Steady Breaths

J u m p

*warning: this chapter has strong suicide themes, if you could possibly be triggered than this chapter may be best unread*

Betty's POV
I thought she wasn't worried about it.
It thought that she didn't mind.
Was it my fault? Did I say or do something?
"Archie! Is Jug with you?" I yell into the phone.
"Yeah he is, Betty what wrong?"
"It's Veronica."
There was no response.
"Nothing bad has happened to her yet but she's standing on sweet water bridge, I'm yelling trying to get her down but it won't work." I say with tears welling up in my eyes. The last thing I need right now is for my best friend to jump of a bridge.
"We'll be there in 2 minutes" Archie hangs up.

I look back at Veronica who is still standing on the edge of the bridge, now over the railing.
"Veronica please don't do this" I yell as loud as I can.

Cmon Veronica don't jump. Not now, not ever. I can't loose you. Sure we've only been friends for a year but it's felt so much longer than that. She has always been there for me, especially through my pregnancy. And when I got shot. She's just always been so comforting, telling me that it'll all be okay.
Suddenly Jughead and Archie emerge from the bushes.
"Oh my god..." Jughead sighs in shock at the sight of Veronica Lodge literally on the edge of life and death.
"Ronnie, listen to me okay, it'll all be okay, just climb back onto the bridge" Archie yells.
She doesn't move. She just stares blankly at us.

Archie suddenly throws off his shoes and takes his shirt off.
"Arch now isn't exactly the time for a leisurely swim" Jughead comment.
"Ronnie is going to jump. I can tell, she's just not gonna get back on the bridge, and if I'm fast enough I could probably swim across the river to get her before she drowns."

Okay that is actually a pretty smart plan.
"Call an ambulance is she jumps" he says turning it Jug. And now we wait. It felt like a century, time went by so so slowly but she just stayed there looking blankly down at the river. In reality it was only 2 minutes, but it felt so much longer.
"We could be going up there and getting her!" I exclaim.
"If anything that'd make her jump. She's not in her right mind" Jughead said, sitting back against a tree.

Suddenly Veronica began to turn her back to us.
"Is she going to climb back into the bridge?!" I exclaim with hope. But she doesn't climb over the railings.
"Betty...Betty get your phone out" Jughead instructed, and so I do so. But why? She's going to climb back onto the bridge right?
"Arch that drop is going to knock her unconscious, you need to be fast." Jughead tunes to Archie, who also is confused.
"But she turned around" I defend.
"Exactly." He says, turning his head to look at Veronica.

Jughead's POV
I know plenty about suicide. Mom once attempted. Then I did a bunch of research on it, because I was so freaked out by the whole thing. Betty and Archie may think I'm insane for doing this. But we can't go up there. Whether we were up there or down here, she'd jump either way. Now we can only hope that Archie isn't just a good footballer.

It happened so quickly. One moment we were hoping that she'd climb back over, the next she let go. She fell back gracefully, it was almost beautiful. Almost. She was mid air as I look over at Archie and Betty, who have terrified looks on their faces.
"Shit" I heard Archie mumble before her sprinted into the water.
"Betty dial 911 now."

Now it was a race between life and death, quite literally.

"Hi, I'm at sweet water bridge...my fired just jumped off...there's someone in the water getting her now...okay." She hung up before turning to me glassy eyes.
"They'll be here in a minute" she simply told me before turning back to the river to watch the haunting scene, Archie Andrews had already reached Veronica, and he was now swimming back with her. Blue and red flashing lights blinded us. Archie gets back to the shore before the doctors can.
He lay her on her side, and not a moment later several doctors and emergency respondents came rushing towards us. They pushed us out of the way and so we all stepped back and watched the madness. Veronica's face, loosing its colour, suddenly swallowed by an oxygen mask. And within second she was taken away on a stretcher.

I look over at Betty and Archie, who is shivering from the cold water dripping over his body. He shakes and he puts his shirt and shoes back on, which only takes a second. Betty seems to be in a state of shock and fear.

But why would Veronica Lodge, the New York princess, want to kill herself. Out questions won't be answered until she wakes up...if she wakes up.
"Archie you drove here right?" Betty asks.
"Yep..." Archie answers and leads us up a trail towards the car.

Most of the drive was silent. Until we were close to the hospital.
"Why?" Betty asked herself  "was it us?"
"God you guys isn't it obvious. Her father literally just got arrested, for the second time right infront of her. And ontop of that she found out that he's some sort of murderer, or well at least the master mind of murders. I've been in her position, where you dad is in jail and everyone thinks a monster, and they automatically assume you're the same...it's a nightmare" I recall dad being in jail, how much I hated it. And it took me ages to believe that he was a good guy. But that's the difference between Veronica and I...her dad is actually just bad to the bone.

We pull up to the hospital and all rush in.
"Hi um a teenage girl with black hair wearing a hoodie and jeans was just admitted here..." Archie explains to the receptionist, hoping that she'll catch on to what he's saying.
"Veronica Lodge, admitted at 1030 hours, apparently suicide attempt?"
"Yeah that's her, we're her friends, how is she" Betty asks nervously.
"No reports so far. She's in surgery at the moment to stop internal bleeding but that's all we know so far." The lady smiles and tells us to take a seat.

And so we return to the waiting room that now seems all too familiar. Waiting is the hard part. Not knowing is the hard part. I look over at Betty, sweet Betty who has had nothing but pain and stress these pst few months, now glass eyed at the thought of loosing her V.
"She'll be alright" I grab her hand and give her a weak attempt of a smile.
"I hope so" she nods and turns to Archie, who is sitting opposite us. He is staring blankly, not looking at anything in particular. Just kind of lost...

A/N hey guys, plot twist! If you do ever see a situation where someone may be attempting suicide please do not act like my idiotic characters, please do something or call for help immediately. If you are having suicidal thoughts please contact a suicide prevention hotline or talk to you family, friends and trusted ones. Talking about it does make things easier😊 As always thank you very much for reading love to you all xx