Chapter Text
For the past seventeen years of his life, Archie Andrews has been in love with the girl next door.
Cheryl Blossom was her name, and everything about her was beautiful, even the sound of her name coming out of his mouth. They’d grown up together, bedroom windows facing each other from their respective mansions, and had been pretty much inseparable since they were babies.
He was rich, he knew that, his dad had the most successful construction company in Riverdale and the surrounding towns all the way to New York, and his mom was a big shot lawyer. So, he grew up comfortably, but never flaunted the fact that he was rich, his parents making sure he stayed humble despite his wealth. They were truly the best parents he could’ve asked for, and he likes to think he’s lived a pretty happy life so far.
Unlike Archie, however, and unbeknownst to him, his redheaded best friend grows up in a house full of darkness and despair. The walls of Thornhill hide many secrets, and if they could talk, the abuse of Cheryl Blossom would surely be the first to spill.
She has a twin brother, Jason, who Archie is also friends with but not as close as he was with Cheryl. They used to play together when they were younger, pretending to be pirates or waving around plastic guns in a game of cops and robbers, but as Jason got older, he gained popularity, becoming the star of the football team, a blonde girl in the year above them named Polly Cooper hanging from his arm.
The Coopers were also a well-known family in Riverdale. They weren’t rich, sure, but they were well liked among the town’s residents, and even Archie could admit that Polly’s younger sister, Betty, was beautiful.
The only other family that could compete with the Blossom’s and the Andrews’ wealth were the Lodges. The daughter, Veronica, had started Riverdale High soon after everyone else, and had quickly captured the hearts of all of the students, her ‘reformed mean girl’ trick making her one of the most popular girls in no time. She had even caught Archie’s eye, for a moment.
But alas, his heart belonged to someone else. That someone else, who is sitting at his desk right now, painting her nails her signature shade of red as he sits on his bed fiddling with his guitar.
“What do you think of this color, Arch?” Cheryl asks, holding her hands up so he can see.
“It looks nice, Cher, but isn’t that the same color you always wear?”
He was never one to get into learning about makeup, despite his best friend being obsessed with it.
Cheryl rolls her eyes.
“Ugh, men, honestly. This is a new one, can’t you tell the difference?”
“Uh, yeah, totally!” Archie says, his voice betraying him as it breaks.
“We’ve been best friends since we were babies, Archie Andrews, you know I can tell when you’re lying,” Cheryl says, a hint of teasing to her tone.
“Right, sorry,” Archie mumbles. “Well, whatever the color, it still looks nice, Cher. You always do.”
His cheeks flush a little as Cheryl beams at him. She thrives off of compliments, even if they are only from her best friend.
Cheryl was just as popular as her brother Jason, if not more so with how many guys, and girls, were in love with her at this point, but she never pays any attention to it. She had Archie, and she had Jason, and to her, that was all she needed. Sure, it could be lonely having her only friends be her brother and the boy that could’ve been her triplet with how close they were, but she liked it. It was safe. For Cheryl Blossom has secrets, and they were ones she intended to take to the grave.
After her nails have dried, Cheryl moves to the bed to sit next to Archie, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes.
“Play me something?” she asks softly, and Archie’s palms begin to sweat a little as they always did when Cheryl asked him to play his guitar for her.
He starts to strum out a tune, a new one he’d been working on, and Cheryl hums along, bopping her head to the music, her eyes still closed.
Oh, how Archie wishes they could stay in that moment forever, just him and his best friend who he so desperately wishes could be something more.
Cheryl has a curfew, her parents were strict like that, so she leaves soon after, but it doesn’t matter to Archie, because he knows they’ll be texting and FaceTiming for hours after she gets home anyway. They’d do it all night if it weren’t for school in the morning. They’ve even fallen asleep together on the phone before, being the last people they say goodnight to and the first people they say good morning to. Whenever that happens, Archie finds himself dreaming of a life where they fall asleep and wake up together in the same bed.
But he keeps his thoughts to himself, because Cheryl is his best friend, and he doesn’t want to lose that, or worse, get his heart broken.
Cheryl doesn’t come to school the next morning. She does this sometimes, goes off the grid for a few days, and Archie never questions it, but it doesn’t help fix the ache in his heart whenever she’s not around. Sometimes she blames it on being tired from cheerleading practice, or illness, and Archie, faithful as ever, takes her excuses with no investigation and waits for her to return so they can walk the halls hand in hand like they always did.
It’s only when Cheryl stops returning his calls that he starts to get worried. The reason for her silence makes itself clear as he opens this morning’s newspaper, his eyes widening in shock.
‘TEEN DEAD AFTER BOATING ACCIDENT’ is written in big bold letters at the top of the paper, and underneath is none other than a picture of Jason Blossom.
Archie can practically hear the sound of his heart thudding as it drops to his feet.
He rushes over to Thornhill, not caring that he’s only in sweatpants with no top on, and bangs on the door, calling Cheryl’s name.
