Funny, how the smallest things could define the difference between manageable and painful summer for the both of them. Her breathing, soft, her head tilting just slightly with a grin on her face as her arms helped to suspend her within the water, swimming through the wallows of Sweetwater River, with a leisurely, near lazy pace. The unbearable itchiness that summer induced beneath her skin, now gone, even as she shivered at a wrecked pace, trying not to laugh when Jughead surfaced from below, splashing his face with more cold water, clear in the early season, making her un-stealthy getaway further within the centre of the water. Watching him cling to the dock and stare back at her with something unsaid.
Ah, with the secrets again.
“I don’t know if anybody gets it right away. The leadership thing, I mean. It’s about doing things okay and fucking up and learning to do better. Looking at others and wondering if you can guide them into being better people. Nobody’s perfect off the bat. It’s got weight to it, and that’s what makes it serious and all that, but like… you’re gonna be good. You’re gonna be bad at times. But how you choose to deal with the bad stuff, that’s what determines what kind of leader you’ll become. That’s character. That’s who you’re gonna grow to be.” Legs, wading through the water, kicking up gently so that she could float, instead, with a lightness that she’d never really feel, with a warmth that spread through her as the sun baked down upon her from above, and the water chilled her like ice from below. Wet hair, all around her, a floating pink halo, fingers tracing through the water…
Not looking at him but hearing him anyways, a softer hum on her lips, “It’s open! I mean, they usually kick up business there on May 20th when the weather starts to turn, Fangs did a summer there once even though it was far, think of it as like… the best summer we had in ages. Free ice cream? Snow cones? Forced AC? Seriously, I wish he’d work there every summer but the pay is shit, and it only really worked out until we were all able to get better paying jobs. But…. “ the nostalgic factor made her smile, but it was kind of nice to relive it all with Jones, looking at him from the corner of her eye. “You’re doing fine so far, you know.” wondering if it kept him up at night, and if he was getting what he needed out of this, too. Leadership wasn’t easy, and it hadn’t been for his father, either, nor for any of the younger Serpents when they’d been made to step up and play bigger parts than any of them had been ready for, and he’d been given the biggest role of them all. And from what she knew, he hated the spotlight, but made it all work, regardless. “Nobody feels you’re fucking up.
He wanted to tell her not to go too far, paranoid that their day of fun might be ruined by the rushing current but he said nothing. She was a big girl and he didn’t want to come off as the mom.
“I think you’d have made a good leader,” he said. Surely she would give him ‘the look’ but he didn’t care. He meant it. Since he was a kid there had been a disconnect between himself and the others in Sunnyside but she had known them always. She had stood by them and kept them in line in her own way before he even knew their names. Sometimes he wished he could admit that he wasn’t worthy of the position he held and it made him paranoid that the others didn’t see it either. How long before he was seen as weak? How long before the serpent reared it’s head to strike? It was becoming more and more clear that he had to speak to his father about his concerns, whether he wanted to or not.
She started talking about the snow cone place and he grinned. He may not have been there as a Southsider per say, but he did remember the nostalgia of when he and his family used to go when he was a kid. It seemed a different life. It was a different life. “They’d probably fire me if I tried,” he joked. Jughead Jones working around food was a disaster in the making. Just thinking about it was making him hungry. He kicked his legs out in front of him, the wood of the dock pinching his skin but he didn’t care. The sun danced on the current, sending shimmers of white light across his pale legs and it occurred to him that they rarely saw the light of day. “I should do this more. I’m a fucking ghost,” he laughed.
Hearing that he was doing alright for now brought his grin down a few notches to right above forced. It was nice to hear but he hated to think about how it might change. But at the end of the day if there was anyone he could trust with the truth, it was Toni. She had no problem letting him know when he’d fucked up and he appreciated it more than he could explain, even if she did cut him deep sometimes. “Yet,” he mumbled, glancing over at him. “So. As my right hand; what are some things you want to change around here?”
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