jock → reggie mantle [riverdale]

10

"At Pop's, when he told me the plan, that he was going to fake his own death and then we would meet up. But before that could happen, my Mom and Dad sent me away." Polly explained to my Dad, telling him about the last day she had seen her beloved Jason. I had ignored the fact that my Dad had told me not to come, not to get involved in this. Stay out of it, he had said. But we all knew I was already far to deep in this to pull myself out, so here I am, sitting next to the Cooper sisters, listening to Polly relive her last moments with Jason Blossom. 

"One of Jason's teammates said that before he ran away, Jason was dealing drugs." Betty spoke, looking at her older sister, trying to figure this entire thing out yet again. "Making a one-time delivery. He needed-we needed money. To get away and start over." Polly became slightly defensive, understandably so, if someone had said something about what my baby's father was doing before he was killed, I would become defensive too. "So Riverdale's star football player becomes a drug mule?" My Dad questioned, I so badly wished I could've glared at him, but I can't, I just have to be happy that he even let me come here with him. 

"He went to a bar, on the other side of the tracks and made a deal with some biker gang." I made a face at my lap, "The Serpents?" My Dad and I asked in unison. "He got an address upstate where he was to deliver the drugs in exchange for cash." Polly answered, ignoring the odd way me and my Father spoke in sync. "The drugs you found in Jason's car.." My Dad stated, looking at Betty who nodded slowly, this is gonna go badly, I can just tell. 

"Yeah." Betty mumbled, almost so quietly that I couldn't hear, "that went up in flames." He pointed out, as if we didn't already know. "Along with everything I had left of Jason, including the ring his nana gave me, which he was keeping until..." Polly spoke up, her voice wavering, I reached past Betty and placed a hand on Polly's shoulder, doing my best to silently comfort her. "I think it's time to leave Dad." "Okay, Sheriff, I think that's enough for tonight. I think Polly needs her rest." Mrs. Lodge and I said one right after the other. "I'll be in touch, ladies." My Dad said, standing up and waiting for me to follow, which I did once I noticed the look on his face.

"What the hell was that?" I jumped at Dad's sudden question, his voice coming out louder than expected. "What the hell was what?" I responded, crossing my arms, knowing full well what he was talking about, of course I was gonna look out for my best friend's sister in this situation, isn't that common sense?  "You mean how I said it was time to leave?" I added, he nodded, staying silent as we stepped into the elevator at the Pembrooke. "Don't talk to me like that in front of your friends again, understand?" He asked, this time I nodded staying silent, and resisting the urge to roll my eyes. 

***

"Polly's convinced herself that no-one want's her baby." Betty sighed as we all sat in the student lounge, I set a hand full of Skittles on Kevin's book as she spoke, knowing he would steal them from me anyways. "Besides, of course, the child-snatching Blossom monsters." Kevin stated, popping a Skittle in his mouth, "no offense, Cheryl." He added, I inwardly sighed, still not being on good terms with her, not that we ever were but you know, telling her mom off kind of shook things up. "None taken." She answered, I rolled my eyes looking toward Betty. 

"So your Mom and Dad want Polly and not the baby, and the Blossom's want the baby and not Polly. That's a true Gordian knot." Jughead said, "that's a bunch of bull, I'm sorry but come on." I finally said what was most likely on everyone's mind. "It's an impossible situation." Betty bypassed my statement, not noticing how I started staring at the jock across the room. He looked, better, I guess. Compared to how we both looked a few days ago, we're both doing better, but we share this same look of exhaustion, not even physical, it's more of a mental thing by now.