Sick Of Losing Soulmates

Stars

Jughead had marched to his home on the south side, furious. He had confronted Archie about Ms Grundy and Archie was still protecting her. Furthermore, he had threatened Jughead about telling anyone. He wanted to throw something at a wall. Badly. Instead he opted for yet another midnight walk. Anything to keep him away from Archie and his father. He considered talking to Elodie, since she knew and understood, but quickly dismissed the idea.

For Archie, basically, his three closest friends weren't talking to him.

And Elodie had come home to another screaming match between her parents.

"You can't just throw around money like that Chris!" Elodie could hear Rona yelling halfway down the block. She groaned and ran the rest of the way home.

"Oh why not?! Because it's the only thing you married me for?!" Chris retorted

"God you think I'm so shallow Chris! How the hell did I even fall in love with you in the first place?!" Rona growled

"Language!" Elodie cried out to no one in particular as she took her front steps two by two.

"Well God knows we aren't in love now! I can barely look at you!" Chris spit back

Elodie rolled her eyes as she fumbled for her keys.

"Are you listening to yourself?! The children are upstairs! You're poisoning their minds!" Rona yelled. The door clicked open. Both adults turned to look at an infuriated Elodie.

"If you remotely cared about the children, you'd be broken up already. Assholes! I could hear you two from halfway down the block! I can't wait to get out of this toxic god damn house" Elodie said in a low threatening voice, so her point came across but only the three of them could hear her. Then she brushed past her parents, knocking into both of them, as she ran up the grand spiral staircase.

Elodie grabbed a bottle of cheap vodka from underneath her bed, putting it in a small leather backpack before exiting her room. She took the children right past her parents and out the door. They didn't try to question or stop her. She spoke to them about their day as she drove them to somewhere she knew they would be fine. To her luck, Betty opened the door when she rung the doorbell. She frowned at first, but then seemed to understand.

"Rona and Chris?" She asked quietly in the doorway once she had called Max, the kid she was babysitting, to show their new guests around. It was just Betty tonight, her parents were working late again.

"Yeah" Elodie replied simply

"And where are you going?" Betty eyed her small leather back pack.

"There's something I need to take care of" Elodie said, "I'll be back in a few hours. Thank you"

And with that, she left in her black convertible.

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Elodie sat cross-legged staring at her reflection in the crystal clear water. It was getting darker, so the candles were lit, giving her an orange glow. She looked like shit. The half-bottle of vodka she had downed had made her skin feel like it was being pricked by needles and her veins were on fire. She wished she had brought something to make her not feel at all. Because this was almost worse.

She decided the water would help.

Elodie stood and shed her jacket, her shoes, and her socks, leaving her in a large white tshirt and black, ripped skinny jeans. She sighed and waded into the small pond she knew as Crystal Lake. She hadn't been back since Jason had died.