AN: Only cannon that I am changing: they're all sophomores in COLLEGE. Not high school. That would make them all roughly 19-20 years old.
I don't mean to say this is set four years from the second series, just that I am writing that all of the characters are of college age. Season Two was set during their Senior year of high school and their freshman year of college is a mystery we may unfold as we go. This story begins the summer before they return to their sophomore years of college.
Just pretend they're all a bunch of college aged kids, that's what I (and apparently the writers of Riverdale) chose to do.
She didn't tell him the first time she got sick. Or the second, or third. Jughead Jones wasn't the person she called when things went wrong, hadn't been for nearly a year. And when she had her face next to a porcelain bowl, spilling the contents of her stomach, the first person she thought to call wasn't the one she'd forced herself to forget about. Instead she went through the list of potential allies, or at the very least, someone to run an errand for her. Veronica wasn't in town, which was unsurprising considering it wasn't a major holiday. The four former friends tried to make it a point to regroup that summer, and yet every plan they made seemed to fall through, usually on Veronica's end. She was a nineteen year old tycoon, Archie was attempting to "tour" with his college band, and Betty had avoided the town most of the summer. She hadn't crossed paths with Jughead once since she left for college.
Except, of course; for one night, the night she returned to Riverdale.
She'd driven all the way home from the University of Michigan, leaving right after her last exam. She had been dreaming of a milkshake during those last few hours of driving, and thanking God that Pop Tate kept the diner open twenty four hours. Fourteen hours worth of driving will do that to you. By the time she pulled in, the clock had just brushed midnight, and the place was practically empty.
He was sitting in the second booth to the left, just like they always had. Back when the four of them communicated more than congratulating Archie on a good game at school, or Veronica sending "streaks" Snapchats when she first woke up (whatever time zone she happened to be in.) Since then he claimed the booth alone, on nights when he needed a break from the Serpents. He saw her as soon as she walked in, looking up at the sound of the bell out of instinct. Her hair was down, longer than it used to be, with two little braids on the top of her head like a crown.
They stared at each other for a long moment before speaking. "Betty Cooper," he finally said.
Cheryl arrived at her house in the middle of the night, a plastic CVS bag in hand. She waited patiently outside Betty's bathroom, looking up when the door opened.
"Why three of them?"
"In case one is wrong," Cheryl said, smoothing out her black mini skirt. "So...when are we calling our man of the hour?"
"Ask me in three minutes."
And so they waited, in tense silence and perched on the edge of her childhood bed, until they had six blue lines staring back at them.
She knew it was a mistake from the moment that it happened. As much as she wanted to lie there in his arms, listening to him snore and feeling the heat of his skin against her cheek, she couldn't forget all the reasons they parted ways in the first place.
She could never live in Riverdale. Not after what her father had done. The last semester of her senior year had been absolute hell, nothing more than a harrowing countdown until she could leave this town and never look back. She was a pariah, both Betty and her mother. And when she caught a Northside freshman after breaking into her home, saying he "just wanted to know where the Black Hood lived," it was clear the Cooper family no longer had a place in the small, sleepy town that wasn't so sleepy anymore. She decided to pick the furthest University that had accepted her, packed up her things, and vowed she would never live in this town again.
And instantly, what Jughead feared from the start became all too real. He was tied to the Southside by the Serpents; he was their king. And while the gang had grown to accept her, she was never going to be safe in Riverdale as a whole. In lieu of taking out the rage the town felt for her father on him, they turned it onto her and her mother. And, when her mother opted to live with Polly upstate, the backlash rested solely on her.
Her friends did their best to shield her from the blows, but she came to the conclusion they all had seen coming. She couldn't live here. They waited for the taunting to die down, but it never did. Even now, a year after the fact, she needed an escort just to go to the grocery store without someone confronting her. After all, she was the daughter of the town serial killer.
And so their relationship was doomed, just as Romeo and Juliet's. He could never leave, she could never come back.
In one instant, her kitchen went from calm and quiet to an all out storm.
The side door to the house, empty but for her, flew open without warning. Jughead shoved himself into the room followed closely by an alarmed Archie. He looked over at Betty, wide eyed and mouth opened, then back to Jughead, trying to calm down his friend.
"When were you going to tell me?"
Her mouth turned to sandpaper.
"Why the hell did I have to hear about this from Archie?" he shouting, each word growing louder than the last.
She had never seen Jughead this angry before; at least, never directed at her. He had never yelled at her. He rarely yelled at anyone for that matter, opting instead for sardonic humor and smart ass comments. But now there was no holding back, no well thought out dialogue or banter, just cold and unbridled anger, filling up the room and threatening to engulf her.
"Or is it not even mine?" he taunted, furiously. They all knew it was a ridiculous question and the mirrored look of anger and insult she gave him said as much.
Archie stepped between the two, yet again attempting to quell his friend.
She never should have told Archie; at least, not before Jughead. But with her current inability to even visit the grocery store without getting stared at, or threatened, or ridiculed, he was the one currently taking her debit card and picking up groceries while she was in Riverdale. And she had no choice but to explain to him why he was picking up prenatal vitamins.
