Flash of Red

Chapter 1

"No, Kevin, I'll be there. I promise." Betty set the phone down on her nightstand, putting it on speaker.

"Betty, you can cancel the trip. There's a huge storm coming in in a few days. I would hate for you to get hurt." Kevin explained this to her over the phone even if he knew it was useless. Betty Cooper was stubborn and listened to no one, not even her closest friend.

She sighed, folding her dresses into her suitcase. "Kevin, I haven't seen you in almost a year and now I finally have time off from work. I'm going to come and see you. It'd be wrong for me not to. Plus, it's only like a three hour drive, I'll be fine."

"Uh, B, it's actually like a three day drive. You live in LA, not Upstate New York." He told her cautiously over the phone and she huffed. "I mean, you could always just fly."

"That's not even funny. You know how much I hate flying. That is the one thing I will never, ever do, Kev." She sighed, letting out a short and clipped excited laugh when she zipped her suitcase. "Hah! I'm ready! I will be there by next week, count on it!" He laughed as she ended the call, falling down onto her bed.

~

"Arch, I'm not that alone. I got Hotdog, Scout, and Bailey. I got Ginger, too, where ever the fuck she is, and I got the rest of the animals." Jughead pressed his friend.

"Says the one who lives on a fucking farm !" Jughead cringed at how harshly he said the words, frowning a little. "Jug, a cat, dogs, cows, horses, and goats are not friends."

"They're all I need here. And you only say all this because you're jealous."

"I still don't get why you did this. Some people would think you went to war or something." Jughead's jaw tightened as he listened to his friends' words.

He rubbed a hand over his face, sighing. "I-It's late and I was working all day. I should go to bed, Archie."

"I liked you better when you would stay up all night playing video games with me." He frowned and shook his head, even if he knew his friend couldn't see him. "Bye, Jug. Talk to you later." Jughead nodded, ending the call before anything more could be said.

~

Betty had woken up bright and early the second day of her trip, getting on the road so she could hopefully beat the raging storm that was brewing ahead. She didn't make any pit stops that weren't necessary and just decided that listening to music and podcasts could keep her busy.

When she was just a little over a hour out of the city, the storm nowhere in sight, she stopped and changed out of her shorts and t-shirt, putting on a sundress so she looked a little put together when she arrived.

She was back on the road in relative time and she cheered when she realized that she could make it to the city in the next hour and a half. But, almost as soon as the happiness hit her, it left her.

As she was driving down a nearly abandoned road, her car decided to crap out on her. It sputtered and gave her enough life to pull over, but as soon as the engine started to smoke, she knew it was trash.

"Ugh!" She stomped out of the car angrily, coughing and waving a hand in front of her face as she opened the hood of her car. "Bullshit!" She slammed it shut, walking back to the car and fishing out her purse. She dug around until she found her phone, scoffing when she had no service. "Okay, what the actual fuck?"

She fell inside of the car, rolling her eyes in annoyance. How could she have just gone from being less than three hours away from the city to being a two-day walk with no stops? She knew it would be no use to attempt to hitchhike, there was no way any cars ever came down this road and if they did, they had to be creeps. She can't even call triple A so they can get her a new car or at least get hers towed.