“Cheryl! Cheryl, are you in there?!” Archie practically screams, his fist aching as he pounds on the door.
The door swings open and Archie almost falls through, as Clifford Blossom looks at him in surprise.
“Archie, what are you doing here?” he asks sternly.
“I-I just saw the paper. Mr. Blossom, I’m so sorry. Can I please see Cheryl?” he begs.
Clifford nods stiffly.
“Of course. She’s in her room. But be warned, Archie...her mental state is somewhat fragile at the moment.”
Archie barely takes the time to nod as he rushes past Clifford and races up the stairs, throwing the door open to Cheryl’s room, fully prepared to find her sobbing.
He stops in his tracks when he sees her look up at him, and is bewildered at the look on her face. She seems fine, actually. Not what Archie was expecting at all.
He steps cautiously into the room as Cheryl smiles at him and beckons him to come closer.
“Cheryl, are...are you okay? I just saw the paper. Why didn’t you call me?” Archie asks quietly, as he sits down on the edge of the bed.
“Can you keep a secret, Arch?” she whispers, and Archie nods immediately. He’s pretty sure he’d die for Cheryl at this point, so keeping a secret was no issue.
“He’s not dead.”
Archie gapes at her.
“What are you talking about, Cheryl, it’s in the paper!”
Cheryl shakes her head at him.
“I know that, but it’s not true! We faked his death so he could run away with Polly!”
Oh. Well that was certainly something.
He pauses for a beat, taking in what Cheryl’s said, before landing on a question.
“Why would Jason need to run away?” Archie asks.
Cheryl takes a moment to think of her answer. She couldn’t reveal too much about the horrors that went on in her house, so she needed to keep it vague.
“My parents...they’re not good people, Archie. Jason thought running away with Polly would be the best thing for both of them,” she says after a while.
Archie feels like he’s been dropped into some alternate reality. What was Cheryl talking about? He knew her parents were strict, there was no doubt about that, but he doesn’t think that warranted Jason faking his death and running away with his girlfriend. He guesses though, that the most important thing was that he was safe, and not dead, and Cheryl seems happy enough, so he doesn’t push any further.
“Okay, Cher, whatever you say,” he sighs. “As long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters to me.”
“I’m okay, Arch, I promise,” Cheryl reassures him, pulling him into a hug.
Archie sighs against her, the feeling of their skin touching making his heart race.
They pull back, and Cheryl’s looking at him, an eyebrow raised in amusement.
“You’ve got no top on,” she states. “Did you come over here just to flaunt your abs?”
Archie laughs, his face turning red.
“No! I thought your brother fucking died, Cher, I didn’t even think about my clothes when I ran over here.”
“You’re truly the best of us, Archie Andrews,” Cheryl says with a smile.
A few moments later, Penelope Blossom marches in, flinging the door open looking like she’s about to yell at Cheryl, but she stops short when she sees Archie sitting on the bed next to her.
Thank God, Cheryl thinks, that Archie was here. Her mother had always loved him, probably even more than she did her own daughter, but that wasn’t hard considering Penelope treated her like she was a piece of trash she’d stepped in on the sidewalk. So instead of shouting, instead of raising her hand and telling Cheryl that she wishes it was her that had died instead of Jason, Penelope simply smiles.
“Archie, you’re no doubt here to comfort Cheryl in this trying time, but I’d appreciate some time alone with my daughter,” she says promptly, ever the picture of composure, even when she believed her son to be dead.
Archie stands from the bed, giving Cheryl a quick hug as he does, before turning back to Penelope.
“I’ll leave you to it, Mrs. Blossom. And I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Penelope nods and gestures at the door, and Archie leaves, wondering what it was that was so important she had basically pushed him out of the room.
He doesn’t hear the sound of the slap across Cheryl’s face as he walks back to his house, doesn’t hear her mother screaming at her and Cheryl begging for her to stop, he only sees the curtain drawn from through his window, as he sighs and gets ready for school, head spinning at what had just occurred. He doesn’t know that just one week later, everything would fall apart.
—
It’s July 11th, and Archie is at Reggie Mantle’s house, practicing some football throws. Apart from Cheryl, Reggie was one of his other best friends, and certainly his closest guy friend. He’s also the only person he’d told about his feelings for Cheryl, which he regrets because Reggie teases him constantly for it.
His phone rings, and Archie drops the football and pulls it out of his pocket, his face lighting up as he sees the picture of him and Cheryl taking over the screen.
“Ooh, that your girlfriend, Andrews?” Reggie snorts, and Archie gives him the middle finger.
“I wish,” he mutters, before swiping across the screen and putting the phone up to his ear. “Hey, Cher, what’s up?” Archie asks.
“Archie, can you come home? I-I really need you right now,” Cheryl sobs through the phone and Archie’s heart breaks at the sound.
