The Perfect Girl Next Door

Riverdale General

Fred and Archie waited for hours to see Betty, although when she was out of surgery, they would not let them see her. Archie and his dad soon left, going home to change and clean up Betty's house.

-5:00 to 8:00 AM-
When they arrived home, the police next door were gone. Leaving the yellow tape on the doorway behind. Archie went upstairs to his bathroom, and as he took a shower, watching all of Betty's blood run down the drain, he began to let out a tearless sob. He leaned against the tiles of his shower, letting the water run down his face as he cried. What am I going to do? Who am I going to tell? What will she be like when she wakes up? These thoughts were all he could think about. When he had gotten out of the shower and was dressed, he looked out his window into her bedroom. He could see the partially wet blood drying on her quilt. He laced up his shoes, her blood on the white NIKE logo. He grabbed a clean jacket, and began to walk over to Betty's house. He stopped at his garage for tools on the way there. When he arrived at the doorway, he could see the door on the ground which he had knocked down the night before. He propped it up, and began to screw the hinges into the frame. After he had finished, he look over the first floor of her house to clean up. Archie began to clean up her lunch from the day before, and began mopping her blood up into a bucket from the gurney being pulled down the hardwood stairs.

Fred has soon noticed Archie was gone, and went over to the house next door to talk to him. He saw the the wet floor, and the mop laying against a nearby closet in a bucket full of blood water. He walked upstairs, to see Archie carrying Betty's quilt and sheets to her laundry room in the basement. "Son, you don't have to do this."

"Dad. You don't know what I've done. I'm the one who drove her to do this!" Archie responded quickly, pushing past him and jogging down the stairs.

"Archie, let me help you at least," Fred said, following him down. When they reached the basement, Fred began looking around the room for laundry detergent. Although, what he saw was much worse. He saw a pack of razor blades, some used, and a bag of bandages next to them, behind the detergent in a cabinet. He shut it quickly, hoping the Archie didn't see.

-Summary of the next three hours, 8:00-11:00 AM-
Archie and his dad cleaned Betty's carpet, getting the blood stains out. Fred has put spare sheets and a comforter on the bed, that he found in her dresser drawers.

As Fred was calling Betty's mother, Alice, Archie sat down on Betty's bed and began to let his eyes wander across the room. He began to see the weapons of her mind. Little notes from mean classmates scattered across her desk, her many diaries filled, and bandages. The more Archie looked around the room, the more he saw. Bandages were everywhere, and so were things she could have been using to harm herself. Simple things. A jar of paperclips, some bent into a straight wire. Box cutters, by her office supplies. The box of razor blades, on her dresser. He laid his head back onto the mattress, and his hands onto his face. Processing. When Archie had gotten up, he grabbed her diary that was still open, with a pen stuck into a half-filled paged on Betty's desk. He began to read the diary in the beginning, and it started on one of the first days of summer.

                           ~Journal Page~
Not much has happened this week. I went to Jughead's trailer to see him go, and I went to the airport with Ronnie. Archie was also with me at both of those events. We drove there together, and home. Both times we stopped at Pop's for orange freezes and onion rings. Yesterday, I invited Archie over to watch a movie at my house. We always did this during summer, every Thursday night. We would be in my living room, watching or rewatching any movie we wanted to see. Although, when my parents weren't home we went up to my bedroom and used my computer to watch the movie. Last night, when we were up in my room, we stayed up for hours laughing at stupid jokes. We began to doze off in our pajamas, when out of the blue Jughead tried to FaceTime us through my computer. I accepted, and I sat upright so Jughead could see me. Archie suddenly started snoring, so I took my computer downstairs to talk to Jug. He got weird seeing Archie in my room. Jughead practically said he was going to break up with me. As I tried to explain we had always done this, he came around to the idea I was telling the truth. In the next hour we had filled each other in on what had happened since we last saw each other.
17 pages later
    Jug and I haven't spoken in weeks. He won't respond to any type of messages. He has been posting on Instagram, so I know he isn't dead, or that his phone is always dead. I'm worried. Has he met someone else? Am I not good enough? Am I what Chuck and the other boys called me? Is that true?

-11:00 AM-
    Archie closed the diary, and walked downstairs to Fred getting off the phone with an intense look on his face, "Son, Alice uh.."

    "What dad? What is it?" Archie responded, trying to sound like everything was going to be okay.

    "Archie, Alice is stuck in Texas with a huge storm. It looks like she won't be back for more than a week. I was able to reach her, just after she had been called by the hospital. Apparently, she had been informed on the phone about... what you did Archie. How you saved Betty. So—don't quote me on this— Alice said she put Betty in our care. Legally. We should be able to have the same rights as her family would have in the hospital," Fred said trying to explain.

    "That's great! Now we can go see her!" Well... once she wakes up. But we should get her something before going, dad. Like an orange freeze and a grilled cheese from Pop's. That's her favorite." Archie said, walking towards the front door.

Fred turned around and sighed, "Son, she's out of surgery but she's still on life support. They don't know how long she will be on it for."

    "Dad, she will wake up. I know it." Archie said, picking up his coat.

    "Wait, hold up. We should go and eat lunch. You haven't eaten since... Yesterday afternoon," Fred reasoned with Archie.

    "Dad—I—" Archie responded but was cut off by the sound of his stomach rumbling. "Give me a minute, I forgot something upstairs." Archie ran back up to Betty's room, and grabbed her recent diary to continue reading.

    Archie and his dad spent the next three hours (it's now around 2:00 PM) at their house eating lunch. Archie headed up to his room to continue reading her diary, while Fred called Mary, and filled her in. Archie had begun to cry, but he wiped away his tears frighteningly as the sound of footsteps came closer to his room. Archie's dad opened the door and walked into the room.

    He sat down at the edge of Archie's bed, and looked at him, "Son... Betty woke up."

Theories or thoughts of what's going to happen next?? Please comment, it may influence the way the story goes.