Dark Hearts || Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones [1]

Riverdale's Sweetheart

RIVERDALE'S SWEETHEART

That night, when they get home, they are told to stay in the living room. And their parents yell at them for so long that there is a time Ellie's head just turns off. Only Polly's voice echoes in her head, how guilty she feels for letting her sister stay back in that place.

"Polly needed to hear the truth. And so did we." Betty tells them.

"So?" Hal gestures. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"No, we didn't. You hate the Blossoms. You hated Jason, and now Polly is pregnant with his baby. That gives you a motive."

Eleanor jumps slightly with her sister's accusative voice, and wakes up from her world. She sounds mad, which she has every right to be, as does Ellie. But the small girl is curled up in a corner of the couch, tracing the bracelet Jason gave her, and her heart aches.

"A motive for what?"

"The night of the Drive-In, did you break into Sheriff Keller's house and steal his case files?" Betty dares to ask.

"What?" Hal exclaims.

"You weren't there." Ellie finally speaks up. "You weren't with us either. So where were you, Dad? And, for once in the history of this crazy family, tell the truth."

"What do you girls think I did?" He steps closer to his daughters.

"Did you kill Jason Blossom?" Betty looks him in the eye.

Alice laugh calls everyone's attention.
They both look at her with a frown, confused. They can't understand what's so funny. Someone's dead, Polly is locked up and pregnant, lies are everywhere they look.

"Him? You think that he killed Jason? Your father?" The woman stands up from the other couch. "Do you think that he has the stomach for that? I wish he had killed Jason. I wish I had after what Jason did to Polly. I swear, you girls, are sounding crazy just like your sister."

"She's not crazy!" Ellie stands up too, anger burning in her eyes, and that's when she snaps. "Polly is not sick! She never was!"

"She is, Ellie." Her Dad tells her, and he almost sounds sorry. "She is depressed and delusional. Did you actually believe the story she told you?"

"I think I am depressed and delusional!" Ellie shouts in anger. "But that was not Jason. No, that was you! The both of you! And if Polly is crazy, it's because of you too!"

"Ellie –."

"It's the truth!" She ignores her sister's plea and continues. "If we're crazy, it's because you made us this way. With your never ending pressure to perfection and your lies and dirty secrets!"

"Shut up!" Alice yells, wanting this to end already. "We're your parents. And it ends here."

. . .

Eleanor Cooper is done.

That's why next morning, while Jughead sneaks into Betty's room, Ellie is at the school. That's why when they go to the car on route 40 that Polly mentioned, Ellie is at school.

She's just done with everything. So instead of curling up in her bed all day, she does what she can do better, she pretends. She does what she did this summer after Polly was sent away and Jason died, she goes to Archie.

"What are you doing here?" Archie smiles when he sees her.

"I was at the Blue and Gold. Finishing some stuff and thought why not..."