Faithfully

124

It was a quiet drive back to Riverdale. None of the friends said a single word. They sat in silence ready to be home. Ready to forget that night ever happened.

When Braxton walked into her house, it was late. 3am late. The last thing she expected was for Rich to still be awake, but to her dismay he was. "Where the hell are your clothes?" He snapped as she walked by his office. He was standing by the door frame waiting for her. "Uhm- covered in beer." She told him, which wasn't a lie. She just left out the part where she also burned them in a fire to covered the evidence of Jughead blood.

"So you came home in just your underwear?"

"Yep."

"Braxton, are you drinking again?"

"What, dad no."

"You smell like beer."

"Yeah, because Joan poured her beer all down the front of me. It must have soaked into my bra."

"Okay but where are your clothes."

"I forgot them."

"You forgot them?"

"Yeah. Archie lended me his shirt to wear for the ride home. I gave it back to him when he dropped me off."

"So you were just wearing a shirt at this party? Braxton, this just doesn't-."

"I'm going to head to bed. I'm meeting friends in the morning at Pops before Sweet Peas bond is posted."

"Braxton we aren't done with this conversation." He scolded to her as she slammed her door shut. He never imagined it would be that hard fathering a teenage daughter.

Braxton made her way to her bathroom to shower. Not even a dip in Sweet Water River could get the beer out of her bra or the feeling of Jugheads blood on her skin. As she felt the hot water run down her body she felt herself over come with fear. A fear she couldn't explain. And not having Sweet Pea there to hold her made her realize how she never wanted to be apart from him again.

"Toga party, strip poker, spilled beer, and skinny-dipping." Betty sighed as she and Braxton sat across Archie and Veronica in a booth at pops. "Those are three wildly different activities."

"If our parents compare notes, we could be in deep, deep shit." Braxton added.

"I panicked." Archie said. "I blurted out the first thing that came to mind."

"Me too." Veronica agreed.

"Me, three, but this is exactly the kind of mistake we can't afford to make." Betty told them. "Charles made that abundantly clear."

"I keep thinking we should've called someone other than Charles." Archie said lowly

"No, Charles was the right call to make He's had experience dealing with.. bodies."

"Dead bodies?" Braxton questioned confused.

"As a matter of fact, yeah." Betty replied. "He's an expert. Without him, we would all be in jail right now."

"For what?"Archie asked.

"We didn't do anything, did we?" Veronica added. "Did we, Betty? When Archie and I found you and Jughead-."

"I had just found Jughead, too." She quickly said

"You were holding the rock." Braxton said in a flat tone.