Helpline ((Jughead Jones)) 2

7

Even though I had left, I hated having to walk up to the Thistlehouse that Cheryl and mother were staying in after the fire. Jughead was walking with me, determined to get one of them to agree to forgive FP. The one most likely to forgive would be Cheryl. Mother wouldn't ever publically stoop to that level, it would poison father's name even more.

It angered me that I couldn't help Jughead myself by speaking. As much as I disliked Penny, she was right. It would be too obvious and too predictable if I was the one to stand before a judge as J's girlfriend and forgive FP. If anything, it would give the prosecution more ammunition to fire at FP and his useless defense.

"Not exactly downsizing is it?" Jughead told me. I just laughed. They wouldn't have been Blossom's if they went to a house too small. Besides, the house didn't matter as the people inside, well Mother at least, would still be rotten not matter how fancy the house was.

We knocked and Cheryl answered, giving me a hug straight away before asking why we had come all the way here as it clearly wasn't to catch up.

"Sister. Husband of sister. Welcome to Thistlehouse. Mother's in the conservatory. Follow me." She was been dramatically formal. It was something we were taught to do by father. When we answered the door, we had to invite the guest in and direct them to our parents, not to question why they were there or who they were, but just invite them inside. The moment we were older and being the troublesome trio we were, we would greet the guests with random names based on their features or personalities. Countless amount of times, we were told off for doing such things, but it always amused us for a short space of time.

Mother and Cheryl sat at opposite ends of the table, while Jughead and I sat on one of the lengths. J was closer to Cheryl and I was closest to Mother who was wrapped in a bandage.

"Thank you for sitting down with us." I thanked mother first, knowing she would be bitter that I decided to move in with Jughead rather than stay with my family. That act alone would have disgraced the Blossom name and I should have been disowned, although I had avoided Thistlehouse for that very reason.

"Of course, Cyn. You're family." Cheryl and mother were sipping tea with the fake smiles plastered on their faces. The look alone reflected perfectly why I had left, or at least, one of the reasons. I looked to mother who was pouring more tea for herself. She had angry red burns all over her face, and was even wearing one of her posh turban type head wraps to cover her head bandage. If this was what her face looked like, I wondered if she even had any hair left, or whether or not it was singed off in the blaze.

"Okay," Jughead began, "The reason we're here..." In that moment I decided that if I said it, it would save the heat from being on Jughead. The heat begin the outrage that my sister and mother were bound to show at the mention of having to forgive FP.

" FP's lawyer thinks that if the family of Jason shows mercy--" I was cut off from my explanation by mother's low toned voice repeating my last word. She was slowly stirring her tea, glaring straight at the daughter who abandoned her right before a fire started that nearly killed her.

"Well, it's an appeal for leniency from you to reduce my dad's sentence." Jughead replied. Mother's spoon stopped automatically as her gaze snapped from me to J, quicker than the words had even come out of his mouth.

In the dimly lit conservatory, with ivy growing out of every crack, making it seem like more of a greenhouse than a room within the house, I could feel the intense stares coming from my two family members. Surprisingly, mother didn't reply, just looked at Cheryl, waiting for her snappy answer.

"Where was your father's mercy when I, we, spent those countless nights walking the halls of Thornhill in agony, obsessing over what was happening to Jay-Jay, imagining the worst?" Cheryl rushed out her response, speaking fast and clear, like all Blossom's are taught. If you speak quickly, it gives you the opportunity to say everything you want to before the other person has processed their reply. It also doesn't give them a chance to speak back to you. It was one of the only, at times, useful lesson our father taught.