( chapter twelve! )
─ when Stiles told lydia he would lose his mind if she was gone, I felt that
─
'Hold on to myself and don't look back
I don't wanna dream about
All the things we never were
Maybe I can live without
When I'm out from under
I don't wanna feel the pain
What good would it do me now
I'll get it all figured out
When I'm out from under-'
"Wow, that was really good,"
Lola jumped from her seat at the piano in the musical area of the auditorium. She saw Archie walk in with his guitar. Lola smiled, patting the space at the bench next to her. He walked over to her and sat down next to her. She turned her body to him with one leg folded up. "So from what Betty tells me is that you wrote a song over the summer?"
Archie chuckled shyly, scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah,I did. I can show you I have my-"
"No no no," she stopped him from reaching in his pocket. "Play it for me on your guitar. I wanna hear it from you,"
Archie smiled at her. He could see the passion for music in her shiny ocean eyes. It was a very encouraging thing. It made him more motivated in his music. "Okay," he said, beginning to play the first tune.
Lola listened on as he sung the lyrics, very intrigued.
-
Manic drove him and Jughead to Pops earlier that same day. After Jughead tried to talk to Dilton, who was no help, he thought that it was time to have Manic help him out now. So he texted the Latin boy and he picked him up in his black mustang gt.
"There he is," Jughead nodded to one of the scouts. Manic looked and smirked.
"I remember who he is, I slashed his brothers tires back in the 9th grade."
Jughead looked at him, frowning in confusion. "He has a brother?" Manic just shrugged as they began to walk towards the boy.
Manic hopped over the booth, plopping next to the kid. He jumped and widened his eyes at the sight of him. "M-Manic," the kid whispered in fear. Manic smiled, throwing his arm around his shoulders roughly, keeping him from running. "Hey buddy,"
Jughead sat on the opposite side, eating the cherry off of his sundae. Manic took the sundae and started eating it.
"What the hell, man?" The kid said, still scared of the fact that Manic was next to him.
"I saw the way you looked at me," he said. "During the grizzly training. You're hiding something,"
"Oh, I hate liars," Manic groaned, looking at Jughead. "Don't you hate them, Jones?"
"They're the worst," Jughead agreed with his eyes glued to the nervous boy. "So I suggest you tell the truth because once Manic gets angry, it's out of my hands. He's itching for a poor defenseless victim to use as a punching bag."
Manic tighten his grip on the boy, causing him to look at him with a fear ridden face. He glared at the defenseless boy viciously. "And I have a fist with your name on it."
"It's scoutmaster Doiley," the boy quickly said, not wanting to get beat up by the dangerous Cuban-Puerto Rican. "He's lying,"
"About what?" Jughead asked, curiously.
The boy straightened up after Manic let him go. "The gunshot. It was him. He was teaching us how to shoot targets."
Manic and Jughead looked at each other in disbelief. "Asian Harry Potter shot the gun on July 4th?"
"He's a hardcore survivalist. He says if we can protect ourselves, no one will," the kid warned. The two teens looked at each other again in shock. Who'd have thought that Dilton was that hardcore. Surely not the two of them.
"Well, thank you for your time," was all Jughead said as he climbed out the booth. Manic slapped him upside the head as he stood on the seat to hoop over him. "See ya around, pansy."
-
It was night time and Betty, Veronica, Ethel, Kevin and a few others snuck in the school after hours to find this book that was being held by the jocks. They all looked through it with Cheryl, who was shocked to see her brother in the book.
"Wait, look at this." Veronica said, noticing something. "Lola's name has her own page,"
Betty flipped to the back of the unfinished page. Sure enough, there was Lola's name drawn out, taking up most of the page with a crown drawn over her name.
"Grand Prize: Lola Rose Montoya?" Betty read out. Kevin gasped angrily. "Those dirty bastards are competing to see who can get Lola to sleep with them first!"
"And since she's one of the most popular girls and the toughest girl here," Cheryl said, slowly.
"She's the hardest to get." Betty finished. "Whoever gets her, wins this stupid sick game!!"
"So you've found the book," a voice made them all jump. Everyone turned towards the source to see Manic leaning his shoulder against the lockers near the trophy display. He held an apologetic look as his lips pursed. His hands were in his pockets and his feet crossed.
"You knew Polly was in this book?" Betty asked angrily. Angry that he would keep this from her and that he would praise him as this great guy when in reality, he was the biggest asshole. "You knew she was in here and you didn't bother to tell me?!"
Manic sighed. He knew this would happen. "I knew about Polly and Jason." He said. "I didn't know he would add her to that,"
"But you could've prevented it," Veronica said almost disgusted. "No one deserves this,"
"If you were his best friend, you could've stopped him from what he did to my sister," Betty growled, tears threatening to fall. " I wouldn't be surprised if you were in this sickening game!"
"You honestly think I would do something like this?" Manic asked, feeling very accused. "I might be an asshole, hell I'm not the nicest guy in the world but I know my limits and that involves playing with females like that.... I bet you found Lola's page huh?"
Betty looked down at the page and back at him. "How did you-?"