“Of course, I’m on my way right now,” he says, hoping the firmness in his voice reassures her for the time being as the call ends. He didn’t know what was wrong, but Cheryl rarely cries, and he was perfectly ready to be there for her in whatever way she needed.
“I’ve gotta go, Reggie, Cheryl needs me!” Archie yells behind him as he rushes out of the front door of the Mantle home. He doesn’t even give Reggie a chance to reply before he’s racing to his truck and driving to Thornhill.
Archie gets to Thornhill in one piece, parking in the large driveway and getting out of his truck. He doesn’t bother knocking, Cheryl had texted him to tell him she was home alone, so he walks through the heavy wooden door and up the stairs, just like he did a week ago.
This time, however, when he enters Cheryl’s room, he’s greeted by a very different picture.
Cheryl is sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, shaking, as tears and mascara stream down her face, her bottom lip trembling as she sobs.
Archie’s next to her in a heartbeat, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in close as she grabs onto his shirt with a vice-like grip.
“Cher, hey, what’s wrong, what happened?” Archie asks softly, and Cheryl just shakes her head and sobs harder.
“It’s okay, you’re okay, I’m right here,” he says as he rocks her slowly in his arms, trying to get her to stop hyperventilating.
It works after a while, and Cheryl detaches herself from Archie’s hold, wiping at her eyes with a sniff.
“Jason...he-he’s dead!” Cheryl cries, as Archie cups her face and wipes away her tears gently.
“What? How?” Archie asks in shock, Cheryl gulping before she answers.
“Someone shot him, Arch! Someone shot my brother!” she sobs as she finds herself in Archie’s arms once more.
They sit for a long time, Cheryl managing to explain that her brother’s body had been found by Kevin Keller and Moose Mason in between sobs, and Archie pushes his shock aside as he comforts his best friend. Darkness has settled around the grounds of Thornhill, as they sit hand in hand, hours of crying taking a toll on each of them.
Finally, Archie breaks the silence with a soft voice.
“Hey, how about we go to mine? My dad can make his famous hot chocolate, and my mom’s not back from New York for a few days,” he says quietly.
Cheryl just nods, and follows him as he leads her out of her room.
Fred Andrews must have already heard the news, because as they walk through the front door of Archie’s large home, he doesn’t say anything, just gives Cheryl a sympathetic look as Archie asks him to make his hot chocolate.
They’re sitting on the couch, Cheryl leaning into Archie’s chest, his arm wrapped around her, their hands being warmed by the mugs Fred had given them. It’s nice, despite the circumstances. Cheryl’s never been more grateful to have Archie Andrews in her life. She dreads going back to Thornhill, wonders what punishment awaits her for not taking Jason’s place in death, but for now, she revels in the comfort that the redheaded boy beside her is giving her.
The news of Jason Blossom’s murder quickly spreads throughout the small town of Riverdale, shock weaving through the houses of its residents. Stares and whispers follow Cheryl down the halls of Riverdale High, but she keeps her head up and her hand firmly in Archie’s, trying her best to ignore them. It was just the two of them now.
At one point, Betty Cooper approaches her, tells her she’s sorry and that Polly was in some place called the ‘Sisters of Quiet Mercy’, dealing with Jason’s death. Cheryl nods in acknowledgement, thanks her for her apology, before she leaves Betty standing alone in the hallway. She doesn’t really care about Polly, all she cares about is Jason, and how he was taken from her from some unknown person the police had still failed to catch.
All she knows for sure is that whoever did this, whoever took her soulmate away from her, would incur the full wrath of Cheryl Blossom and nothing less.
—
It had been three weeks since Jason Blossom’s body had been found, and Penelope Blossom’s abuse had only heightened. Cheryl always saw her abuse as the third person in her parent’s marriage, it had been in her life so long.
She’s drawing in her room one day, a picture of Jason, without a bullet hole in his head, when Penelope storms through the door, making her jump and drop her pencil. She knows what’s coming, but the dread still makes her heart ache.
“Are you drawing filth again, Cheryl?” Penelope seethes, ripping the sketchbook from her hands.
“No, mother, it’s just a picture of Jay Jay,” Cheryl says quietly. Any raise of her voice would surely make what was coming even worse.
Penelope hums as she skims through the book, like she’s suddenly going to find pictures of naked women nestled in between the pages. The thought makes Cheryl want to laugh and cry at the same time, but she does neither as she stands, holding out her hand.
“Can I have my sketchbook back, please?” she asks, her voice coming out in a murmur.
Penelope hands her the book back with a huff, before she’s stepping closer to her daughter, eyes ablaze with fury.
“Remember what happened the last time I caught you drawing such disgusting things, Cheryl?” she asks lowly, and Cheryl nods, the memory of a belt whipping through the air making her wince.
Stupidly, she thinks her mother actually won’t do anything to her this time, because she lets out a breath of relief as Penelope turns, as if to walk away. The memory of Cheryl’s drawings seem to have ignited a flame inside her, however, because as soon as the breath had left Cheryl’s mouth, she’s whipping around, and striking her roughly with the back of her hand.
