Elodie spent her night at the river, searching for something she missed, anything at all. She scoured the crime scene. After awhile, she finally started moving out. And that's when she found it.
A getaway car.
Elodie took out her camera and snapped pictures of it. She wrapped her hand in her coat and started moving stuff around. This was Jason's stuff alright. Things from his room and his house, it looked like he was trying to runaway or start new. But what was he running away from?
And then Elodie found it. The drugs.
"Shit Jason, what did you get yourself into?" She mumbled
She made sure she had everything photographed and then returned to the riverfront.
She climbed to the top of the cliff, then fell asleep.
Cheryl and Jason rowed across the river, they landed on the other side. They hugged, then Jason disappeared into the woods. Moments later, he was grabbed by someone. She gasped, but of course, it was a dream, so no one could hear her. She tried to see who it was, but could only see a Southside Serpent jacket. She got up and quickly followed, but once they were in a car, heading to the Southside of Riverdale, she lost them.
When Elodie woke, it was daylight out. She sighed and made her way to her car, returning home.
"Elodie! Oh my god! We were worried sick!" Rona cried out when she saw her daughter enter the front door.
"Where the hell were you?! We didn't sleep all night! Never scare us like that again!" Chris said.
"I was at Veronica's and my phone died" Elodie lied, knowing her parents didn't have the Lodges' phone number.
Before they could say anything else, Elodie was slamming the door to her room shut. She took a hot shower to clear her head.
And then she found herself crying.
Her salty tears mixing with the scorching water. Her hands shook as she tried to run them through her hair but finally gave up, collapsing into the tiled floor, head in her hands.
How was it possible that in three hours of searching, she had found such an important piece of evidence that even the police hadn't found? What did that mean? That they didn't care? That they weren't searching hard enough? That Jason meant nothing to them?
Finally she pulled herself off the floor and out of the shower. She dressed herself in a plain dark gray t-shirt dress, then simply laid on her bed, her hands intertwined and resting on her stomach.
There came a soft knocking on her door.
"Elle honey, are you going to get the kids ready?" Rona said.
"Their your damn kids mom. You get them ready. I'm not going to school today" Elodie replied, beyond annoyed with her parents.
"Of course you're going to school" Her mom scoffed, slightly offended by her daughters first comment.
"No. I'm not" Elodie countered
"Elodie-"
"My best friend in the entire world is dead mom, and nobody cares, not even you. You haven't asked me once since the day he died if I was okay. I'm not, incase you were wondering. So I'm staying the fuck home today"
She heard soft footsteps walk away.
In an hour, the house was empty.
Her phone was chiming with notifications. Texts from Jughead, calls from Archie, even a message from Veronica. She let her phone play a symphony as she fell asleep with tears in her eyes.
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After she had woken up, cleaned the entire house, made food, and went grocery shopping. She didn't really know what to do. So when Archie called for the millionth time that day, she answered.
"Hey Arch" She sighed.
"Oh my god Elodie. You're alive. That's good, that's very good. How are you? What's up? Why aren't you at school?" He asked frantically.
"I'm working on multitasking" She relied dryly.
"Multitasking?" Archie asked.
"Yeah. Why doesn't anyone care about Jason's murder?" She couldn't stop herself.
"We do. You and me and Jughead-"
"Jughead doesn't care. He wants a jumpstart for his writing career" Elodie rolled her eyes. She didn't know what made her so extra mad at Jughead for being like everyone else, but she couldn't deny that she was giving him the hardest time.
"Elodie please" Archie sighed.
"I'll see you tonight Arch" Elodie mumbled.
"At the drive in?" Archie questioned.
"Yeah. Bye" And she hung up.
Why did she just tell Archie she was going to the drive in?
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
Many things happened that night. Cheryl Blossom, Veronica Lodge, Kevin Keller, and Elodie Nova sat in the back of Kevin's pick up truck. The movie was a dumb one, she mentally rolled her eyes at Jughead's pick, but watched it nonetheless.
The Serpents behind them were being rather obnoxious, and after Kevin's hushing, Veronica finally stood and told them to shut the hell up. Elodie smiled as the Raven-haired girl sat back down.
