AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi guys, looks like I'm back. So, I changed this story to a Archie x Ellie x Jughead, hope you're not too pissed about it. Well, here is chapter 35. Let's go on with this.
Thank you to the ones you didn't abandon me yet.
CHESS GAME
Ellie is looking through the kitchen's open entrance at Veronica and Archie, they're hugging now. At least he managed to have one out of two forgiveness, just not the one he wanted the most. He looks over Veronica's left shoulder, and his eyes meet Ellie's green ones.
God, it hurts.
A phone ringing brings Ellie back to reality, where it hurts a little less. She watches as Jughead reaches for the phone inside his pocket, he rolls his eyes at Ellie before picking up.
"Hey, Dad. What's up?"
"Jughead, hey. You're not gonna believe it! Everyone's over here celebrating." She doesn't hear what it is that it's said but she can see by Jughead's express that he's confused, until he hears the explanation. "Listen, the eviction notices, the back rent, it's all gone, paid in full. No one has to move out."
Jughead smiles widely. "Amazing. How did that happen?"
"What happened?" Eleanor steps closer in anticipation. This overwhelming feeling of curiosity takes over her body, and she wishes Jughead had just put it on speaker. "What's going on?"
"It was you and Ellie! You shamed him into it." FP's voice lets out how proud he is of those two kids. "He did a complete 180."
"Who did?" Jughead asks while his eyes are on Ellie's, he doesn't have an answer for her because he's just as confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Hiram. Hiram Lodge." The man on the other side of the phone answers with an exciting voice. "Well, he just bought Sunnyside Trailer Park and he said we can all stay. We're staying!"
On the other side, Jughead can hear all the cheering. He knows everyone is thinking this is a big blessing now, but he's not sure this is a celebration motive. He can still hear his Dad calling out for him, but the phone is already falling down from his ear.
Jughead holds on Ellie's worried look. God, he just told her they would bring Hiram Lodge down, and now their task just got a lot more complicated. He owns them now, Southside.
"Jughead, what happened?" She frowns.
"Hiram Lodge just bought Sunnyside Park, there's no more debt." Jughead tells her with sorrow as his eyes look away to the Kitchen's entrance, where Veronica and Archie are watching them with confused expressions on their faces.
"No, he can't do that! Jug, tell me that your Dad is not really sure, we –."
He looks back at her. "I'm sorry, Ellie."
"Guys, what's going on?" Archie questions while approaching them, Veronica walking right by his side with concerns of her own. "Is everything ok?"
"First your Dad buys the Drive-in, now he owns Sunnyside Park." Jughead accuses, his only on the raven-haired girl. "As I suspected he's gobbling the Southside, piece by piece."
Betty hears the accusative voice from the living room, so she makes her way to the Kitchen. There's a tense environment, and she realizes that as soon as she steps in. "What's happening?"
"Hiram Lodge happened." Ellie mutters.
"Let's slow down." Archie intervenes. "Mr. Lodge is evicting people from the trailer park?"
"No, technically he cleared us out of our debts and revoked our evictions."
"Does that mean you get to keep your trailer?" The redhead asks with an exciting voice.
"Yes!" Veronica answers instead, her eyes glancing at Jughead. "So, why are you outraged?"
"Because it's all part of his game, V." Ellie exclaims, she steps closer into the circle that has formed. "What do you really think your Dad bought Sunnyside Park out of the goodness of his heart? For real, come on."
"Ellie's right, it's a tactic." Jughead agrees. "It's a smokescreen. PR 101. He's trying to buy my silence – our silence – again."
"Good lord, Jughead. How much of a narcissist are you?"
"You wrote an article attacking Mr. Lodge, demanding he makes amends." Archie tries to find and explanation. "That's what he's trying to do."
Jughead scoffs. "Well, at least Ellie is not blind right the rest of you."
"Jug, but they do have a point." Betty speaks up her mind.
"Look, I know you love conspiracies, I know how much you both like a good adventure with a hidden mystery, but" Archie recalls. "take the win, and let's celebrate."
. . .