Cheryl cries out as she falls to the floor from the force of the hit, her cheek stinging, as tears fall down the reddened area. She had fallen on her elbow awkwardly and a bolt of pain shoots through her arm as she lifts it, making her whimper. There’s a tangy taste in her mouth, and as she moves her tongue to her lip, she feels it’s cut open, Penelope’s ring catching her as she had slapped her. Cheryl looks up at her mother, who was standing over her, sneering.
“Your deviance repulses me, Cheryl Marjorie. You are a disappointment to our great family name!” she yells, before she’s bringing her heel down into Cheryl’s rib with a swift kick and stalking back out the door as quickly as she had come in.
Cheryl feels the breath leave her at the force of the kick, and she sits up, clutching her side in agony, breathing raggedly.
She stands on shaky legs, walking over to her full length mirror to inspect the damage like she had done countless times before. It felt like routine at this point.
Her cheek is swollen and red, and there’s a cut on her lip, blood stains trickling down her chin. She lifts her shirt gingerly, her arm still aching from where she had fallen, and sighs as she sees the beginning of a bruise forming over her side, all purples and blues caressing her ribs.
She should tell someone, she knows she should. But even Jason didn’t know the extent of the abuse, and if she couldn’t tell the boy who’d been with her since birth, then how could she tell anyone else? Besides, her family were the richest and most powerful in all of Riverdale, no doubt they’d just pay off anyone who might believe her and want to get her help. And Archie? Well, Archie wasn’t even an option. She so desperately wants to tell him the horror that she endures, feeling like she gets beaten just for existing at this point, but he'd more than likely want to come over and bash her mother’s face in, which wouldn’t end well for either of them. God, she can’t wait to turn eighteen and get the hell out of here.
Her phone ringing brings her out of her thoughts, and she drops her shirt, going over to the bed where she had left it. She smiles at the picture of Archie flashing across the screen, but that turns into a wince as it opens the cut on her lip even more.
“Hey, Arch,” she says softly, not giving away anything about what had just occurred with her mother.
“Hey, you, how are you feeling?”
Archie had been asking Cheryl that a lot recently, almost to the point where it got on her nerves, but she knows it comes from love, and she’s got a lack of that at the moment, so she’ll take what she can get.
“I’m okay, just doing some drawing, what about you?” Cheryl replies. It wasn’t a lie, technically. She was drawing before her mother had rudely interrupted.
“I’m good, missing you though. Want to come over?” Archie asks, hope lacing his voice.
Cheryl thinks about the swelling on her cheek and the cut on her lip and knows that’s not an option.
“Uh, I can’t, Archie, not today. Practice ran over so I’m pretty tired. I think I’m getting sick again, too,” she lies easily.
She knows she’ll have to take at least a few days out of school for her face to heal, and her parents may be demons but at least they had the good sense to pay Principal Weatherbee to turn a blind eye to her absences.
“Oh, okay, well I’ll see you when you’re better?” Archie asks sadly.
“Yeah, definitely. Love you,” Cheryl says before ending the call, Archie repeating those same words back to her. Little does she know, they were meant in a completely different way.
When Cheryl gets back to school, she doesn’t expect Kevin Keller to corner her in the student lounge, Archie looking at him with surprise as he walks up to them both.
“Did you hear? It was one of those Southsiders that threw Jason’s body in Sweetwater River! I heard he’s the leader of that gang, the Serpents? You heard of them?” Kevin asks, ever the gossip.
“Of course I’ve heard of them, Kevin, they’re nothing but low-life scum. And if they did have anything to do with Jason’s death, then I’m sure they’ll be punished as they deserve to be,” Cheryl replies stiffly.
“Hey, I’m just the messenger, here, see for yourself,” Kevin says, passing her a newspaper.
‘SERPENTS TO BLAME FOR TEEN’S DEATH’ is the first thing Cheryl sees, and then a picture of a man she doesn’t recognise in handcuffs, a leather jacket with a two-headed snake adorning his back.
“Wait, FP Jones?” Archie looks up at Cheryl and Kevin in surprise. “Isn’t that that kid Jughead’s dad?”
Cheryl scoffs.
“What kind of a name is Jughead?”
Archie shrugs.
“I don’t know, I’m pretty sure he’s in my English class, we should go talk to him.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea...” Kevin trails off at the determined look on Cheryl’s face.
“Nonsense, Kevin, I have a right to know if those dirty snakes had anything to do with my sweet brother’s death,” Cheryl says firmly, before she’s standing up and holding out her hand for Archie to take.
Archie gladly accepts and they make their way to the cafeteria, Archie telling Cheryl to look for a boy with a grey beanie.
They spot him easily, stuffing a burger in his face as he sits with none other than Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge. When did that happen?
Cheryl storms up to him, and at the sight of her, Jughead stands almost immediately, a look of guilt on his face.
