𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕠𝕗 𝕣𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕝𝕖

37

Arabella packed for the whole day and she was exhausted. Whilst putting her room in boxes, she went through old photos of her and the original R4 gang and of her, Eric, and Jason that she found in her desk drawer; remembering her life before Veronica arrived and Jason died.

Nearly everything was inside of cardboard except her bed and desk. It was strange. She never thought she'd see this until she was going to college or something but her bright room was even brighter with lack of clutter.

Arabella shut her last box for the day and planned on ordering takeout from Pop's for dinner and a movie with Jughead maybe? For his birthday? Maybe he'd want to do that with Betty. She could always sit behind the couple with Archie just so they could be with him on his birthday.

But that was before Betty called her. Arabella's phone chimed after she laid on her bed to relax and Arabella answered it to be met by the soft voice of her friend.

"Hey, Bella."

"Hey. What's up?"

"You weren't at school," Betty said, "is everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm just not feeling well."

"Oh. I hope you feel better soon — I was going to ask you if you'd like to come to a small get-together for Jughead's birthday." Betty sounded hopeful and Arabella didn't really want to crush that but the question was beginning to make the back of her throat burn.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean... Jughead doesn't really like his birthday."

"Everyone's been telling me that, but — he deserves something special."

Arabella bit her bottom lip as she knew that Jughead would hate the party, but Arabella kind of told Betty off and she still sounds like she's going to do it, so it would probably make things easier for Jughead if Arabella went, right? There aren't a lot of things that Arabella knows about Jughead's other friends, but she knows that Archie and Arabella are the only ones both Jughead and Betty know — besides, like, Veronica?

With a fake smile, acting as if Betty could actually see her, Arabella nodded. "I'll come."

A small squeak escaped from the back of Betty's throat. "Great! It's going to be at Archie's house at around eight o'clock. I know the double feature ends around that time."

"Cool," Arabella smiled. "I'll bring the cake."

"Thanks, Bella."

"Of course — anything for you guys. Bye."

"Bye."

Arabella poked the red circle on her phone screen to end the call before chucking it towards the foot of her bed. Jughead plus a birthday party is not a pairing that should be happening and though Betty couldn't really see that, Arabella tried her best to support both of her friends.

The young Queen picked up Sirius and poked him on the nose. "Come on, bubba. Help me find an outfit."

It was a bit difficult to find something somewhat classy that wasn't already packed away, but Arabella ultimately accomplished the look she was going for after she found a black suede blouse and a denim mini skirt. It was perfect for a get together with her friends.

Arabella put Sirius back on her cherry wood floors as she picked up one of three pairs of shoes she left out to where during her last few days in Riverdale. One was a pair of off-white ankle boots with rose gold chunky heels, and those were the ones she chose.