Forever Boy- SP 4 ✔️

Chapter 71- How To Get Away With Murder

A fire in the woods. 5 friends covered in blood. Clothes burning, Jugheads iconic beanie thrown in the fire as well. How did we end up here at this point? We need to act normal.
Archie and I arrive home, him in nothing but his boxers and thank the Lord I decided to layer up so at least I have a tank top on
"Archie? Rory? What are you doing? It's almost 3 in the morning, where are your clothes?"
"Everything's okay, Mom. We were just at a Stonewall party. We all went skinny-dipping and some preppies stole our clothes as a prank"
"You went skinny dipping with your sister?"
"Well no I was with Sweet Pea, and we err we're..."
"You know what I don't want to know"
"What are you doing up?"
"I had insomnia"
"Are you both ok? You look..."
"Yeah mom we're fine just tired, i drank a bit to much and got a little sick. We're just going to go to bed" with that Archie and I run upstairs so not to be interrogated more.

"Toga party, strip poker, sex and skinny-dipping. Those are three wildly different activities. If our parents compare notes, we could be in deep, deep trouble"
"I panicked, Betty. I blurted out the first thing that came to mind" Archie says while we all sit at Pops
"Me too"
"And me, but this is exactly the kind of mistake we can't afford to make, Charles made that abundantly clear"
"I, I keep thinking we should've called someone
other than Charles"
"No, Charles was the right call to make" Betty assures us "he's had experience dealing with..."
"Bodies. Dead bodies"
"As a matter of fact, yeah. He's an expert. Without him, we'd all be in jail now"
"For what? We didn't do anything, did we? Did we, Betty? When we found you and Jughead..."
"I had just found Jughead, too"
"You were holding the rock" Sweet Pea whispers. Of course I believe Betty but at the same time, evidence
"Yes. I picked up the rock. That was a stupid mistake. I played right into their trap. Those psychotic preppies are trying to frame us for murder"
"Why us? They barely know us" I ask
"Me, then. They're trying to frame me for Jughead's murder"
"So what this has been their plan since Jug arrived there?" Sweet Pea shakes his head not understanding
"Maybe. Yes. They wanted me to be caught standing over Jughead's body, with my DNA smeared all over everything. It's the only thing that makes sense.... Ok. Okay, we have to be smart about this. We have to take them down. We cannot let them get away with this,
with what they've done"
"But why would they want to hurt Jughead?" Veronica asks
"Maybe Jughead got closer to the truth about Chipping's death than they liked or maybe this is just a game to them. This whole thing is a game or an experiment to commit the perfect murder"
"I feel like we're playing G&G again" I groan throwing my head back
"Hey guys what's up?" Kevin walks over to us
"Kev, we're in the middle of something. Catch you later?"
"Uh yeah of course"
"Sorry kev" I say giving him a smile, but he looks sad that we've brushed him off
"Archie that was the exactly the wrong thing to do" Betty says telling us to pretend to be normal.

"Hey, how was your run?" Mom asks Archie who's just getting himself a glass of water. I'm currently in the kitchen looking for food
"Oh, it was good"
"Look I'm sorry if I just sprang that on you?"
"What, the naval academy? It's fine mom"
"What naval academy?" I ask frowning
"I'll fill you in later" Archie says looking at me
"Ok erm I need to tell you both something"
"Ok?"
"Brooks not just my friend, she's my girlfriend" I immediately stop searching for food at look at mom confused
"Your what?" Archie says also frowning
"We hadn't been close since college And then we reconnected after her husband died in Afghanistan, which was really hard on her. And first I just thought I was comforting her, and then , I don't know, it just happened" mom hasn't stopped smiling since she told us "I don't want there to be any secrets between us. And I hope your both ok with it"
"I mean I'm a little shocked but hey whatever makes you happy mom" there's a knock on the door and in walks Betty
"Oh, hi. Hey, Mrs. Andrews. Um. Archie, do you have a second?"
"Yeah. We'll talk more later mom?" Archie asks and mom nods her head. Betty and Archie leave, leaving mom and I alone
"So mom when do I get to meet Brook?"
"Soon"

Betty asked me and Pea to meet her at The Register. We arrive at the same time as Veronica and Archie
"Guess where FP found Jugheads phone... in my jacket pocket"
"Wait what how did it get in there?" I ask
"The preppies must have snuck it
into my pocket when I was at Stonewall"
"To make you look guilty"
"You know what. Joan bumped into me as I was leaving"
"Bet she planted it in there"
"God! This, this was a move" Betty shouts angrily while passing back and forth "Okay? Just like everything else that they do. They are treating this like a game of chicken, and they're enjoying it, but I am not about to blink, are you?" Veronica looks at Archie who shakes his head slightly
"So what do we do?" I ask folding my arms.

Betty the following evening organises a search party
"Jughead!" FP yells starting the search holding search dogs. Immediately we're all shouting his name looking in the woods for him, but Veronica, Betty, Archie, Pea and I all know the truth
"Sherif Jones over here! I think I've found something" Archie yells. I take in a deep breath
"Everything's going to be ok"
"I hope so" we all make our way to Betty and Archie. FP finds Jughead.