“Cheryl, look, whatever you heard about my dad, I promise you he didn’t kill Jason, okay?” Jughead says hastily.
Cheryl looks him up and down in disgust, not even taking the time to wonder how he knew her name. She was the most popular girl in school, everyone did.
“Whatever he did or didn’t do, he still threw my poor brother’s body in the river for him to rot and decompose like he was nothing! Did your dad ever think about what that would to me, to my family?!” she yells, getting the attention of everyone around them.
Betty stands up next to Jughead, as does Veronica, but Cheryl pays them no mind.
“Your precious father deserves to rot in jail for what he’s done,” she says, moving closer to Jughead and gripping him by the lapels of his jacket. “Come to think of it, I hope all of those filthy Serpents rot right along with him.”
Jughead gulps as he moves out of Cheryl’s grip but says nothing, simply looking at her with a steely look in his eyes.
“Oh, leave him alone, Cheryl, just because you and your boyfriend are rich doesn’t give you the right to start harassing others,” Veronica says, stepping forward.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Cheryl says, and Archie can’t ignore the sting in his heart at her words. “And I’ll ‘harass’ whoever I want, especially if it’s Southside scum like your friend here. Who would’ve thought you’d stoop so low, Veronica. Come, Archie, I’m just about done here.”
Archie gives the trio an apologetic smile as Cheryl takes his hand and turns to leave the cafeteria. He doesn’t realise she’s crying until she’s dragging him into the girl’s bathroom and burying her head in his neck.
“Fuck, Cher, don’t cry, it’s okay,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to her hair.
“I just...hate...them...so much!” Cheryl sobs. “How can he just sit there being okay with what his father did when my brother is never coming back?!”
“I don’t know, Cheryl, but he’s not responsible for the actions of his dad,” Archie says softly, ever the voice of reason. Cheryl feels like he’s the only one who can get through to her these days.
She sniffles and leans back out of Archie’s grip, wiping the tears from her eyes and nodding solemnly.
“You’re right, Arch,” she whispers. “I just feel so lost without him here.”
“I know. And I get it, I do. I loved him too. But the only person you should really be blaming is the person who killed him, Cher. And you really can’t judge a whole group of people because of the actions of one man.”
“I can and I will,” Cheryl pouts.
Archie laughs, pulling her into his arms again and wrapping them around her.
“You’re a stubborn one, Cheryl Blossom. But I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
—
The police go to arrest Clifford Blossom a month later. Unfortunately for them, he was found hanging in his barn, taking, in Cheryl’s eyes, the coward’s way out to avoid the punishment of killing his own son.
She’d been sitting in Archie’s room, watching some awful football movie that he’d promised her she’d love, when she got the call from Betty Cooper. One call was all it took for her world to come crashing down.
Apparently, and she would remember all this later as she cries in Archie’s arms, there had been a thumbdrive in Jason’s letterman jacket with a video of his father murdering him. At the time, she had been frozen in shock after hearing the words “your father killed Jason” come out of Betty’s mouth. She didn’t even need proof for her to know it was the truth. Her mother had abused her her whole life, so it makes sense that her father would be just as depraved.
Cheryl had raced over to Thornhill, telling Archie not to follow her and promising him they’d talk later, and bounded through the wooden door to find her mother and father eating dinner. She goes to stand next to Penelope, because despite her wicked ways, she was still her mom, and she needed her right now.
“Why did you do it, Daddy?” Cheryl whispers, and when Clifford raises an eyebrow at her, she scoffs.
“Why. Did. You. Kill. Jason?” she asks, her voice low and angry.
Clifford sputters a few times, almost choking on his food as he goes to deny her accusation, but Cheryl simply raises a hand to silence him.
“Save it. I’m sure you’ll tell the police everything they need to know.”
She turns to leave, satisfied that she’s shaken her father enough to have him scared, when a sharp pain in her head has her gasping and crying out. Penelope, faithful wife as she was, yanks her daughter’s hair and pulls her back around to face her, gripping her by the shoulders.
“How dare you say such a thing about your father, Cheryl?!” she screams.
Cheryl’s mouth drops open in shock, before she’s wincing at the feeling of her mom’s nails digging into her skin. Unfortunately, it was a pain she had gotten used to over the years, but it still hurt like the first time every time she did it.
“It’s true! He killed Jason, mother, please believe me!” Cheryl whimpers as Penelope’s grip on her tightens.
Penelope scoffs before she throws her to the floor, Cheryl landing haphazardly, her hipbone hitting the hard surface painfully.
“You disgrace this family, Cheryl. Get out of my sight,” Penelope says, looking down at her in disgust, like she’s more worried about whether the floor was okay than her own daughter.
Cheryl gets up shakily, her hip throbbing, and walks as fast as she can out of the hellhole she called a home.
She’s back in Archie’s arms before she knows it.
A good two hours of crying from Cheryl and comforting words from Archie, and she’s finally regained enough composure to tell him what had happened. Though she makes sure to leave out the end of the story, hiding her abuse in a web of lies, that was one day doomed to unravel.