Archie turned, knocking the pot on the stove in the process. In all of the turmoil, she had left the handle sticking out, and he hadn't noticed while he stepped over to her and suddenly she was bathed in near boiling water as her attempt at dinner crashed to the floor. She jumped back instantly, crying out in pain, a strange but effective slap in the face to Jughead. He switched from hissing and seething to wetting washcloths in cool water; funny, he still knew exactly where they were kept. He moved to press it into her thigh where she was burned, but she pushed past both Archie and Jughead and hurried up the stairs, desperate to be away from them both.
She'd known he would find out eventually. He was the last person for her to tell, and Cheryl wouldn't be able to hide it forever, not when they saw each other daily. But something held her back every time she tried. There was no way of spinning this into a good situation; she loved Jughead, and she knew he still loved her, but they had ran their course and led two separate lives now. They were barely out of high school. Neither had any money (that wasn't completely true; she had her Blossom inheritance, but it would just be enough for her four years at U of M after scholarships) and most of all, there was no way for them to actually be together.
So, day by day she pretended the problem didn't exist; that Jughead didn't exist.
He had gotten a girl pregnant. Literally, the only thing he wasn't supposed to do, and actually intended on not doing. He was the leader of a gang, for Christ's sake. The only thing his father ever beat into his head was no glove, no love. It was something he passed on Sweet Pea after he started shacking up the Southside girls. He actually had to explain to the man-boy that when they say glove, they don't mean gloves, and that more than one at a time can break.
Jughead Jones, who had given the safe sex talk to at least half a dozen young Serpents, had gotten a girl pregnant.
Betty had locked herself inside her bathroom. Or, more accurately, had locked him out. He wanted to hold her, comfort her, to do all the things he knew he was supposed to, and should of done as soon as he found out. He could hear her crying, and his chest physically hurt. That was his fault. He did that. He stormed in here the moment Archie told him-why did their houses have to be so close-and blew before his head could catch up with him. How could he scream at her like that, given everything she was going through?
At the same time, how could she not tell him? Was she ever going to tell him? Their night together had been in the beginning of the summer...she was at least three months pregnant at this point. Was that how it worked? Do you start counting after conception, or after you find out?
Shit, he was going to be a father and he didn't even understand how.
"Betty?" he tried to speak through the door. Softy, calmly, the exact opposite of earlier. "Archie left. It's just you and I."
The words used to be so comforting, so hopeful. It's just you and I now. Now he didn't even know where they stood with one another. Betty didn't have a place inside his head the way she used to, nor he with her. Before, it was almost like he knew what she was thinking, even what she was going to say before she said it. Now, she was an enigma, yet again.
"Is your leg okay?" he tried again. It couldn't have been that bad of a burn, though it was on her bare skin. She was wearing those track shorts he liked; they were short and soft and she had nice legs.
"Betty please...please let me in. At least talk to me. I'm sorry I got mad before I just…" he trailed off. "I don't understand."
Her sobs could still be heard through the door, but they had gotten weaker. That was an improvement, maybe. He just wanted to hold her. He remembered how to comfort the girl who'd been his a year ago. Was it the same? Did she still press in closer when he placed his hand on the back of her neck? Was she still comforted when he kissed the top of her head?
What the hell were they going to do? How were they supposed to raise a kid? Who knows, maybe more twins, God knows her family had enough of them.
He heard her twist the lock without opening the door, and decided that was good enough a cue as any.
She was torn apart by two different feelings. On one hand, she want to yell right back at him. He was the one who ignored her calls after their night together, and he was the one who never tried to talk to her again. She was practically a booty call, a one night stand.
Except there was more to it than that and she knew it. She knew the lengths Jug would go to protect her, even shutting her out because they both knew their relationship was doomed. No sense pretending otherwise or trying to drag out the pain, something they both agreed when they parted ways. And if she really wanted to get ahold of him, she could have, she gave up pretty easily.
"What don't you understand?" she asked. Her voice didn't sound like her voice anymore.
"Why didn't you tell me, Betty?" he looked over at her from his seat on the floor.
She opened her mouth to explain that she really didn't know but all that came out were more tears. Almost instantly he drew her into his chest, his hand resting at the nape of her neck. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her across his lap and he held her while she cried, worse than before.
He murmured to her everything he could think of. Telling her it was going to be okay, that he was there for her, that they'd get through this together. But he wasn't sure he even believed any of it. He couldn't do much to help unless she stayed in Riverdale, and they both knew the likelihood of that. Jughead lived on favors and goodwill he had earned within the community. He had no money. He couldn't start over in a new place. He had no skills, he had no references. He was a gang leader, and the gang wouldn't be coming with him.
Right when Betty Cooper, who had just began going by Elizabeth, had gotten out of Riverdale, away from her father and away from the crime and murder and the gangs, she got pulled back in. One night of reunion with Jughead Jones. That one night meant they were stuck together.
Have a nice day! Thank you for reading