Forever And Always

Chapter 115

Archie, Betty, Callie, and Veronica all stood around a fire, in their underwear, burning their clothes, all covered in blood. Archie threw Jughead's beanie into the fire. Afterward, they cleaned up in the river and they drove back to Riverdale, not saying a word to each other. They should have said something, their stories were about to be all over the place. Archie and Callie entered their house as quietly as possible. 

 "Archie? Callie?" Mom asked as she walked down the hall towards them. "What are you two doing? It's almost three o'clock in the morning. Why are you in your boxers? Callie where are your clothes?"

"Everything's okay, Mom," Archie said as they looked down at themselves for a second. 

"We were just at a Stonewall party," Callie informed.

"We all went skinny-dipping," Archie added. "Some preppies stole our clothes as a prank. 

"Oh," Mom breathed.

"What are you doing up?" Callie asked.

"I had insomnia," Mom answered. "Are you two okay? You look..."

"Yeah. No, everything's fine," Archie assured her. "We're sorry it's so late. We're gonna go up to bed." They both hurried up the stairs before their mom could ask them any more questions. Minutes later, Callie was in her nightclothes, sitting on her bed, staring at the covers.

"Cal," Archie breathed as he opened the door, she looked over at him. He got into his night clothes as well, he closed the door ushering over to her. "Jug--Some of that blood on Jughead was fake"

"He's going to be fine," Callie assured. "I promised I wouldn't let him die."

"What is going on?" Archie asked. " What do you know?" Callie

"I need you to trust me," Callie said as she looked at him. "The Stonies pulled something on us, that I even I wasn't aware of."

"Are you sure Jughead is going to be alright?" Archie asked. 

"Yes," Callie assured. "I will tell you more within time, but...not now."

"Can I stay with you tonight?" Archie asked. "Like when we were little," Callie remembered when she got nightmares as a kid, she would go to Archie not wanting to wake their parents.

"Yeah of course," Callie agreed. 

*****

The next morning, Callie was at Pops with the Riverdale's gang from the party last night.

"Toga party, strip poker, and skinny-dipping," Betty listed. "Those are three wildly different activities. If our parents compare notes, we could be in deep, deep trouble. 

"I panicked, Betty," Archie apologized. "I blurted out the first thing that came to mind."

"Me too," Veronica said.

"Me, three, but this is exactly the kind of mistake we can't afford to make," Betty stated. "Charles made that abundantly clear."

"I keep thinking, we should've called someone other than Charles," Archie stated. 

"No, Charles was the right call to make," Callie argued. 'Jughead was right to include Charles on the plan just a bit."

"He's had experience dealing with---" Betty began.

"Bodies," Veronica finished. "Dead bodies."

"As a matter of fact, yeah. He's an expert," Betty confirmed. 

"Without him, we would all be in jail right now," Callie added, Archie glanced at her. He was really wishing what Callie was planning, what was going through her mind, how it all came to this...the fake blood.