THIRTY SIX.
❛ WAY TO BREAK MY HEART. ❜

              The arrest of FP Jones lead to a number of startling conclusions. Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Archie solved Riverdale's biggest murder mystery possibly ever recorded in the town. Footage of Clifford Blossom shooting his own son in the head was released and with it, the Blossom family business' dirty little secret.

          The day after the big reveal was spent drowning in tears. Cheryl's for her brother, Penelope's for her son, Lexi's for her best friend.

          Cheryl endured her father's funeral alone with her mother. He may have been her father but he was also Jason's murderer and Lexi couldn't stomach the idea of attending his murderer's funeral, not even to support her own girlfriend in a time of need after losing one of her parents.

          Skipping school to pay her own guilty family a visit, aka her uncle in jail, was not how Lexi had planned to spend the day but going back to school to all those pity stares didn't sound all that good either. So she went with the slightly less terrible option.

          "What brings you here to see me, Lex?"

          Lexi scoffed, her cheeks still stained with tears and her lips trembling slightly at she looked at him through the bars. "You knew."

          FP sighed, his eyes softening at the sight of his niece looking so broken. "I knew," he repeated in a low voice.

          "You knew Jason was dead," Lexi sniffled, crossing her arms over her chest to hide her shaking hands. "You knew. You fucking lied to me, you hid his body, you covered up his fucking murder!"

          The emotions inside Lexi had been buried for so long that they were resurfacing to bury her along with them this time. She felt them dragging her down, the weight crushing her shoulders, pain spreading across her neck with the sheer force of them.

          It had been her fault all along. She had been worried about the chances that FP had been the murderer of Jason and that she had been at fault for his death; that she was to blame for the death of Jason's murder — and she was.

          But she was to blame for more than that. She had involved Jason with her uncle and the serpents. She had been the reason Clifford Blossom knew where to find him on his last drug run (a run he wouldn't have been on if it weren't for Lexi lending him her connections to the Serpents). She was to blame for FP being involved and therefore, by extension, she was to blame for the cover up of Jason's murder.

          How was she to live with so much guilt resting on her conscience? How was she to look her girlfriend in the eye knowing all she had done to her brother?

          "I'm sorry, Lex." FP confessed, his own eyes shifting under the harsh light as tears gathered behind his eyes.

          "Yeah, well," a defeated tone had taken over from her previously angered one and a hallow look rested between her eyes, "you should be."

          FP blinked slowly and nodded. He knew she was right. If Diane Hale were still alive she'd smite him to dust for causing such emotional trauma to fall on her daughter... if only she were here to help mend the damage already dealt.

          Never of them got a chance to respond as Lexi's phone dinged and signalled a text. She took a deep breath and averted her eyes from him as she pulled out the device and looked at the screen with a small frown.

          Get to Sweetwater River. It's Cheryl.

          An unsettling feeling sunk in at Betty's anomalous text and she quickly turned to leave with FP calling her name behind her. Why on earth would Cheryl be at Sweetwater River with Betty?

It took at least a ten minute drive to get from the Sheriff's station to Sweetwater River and when she hopped out of the car, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Archie were already there. The slam of her car door brought their heads snapping back to her. Betty gave her a heartbroken look mixed with sympathy whereas the others just looked confused about why she was there.

"Betty, what's going on?"

"We need to find Cheryl now."

"What? Why?" Lexi frowned but Veronica marched forward and grabbed her wrist wordlessly as they continued the search.

"Cheryl? Cheryl! Cheryl?" They chorused.

"Not here," Archie breathed out in defeat, the cold air making his breath visible in front of him.

Betty's eyes widened as she caught sight of a small figure moving in the distance. "Over there!"

They looked in the direction she was pointing as gasped in horror. Lexi's breath was knocked from her lungs as she moved to run forward to her girlfriend before Archie looped his arm around her waist. The sound of the ice crunched under their boots was enough to halt them from moving forward. "Wait-w-wait! The ice."

"He's right. Too much weight and we'll all go under."

"Cheryl!" Lexi yelled, tears gathering in her eyes as panic enveloped her heart.

At the sound of Lexi's voice, Cheryl stood slowly and turned around to face them, silent sobs falling freely from her lips.

"Just come to the shore and we'll figure this out together, okay?"

Lexi's heart jumped to the back of her throat when Cheryl suddenly fell through the ice and disappeared beneath it. "No!" She yelled while the others echoed the same.

This time Archie didn't stop her as Lexi sprinted across the river, fighting against the heavy snow that threatened to slow her down. She could barely even feel the cold as the adrenaline rushed through her veins. Screams of protest erupted behind her as Lexi dived into the same hole Cheryl fell through and let the cold as death water swallow her whole.

She caught up to Cheryl pretty easily with the current already pushing her in that direction. Cheryl's eyes were closing over when she felt hands grab her face and lips press against hers to share some air with her. Trying to swim against the current with the added body weight didn't go as planned and Lexi was forced the bang against the surface of the ice in hopes the others could find them in time.

Archie managed to find them and quickly slammed his fist repeatedly into the ice to break it. Blood spluttered into the rock solid ice as he punched relentlessly until it broke. The water finally came into view it's dark colour of dept mixed with Archie's blood and quickly resembled a crime scene.

Archie's hands plunged into the water to feel around for the two drowning girls and Lexi managed to weakly push Cheryl up first. He grabbed Cheryl's lifeless body and hauled her from the water while Lexi's head broke the water and gasped for air. Jughead and Betty immediately reached for the blue lipped brunette and pulled her out of the water as well. The blonde took her best friend into her arms and hugged her from behind, rubbing her arms up and down to try and warm her up.

Lexi felt her eyes start to close as her body fought the sudden exhaustion washing over her but she pried them open just enough to watch Archie before CPR on Cheryl. If she could, she'd be crying and yelling out for her to wake up and come back to her.

          At last, Cheryl choked up the water she'd swallowed and they were all able to sigh in relief. A brief smile came on Lexi's face as she relented to the drowsiness invading her senses and let her eyes close.

          She only heard the blurred words of, "Lexi, Lexi, you gotta stay awake-" before everything went pitch black...

author's note
happy new year my loves ☺️
I have some good news and some bad...
as you know this story is coming to an end with only half an episode of season one left to go and it will not be getting a sequel BUT I have decided it will be getting an epilogue to give a brief summary of what happens to Lexi after season one.