"I have a hotel on Park Place." Veronica shrugs with a smile. "Which brings you a total to $1500."
They're playing Monopoly, which just by itself is destined to lead to no good outcome. But this is what almost everyone agreed to be a good way to celebrate, but Ellie couldn't disagree more, except for the drinks. She only said yes for the drinks anyway.
"Sorry, B. It's nothing personal."
"Yeah, I know." Betty replies while handling Veronica the fake bills. "It's just business."
A phone starts ringing on top of the small table where they're playing. It's Ellie's unfortunately, worse it's her Mom. She always tries to call Betty first, so why not this time. "It's Mom."
"Yeah, she tried to call me like ten minutes ago." Betty chuckles lightly.
"Oh, great." Ellie smiles with irony at the blonde sitting next to her. "That's very nice of you, thanks sis."
"Don't answer either." Jughead tells her with a gesture of his hand.
Of course, Eleanor doesn't wanna answer, but she also can't push away all of her darkest concerns and worries. What if they found the body and they arrested her and are coming for both her daughters? What if she got shot like Fred Andrews? So many what ifs.
"I should answer." Ellie stands up, she doesn't even stumble because she didn't drink that much. She turns her back on her laughing – and slightly drunk – friends and walks away to answer the phone. "Hey, Mom. What's up?"
"I don't know how this happened, Ellie!"
"Mom, what happened? Are you okay?" She feels her heart beating faster, god she feels her hands starting to shake. And there's nothing near by to stop it. Her third drawer is too far away.
"It's Hiram Lodge." Alice's voice is filled with anger but mostly frustation. "He just bought the Register. He's taking everything."
Everything slows down for a minute.
She still manages to try and calm her Mom down, even if she's a nervous wreck herself. She still puts on this calm and quiet voice, trying to tell her Mom that she'll figure it out – they will – and that everything is gonna be okay.
Ellie grabs onto the kitchen's balcony with her hands when she hangs up the phone. Her hands turn white with the anger she's feeling. She stays there for two minutes, trying to get control of her heartbeat. Only when she feels like she can walk to the room whitout collapsing with a panic attack does she leave the kitchen.
"Hey, everything okay?" Betty asks with concern because her sister's face just tells her everything. That Ellie couldn't control.
"No." She scoffs. "Mom is freaking out because Hiram Lodge just bought the Riverdale Register."
"What?" Betty stands up, all the alchool washing off in a second.
"Mom is losing her mind, and Dad's not answering her calls!"
Betty turns to Veronica, that's no longer sitting too. "Did you know, Veronica?"
"What? No, Betty, of course not."
"So much for taking the win." Ellie is eager to prove her point. "God, I told you that him buying the Sunnyside Park was just a move on his chess board! Come on,"
"This is what I'm talking about." Jughead scoffs.
"Relax, guys." Archie tries to calm him down.
"Don't tell me to relax."
"Is that why you brought us here?" Betty questions her friend's loyalty for the first time. "To get us out of town while your Dad was doing this?"
Veronica widens her eyes slightly at the accusation. "Okay, now who sounds crazy?"
"Lodge Industries has been buying properties all over the Southside." Jughead explains. "Now he buys the one newspaper in town so people can't report on what he's doing?"
Ellie mutters. "Dictator much."
"Shut the hell up, Jughead." Archie intervenes.
"Really?" Ellie steps forward with a false surprised look on her face. "You turn on your friends too fast, Archie. Is it the expensive suits? Shoes? Watches? He already bought you."
"Come on, Ellie, that's not –."
"Archie, this one's pretty simple. Even you might get this if you stopped kissing up to Hiram for like two seconds." Jughead accuses.
"How many times have I defended you?" Betty's voice is somehow sad, the feel of betrayal overwhelming her. "And now you turn and stab my family in the back?"
"It sounds to me like you should be mad at your Dad for selling the newspaper, not me."
"And there's nothing evil about buying a newspaper." Archie tries to find an explanation.
"Oh god, did he really stuck it up that far up your ass, Archie?!" Eleanor raises her voice at the amount of non-sense coming out of his mouth. "This is a typical move to silence the free press, so my Mom won't come after him. Or me."
