Young Riverdale

Chapter 5- JJ

Me: Not yet. Joe is here and distracting me...

Vanessa: let me know when he leaves for work and I'll come help you dig into it.

Me: ok, sure. As long as your massage is part of the deal ;D

Vanessa: 👍🏻

I couldn't stop smiling. The girl that I liked was coming over.

"What's up with you man?" Joe asked, as he took a bite of his apple. "You've been extra cheery today. Which is saying something, because you're always ridiculously cheery."

"Whaaaaat? Me?" I gestured to myself. "Nah. I'm just texting some girl." I shrugged. It was the truth. Joe raised an eyebrow. He's so clueless. He couldn't even put together that I had 'gone to the bathroom ' at the same time as Vanessa had. This is why he'd never make a good sleuth, which is weird because his parents were known for being sleuths. In fact, our grandmother was too. Guess that gene skipped him though.

"What girl is this?" Joe scoffed. Again, he was so clueless.

"A girl I met at the party last night." I replied. It wasn't a total lie. I had met Vanessa there... but I didn't meet her for the first time. If I had to guess, I'd say the 'little white lie' gene came from my Blossom side, because my Mom's side was pretty open with everything. But then again... Aunt Betty never really told me what all happened with my parents either... "Anyways! Don't you have work soon?" I raised an eyebrow. I needed Vanessa to come over ASAP so we can dig through Aunt Cheryl's secret box.

"Yeah. I should probably get ready." He sighed. "Wait, are you having that girl come over or something? Like, are you trying to get rid of me so she can come over?" He raised an eyebrow. I held my hands out in front of me. Joe just shook his head and headed into his bedroom. Whew. That was a close one. I headed into my room and texted Vanessa that Joe was getting ready for work. I soon heard him leave. I sat on my bed and stared at the box on my desk. It was tempting to open all by myself, but I promised Vanessa I'd wait for her. I needed a distraction. Hmmm. I looked over at the easel that was in my small room. I had started it awhile ago... like probably two years ago, but I just wasn't satisfied with it. I walked up to it and stared at the family portrait I had attempted to paint. It had my dad, mom, and myself as a child. I had plenty of pictures of my parents to base this painting off of. Just not enough stories. It was hard for me to finish this painting because I needed to know their stories, their personalities in order for it to have any meaning. I just knew that, despite the odds, my parents had an undying love for each other. I did try to express that within the painting. I sighed.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

I hurriedly tossed a sheet over my painting and then headed over to the front door and opened it up to reveal the freckle faced beauty herself. She was wearing a red dress, daunting dark make up, and a pair of black flats.

"Vanessa!" I threw my arms out, she giggled, and accepted my embrace. "What up? Come in, come in." I let go of our embrace and gestured to my apartment. She walked in.

"Ooh! I like it!" She walked around the apartment in awe. "I love your paintings!" She walked up to a painting that I had above the couch.

"Have you... have you never been to our apartment before?" I laughed. She shook her head.

"You guys haven't exactly been close to me for awhile." She scoffed. I walked up behind her and placed my hands on her shoulders.

"Well, trust me, we're definitely going to have to change that." I whispered into her ear. She giggled and turned around to face me, as she threw her arms around my neck.