"Refill Kevin?" Cheryl handed the empty popcorn tub to the boy, who rolled his eyes but got up anyways.
"I'll come" Elodie mumbled as she stood. She'd much rather be alone with Kevin than alone with Veronica and Cheryl.
As they reached the stand, something had caught Kevin's eye. She followed his gaze to Moose making out with some girl. In anger in disappointment, he ordered more and more food, until Elodie laid a hand on his arm. He took a deep breath and stopped. As they received their popcorn and candy and pop, an idea came to Elodie.
"One sec, watch this" Elodie smirked
She took the popcorn and soaked it in butter, then walked over to Moose's car. She held the tub over their heads, then dumped it on them. Kevin gasped and threw his hand over his mouth.
"I came here to watch the movie, not a porn video. Get a damn room" Elodie sassed.
"Ooh!!!"s and "Damnnnn!"s and laughter came from everywhere as Elodie returned and asked the boy who was working for yet another refill of popcorn.
"Thanks Elle" Kevin smiled. She simply smirked back.
Food in hand, they turned around, and Kevin came face to face with a boy, about their age, probably a bit older. He was smirking at Kevin, and from the looks of it, Kevin was already mesmerized by him. Elodie plucked the cherry cola and gummy worms from his hands.
"I'll meet you later" She smirked and winked at the sheriff's boy before being on her way.
On her way back, however, she spotted Veronica Lodge, following her mother, who was following a Serpent. With her detective instinct, she dumped the food with Cheryl and decided to join the train of following.
She was greeted with an unpleasant sight. Hermione Lodge handing FP Jones a stack of money in a brown paper bag.
She quickly retreated and nearly bumped into a rushing Alice Cooper and Fred Andrews.
"What the hell is going on?" She mumbled, then made her way to her own car, parked beneath the screening shack.
She looked up and saw Jughead, carefully manning the machine. He felt someone's eyes on him and turned to look down at her.
"Hey" She said
"Hey" He replied
"You have shit taste in movies Jughead Jones" She said to fill the silence.
"Well I guess you'll have to pick it next time" He replied sarcastically.
"Guess I will" She said, getting in her car.
"Thanks for coming" Jughead said as she turned her car on and drove off.
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
"She has to quit and leave town" Archie sighed, staring up at his ceiling with his hands under his head.
"It's what's best, but I know it sucks for you. So for that, I'm sorry" Elodie sighed as well, staring up at his ceiling, a patch a few inches away.
The two teenagers laid next to each other on Archie's bed. He had called her. He needed his best friend. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, she needed him too.
"What happened to us? To Riverdale?" Archie sighed.
"The times they are a changin'" Jughead quoted as he entered the room and collapsed on his mattress.
"True" Elodie mumbled.
The three teenagers were then quiet, laying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, wondering how everything went so wrong so fast.
Elodie had questions. Why was Jughead living here? What was going on in Archie's mind? Should she tell them about the car? How was she gonna solve Jason's murder? All alone?
"I found Jason's getaway car" She mumbled.
Archie and Jughead sat up immediately.
"You what?" Jughead asked.
"I slept at Sweetwater River last night. I was looking, and in three hours, I found Jason's getaway car. I had another dream" She paused, but couldn't hold her tongue. "How the hell didn't the police find it? Don't they care?!" She raised her voice
"Hey, Elle, it's okay" Archie comforted.
"No it's not! No one cares! No one's doing what they have to to help Jason! Why am I the only who's actually putting effort into solving this fucking murder?!" She was almost hysterical, tears threatening to spill over her eyes.
"You won't be anymore" Jughead said suddenly. The two in the bed looked over at him. "I'll help you. And I won't write about it in the blue and gold. And I won't put it in my novel. I wanna help"
She didn't say anything. She looked to Archie.
"Me too Elodie. If what you're doing is what it takes to give Jason peace, I'll do it. We'll do it together" Archie hugged the blonde girl.
"Alright" She breathed, calming down.
"Good thing tomorrow's Saturday" Jughead mumbled, and then they all fell asleep.