"I'm so sick of your both vendetta against my Dad!" Veronica cries out. "He's done plenty of good things."
"Oh, like what? Name one thing." Betty dares.
"He –."
"He payed my Dad's medical bills!" Archie replies, his eyes drift away to his girlfriend – probably ex-girlfriend after this weekend, which probably was Hiram's plan all along – and continues. "You know that, Ellie. He even tried to help us get the black hood, remember?"
Ellie shakes her head in desbelief. "Archie, that's what broke us apart in the first place!"
"Boy, Archie. Hiram Lodge got you wrapped around his little finger. And so does Veronica."
"And who knows maybe other parts of her body." Betty accuses, but that goes too far. "That's probably the reason why you wanted Jughead and Ellie to kiss that hard, maybe –."
"Betty, that's enough." Ellie's voice sounds like a warning, some things are meant to stay hidden in some place safe, some place Betty is never supposed to find.
"Oh! I'm sorry Archie finds in me a much safer place to confide than in his own girlfriend, but that's probably because she's too busy messing around with –."
Ellie is about to intervene – she has to – when a glass shattering calls their attention. She turns around to where the sound came from. "What was that?"
"Who else knows we're here?" Archie asks.
"Why do you say it like that?" Betty frowns.
"Oh my god –."
Two men – one all dressed in black and another with a brown leather jacket – burst into the large living room where they are reunited. Guess now they know what that sound really was.
"You rich folks never learn. You just walk around town, flashing more cash that we see in a year." His voice is not familiar at all. "We're gonna take what we want, and then go, and if you guys behave yourselves, nobody gets their skulls knocked in."
Ellie's eyes are stuck on their weapons – not guns, weapons – more specifically an axe and a baseball bat. It's terrifying this powerless feeling that haunts her body, she hates feeling weak. She hates letting other people think she's weak.
"Fine. Take what you want. We won't give you any trouble." Archie speaks up.
"Where's your purse?" The man questions, his eyes on the black-haired girl.
"Ah, it's in my bedroom." Veronica answers, her mouth dry.
"Let's go to the bedroom."
"No!" Ellie exclaims, and that calls all eyes to her. She swallows. "I'll go. I know where it is."
Veronica first looks at Eleanor with a knowing look, something she needs her friend to remember if she's really doing this instead of Veronica.
Then she looks at her with deeply regret, but no words come out of her mouth. She wants to scream at the top of her lungs that she'll go, that it's ok. But Ellie is already walking up to the stairs, even thought both Jughead and Archie try to argue about that decision.
God, Veronica was horrible to her, and right now those are her last words to her friend.
Eleanor takes deep breaths at each step. She can feel the man's presence behind her, his eyes cutting into her back. She finally reaches Veronica's bedroom, the door is already open, and she notices the bag right on top the of the bed side table.
"Right there." Her voice is weaker than she intended. "I'll just... I'll just grab it, ok?"
Them man nods slowly at her question.
Ellie distances herself from him as she walks up to the bed side table.
Now, she shoves one hand inside of Veronica's purse, but her other hand is freely searching behind the bed side table. She remembers Veronica commenting on Ellie's question about how this big house looks so unsafe, she remembers her black-haired friend calming her nerves by disclosing about a secret safe button on the back of every bed side table.
Finally, Ellie feels the small button on the back and presses it with a deep breath. "Saw us at the store, huh?"
"Shut up and get her wallet."
She reaches for the wallet inside Veronica's purse and stands up. She turns around with a much-determined expression than she carried before. She hands it over to the man, but he doesn't say thank you, instead he drags her by the arm to the exit.
Ellie doesn't complain even though it hurts. She walks down the stairs, the man still behind her like before. Finally, she reaches her friends again. They're all ok, much to her relief. She notices Veronica's eyes looking intensely at her from a safe distance, and all Ellie manages to do to ease her mind is nod slightly. That's enough to bring Veronica to a much safer place in her mind.
"Can we go already? You got the cash?" The other man urges.
