. 

        "Hey, guys." Fred replied, handing Lia some eggs on a plate that she immediately started to eat with 'thanks'. "Where'd you sneak off to last night, Arch?"

        "You, uh, you heard that?" Archie asked as he also grabbed some eggs. 

        "Son, I've been hearing you sneak out since you were eight years old going to Jughead's tree house with your sister." Fred stated with a hint of amusement in his voice. Lia chuckled, the memories of Jughead's tree house popping up in her head while the two continued to talk. 

        "I couldn't sleep. Went for a jog to tire myself out." Archie said.

        "Yeah? Got something on your mind?" Fred asked. 

        "Just all this stuff with Jason." Archie answered broadly. Lia looked at her brother suspiciously, wondering where he truly was last night because he was lying.

        "No more midnight runs, until the police catch whoever it was that shot that poor kid." Fred told Archie who nodded before grabbing Lia's half-finished plate and eating the rest of it before putting it into the sink. 

        "Asshole." She whispered to him as he slipped past, going to check the door since the doorbell had just been rung. Lia looked down the hallway to see a female figure standing in front of Archie so she made her way over, seeing Betty standing there. 

        "Walk me to school?" 

* * *

        "I needed time to process. To separate what my mom wants from what I want... I think I want." Betty told Archie. They were walking to school with Lia, but she just hung around on the other side of Betty, listening to what she had to say. 

       "Which is?" Archie asked. 

        "My mom says I should never speak to you again." Betty replied, Archie's eyes widening in the process. "But I...Even though you don't like me like that, I still want us to be friends... Best friends."

        "You do?"

        "Yeah."

        "I mean, that's great, Betty. Me, too." Archie stammered.

        "I'd be lying if I said that it didn't hurt." Betty murmured sadly. 

        "And I'm sorry, Betty, I didn't do it to be a...I don't know, I just... I thought it would be better in the long run." Archie apologized. Lia looked at him with a smile, happy that he was actually apologizing and wanting to be friends with Betty again. 

        "And it will be." Betty smiled before stopping and turning to Archie. "Oh, and don't tell my mom that we're friends again." 

        She started to walk off, again leaving Archie confused but Lia just put her arm around his waist since she was too short to reach his shoulders. 

        "Come on, little bro. You did good." She smiled, making Archie walk after Betty with her. 

        "You're literally only two minutes older."

        "Still, older."