"Jug?" Betty had already repeated his name twice before he looked up and met her eyes hesitantly. The leather Serpent jacket had slid onto his body with more ease than she was comfortable with and a dozen pairs of eyes were boring into him that apparently pulled in his attention more than hers were. If she were being honest with herself it was beginning to cause a deep anxiety to start eating away at her.
"Go inside Betty. I'll be there in just a few." His voice had the strain of trying to sound reassuring but failing. Betty went ahead and let the door shut and the sound of muffled voices filled the silence on her side. She desperately hoped that Jughead was turning down the twisted form of a family offering from the gang of no-gooders outside, but the anxiety was still there eating away, making her believe otherwise.
Instead of waiting with her ear to the door Betty walked away towards the back bedroom giving Jughead the benefit of the doubt that he would remember how far he'd come and do the right thing.
What felt like hours to Betty passed before she heard a screen door slam shut and footsteps coming towards her. Jughead walked into the room still wearing the serpent jacket and reached to pull his beanie off and run a hand through his hair. Betty made notice of how it seemed as if he'd aged in the past few minutes since he'd answered the door. His eyes weren't bright like they'd been when he'd had his hands running up and down her body and his mouth on hers.
"Do you think you could at least have the decency of not wearing that thing in front of me?" She asked. Jughead cocked his head and smirked. "Really Bets? It's just a jacket. It's not like its physically going to come off of my body and assault you and your good sense of morals and principles."
She pulled back onto the bed as though he'd just shoved her away with his own two hands. Seeing her reaction he knew he had made a mistake and stepped forward trying to lessen the damage. "Betty, I'm sorry. That was shitty of me. I'm just processing a lot at the moment and I'm not sure how to handle it all."
"Well, you could take it off and turn them down. Why even entertain the idea of joining a gang of thugs?" She shook her head, "Actually, why didn't you turn them down right away? What was so important to say that I couldn't be there to hear it?"
He knew she was right but part of him longed for a sense of belonging with a group, instead of always feeling like a weird outsider. "Listen, it's not that easy. I'm the son of one of them, and a higher ranking one at that. I couldn't immediately say no, it could end up hurting my dad later when this whole mess clears up." He walked forward and took off the jacket throwing it against a chair before sitting down on the bed beside her. "Besides, I'm leaving for my new foster home tomorrow after school, I don't want to spend tonight arguing over something you have no need to worry about."
The lies slipped off of his tongue much easier than he thought they would as the bed creaked when he lowered himself down on it. His beautiful Betty, pure and trustworthy, seemed to take them at face value and put her hand up to his cheek. "I just don't want anything else to start working against us when we're already being pushed apart Jughead."
"Bets, I told you, everything will be fine. I won't be far away and every weekend I'll come up to stay with Arch so I can spend time with you. And we can meet at the diner every Wednesday under the guise of studying and you being my tutor."
Her eyes twinkled and that made Jughead smile. "What? Being my cute tutor turn you on? Betty Cooper I do believe that you are soon to become a bad influence on my character!" Betty giggled and she knew she had him back even if just for the night. So when he leaned in and put his mouth on hers she gave in and kissed him back.
Everything easily faded into the back of her mind and the more his mouth worked against hers the more the anxiety she'd been feeling started to disappear. She pushed him back before asking, "Can you promise me that you won't hide anything from me from now on? That you won't let things come between us?"
Jughead smiled as he pushed a strand of hair behind her ears. "I promise Betty. I've come too far to finally be able to call you my girl, to give it up for some lame distance issue, or to ruin it myself." He'd had his hands on her arms and felt goosebumps raise. Betty smiled at him and all of a sudden felt the fierce need to kiss him again. The kissing soon started to head more and more south and Betty's slight moans and her teeth nipping against his skin were causing Jughead to lose his tight grip of control. The bed creaked once again as he pushed her back and the air from a nearby fan was felt immediately on his heated body. Betty looked back at him, confused and a little hurt.
"Umm Betty, I think I need to just take a quick breather. Things are, umm, getting a little heavy." She had a look of confusion on her face before her gaze shifted downwards then bolted right back up, her cheeks flushing. Betty seemed to take a second before saying, "I don't want you to think less of me, but we've known eachother since we were kids Jug, and I'm ready. I want you to be ready with me too. But if you think I'm just being loose—" Jughead grabbed her face and smashed his lips into hers before pulling away again. "You're crazy if you could ever believe I'd think less of you, or that you were loose. You're perfect. I just didn't want you to feel pressured." Betty closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Please, I want it to be you Juggie. I just don't want it to mean nothing."
Jughead pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "I promise it will mean everything. You're so perfect, I don't know how everything finally aligned for me to be able to call you mine. Everything about you makes me want to be better. I love you Betty Cooper, I always have."
Betty looked up and Jughead reached to wipe away a tear that fell. Betty sighed "I love you, too Juggie…"