The sound of sirens and flashing lights have them walking to the front door of Archie’s house, and there’s a swarm of cop cars surrounding the estate as they open the door.
Sheriff Keller greets them, a grave look on his face.
“Did you arrest him?” Cheryl asks, her voice hoarse from all the crying she’d been doing.
To her surprise, he shakes his head.
“We went to. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, Cheryl, but it looks like your father took his own life to escape justice.”
Cheryl feels her knees buckle, but Archie’s strong arms are there to hold her up.
Her father and brother, both dead, in a matter of months. She’d never felt more alone, yet more thankful for the redheaded boy who’s arms she was in.
“Look after her, Archie,” Sheriff Keller says grimly, before he’s turning and walking back to his deputies.
Archie doesn’t even get the chance to tell him that that was a stupid thing to say, because there wasn’t a world that existed where he wouldn’t take care of Cheryl Blossom.
—
The ice cracks beneath her fists as she beats the ground over, and over, and over.
She was done.
The death of her father had been her breaking point, the final nail in the coffin that was Cheryl Blossom’s mental state.
She was sick of the abuse from her mother, every day getting worse as Penelope’s grief and anger took over. She was sick of missing her brother, his death leaving a giant hole in her heart and a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. And she was sick of the thought of her father, dangling from a rope, too scared to face the consequences of murder and drug dealing.
So, Cheryl had made a decision, and here she was, kneeling on the ice of Sweetwater River, desperate to be reunited with her twin.
She had no one left.
Her mother, cruel as she was, would be glad to get rid of her, and Archie, her sweet, precious Archie Andrews...well, she had sent him a text to say goodbye, and that was that.
Or so she thought.
“Cheryl!”
A voice brings her out from her thoughts as she pauses her pounding against the ice.
She stands, turning, and the tears are already falling down her face as she sees the shape of a body and a flash of red across the frozen water.
Archie’s stuck.
Cheryl’s on the ice, and he wants to go to her, to tell her to stop and come home, but what if the ice breaks and they both fall through?
“Cheryl, come back to the shore, please!” he begs, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice louder.
All precaution is thrown out the window as he watches Cheryl plummet into the frozen depths below her.
“NO!” Archie screams, as he runs as fast as he can to the hole that she had fallen through.
The current must have her, because she’s gone, and he’s scrambling to push as much snow as he can out of the way so he can see through the ice.
Cheryl, at the same time, is frozen in shock as the corpse of Jason Blossom reaches forward in an attempt to grab her. She screams, and her lungs feel like they’re going to collapse as water fills them, and then everything turns black.
Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, Archie sees the familiar sight of red hair beneath the water. He wants to sigh in relief, but the worst was far from over. He still had layers and layers of ice separating him and the love of his life.
Making a split second decision, Archie drives his hand down into the ice with as much force as he can muster. It cracks, but it’s not enough, so he repeats the action again and again, trying his best to ignore the pain and blood pouring from his knuckles.
The ice breaks, the sound reverberating around him, and he gasps as he reaches his arms into the freezing water, grabbing Cheryl and pulling her out as carefully and quickly as he can.
She’s white as a sheet, the color drained from her face, and Archie puts his fingers to her neck, feeling desperately for a pulse. There is none.
“Come on, Cheryl, come on!” he shouts as he laces his fingers together and starts pumping on her chest.
He then pinches her nose, taking a deep breath and putting his lips to hers to breathe into her mouth. It was ironic, that the many times he’d dreamed of kissing Cheryl, he could never imagine it would be like this.
After repeating the action a few times, Archie finds himself laughing loudly in shock and relief as Cheryl’s eyes snap open and water spurts out of her mouth as she coughs.
He did it.
Archie pulls his best friend close, wrapping his arms around her, and she’s shaking violently, shock settling in at what had just happened.
“I’ve got you, Cher, I’ve got you,” he whispers into her ear as he pulls her up from the ground bridal style.
He trudges across the ice as carefully as he can, until he reaches his truck and opens the door, setting Cheryl down into the soft leather gently. His dad would probably be mad that he made the seats wet, this was a $50,000 dollar vehicle after all, but that’s the last thing on his mind. All he cares about is Cheryl, who at this current moment is sitting staring out of the window in silence.
“I’m gonna take you back to mine, okay?” Archie asks, as he gets into the front seat of his truck, and Cheryl just nods solemnly in response.
His hand throbs as he grips the steering wheel and drives away from Sweetwater River, the adrenaline slowly wearing off and the pain settling in.
They arrive back home, and Cheryl still hasn’t said anything, she’d sat staring straight ahead of her for the whole journey in silence.
Archie gets out of his truck and walks round to the passenger door, opening it and holding his good hand out for Cheryl to take.
She does, after looking at him with teary eyes, and they walk into Archie’s house to find Fred and Mary Andrews sitting on the couch, anxiously awaiting their arrival.
