The hallway felt too bright, too normal for how upside-down Jughead’s life had become. He leaned against his locker, thumbs hooked into the frayed edges of his denim jacket, trying to ignore the way everyone’s whispers seemed to echo down the corridor—his name, his father’s, murder. Reporters outside the school, cops circling the trailer park… it was becoming a routine he never asked for.
FP swore he didn’t do it—Jughead believed him. But belief didn’t stop the interrogation rooms, or the way Sheriff Keller looked at him like he already had a matching orange jumpsuit picked out. And then there were the Serpents. Showing up outside Pop’s at midnight. Leaving a jacket on his doorstep. Telling him that a son stands with his father, whether or not the town thinks he’s a monster.
He wasn’t sure what terrified him more—losing FP forever, or becoming exactly what everyone already assumed he was.
Jughead shut his locker a little too hard, exhaling through clenched teeth. “Great,” he muttered under his breath, “another perfect Riverdale morning.”
He felt footsteps behind him—familiar ones—and he didn’t even have to look to know who it was. Part of him wanted to disappear into sarcasm and cynicism like always. The other part—smaller, shakier—wanted someone to tell him he wasn’t alone in this mess.
He finally looked up, eyes tired but guarded. “Please tell me you’ve got better news than the universe has been giving me lately…” @milkshakesandbadges
Betty, like everyone else in Riverdale, had heard the accusations against FP Jones. She didn’t know him well enough to make a character judgment one way or the other, but she knew Jughead. He was nothing like his father. He was more sensitive and less likely to cause the kind of trouble his father did.
Her mother and father were reporting the murder of Jason Blossom in the town newspaper her father owned, so she was privy to a lot more information than most of the other kids in school. Not that she ever used that to hurt Jughead. He was her friend and she cared about him. No. Her problem was her parents had forbidden her to have anything to do with him because of the accusations against his father. They said it would look bad for the family if she was seen associating with Jughead.
Betty didn’t care what her parents thought, but she knew there was already a lot of tension because of what was happening with Polly and she didn’t want to add to that. Which meant seeing Jughead on the sly.
“Sorry, Jug. I don’t have any good news today. If it makes you better, I don’t have any bad news either.” This was her response when she stopped by his locker that morning.
"Well at least you're still speaking to me," he tried to sound light hearted, but it was hard when his heart was heavy with doubt. All night he lay in bed, tossing and turning, wondering if his father really was a killer. He spoke to his father, who told him to stay away from the jail, and that he was upset that he got caught. It sure sounded like his father was guilty but why. He didn't understand it.
"You know, Sheriff Keller really believes my dad held Jason Blossom for ransom, and then shot him when Jason tried to get away" Jug ran his hands down his face and let out an exasperated sigh. He dropped his hands and looked at her, grateful she hadn't turned away from him. Neither her or Archie turned their back on him. "But I can't see my father shooting Jason Blossom, I mean, he can't even hunt. As a kid he use to play sick when his father use to try and get him to go rabbit hunting, how can he shoot a human being," it was a question that haunted Jughead's mind. He loved that Betty listened to him, that she was easy to talk to, intelligent, and she didn't judge harshly. He gazed over her shoulder, up the hall and saw Cheryl Blossom come walking down the hall, towards him.
"Oh oh, here comes the other half of the Bobbsey Twins" he muttered. Cheryl stopped in front of Jug and before Jug could utter a word, she hauled off and punched Jug.
Betty had been about to respond when Cheryl walked up and punched Jughead. She quickly got between them before Cheryl could hit him again.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Cheryl Blossom? You don’t just walk up to someone and punch them! Whatever may or may not have happened between his father and your brother has nothing to do with Jughead.”
She glared fiercely at the redhead. Cheryl was undeterred by Betty’s words and cocked her fist back to hit Jughead again. What did she care if it was right or wrong to do that? Her brother was dead and Jughead’s father was the most likely suspect. That made it more than alright in her book. Besides, she was a Blossom. She could do whatever she wanted.
“Stay out of this, Betty. It doesn’t concern you.”
“The hell it doesn’t! Jughead is my friend and you have no right to hit him.”
Jughead could feel the fury in Cheryl, long after her blow to his face. He gently touched his eye, feeling it already burn and he knew by the end of the day he would have a shiner and yet, there was a part of him that thought he deserved it, after all he was the son of a murderer. He looked at Cheryl, so broken and hurt beyond the bounds of grief, by the death of her father. When he heard Betty speak up for him, in his defense, he stepped over to her and put a hand on Betty's shoulder, stopping her from saying anything more to Cheryl.
"It's okay Betty, Cheryl is hurting and angry, and I am the only one she can lash out on, since my old man is behind bars," Jughead turned to Cheryl, who stood there, hands on her hips, seething and Jughead felt like nothing he could say or do, could ever lift the heavy burden of horror and sorrow that had been a part of Cheryl's life, every day since the day her brother was killed.
"Cheryl..." Jughead began and was quickly cut off when Cheryl held up a hand, and shook her head.
