Hey guys! i haven't been on in soo long! but I'm back with a new story and even a new Fandom! WHAT! yup bughead is my life right now. I lost my muse for contestshipping. I'm sure it will come back eventually, but as of right now I'm just so busy with everything else i lost it. I love all of you guys and I hope you like my one shot!
Disclaimer: I do not own Riverdale, Archie Comics, or any of the characters associated with the two.
Stormy Secrets: The Untold Story of Betty Cooper
It had been a few months since anything worthwhile had happened in Riverdale. Archie's father was still in the hospital, a medically induced coma trapping him from his only son; my father still in prison, bars separating him from me, and Betty's mom gone for the summer to "take care of Polly and the babies". The buzz slowed but the town was still gloomy as ever. Almost like a dark cloud painted on the sky with permanent ink. The new semester was approaching faster and our summer time fleeting away. If there was one good thing that came about this summer it was that Betty and I had gotten closer.
After the Serpents confided me in my father's trademark leather jacket, and promised me protection by any means possible, I was almost positive my former happy life with the typical girl next door was over. But just as the murder of Jason Blossom shocked us all, Betty Cooper shocked me completely. She walked into her dimly lit bedroom with two cups of cocoa and slid onto the window seat next to me.
"I know it's not Pop's. But it is Betty Cooper!" She giggled her eyes meeting mine if only for a minute. I could smell the scent of chocolate dripping off her lips and into the small space between us. For a moment I almost lost my senses. The rain patted down on the window pane behind us and Betty rested her head on my shoulder. Her mood had changed, I could feel it.
"Juggy," she whispered, "do you think Mr. Andrews will ever get better?"
Her tone seemed weak, almost tired and her eyes fell droopy. Archie, Betty and I had been friends for years. It was hard for all of us when Archie's dad was shot at the beginning of the summer, and even harder for us to cope with his stalemate recovery. The dark cloud grew darker, into a grey that swept our town with a shroud of mystery.
"Mr. Andrews has fought through far more than a simple gunshot wound. I'm sure he will be okay." I fumbled through my sentence; trying to have a higher outlook on life compared to the dismal fate I feared for my best friend's old man.
I suddenly felt an uncomfortable jolt of energy which caused my hands to fly up and my cocoa to crash to the floor, staining Betty's white carpet dark brownish grey.
"Jeeze, Betts, I'm sorry!" I jumped up stumbling to pick up mini marshmallows. Her gentle hands took my fallen glass and headed out of the room with a quick "I got it!"
I sat there staring at the muddied stain trying to clean it by shear hope alone. The room was quiet, the lights low. I couldn't help but feel uneasiness stuck to the stale air like glue. I stood up and crossed the room to her vanity glancing over pictures of her growing up with Polly, and a recent photo of her and me down at the beach over the summer. My fingers traced the edges of the photo, but much like my cup of cocoa, the small picture fell to the ground behind the desk.
"Just my luck," I mumbled and dropped to my knees once more in search of the card stock. The cabinet edge was far too low to the ground for me to look, so I opted for my fingers to find my woman's prized possession. Instead, I found another, more sinister mystery.
My fingers clung to the synthetic strands as I gently pulled them out from under the desk. My eyes locked on a mangled bob cut wig. Where had this come from? An old Halloween costume in which Betty dressed as a go-go dancer? Or perhaps a sad attempt to make it on the River Vixens? Then the dark thought dawned in my mind. The retched night of my birthday, and the story Chuck boasted about. Betty Coopers dark side.
I knew about Betty's dark feelings and the rage that left her palms in a bruised and scarred mess, but I had hoped the story the Chuck had told was fake. After all, it was he, who pretended to have sex with the girls around our school. Looking down at the frizzled strands of plastic in my hands the story rushed back into my memory. Had Betty really done those things? Had the perfect girl next door tortured and almost drown a classmate in order to get her way? I was nothing shy of shocked. Before I could think of any excuse my hand dove under the vanity in search of more answers.
I pulled out a tangled up black bra to match the wig. More questions fell into my mind. Was this her allowing her dark side to surface? Some sick version of split personality?
"Jug-," Betty's voice cracked behind me. She needed not to say anything else. Her eyes full of all the emotions she was feeling. Betrayal, whether it was toward me or herself; I didn't know; Shame, for the darkness, was my assumption; and horror, of me finding her dark past tucked under a pretty pink vanity. I looked up into Betty's pale blue and water rimmed eyes. Her vulnerable heart thumping out of its cage.
"So, it was true?" I slipped out; unsettled and unable to filter myself. My hands grasped tightly around a black and pink lacy bra and wig.
"I- I don't want to talk about it." Betty rushed to take the items out of my hands, but I quickly backed away, incapable of controlling my actions. It was as if my brain had shut off and my body was doing things on its own.
