WITHOUT YOU [RIVERDALE] (on hold)

08

After pulling themselves together, the girls decided to wait outside of Andrews house. Julia felt like she was right back where she started, with Jughead, confronting Archie at his house. She noticed the red headed boy walking towards them and looked away. He was going to be furious with them for exposing Ms. Grundy, or Gibson. Julia wasn't sure what to make of the information.

"Please don't tell me you're still on this crazy witch hunt," Archie begged, eyes set on Betty.

"It's not a witch hunt, and it's not crazy," Betty answered, "We were just in Grundy's car-"

"What?!" He exclaimed, his brown eyes meeting Julia's blue ones. "You were in her car?"

She merely nodded and mentally thanked Veronica for speaking up. "Yeah and thank God we were, we found a gun."

"What?"

"and an ID with the name Jennifer Gibson. This is proof Ms. Grundy is not who she says she is," Betty used her best journalist voice.

"Then who is she?"

"Obviously a psychopath named Jennifer," Julia spoke up.

"Archie what if she had something to do with Jason's murder?" Julia knew that as soon as the words fell from Betty's mouth, Archie would be in denial. The more they asked him about the relationship, the more defensive he became.

He furiously shook his head in disbelief and placed his hands on his hips.

"She taught him, she made you lie about him, we know she was at the river, she has a gun," Betty exclaimed, trying to force her stubborn best friend into realization.

"So does Dilton Doiley, but you never thought he killed Jason."

Julia sighed in exasperation, "open your eyes, Archie, Jason was her student last year. Everything about her is now a lie, doesn't that sounds incredibly suspicious to you? Stop lying to yourself!"

"Okay, whatever her name is, she's not a killer."

Betty spoke up again, "You didn't ask her did you? About her name? And why there's no record of her before last year?" Archie let out a puff of air and shook his head. "Why not?" she continued to question him.

Archie walked away, feeling the pressure of the girls weighing down on him. Betty looked towards the sidewalk, before returning to her own house.

..........

The next morning, Julia was woken up by her phone's annoying ringtone. When Archie's name appeared, she immediately picked up her phone.

"Hello? Arch?"

"Hey Jules," he paused, "can we talk?"

"Why are you calling me so early? I need at least nine hours of sleep to function, you know this," she spoke slowly, in between yawns.

"Julia. It's 12:30," Archie deadpanned.

"Oh," she frowned while checking her clock to find out that indeed, it was, 12:30. Scheming was more tiring than she remembered.

"So Sleeping Beauty, do you want to meet up so we can talk?"

"Um... sure. Be on my front porch in 15," she scratched her head, unsure of what he wanted to have a conversation about.