"Save the pity for your father, when he rides Sparky, after walking the green mile and believe me Jughead, I will be there, to watch him suffer just as he watched JJ suffer before killing him, just as for months he watched my family suffer, trying to find Jason's killer," and with the Cheryl stalked off, leaving Jughead and Betty behind in the dust of her anger. Jughead sighed.
"She's right you know, my father let her and her family suffer. He knew I was writing a book about Jason's murder and..." it suddenly dawned on him and he turned to Betty.
"He knew he killed Jason, that was why he always asked me about my novel, not to show any kind of interest in it, but to see what I knew. To see if I was catching on that my own father was a murderer."
It wasn’t okay that Cheryl hit him. None of this was Jughead’s fault. He had no control over his father’s actions. Betty wanted to say something more, but it was obvious Jughead didn’t want to create any more of a scene than there had already been.
People were staring, which meant that word would reach her parents that she was seen yelling at Cheryl for punching Jughead. They would be angry, but Betty didn’t care. Jughead was her friend. She wasn’t about to let anyone walk right up to him and punch him, no matter what their reason.
As Cheryl stormed off, Betty turned to look at Jughead. “We should go to the nurse’s office. You’ll want to put some ice on that to keep it from swelling.”
She paused as Jughead’s sank in. “Do you really think your dad would do something like that?” FP was a drunk and a jerk, but was he that diabolical a killer? Betty wasn’t sure. She didn’t think Jughead was so sure either.
"I'm fine," he spoke with a shrug. A belt from Cheryl seemed like a small price to pay for what his father did. If he did kill Jason Blossom, Jughead knew the town would turn on him, faster than anything he's ever seen. He pushed his hands through his hair and grunted, not out of anger for Betty, but for frustrations for himself, he hated this not knowing what the hell was going on, and he hated this doubt.
"God, when is this going to end?" he asked and dropped his hands. It had been a hell of a month, it was only a few days ago that Sheriff Keller had dragged Jughead to the station, to ask a few questions, course it was more like grill him than anything else, and now this. He leaned back against the locker, banging the back of his head to the locker. He was stressed and to make matters worse, the Serpents were pressuring him to join their gang, because his father had been their leader and they wanted to protect him.
"Archie and Veronica searched my dad's trailer, on homecoming night, they insist that they never found a gun, but an hour later Keller finds out," that was the piece of the puzzle that kept tapping on his thoughts. How come the gun appears and disappears in one night.
"If my dad did kill Jason, wouldn't he have gotten rid of the gun or at the very least, threw the gun away. Betts, I honestly don't know what to think anymore," Jughead spoke with a hitch in his throat.
“None of this makes any sense at all, Jughead. I don’t doubt for a minute that Archie and Veronica saw no trace of a gun at your dad’s trailer. Do you think someone could have planted it there? Someone who knew the best way to deflect suspicion from themselves was to blame the leader of a well-known gang that no one would doubt was guilty?”
Betty was going into what her friends called her Nancy Drew Mode. Her instincts were to begin digging into this right away. Something just didn’t add up for her. FP’s guilt should have been a no-brainer, but not for Betty. She felt that something wasn’t as it appeared to be, and she decided she was going to find out what. Jughead might not like the idea. In fact, he might even hate it, but she was going to do it. One way or another, she was going to learn the truth.
"For once in his miserable life, my father is taking responsibility for his doings, the only thing is, he was caught that's the only reason he confessed," Jughead couldn't believe he was speaking about his father, as if he was guilty already but some of it connected. He understood now why his father had been so interested in his novel. It wasn't because he was interested or supportive, it was because he wanted to know what Jughead knew. Jughead shut his locker door and twisted the lock close.
"He wanted me to not publish my novel about Jason Blossoms murder, well that's not going to happen," Jughead's anger shook in his tone and he hitched his book bag over his shoulder. He looked at Betty and saw that deep, thoughtful look in her eyes and he frowned.
"Betty, you don't think he's guilty do you?"
“I really don’t know, Jug. This whole doesn’t quite add up. I can’t explain why. Did your father actually confess?”
She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “You know, we could try to figure out what really happened that day. If your dad didn’t do it, we might be able to clear his name. And if he did, we can find out why. What do you say? Wanna solve a crime with me?”
"Nancy Drew strikes again," he joked, although the laughter was missing from his tone. His life was such a mess, and he was so stressed out right about now, it felt like he was about to lose his mind, and then some. He leaned his back against the lockers and banged the back of his head to the locker a couple times. He was so trapped between wanting to believe his father was innocent, and yet, so use to being let down by his old man, that he could actually see his father doing the murderous deed, if the price was right. His eyes opened and they went wide, he grabbed a hold of Betty's arm, like he was using her to balance himself as a thought struck him into a state of awareness.
"Betty, what if someone paid my dad to kill Jason Blossom?" he asked, it still meant that his father was a murderer but it also meant that he wasn't a cold blooded one at best. There was another puppet master out there, pulling the strings.