Betty has a birthday event for Jughead. Going off of his statement from his last bday: "PTSD from when I was a kid." Why doesn't Jug like his birthday?

(Also: It's my birthday so I thought I'd post about Jug's birthday.)

Jughead POV.

"FP, could you put the boos down for five seconds so we can have a good birthday for our son!" Mom yells.

I look over to Jellybean. She is staring down at the lame chocolate cake Mom made. No icing. No filling. No candles. Just a cake sitting in the center of the table and a box of Chinese in the corner. Yeah, happy thirteenth birthday to me.

"Oh, relax," Dad says, pushing my moms hand out of his face and taking his beer back from her. I try to control the shaking of my hands. I clench my hands into fists as my mom puts a plate in front of me.

"Happy birthday, Jughead," she says.

"Jug? Juggie? Are you okay?" Betty asks beside me. I shake my head, realizing I wasn't here.

"Betty, you'll never believe it but I think I'm having flashbacks from my demonic past," I say, shivering beside her. "It's chilling, Bets. I wish I could have one birthday without remembering what happened as a kid."

Her hand brushes over my bare arm and then down my chest. I look into her beautiful eyes as she travels her fingers along almost every inch of my body until they stop in my hair. It gives me the kind of chills that actually make me happy. I lean into her gentle touch. Betty smiles and takes my hand in hers, biting her lower lip.

"This is your day," she says. "What do you want to do?"

"You…again," I say, kissing her lips. She pulls away just a little, keeping that innocent smile on her face that I know how to get rid of in an instant. Sometimes it makes me smile because I know things about her no one else does. I know her more than anyone.

"You already did me," she says, half joking. "Three times this morning. But it's almost noon. What else do you want to do today?"

I shrug as she gets out of bed, resting my hands behind my head as I watch her bare body cover up in a pink skirt, a grey shirt with my crown on the front. She takes a brush to her hair, turning around to face me as she fixes it. I don't really care what she does as long as I get to watch.

"I love you, Betty," I say.

She gives me the most perfect smile in the world: the one that I fell in love with.

"I love you too," she says, setting her hair brush down.

"We love you!" Mom shouts.

I haven't heard that since my last birthday, which is awkward and strange. I don't even know how to react to that. What do I say? When was the last time Mom truly said that to me and meant it?

"Eat up! Look at this great Chinese food we have! Jug's favorite!" Dad says.

"My favorite is burgers and milkshakes," I say. "With Betty and Archie. But this is great."

I try to ignore the look I get from my mom as she eats the food. We have two cartons. This is barely enough for a snack, much less an entire meal. I eat it anyway, realizing this is probably the only food I am going to have today. Dad drinks an entire beer and then opens another one.

"Can I be excused?" Jellybean asks.

"No! Of course not. You can stay here with your brother until we have the cake and give him his present!" Mom says with a smile that is so fake I can actually hear the tremor behind her voice, waiting for it to crack and shatter out in front of me. Why does everything have to be so god damn scary?

"It's okay," I say with a shrug. "Jellybean can go," I assure.

"No. She can stay here with us and with you, Jug. This is your birthday and your sister should be here like the rest of us are," Mom says.

Dad slams his beer on the table with a laugh so loud I actually jump up. I lean back in my chair, looking over at him to realize that he did not even notice.

"Just one big happy family!" Dad says.

"Seriously, Jughead," Betty says. "We should go somewhere, do something special."

"Having sex is special," I say with a grin, squeezing her now clothed shoulder. I pull on the crown on the front of her shirt with a grin that I cannot hide.

"Not what I meant," she says.

"I love it when you wear this shirt," I tell her.

"I know. That's why I wore it."

Betty reaches over to her nightstand, which I guess is partially mine now too and she grabs my hat, putting it on my head and fixing my hair with it, which I find adorable. She has an uncanny ability to make me happy no matter the circumstances.

"I want to tell you something," I say.

"What is it?" she asks.

I clear my throat to get ready to explain because I really don't want this to go like my last birthday did. Though I had some of my best lines, I pushed Betty away because I was being scared and selfish. I can't do that now. We aren't as different as I thought we were but I think I could still manage to hurt her.

"Last year, I freaked out on my birthday and you forgave me," I say.

"Of course, Jug. You explained it. You told me it was because you were scared that I was doing something nice," she says with a nod, putting her hand to the side of my face as she always does.

"It wasn't just that," I tell her. She listens.

Dad flips his beer over. Oh god no. It spills all over the table, some on my cake and getting onto Jellybean's lap. She jumps up, grabbing a towel from the stove and brushing it on herself. Dad doesn't clean it up. He turns back to the fridge and grabs another one, as if it never happened.

"Do you want to fix any of this, JP? I mean, we still need to do the cake and the presents!" Mom shouts.

"We don't have presents!" Dad shouts. "We have a hand me down tee shirt you wrapped in newspaper and a box of pens you stole from a hotel lobby!"

I wouldn't have expected anything more but I also didn't think that anyone would say it out loud. Every year we pretend like nothing is wrong and act like our family is perfect. Mom is still trying to do that but Dad is too drunk to realize what day it is or what he is supposed to act like. Jellybean is just caught up in it all and I am the center of it, the reason for the chaos.

"FP, let's just clean this up," Mom says, putting a towel on the floor and wiping up the beer. I don't move. I can't move. I sit still, staring at the cake with the beer that is soaking up the bottom and the newspaper wrapped presents that are getting wet too. Instead of moving, I look down at the floor.

"Jughead," Mom says, grabbing my face and making me look at her. "I can fix this. This is going to be a great birthday."

"It was that everything in my life was bad and terrible except for when I was off on adventures with you guys," I explain, trying to smile. She looks afraid. "But then there was this day where we all sat around the dinning room table and pretended that we liked each other, or that we even liked my birthday. It was awful. Dad drank. Mom tried to fix it. Jellybean was caught up in the mess and I was the center." My voice cracks with pain so I clear my throat again. "I was the reason for all of it. I was the reason for the hate and the chaos."

"You think that it was your fault your family treated you badly?" she asks, brushing her hand under my face.

"Yeah," I say.

"Why?"

"Because I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in and I don't want to fit in," I say.

Betty grabs the side of my face and kisses me hard on the mouth. I grab her around her waist and pull her over me, holding onto her body. She pulls her shirt back off and kisses me more than before.

"And I love that about you," she says. "Whatever you want to do today, whatever you want to talk about, it's all up to you. We don't have to celebrate or we can or we can go to Pop's or stay here or make love all day. Whatever you want, it's yours."

I'm looking for a couple reviews before I post. I want to know what you guys think of this one!