𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚔𝚒𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍: 𝚊 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚏𝚒𝚌.
𝐉𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝...
Jughead’s eyes drifted away from the book in his hands and let them pan around the student lounge, where he and his friends had spent many hours killing time with each other during their free periods. He was reminded of all the times he and Betty would sneak over here on those nights they’d stay late working on the Blue and Gold – sometimes the room would get ridiculously cold, and they were not going to sit on some lousy chairs in there as opposed to the plush couch in here. They’d even dozed off once or twice, their arms draped around each other, their computers and various papers laid next to them messily on the couch.
A fond, reminiscent smile swept its way across his lips at the thought of he and Betty’s time working on that newspaper. It all started with the blonde girl next door approaching him to join the team – little did he know what a force to be reckoned with she would become. And it definitely didn’t surprise him. He’d 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 known how remarkable she was, even when she didn’t realize he was looking.
At the shuffling of feet, and the echo of “Betty – wait! Don’t do this!” Jughead’s eyes darted toward the doorway.
It was the voice of Archie Andrews.
Jughead chucked his book to the side of the couch and turned back to glance at Veronica, who sat behind him on one of the chairs, doing some research on her laptop for a class. She appeared just as out of the loop as he was.
Not even a minute later, his lover would burst into the room, a look of pure distress on her face, only accentuated by her glassy eyes. His eyes immediately darted to Archie, anger already rising in his chest – 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳?
And why did he look so dumbstruck? He looked between Jughead and Veronica with a half-opened mouth, as if he’d seen a damn ghost.
Rushing over to his lover, immediately taking her hands when he was close enough, Jughead tried to meet her eyes… but hers only focused on the ground.
“Hey, hey—what’s going on, Betts?” Jughead spoke gently, his thumbs caressing her 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 hands.
Betty shut her eyes tightly, as if the weight of the world laid upon her shoulders. Meanwhile, Archie still stood there with a blank expression. Jughead’s patience was growing thin, dying for answers, but he wouldn’t let that show to his lover. All that mattered was that she was okay – whatever had happened.
Inhaling a deep breath, and exhaling a shaky one, Betty finally opened her eyes and met Jughead’s. This time, a tear dripped down her cheek, which he was quick to wipe away from her porcelain skin.
“I need to talk to you, Jug. And Veronica,” Betty said, with a heavy look on her face. Whatever she was about to tell them, it wasn’t going to be good.
But surely, it was nothing the four of them couldn’t handle. After all of the turmoil they’d been through over and over again, in countless different forms, not much scared Jughead anymore.
Veronica inched her way over to the three of them, her eyebrows tensed in a straight line as her eyes darted from Betty to Archie.
Archie quickly moved to Betty’s side, looking down as he spoke to her in the lowest tone. “Betty, you don’t have to do this.”
Slowly turning to face Archie, Betty’s facial expression was a mix between disgust and horror – which made the curiosity in Jughead’s chest burn even more.
“Yes, I do, Arch,” she said curtly, before turning her full attention back to he and Veronica. “We both showed up for practice the other day for our performance when you guys didn’t, and we started singing… I don’t know, we just… got carried away with the song and the changes going on around us and… we… kissed.”
Jughead’s heart dropped right through his stomach, and he hoped it would continue falling through him until it didn’t beat any longer. That would be much less painful than the revelation that just left who he thought was the love of his life’s mouth. All Jughead could do was shake his head in absolute disbelief, as if this was all some kind of sick joke that couldn’t possibly be real.
But by the look of pure guilt and sorrow in Betty’s eyes, followed by the tears streaming down her cheeks, there was no denying it had actually happened. One of the things he had expressed insecurity to Betty about, time and time again, that she would always go back to Archie. The perfect jock, loved by the entire town, someone who certainly didn’t have money problems or belong to a gang…
How, after all he and Betty had gone through, could she still choose Archie? The guy who hadn’t been there for her during any of the traumas or hardships she’d dealt with over the years, only showing face when the situation directly involved him. Hell, it was safe to say Archie knew absolutely nothing about Betty Cooper. He probably still saw her as the girl from freshman year, with eyes only for him, and a world of naivety that hadn’t blossomed into skepticism and careful analyzation yet.
Jughead looked over at Veronica, whose lips were pursed. Her eyes were locked on Archie’s, who was already trying to fill the space between them, his demeanor softening.
Before anyone else could say another word, Betty was already filling the space again, her voice cracking as she began. “Archie wanted more from me, to continue something that wasn’t there. And I told him that whatever happened back there in his garage… I didn’t want any part of it. Because I love 𝐲𝐨𝐮, Jughead. And maybe Archie is confused or whatever he is… about his feelings for me and Veronica, but, that’s not where I am. It happened, and I don’t know why, but I’ve thought about it and it was a chapter in my life that closed long ago. And I wouldn’t want to reopen it when I have the love of my life already.”
Jughead took a cold step toward Betty, his face frozen in the dullest expression he could muster up. “We’ll talk later,” he said, giving her a curt nod before turning himself toward Archie.
Shaking his head and laughing a pitiful laugh at who he thought was his best friend, Jughead continued to close the space between he and Archie until they were close enough that he could shove him back a few steps.
“My girlfriend, Archie? You really had to go after the one thing in my life that has ever made sense, that has ever been steady and good?” Jughead held his hand out to Veronica, pointing to her. “Look at her. Look at your beautiful girlfriend. You already have everything you could possibly want. But Betty, you know how I feel about her. How could you do this, after all these years? That’s beyond low – considering you like to put on a big show for the rest of the town like you’re some do-gooder, justice seeker.”
Jughead let out a deep sigh, taking another few steps to where he’d shoved Archie back. Without any qualms about holding anything in, Jughead charged at Archie, grabbing two fistfuls of his shirt and running him into the concrete wall as hard as he could.
“You’re lucky your girl is here, Andrews. I’m not gonna let her see you get hurt. Though, you didn’t seem to have a problem hurting her,” Jughead scoffed, giving Archie one more hard shove into the wall before letting his grip on him go.
He turned back to look at Betty one last time. His shoulders drooped, wanting nothing more than to close the space between them. To assure her that everything was going to be alright. That they could get through it somehow. But in that moment, he really wasn’t sure if they could. Weeks ago, she’d told him that he was the only man for her. And yet, that didn’t stop her from locking lips with her old crush. Just… just the thought of kissing someone other than Betty made an instant bout of nausea rise in Jughead’s chest. It was debilitating just thinking about not only betraying his lover, but causing her the kind of heavy, ruthless pain that plagued his own heart in that moment.
“I guess I wasn’t such a fool for having those thoughts about you and Archie after all, was I Betty?” Jughead choked out, rolling his eyes as he pivoted on his feet and stalked out of the room.
He quickened his step when he heard the shaky coo of, “Juggy” coming from Betty, trailing behind him. At this point, he’d fallen into a slow jog, two tears falling right down his rough cheeks. He wasn’t going to stop for her. Not now.
Luckily, he’d been able to get out of the building and onto his bike before she could catch up to him. He sped out of there carelessly, welcoming an adrenaline rush, or anything that could ease his deadened heart – even if only temporarily.
But no matter how hard he tried, would there ever be any way he could get Betty Cooper out of his mind? His heart?
