Riverdale South Side

Chapter 16

The night went on and after we finished up at Pop's, Archie drove me home.

"Hey Lina?" He asked.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I've really missed you." He replied.

"I've really missed you too." I smiled. I could feel my heart going faster while we stared into each other's eyes. The air was thick. I could feel myself leaning in closer to him and he was doing the same. Just then we heard a knock on the passenger's side window. I jumped a little in my seat and looked over. It was my dad. I rolled down the window.

"It's 11:55, you have five minutes to get in the door before you're grounded." He said plainly then turned to Archie. "Thanks for bringing her home Archie!"

"No problem Mr. Owens." Archie smiled. My dad went back to the house. I gave Archie a hug and then got out of the car and went to my house. He waited to leave until I was inside. My dad had already gone to bed so I locked up the house and turned on the alarm. I couldn't help but smile thinking about tonight. Once again, I couldn't shake the feeling that feeling that I had with Archie. I went to bed and slept like a baby.

Not much happened that was directly related to me throughout the next few days. I kept up with Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Archie. Jughead joined The Blue and Gold newspaper with Betty. Archie got grounded so he couldn't hang out. It was pretty boring. He told me he was sneaking out to learn from Josie and the Pussycats. I tried to convince him to sneak out to see me but he just told me to help him sneak out to the Taste of Riverdale celebration. He needed a ride and figured that was the only time we were going to hang out. At the same time this was going on, Veronica went on a date with a pathological liar and spread a gross rumor about her. She said that she and Betty were taking care of it.

I was really looking forward to helping Archie sneak out. I even wore all black when I came to pick him up. I texted him that I was outside and he jogged out of the house and got into the truck.

"You excited to hear your song?" I asked him.

"You have no idea." He smiled at me. "Thanks for doing this. I owe you one."

"You can buy me my next milkshake." I laughed.

"Deal." He agreed. We plugged in his phone and sang along to some of his music. When we finally got to Taste of Riverdale I parked a little further away from the building and we snuck in through the back. Jughead joined us before leaving quickly after. I saw Archie look down from the balcony we were on. His dad was talking to the music teacher and he seemed a little panicked.

"What is it?" I asked.

"My dad is talking to my music teacher." He said, trying to peek at them. His song was playing in the background and I bobbed along to it.

"Is that a big deal?" I asked.

"No. Not really." He replied but he was lying. I didn't push him. We snuck out before the event was over and he seemed pretty deep in thought. I flipped on the radio and sang along. I dropped him off at his house. "Thanks for everything again tonight."

"I'm your biggest fan." I teased. "Go get some sleep. You deserve it." He said goodnight then went inside. I drove back home and hung out with my family a little bit and helped Michael with some homework.

I woke up the next morning on the couch because I didn't make it up to bed last night. Archie had texted me that his dad sound proofed his garage and he sent pictures. He seemed more and more distant from me even though he was keeping in contact. He seemed to be all googly again. I went through the day as normal but I had a nagging feeling about Archie.

Jughead texted me that there was an emergency meeting at Pop's for our friend group. I got over there immediately but it was just about Jughead ranting about the drive in closing. Mr. Andrews walked in with Archie and the music teacher. Betty got up and went to pull Archie away. There was some kind of conversation before Veronica went out with them. I didn't really feel like participating in the drama. I just chilled with Kevin and Jughead until I looked out and saw that Betty's mom driving up to pick her up.