They both stand as they enter the room, Mary going up to Archie and enveloping him in a big hug.
“Thank God you’re both okay!” she says, her voice wobbling a little as she turns to look at Cheryl, who’s still dripping onto their hardwood floor.
“Fred, go get some towels and some of Archie’s sweatpants and a top. We’re gonna get Cheryl warm and dry and into some new clothes and then we’re going straight to the hospital to get them both looked over,” Mary orders.
Fred nods, leaving the room and then returning a few minutes later, towels and clothes in his arms.
He gestures for Cheryl to turn around, and wraps a towel around her, the girl still shivering, but not as violently.
Cheryl takes the clothes from Fred and goes into the downstairs bathroom, getting changed as quickly as she can so she can actually feel some warmth for the first time since the whole ordeal.
When she’s done, she walks out of the bathroom to see Archie smiling at her, a bloody towel wrapped around his hand.
“Hey,” he says softly, holding his arms out.
She walks into his embrace, burying her head in his chest, hoping to convey just how thankful she was to have him in her life.
Archie presses a kiss to her hair before they break apart and are ushered into the Andrews’ car to go to the hospital.
As suspected, Archie has a broken hand and sprained wrist, but Cheryl, luckily, had escaped without injury other than a mild case of shock.
Archie gets his hand put in a cast, and at the sight of it, Cheryl feels guilt flood her, and Archie knows this, knows his best friend won’t stop apologising for weeks if he doesn’t reassure her that he was fine.
Truthfully, he’d happily break his hand a thousand times if it meant Cheryl was okay.
They don’t tell Penelope what happened. They’re laying shoulder to shoulder on Archie’s bed, Cheryl still in his clothes, when Archie asks about telling her mom. At the mere mention of it, Cheryl tenses up, looking Archie directly in the eye and making him swear on their friendship not to say anything. Archie hesitates, because this was a big thing to keep from your mother, but the panic shining in her eyes makes him relent.
He’s been wondering a lot more lately if Cheryl was keeping something from him in regards to her parents, her mom in particular. He doesn’t want to think it, because he trusts his best friend implicitly, but some things just don’t add up. The unexplained absences, Cheryl’s quiet demeanour when she was around her mother, so different from her every day self, the hatred that seems to spill from Penelope Blossom’s eyes as she looks at her daughter. All of it puts Archie on edge as he tries not to think of the worst. Surely she wasn’t doing anything to Cheryl that she wouldn’t tell him about, right? And then there was this. What kind of parent was she if Cheryl was too scared to tell her about something as life-changing as a suicide attempt? If it were him, he likes to think he could go to his mom and dad before attempting such a thing.
What he doesn’t know, is that Penelope, and Clifford when he was alive, were the polar opposites of Fred and Mary Andrews. Where one family thrived on love and support, the other lived to tear down their daughter.
Cheryl’s asleep now, warm and dry in Archie’s clothes, the events of the day finally taking their toll and making her crash out. As Archie looks at her, apart from the obvious thoughts that she was beautiful, he wonders just how much more could go wrong for the girl beside him.
She had lost her brother and father in the span of a few months, had almost taken her own life, and, though he didn’t know it, was living in an abusive household, her mother’s hold on her getting worse by the day.
As it turns out, the universe wasn’t done with Cheryl Blossom just yet, as far away on the Southside of Riverdale, a pink haired girl learns that her school has shut down and all hell breaks loose.
—
Cheryl is standing by Archie’s locker, a red sharpie in her hand as she writes her initials in a big heart on his cast, when the speaker above her chimes, making her look up.
“As many of you have heard, Southside High has been shut down due to criminal involvement by one of the teachers. Therefore, some of the students from said school will be transferring to our very own Riverdale High, effective immediately. I expect you all to welcome them with open minds and treat them with the same amount of respect you treat your peers,” Principal Weatherbee’s voice booms through the hallway.
Cheryl looks up at Archie, who matches her expression of shock. What he doesn’t match is the anger that’s also written on her face.
Archie has no problem with the Southside, his parents making sure he grew up without prejudice, but the same could not be said for Cheryl. He’s always tried to get her to see that just because they were less fortunate than them, they weren’t beneath her, but her parents had obviously instilled their classism so deep into her brain that not even her best friend could change that. So he knows, without a doubt, that drama is going to occur, as it often did whenever Cheryl was around. Chaos had always thrived in the Blossom family, and Cheryl was no exception to that.
The students of Riverdale High start to crowd into the hallway, anxiously awaiting the arrival of their Southside peers. Some had looks of rage on their faces, Reggie Mantle included, others boredom, and the rest just plain excitement.
Jughead Jones is at the front, donning a serpent jacket, his beanie firmly on his head as he waits. Archie doesn’t know when Jughead had become a serpent, but he’d clearly followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the gang a few weeks prior.