"Betty, tell me." I snapped; the cloud growing darker and darker by the second. "If you don't then I will go to Chuck for the story."
This angered the blonde. Her eyes were no longer blue, but a dark grey that cast a shadow over my emotions. If there was one thing that Betty and I had shared it was always our feelings, we worked through the tough times together and grew based on it. We crossed her dark side before, but I thought she would confide in me instead of pushing her problems under the rug, or more specifically, her vanity.
"You sit there, Jughead." She started, "you sit there with your smirk and your witty comments, but you are still the scared little boy alone in your trailer. A boy without a family to call your own."
Her voice was no longer sad or sweet, but instead more sinister. It was as if something dark took over my Betty's body. I couldn't help the thought that this fear I felt was the same fear that Chuck had felt that night in the Jacuzzi. That the Betty I had fallen in love with was not the woman who was standing in front of me.
I couldn't run, not just because of the fear that kept me pinned to the spot on her floor, but also the thought that Betty had accepted me when fate pushed us apart. She clung to me, to us. How could my mind think it fair to walk away from this "Dark Betty" when the real one was punching and kicking to fight for our love? My father's words trailed back into my mind, "that is your girl". If that was true does that mean this darker and scarier version is also my girlfriend? It must be, and if Betty could fight for me and all of my problems, then I damn well had to fight for her.
But her words stung like a bee, a throbbing that lead straight from my head to my heart.
"My life may be messed up Betty, but you aren't sunshine and roses. Look at you, look at this!" I threw the bra and wig at her without a second thought, like a reflex I never knew I had. Both of the items fell to the ground in front of her, and she looked down at them, finally unlocking contact with me. Her fists were balled and tight. I stood instantly and walked over to her, my hands grasping hers and pulling them close.
She glanced up at me with tears running down her porcelain cheeks. My heart fell deep into my chest. I raised her hands and kissed them tenderly, allowing them to fall open and the blood to spill around he scabs.
"Juggy," She choked, "I don't know what comes over me like this. When I saw what Chuck was doing to the girls at school, I thought about Polly. I thought about all of the things that Jason did to her, and all of the things that those guys did to us as women. An- and for that moment, I was happy that Jason was dead; I almost wished that I had killed him. I wished that I had killed Jason Blossom to give Justice to Polly, and Ethel, and Veronica, and all of the girls in that book. I thought so hard about it that this dark part of me came out, and she told me the only way to seek justice was to make sure that they all suffered the same fate. I wanted Chuck dead, and if that meant drowning him and watching him plea for help, then I was going to let it happen. If, -if Ronnie hadn't been there… Juggy if she hadn't been there, I would have been a murderer."
Betty collapsed onto my arms, sobbing at the horror she spilled. I held her for that moment in complete silence. I was overwhelmed with her story, but this was her, the woman I loved. For whatever dark and twisted reason, fate put us together so that we could fight through our obscurity. The air was empty and the only sounds were light sobs from Betty. I slowly peeled her from me and rubbed away her tears.
"Elizabeth Cooper, you are an amazing woman, inside and out. I have felt the anger and pain that those jock losers put on everyone at that school. You're a beautiful and smart person, and I wouldn't have half of the guts it would take to actually stand up to those guys. It's dark, but it is you Betts, It is the amazing woman I fell in love with, the strong woman who fights for everything that she believes in, and fights for me. Betty, you fight for me in everything that you do, and I am prepared to fight for you even with this darkness you have."
Betty smiled at me, a final tear streaming down her face; her arms wrapping around my neck and pulling me into a deep kiss, a moment I had longed for the entire night. A soft breath crept out and warmed my lips as they connected with hers. She pulled away as quickly as she had kissed me.
"I forgot all about the carpet!" She snapped her head in the direction of the stain on the floor. Quickly pulling herself out of my arms Betty rushed to the spot by her window where the clouds had faded and the moon shined bright; her soft hands dabbing the carpet with a damp wash cloth trying to soak up the almost dried brownish liquid.
"You always manage to ruin our moments Betty." I laughed and helped her clean up my mess. She turned to me quickly and kissed me softly.
"I love you Jughead Jones, more than anything in this world. When I'm with you I feel like the sky is clear and stars are shinning. I never want to lose you; you are the only one who keeps me sane in this crazy messed with world we live in."
I didn't say it, but I felt the same way. For some reason whenever I was with her, the dark cloud floating over Riverdale dissipated. The sun or stars shined and all I could see was her. Dark or not she was the woman I loved the woman who would fight for me even when I couldn't fight for myself. The moon shined bright into the window and we sat on the floor cleaning up spilled cocoa and smiling at each other for the rest of the night. Neither of us knew what lied ahead, but for that moment we were at peace, and as weary as I was, I could say that I was happy.
Thank you guys soo much for reading, make sure to leave a review!
xoxo Kendybean07