Author's Note: Newly obsessed with Riverdale and Bughead.
I took a small amount of inspiration from the book "Beautiful Disaster" by Jamie Mcguire, but the story will go in a COMPLETELY different direction. The only real similar plot device are the illicit underground fights. That's where the similarities stop.
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Prologue
Betty Cooper did not take risks.
She was safe and stable, warm hugs and smiles, cookies and hot chocolate and long nights spent curled up in bed.
Betty Cooper did not belong in dimly lit, sweaty basements, surrounded by screaming strangers and brawling boys, circling each other like birds of prey. Anyone who looked at her would know just how out of place she was in this environment, with her soft, pink sweaters and curled ponytail.
The woman next to her blended in much more seamlessly. With her dark hair and darker jacket, her calm demeanor was the only thing out of place. But her eyes hadn't strayed anywhere from the center of the makeshift ring since they had arrived, and occasionally her calm façade would crack with a flinch or a gasp.
This gave Betty the opportunity to glance around, taking in her surroundings. But that was the thing – all she did was look. No furtive glances, no panicked grimaces. She just stared, as if observing from a great distance.
Detached. Bored.
She may not have belonged, but the blonde had carved out a space for herself in the damp, humid room.
And those who let their eyes linger on Betty Cooper for too long would see something beyond the ponytail and sweaters – they would see the flush of her cheeks, the sharp curve of her neck as she strained for a better view. They would see the tension in her shoulders relax and melt away the longer she observed, dripping from her body like the blood of the fighters before her.
And if they looked long enough, they might see the glint in her eye that indicated this was not the first time she'd had blood on the soles of her shoes.
At least, that was what Jughead Jones saw that night