It had been less than 2 hours ago when Jughead and I had been in the kitchen covered in flower, kissing. We had stayed like that for while. Arms wrapped around each other, lips moving together, just content with the moment and afraid it would end too soon. Which it did. We had heard footsteps and pulled away from each other. Those footsteps had belonged to my dad. He had come to tell me that we needed to go down to Sweet water River. Jughead left right away. I got dressed and as my dad and I made our way down to the river, he explained what he had heard had happened this morning.

We were standing on near the edge of the river, the boat with Cheryl and her parents pulling up to the shore. I was clutching my father's arm, my breathing getting heavier and quicker as the seconds passed. Jason Blossom was missing, presumed dead. The thought sent me into a state of shock. I had seen this boy everyday for the last year and I was never going to see him again. We weren't close. Not remotely. I don't remember ever talking to him, but death can have a strange effect on people, especially me. The idea that his body was somewhere, limp and lifeless, was scaring me, making me think about the fact that eventually I would end up dead like he was and I started to shake.

I looked up at my dad, who pulled me into his arms when he saw my shaky state. I hid my face from the eyes of our judgmental neighbours. I wasn't going to cry here, not in front of this whole fucking town. Unfortunately that wasn't entirely up to me. Slowly, tears started falling from my eyes. My breath was quick and I was having trouble steadying it. After a minute or so, I gave up. Archie looked over and immediately took my face in his hands.

"Y/N?" he asked, trying to get me to calm down. Archie was one of the only people who could do that. Other people tried to help but it just didn't do anything for me.

"Y/N look at me. I'm right here. You're right here. Nothing's wrong. Everything's fine, you just need to breath, okay?"

I looked at him while the occasional tear fell down my cheek and tried as hard as I could to remember what was happening, where I was and that Archie was right here with me. I told myself that I was safe, that I was not going to end up dead anytime soon. With that thought, I started to feel better. Archie was here. Archie was here and he was going to help me, like always. As long as he was here then everything would be okay because Archie could make my thoughts clear up enough for me to function (almost) normally.

As my breathing started to become a little steadier, Archie continued talking but, in a way that he would talk to me as if I weren't freaking out and we were just sitting on the couch at home.

"Hey, when we get home, we should watch a movie. Think about that okay? Out of all the movies you could possibly watch, what would you watch right now?" he asked.

I let my mind wander. What movie would I watch if I could watch anything right now? I went through a mental list of my favourites and the new ones and the ones with the best soundtracks and soon the dead image of the familiar red haired boy was pushed out of my mind. Soon there were multiple theme songs playing in the background of my thoughts while my favourite scenes and characters made their appearances.

I gave Archie a weak smile and my breathing finally evened out. I was shaking but I was okay. As we began to leave, Archie continued to talk about movies, trying to keep my mind from wandering back to the thoughts of Jason's death. I looked around and my eye caught something on the other side of the crowd. A boy in a grey crown shaped beanie. We locked eyes for a second and gave each other small smiles. I absentmindedly began to walk towards him, away from Archie, as if I had been distracted by something shiny.

More thoughts began to pop into my head while the movie soundtracks continued to play. Jughead and I talking the previous day. The two of us in a booth at Pop's. In the treehouse, in my bed and finally in on the kitchen floor with our noses bumping awkwardly and my giggling filling the air. My feet began to lead me away from the path and towards the only person that I wanted to go to for comfort other than Archie. Unfortunately, my brother noticed me starting to drift off and grabbed my arm bringing me back to the real world and the pathway we were walking on.

"Y/N, come on, we can't have you wandering off right now." he said as we continued to make our way home. I knew he was probably afraid I'd end up walking into the river again.

I looked back at Jughead who simply nodded at me, understanding that there was no chance in hell that my brother or my dad would let me walk away from them after we had just received the news of our classmate's death.