Falling Apart

Chapter 31

February. Rose day. Propose day. Chocolate day. Teddy day. Promise day. Hug day. Kiss day. Valentine's day. The whole week is full of romance and yet, no one has found out how my dad got out of jail, how he got into my house or how did Clifford hang himself just before he was taken to jail. And everyone has the same question: why. Why would Hal break out of the prison just to hurt me? Why would Clifford help him? Why would a man hurt his own daughter? Why. Why. Why.
“So this move has to be sexy,” Toni, the choreographer for the musical, says. We all smile and nod. “Let's take it from the beginning?” We nod and she puts the music on. Here are me, V, Cher and Toni. I can still feel the tension, but we're not talking about any of this here, we're here to have a cool number that we all enjoy. So we start singing Candy Store for the sixth time now.

“Actually I really enjoy it,” I tell Matt. “I just wish you could come.”
He smiles. “I hope I can. I mean, I don't really think so, but if I won't be there for that time, I'll for sure be there the next day.”
I start smiling so big and nod. “I know. I can’t wait, I wanna hug you,” I say.
He purses his lips a little. “Your pouty face is still cute.” He looks behind him and then sighs, looking back at me. “I gotta go, my turn's over.”
I sigh. “Okay. Be careful. I love you.”
“I love you too, baby. Bye.”
“Bye,” I smile and he ends the call. I sigh and close the laptop, pushing it on the bed next to me and get up. I go back downstairs to Jellybean and Jug.
He looks at me with a smile. “Off to work?”
“I wouldn't really call it work,” I smirk and he comes to me, leaving Jelly alone to watch the movie for a second.
“You want a lift?” he asks.
“It's a ride, and no, I'm just gonna take a walk to clear my mind.”
“Still trying to figure it out,” he says quietly, wrapping his arms around me.
I nod. “I actually have hint,” I say.
“I’m interested,” he says.
I lean closer to him and rest my head onto his shoulder. “Look, as we know, it had to be either Clifford or someone from the police. We can't actually ask the Blossoms.”
“Yeah, but we've been looking at the security cameras' links you copied. No one is really on them. It doesn't even show him going out.”
“Exactly. Someone has to be the right footage… I have a feeling the Lodges are in this. I think we can find the original copies in the mayor's computer,” I whisper.
He pulls a little away and looks at me with raised eyebrows. “I’ll get Veronica and tell her to try to find the right ones.” I smile and nod. We kiss for a second. “Be careful, Betts, okay?”
“I'm fine,” I giggle as he tickles my sides. We kiss one more time and I pat his cheek. “Bye honey.”

“Betty, come on. I'm taking you home,” FP says.
“Please. Let me finish that,” I say, wiping the oil off my cheek.
“You said that about the last one.”
“Only five minutes, I promise,” I say, under the car.
He sighs. “Five. And then we're going home.” I sigh and start working faster. I only need to balance the last thing, but it's hard, ‘cause it's getting dark. It's like 6pm. I just hope Jug got to call Veronica and she is helping us even if it could show a bad light at her parents who are now living together again, but still divorced.
“Okay, come on,” I hear FP's voice after five minutes. I quickly turn the last thing safely in the car and climb out from under the car. He chuckles at my face as he pulls me up from the ground. “You need to take a shower.”
“Yeah, I figured,” I smile.
He chuckles. “Get your stuff, I'll take you home.”
“And you?” I ask, grabbing my leather jacket.
“I have to work.”
“What?” I sigh. “Seriously, FP, you work like all the time.”
“You investigate everything all the time and don't you think I don't know what you two are up to,” he says. I look at the ground with a little smirk. “Come on, run, you'll get sick,” he says, giving me the car keys. He's right. I can't actually put my coat or jacket on my dirty work clothes, but it's snowing outside. I run in the car and he comes after me just a few seconds later and I hand him the keys back. “So what are you planning on doing next?” he asks me.
I smile, looking out of the window, resting my head against the cold glass. “Maybe I'd tell you if you'd help us.”
“I can't let you kids investigate a suicide.”
“It's not about the suicide, it's about the fact that on the tapes in the Sheriff's computer it never shows that Hal went anywhere. It's fake, because he was obviously there and he obviously was put back to jail. Someone faked them.”
“Woah, you actually got these tapes? How?” I shrug. “Betty,” he says with a warning voice. “You keep this up and you're gonna go to jail too. It's illegal.”
“Sheriff Keller isn't doing anything. I need to do something and figure out who-“ my eyes go wide, realizing it. Sheriff Keller isn't doing anything. That means HE doesn't care. It's him.
“What ever thought you just had, throw it away,” he says.
I roll my eyes. “You know for a cool dad you can be a pain in the ass sometimes,” I say.
He chuckles. “You’re saying I'm cool?”
“The coolest,” I grin out the window. He pokes me in my stomach, making me giggle and pull further away from him. When he stops in front of our home, I look at him with a curious look. He smirks and raises his eyebrows. “FP, do you have a gun?”
He chuckles. “Right, ‘cause I shot the camera and helped your dad escape.”
“No, seriously. I'm not saying anything, I'm just curious.”
“Yeah. Not anywhere you could find it, though. And you do not need a gun. Go study for your SAT-s instead.”
I roll my eyes at him and jump out of the car. “Bye.”