"Last year, Hunter McCall, a junior on the varsity team, took Lola on a date," Manic started, walking towards the small group. Everyone listened tentatively. "And this was her first ever date, her only date ever. She use to have this huge crush on him or whatever. She was very excited to go, almost out of character for her, she never acted like a giddy school girl for anyone. But for some reason, this guy was special. Hell, she even made our mom take her to get a new dress for her. And as a an older twin brother, I was happy that she was happy. He was a friend of mine and Jason's,"
Cheryl almost jumped at the mention of her brothers name.
"So I though he was," Manic said, stopping a few feet from the group. "Well....later on that night, our parents went over to this party that our dad was hosting, I stayed home because something told me to stay. Call it twin intuition if you want...But after the date, Lola runs in the house, dress torn at the sleeves and neckline, and she runs all the way to her room. I heard her crying her eyes out, so I knew something really terrible must've happened..."
There was a silence. The tension was so thick, you could practically punch through it.
"So what happened?" Kevin asked quietly, just as curious as the others.
Manic looked off, his face slowly turning blank like he was losing touch of reality.
"....She told me how he tried to rape her," he said, looking back to them. Betty almost gasped, Veronica looked shocked and saddened and Cheryl actually gasped. Not a face in the group was not holding a disgusted look. "She told me how he told her that she was this grand prize for the jocks sick game...and I lost it."
"So...is that why you and Jason had a fight before he died?" Cheryl asked, almost desperately. Manic looked at her, his face going back to normal.
"You want the truth? Yeah, it's one of the reasons why." He said harshly. "He wanted to take her on a date and given the fact after what he did with Polly, I couldn't let him try that with Lola....So I punched him and we fought."
He then flicked his attention to both Betty and Veronica. "And to elaborate on what I on said, yes I tried to stop him...he was just too gone in being Riverdale's golden boy to remember who he really was...."
Betty's face softened. She had no idea he went through all of this. Or Lola.
Veronica felt guilty for accusing him for this. She could see there was more to him then he let on. He was a loving guy and the best brother ever to Lola. He had a caring side and a gentleman like attitude underneath his titanium walls.
"So I came here to get the book..." He said, taking the book from her. "And to give it to you as a 'I'm sorry about your sister, please take this apology because that's the only one you're getting.'"
He looked it, tracing the lines of Lola's name. He looked back at Betty with a hard look. "I'm not here to tell you to be forgiven or anything....I'm here to tell you that you better make Chuck and everyone in this book pay for what they did to all of the girls in this book because no girl should be a victim to this....Not Polly, not Lola, especially not Veronica,"
He flicked his eyes to her before going back to Betty.
Betty stared into his eyes, letting his words sink in to her.
The way he said those words made her shake a bit. He sounded so determined and strong. She knew she had to expose Chuck and the others for this.
With a slight nod, Betty pursed her lips with a emotionless stare. Manic nodded back. Then he turned around and walked away.
-
"I get what you're saying, Lola, I really do but what do you mean inner feelings?" Archie asked as they walked outside towards her car. Lola offered him a ride home and he took it.
After their first music session, he's learned a lot about her and vice versa.
"What I mean is, find your muse if you want to write a great song," she explained to him. "Like if you want want to write about life, think about what makes your life happy or if you want to write about some you have found attractive and/or like, use it to write a romantic song, I promise it will go along way,"
Archie nodded, now understanding what she was saying.
"Besides," she started up again, unlocking her car. "You can't keep writing about Ms. Hoe-dy."
Archie paused, looking at her. How did she know about him and Ms. Grundy?
Lola saw his look and chuckled. "It's pretty obvious. You were looking at her like you either are in love with her or had great sex with her, either way it's obvious to me,"
They climbed into the car. Archie looked as she started up her ignition. For some reason, she looked really pretty to him right now. The way her eyes shined brighter when she spoke about music or how her smile was brighter when she listened to his song. It made him feel butterflies inside. He could see why every guy in school had crushes on her. She was beautiful.
He's always thought she was very pretty but seeing her in a different light made him really appreciate her looks and getting to know h r made him see she's really a deep and emotional girl.
Lola felt eyes on her as she began to pull out of the school parking lot. She glanced at Archie with a curious grin. "What are you staring at?"
Archie smiled softly, nodding his head. "....nothing...nothing at all."
After dropping off Archie, Lola got home just before dinner. She walked into her room to unwind a bit. But her phone dinged randomly as she was brushing her hair. She picked it up and unlocked it.
Unknown number: it's good to see that you've grown up so well
Lola frowned. Who the hell was this guy?
Lola Rose: who is this???
Three seconds later, the unknown person replied back three seconds later.
Unknown number: I'll see you soon, Lolly Rosie🌹😉
Lola's eye widened and her heart hit her rib cage super hard. There was only one person who called her that.
.....oh shit.....Could is be Jack??!!
Who knows!!!
Sorry this is so slow, I sorta rushed into this.
Hope you loved this and 10k?!?!
I love you so much!!
Archie's developing feelings for Jughead's girl y'all
Jontoya all the way, y'all!!!
We got a bit of Jughead and Manic Brotp
We also got Metty in this scene.
And now you know one major reason they fought before he died.
Sad, I know
Next chapter I might reveal who texted her....do you think it's Jack or someone else?
Let me know all of your reactions in this chapter by commenting and also send love! I love hearing from you guys!!
Love you❤️✨⭐️