"Yeah, I got the cash."
"Then you got what you wanted." Archie reminds him.
The man in the brown leather jacket shakes his head. "Not everything. Not yet." Now he's voice is getting higher. "Why don't you all get down on your knees?"
"Come on, man! Let's not do this."
"Shut up." He scoffs to his partner; even though his eyes never leave the five friends. "Now, I said on your knees. Hands behind your backs. Do it!"
Ellie is counting the seconds in her head as she lowers to the ground in sync with her friends. She looks over to her sister, wishing she could just hug her. Ellie's scared, they all are.
"It's a nice cabin." The man speaks up with hatred in his voice as he reaches out for his partner's baseball bat, and Ellie's breath becomes irregular. "Sorry we have to make such a mess in it."
The phone rings just before he hits the first strike. While everyone's confused, Ellie is taking a long deep breath of relief while a smile opens up on Veronica's face.
"What's that?"
"That would be the security company calling to check on the alarm that my friend hit in my bedroom." Veronica has this really nice smug smile on her face and it feels early to call this a win, but oh well. "I would say you have about thirty seconds before this place is swarming with guards who will shoot first and ask questions never."
The man all dressed in back is the first one to take a run for it, the other one – the one holding the baseball bat – takes his time. And that's ok, Ellie wants him to be caught.
"Screw, rich bitch." He mutters as he pulls Veronica's necklace from her neck, taking off the next second following his partner's path.
Much to everyone's surprise, Archie stands up a second later rushing after the guy who just robbed and planned on assaulting them. They call out for his name, Ellie's body carrying her to the cold of the night as she screams for the red-haired but he's already too far.
. . .
"Thank god Andre didn't leave when I told him to." Veronica speaks up, filling the silence for the first time in ten minutes, and she doesn't stop there. "And thank god Archie didn't catch up to that hillbilly in the woods." She turns to face him. "He might've killed you, Archie."
Ellie's is listening, she's just looking out of the window. While everyone was still worrying about the two guys who just attacked them, she was already worrying too ahead – or behind – because everything on her mind was Hiram Lodge.
She still couldn't take the desesperation on her Mom's voice out of her head. And deep down, Ellie knows this is her fault, she had been Hiram's trigger, and Archie is fuel.
"Ellie," She looks back to her friends, and notices how they're all giving hands on top of that table at Pops like they haven't fighting three hours ago. "no matter, we together."
"Right." She sighs, and places her hand on top of Jughead's.
. . .
"You can stop worrying now, we home." Betty's voice sounds tired as she warns her Mom on her phone. She tuns around after she hangs up. "Guys, I really need to go take a shower and drop dead on my bed. So, goodnight."
Betty plants a quick kiss on Jughead's lips, and then caresses her sister's arm on her way up to the stairs, leaving the two best friends alone in the slightly dark living room.
"I'm never taking a few days off with Veronica, ever again."
"As we were driving back from the Shining, I was thinking..." The way Jughead's voice sounds at her ears, she already knows this is going to no good place. "There's more than one kind of home invasion. It's not always fast and violent. Sometimes we open door, and we let the intruder in ourselves."
"Jug, I usually know where you're heading with your super eloquent speeches but I'm way too drain out emotional to pick your cue." Ellie sighs. "So what do you mean?"
"Before we left, I noticed the tension between you and Chic. I got this really weird vibe from him. I'm worried about you, Ellie."
"I can handle Chic." She tries to give a smile so it sounds credible. Not sure if she's trying to convince her best friend or herself at this point.
"I'm more worried about whatever is in your third drawer." Jughead steps closer to when he notices the blonde girl shifting uncomfortable with his words. "Look, I'm not gonna ask you what it is that you keep there, all I'm asking you is for you to be careful."
Ellie nods, he's worried and she can't blame him.
She closes her eyes as Jughead plants a long kiss on her forehead, it feels safe in here. Safer than it feels anywhere else. Once the black-haired boy steps away to walk to the door, she's left alone in the dark reminding herself why is it wrong to want to stay in Jughead's embrace forever.