The double doors swing open, and the noise of the crowd quiets down, as a group of students in leather jackets walk through, heads held high, exuding confidence.
At the forefront, Archie observes a freakishly tall boy with a tattoo on his neck, dark hair slicked back and a smirk on his face. Next to him, is a slightly shorter boy, his jacket sleeveless, showing off the tattoo on his shoulder. And next to that boy walks a shorter girl, wearing a crop top and flannel underneath her serpent jacket, her pink hair catching his eye immediately. What he doesn’t see is that same pink hair has caught the eyes of his redheaded best friend.
If you had asked Archie Andrews what moment had started the change of everything, he would have to say it was this one.
But for now, he remains blissfully unaware as Veronica and Kevin walk forward, smiles on their faces.
“Welcome, Southside High students! Or should I say Riverdale High students, as of this very moment!” Veronica says sweetly.
Cheryl barges to the front of the crowd, Reggie by her side, the both of them clearly annoyed by Veronica’s overly cheery welcome.
“The only thing you should be referring to them by is ‘scum’, Veronica,” Cheryl says, eyeing the leather-clad group with venom.
Archie watches as the pink haired girl surges forward, anger painting her features.
“Hey, you wanna watch your mouth or am I gonna have to make you?” the girl says, directing her voice to Cheryl.
“I see you’re living up to your reputation as violent criminals, whoever you are,” Cheryl responds, stepping forward so she’s inches away from the girl’s face. If she wasn’t so pissed, she might have been able to admit to herself that it was a very beautiful face indeed.
They look each other directly in the eyes, as if to see who would dare to make the next move, but suddenly, the tall boy is gripping the girl’s shoulder, pulling her backwards and out of the way of Cheryl Blossom’s angry gaze.
“Toni, come on, we don’t want to get in trouble already, we only got here five minutes ago,” the tall boy says, and Toni huffs, running her fingers through her hair.
“Don’t think we’re done here. You may be pretty but I know a bitch when I see one, and you could use getting taken down a few pegs,” Toni says to Cheryl, whose mouth opens slightly in complete awe that someone could speak to her that way. She doesn’t even want to think about the way her cheeks flush at the mere thought of being called pretty by this girl.
Toni and her two friends walk away, grabbing a timetable from Veronica as they do, the rest of the Southside High students following their lead.
Archie finally steps forward, resting a hand on Cheryl’s shoulder, silently begging her to let it go with a look that only she could interpret.
“Well, that certainly went well,” he hears Kevin laugh as they walk back to Archie’s locker.
“As well as it could with Cheryl Blossom involved.” Veronica replies.
Archie wants to go over to them, to tell them that, yes, Cheryl was a drama queen, but she was also kind, and loving, and smart, and still hurting from the deaths of not one, but two of her family members, but he stays quiet as the bell rings and him and Cheryl part ways.
The next time Archie sees Toni is in his English class, the only class he doesn’t have with Cheryl. She had a higher grade than him, so they were set different teachers at the beginning of the year, much to their dismay.
To his surprise, Toni walks up to him as he’s getting his books out at his desk. Archie looks up, an eyebrow raised as the pink haired girl and her two friends sit in the desks beside him.
“Hey, I saw you were one of the only people that weren’t looking at us like we were trash, so I figured I’d introduce myself. I’m Toni Topaz, and these two lovable idiots are Sweet Pea,” she gestures to the taller boy, “and Fangs Fogarty.”
Archie smiles.
“Hey, Toni. Hi, guys. I’m Archie Andrews.”
“Nice to meet you, Archie Andrews,” Toni says, holding out her hand for him to shake, which he does. “So, who’s the girl?” she asks, pointing to Cheryl’s initials on his cast.
Archie smiles.
“That was written by my best friend, Cheryl. You met her, actually. She kind of...called you guys scum,” he replies, cringing a little at the memory.
Toni nods in recognition.
“Right, the pretty one. Figures a girl that beautiful would think us Southsiders to be beneath her.”
Sweet Pea snorts.
“Yeah, her ego’s probably as large as her bank account.”
Fangs laughs, fist pumping his best friend who’s still chuckling.
“Hey, she’s not as bad as everyone thinks. She says a lot of stuff she doesn’t mean,” Archie says, always ready to defend his best friend. “Plus, she has a valid reason to hate at least one of you. Your leader threw her dead brother in Sweetwater River.”
Toni gapes at him.
“Wait, Cheryl? As in Cheryl Blossom? Jesus, yeah, now that I think about it, she has every right to hate us.”
“Come on, T, she can’t hate all of us because of what FP did, that’s not fair,” Sweet Pea pipes up behind her.
“Whatever, Sweets, it’s not like it matters. Like we’d ever be friends with a Blossom,” Toni scoffs.
The teacher walks in a few moments later, and their conversation ends as they turn to listen to him talk.
Little do all of them know that Toni was about as wrong as she could be when she said she could never be friends with Cheryl. None of them could foresee that this was just the beginning of their story.