Everything Has Changed • Archie Andrews

eighteen: threats and party crashers

"What was he doing? Accosting her?" Veronica asks Betty immediately, once she was sitting back down.

"No, he was apologising." Betty mumbles, looking down.

"Oh, I'm so sure." Veronica scowls. "Chuck Clayton doesn't have a contrite bone in his muscle-bound body."

"You know what, can we talk about something else? Like Like Jughead's surprise party." Betty changes the subject.

"Look, there's a lot I can't do, a lot I can't control. But I can damn well make sure my boyfriend has the best birthday of his life." Betty tells us.

"I might go visit Ted in New York this weekend." I speak up, watching Archie throw his head back. "I don't want to..."

"Screw it." Archie interrupts me. "I'm with Betty. My dad's away. We can do it at my house. We could all use a good time."

"Now you're talking my language." Veronica smirks. "You're not going to New York, you're staying right here and partying with us."

"It's gonna be epic." Archie smiles at me.

<><><><><>

"What's all this?" Mom asks Veronica and I, as we sat at the table going through many files.

"Dad's files from the basement." I tell her, not looking up.

"Mom, Archie overhead Mr.
Blossom say that he's the one responsible for putting Dad in jail." Veronica began to explain.
"So I did some digging. And found this spreadsheet of monthly payments from Blossom Maple Farms to Lodge Industries until about five months ago, when they stopped."

"When your father was arrested." Mom nods along.

"There's more. The payments, which are significant, by the way, have been happening for 75 years." Veronica shows her another file.

"That's a ton of money." I add.

"What if Clifford implicated Daddy to get out of paying the monthly fee? I wouldn't put it past the wig-wearing monster. We should tell Dad's lawyers." Veronica gives mom a desperate look.

"Well, hold on. If Clifford did orchestrate your father's arrest, people might think that Hiram had something to do with Jason Blossom's murder." Mom reminded us. "Both of you got to let this go."

"You don't think Dad could, in any way, be responsible for Jason's murder, do you?" Veronica asks mom, a worried look on her face.

"No, honey, look, don't make things worse by asking questions that no one else is asking. And please, God, do not bring the Blossoms into this. And that includes Cheryl." Mom kisses both our cheeks, before leaving the room.

"Violet I don't care if this stuff gets dad out of prison or not." I told Veronica. "But I do want to know if he killed Jason Blossom."

"Me too Vi, me too."

<><><><><><>

Veronica and I sat patiently in our dad's lawyers office. When we tried to give the lawyers evidence, they called us in later on that day. Apparently dad has something to say about our snooping.