Riverdale: The Andrews Brothers

Chapter Two: Part Two

*Archie's POV*

Archie walked into Biology class, avoiding Jughead's stare as he entered the room. As he walked down the rows, he saw Cheryl, sat on her own and being confronted by two girls with malice glinting in their eyes.

"We were wondering Cheryl" One of the girls said in nasal voice "Back in July you told the po-po that Jason drowned"

"Yet" The other girl continued "We come to find out that Jason didn't drown. He was shot. Slightly suspicious no?"

Archie now had his back turned to the conflict as he stowed his bag under one of the desks but that didn't make it any less clear who it was that started talking next.

"Are you living manakins suggesting that I had something to do with my brother's death?"

There she was. Cheryl Blossom. The bluntest girl at Riverdale High. Thank god John wasn't here because his brother was certainly unpredictable around Cheryl. He might've defended her or accused her and he honestly couldn't settle on a prediction.

As Archie sat at his desk, he could see the faces of the two girls that had confronted Cheryl. They were playing a decent poker face but you could tell in their eyes that the directness of the question had thrown them off.

"We're just curious... what do the police think happened?"

"I'll tell you what I told them, which is that Jason did fall into the water. We both did. I made it to the shore, he didn't. Maybe he got to the other side and someone shot him there. Who knows?" Cheryl shouted that question loudly, as an accusation to the whole room.

Archie was afraid that the girls were going to push further, Cheryl looked like she was only seconds from storming out and if he was going to talk to her and find out how far they'd gotten in the investigation he needed her here. It was the one opportunity he had where asking to talk to her wouldn't be weird and suspicious.

Luckily just at that moment the Biology teacher walked in, demanding that everyone pair off and set up for the class dissection. He took his opportunity.

"Can I be with Cheryl?" he asked, taking the curt nod from the red-haired girl as a yes.

"Oh, and I wanna be with Betty" shouted Veronica from next to him.

Well that's going to be a fun pairing Archie thought to himself. As far as he knew Betty had forgiven her but the tension was definitely still there between the two. Despite Betty's protests she got stuck with Veronica after Moose stole Kevin, for reasons that Archie couldn't fathom. He picked up his bag and sat down next to Cheryl, making sure not to be too close to her. From what John had told him, she had a thing for personal space.

"Cheryl, we haven't talked since I came over to apologise for my brother in the summer, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about your brother" he spoke as calmly and as sincerely as he could but not so much that she suspected his fear of her fragility.

"Jason was the best" She said in a lower voice than he'd ever heard her use.

"If I can do anything to help"

"That's sweet Archie...but unless you were at Sweetwater River and know who shot Jason..."

Her face tore him up inside. Okay so he didn't know who shot Jason, he couldn't help her in that regard but he was still withholding information about that gunshot from her. Information that could prove valuable in her brothers' case. Guilt rose in Archie's chest as images flashed in his head of him at Sweetwater river, of the gunshot they'd heard and Cheryl, crying on a rock by the river, broken at the death of her beloved brother. It made it that much harder to ask his questions.