“She has them. But they have some kind of lock on them and I don't know how to open it,” Veronica says quietly, but we're on speaker so we hear it.
“Try your birthday,” I say, getting a funny look from Jughead.
“Done, I'm in,” Veronica says. I smile so big and Jug chuckles in amazement and kisses my cheek.
“Way to go, Nancy Drew,” he whispers to me.
“Downloading. And I'll leave the flash drive to Pop tomorrow,” Veronica says quietly.
“Can’t you do it today?” Jughead asks.
“Seriously? I just took my make-up off,” she sighs, making us chuckle. “Sure just be sure to get it today as well then.”
“Yeah,” we say in unison.
In thirty minutes, we're in Pop's. “Hey Pop, Veronica left something for us?” I ask.
“You shouldn't be out so late, kids,” he says. It's 12am by now. Veronica had to do it at night or her parents would've walked in. He hands us the flash drive.
“Thanks,” we both say in unison.
“Be careful, both of you. Riverdale is a wicked town,” he says. We nod, confused and leave. The snow is making everything light, even lighter than the lamps. I take Jug's hand, still kind of afraid of the dark and he smiles at me, pocketing the memory stick.
“Come on, baby, let's get home before my dad,” he says and we start jogging towards our home, hand in hand.

“Here it is,” I whisper. We had to fake-sleep when FP came, so now it's 2am. I pause the video and we see his face. “I knew it,” I say quietly and stare at Kevin's dad in the camera, helping mine out.
“Yes, but why? What's the motive?” he asks.
I shrug. “They’re friends. My dad might know something and blackmailed Mr. Keller.”
“Or… He actually wants something himself. Kevin's dad wouldn't have a reason to hurt you, right?” he asks, stroking my hair.
“I mean he knew my mom and he might blame me for killing her,” I say quietly.
“Baby, no one thinks that way except for you,” he says.
I sigh and look up at him. “Clifford said they're here to hurt me because I sent my dad to jail and killed my mom.”
He raises his eyebrows. “What? Betts, no. You didn't kill her. It's not your fault.” He pushes the laptop next to us and pulls me on top of him, making me smile. “I. Love you,” he says with a baby voice.
“I love you too,” I say with the same voice and we kiss each other all over our faces and then chuckle. He lets me keep lying on him and he saves the copies of the videos into my laptop. Then he pulls the flash drive out and puts it under the pillow we never use.
“Tomorrow we're going to the police,” he says and I nod.
“Not to Mr. Keller.”
“Absolutely not,” he says and starts kissing me all over again before I hide my face into his chest.

“What were you two thinking?” FP sighs as he drives us home from the police office
“It worked, didn't it?” I ask, sitting in the front seat next to him.
“It did. This time. Betty, you already got too much hurt, if Hiram Lodge doesn't go to jail now, you're under his watch and he's gonna want to destroy you,” he says.
I lower my head. “Can we still go out tomorrow?” I ask quietly.
“No. You're both grounded. For a month.”
“A month?” we ask in unison and groan.
“Dad, only tomorrow? It's Valentine’s day, I have plans,” Jug says.
“Should've thought of it before, boy. Neither of you is going anywhere, and you better keep that in mind or I'll get you a babysitter and I'm not joking.” We know he's not joking. He's extremely mad at the moment, and worried what if we get hurt.

“Okay, you two,” FP sighs after Jellybean leaves the car. He looks at us. “No trouble at school, no detention, no principal's office. And after school, straight home, no exceptions. Got it?”
“Yeah,” I say, while Jug just rolls his eyes.
“Jughead?” FP asks.
“I don't get it, dad,” he says, making me sigh and lower my head. “We did a good thing, we caught two criminals. Mr. Keller and Mr. Lodge worked together to get Betty's dad out of jail and hanged Clifford to make it look like he was guilty. Why are we being punished for making good stuff happen and get bad people fired or in jail?”
“Because I can't live with the knowing that you get more hurt. Both of you have suffered so much and it's not your duty to do the police's work. I'm not saying I'm not proud of you two for actually figuring it out, just keep away from trouble for a week, Jug. That's all I ask.”
“A week? So we won't be grounded after that?” I ask.
“A month,” he says, making all three of us smirk. “Now hurry up, I need to go.”
“Where?” we ask in unison, making him sigh.
“To the mayor's office, she needed to talk to me apparently. If it's about you two, I swear to god…”
We chuckle and get out of the car after saying a bye to him. Everyone starts whispering, seeing us, but we don't care. We're proud.