Bughead Summer

Chapter One

Jughead

"Where's Betty?" I ask Veronica. She has tears on her face. Her body is clearly shaking. She has someone on the phone with her but right now all I care about is finding my Betty. Veronica pushes her phone to the side and points to the sidewalk across the parking lot by my motorcycle. I nod to her, grazing my hand over her shoulder before I run across the parking lot to her.

Betty is standing by my motorcycle with her arms over her chest. She has tears on her face and is clearly in panic.

"Betty?" I ask.

She doesn't say anything.

"We're going to get him out of there," I promise.

She shakes her head and shrugs, looking terrified.

"What if we don't? What if he's in there forever? What if there's nothing any of us can do?" she asks all at once. I can see her chest rising and falling so quickly I am scared that she is going to throw herself into a panic attack soon. I know she loves Archie. I do too. But this panic isn't going to help anyone. And all it does is scare me to death.

"He's probably scared to death! He's alone. Everyone knows now! Everyone saw them arrest him! People are already forming opinions. Even when he does come out, he's not going to be safe. Jughead, he's alone! We're his best friends, we should be with him, talking to him, getting him out of there!" she shouts.

"Okay. Betty, I need you to remember how to breathe," I say.

"Why does it matter? If we don't have Archie. God, Ronnie is probably freaking out," she says, almost heaving. I can see her intake breath but she is unable to let it go. I grab her arms when her eyes start looking glossy and her legs go weak. She breathes heavily but it's like she is never getting enough air.

"Betty? Betty!" I say a few times, holding her hand. But she doesn't let it fall from the fists she is holding it in. She is shaking so I unravel her bleeding hand, not caring that she bleeds on me when I wrap my hands in hers.

"Breathe with me," I beg her.

She shakes her head with scared eyes. I put my bloody hands on either side of her face to make her lock eyes with me. We stare at each other as I breathe slowly, making her follow my rhythm.

"Just breathe with me," I ask again.

"I can't," she says, more tears falling down her face. I take one of her hands and put it on my chest. She clenches her fingers around my shirt as I breath as calmly as I can. I want to panic too but I know that is not going to help anyone.

"Betty," I say. "Come on. Just breathe with me. Follow my breathing. Please, Betty. I'm right here with you. I just need you to focus on our breathing. Together."

She nods and starts attempting to breathe the same way. She follows my breathing but hers is hitched and shaking. We do this for a while until that most natural of emotions is gone from her chest. The panic is gone but then the tears come and they are powerful, racking her entire body with fear. She drops her head and her arms in defeat, sobbing. Her tears fall down on the ground like raindrops.

"Betty," I say. "Come here."

She falls into my arms and I encompass her in safety. We hold each other there in the middle of the parking lot by my motorcycle, holding each other in a mess of fear. It is not long before if feel myself losing the ability to hold back my own emotions. I can feel the tears prick at the edges of my eyes. I don't want to scare her. But our best friend is charged with murder. This is not going to be easy.

"I'm scared, Juggie," she says.

I squeeze her tighter, feeling her hands clench my shirt on my back. My hand rests on her head gently, hoping that somehow that will help her enough to calm her down just a little. It doesn't. She is still terrified.

"Me too," I admit, sniffling to prevent that emotion from surfacing. This is not something I should be allowed to get upset about quite yet. We don't know all of the truths. There is still hope.

"He might be alright, Bets," I promise her. "There is a chance that this will all be gone in a few days."

"And there is a chance that it won't be and he'll be in prison, Juggie!" she says against my shirt. I keep her there, not wanting her to leave just yet. I want her warm, soft body against mine. But I also want her panic to leave her completely. We are not far enough away from that possibility of a panic attack for me to let her go.

"Sh, Bets," I tell her. "When we go to see him, you can't be like this. He is already scared to death. Seeing his best friends scared is not going to help him. He needs us. He needs you, Betty."

She pulls away just a little so that I can see her confused face. She tilts her head but I keep my arms on her.

"What do you mean?"

"When something tragic happens, Archie falls on you, Betty. He always has. He fights with me, he has sex with Veronica and he expects you to hug him when he breaks. You're his best friend. When we go to him, we have to be strong," I assure her. I don't even mind when the words come out of my mouth and I know their truth. It doesn't scare me at all. I know she is mine. But right now, we all have to fall into our rolls with Archie. We all have to support him. That's how he would want her to.

"Alright," she agrees, sniffling and wiping her face off. I grab her hands and open them, kissing just above the bloody part of her palms. She looks disappointed and a little sad, tears still on her face.

"It's okay," I tell her. "That's why I held your hands. I wanted you to stop that."

"Sorry," she says in a small voice.

"We have to see him," I tell her. "We have to find out what this is about and like we always do, we're gonna figure out to fix it for him."

She nods. "What if we can't this time? This is the law, Jug. This is not just some mystery we try to solve. This is above us."

"I know," I say, not feeling confident about it either. But we have to do this. If we don't, we are going to lose him for good.

"We'll do it," I assure her, trying to control the shaking in my own hands. But she notices it before I am able to. She grabs my hands and looks down at them, then back to my face. I manage an honest smirk.

"Juggie?" she asks.

"He's my best friend too, Betty," I assure.

She nods.

"I remember being questioned. I remember being sent to juvy. I hated it. A bunch of kids that hated life, that did things just to piss everyone else off. Believe me, Betty. He should not go in there. I was a tough kid. I was raised on the wrong side. Everyone there was too. But he's an outsider. He's a north sider. Everyone there will be a serpent or a ghoulie or just jacked up kids. He can't be in there," I say, realizing that maybe I have my own small amount of panic in my chest. Betty is there to settle my nerves from going haywire.

"Jug," she says quietly, holding her hand on my face. "We'll get him out. We have to. Like you said, it's what we do anyway."

I nod.

"We should go see him," I suggest.

I hand her my helmet and look to the bike. She knows we have to. She is not afraid of it anymore. Part of me thinks she might actually like it. She leans her body onto mine, wrapping her arms around my waist.

"So, when do I get a serpent jacket?" she asks in my ear.

I turn around and look at her beautiful, perfect face. I hadn't realized that she knew she wanted to. I had almost forgotten about the question. With everything else going on, it didn't seem to matter. But it does. Life has to go on for us out here.

She is smiling.

"Whenever you want one," I say.

"I want one," she says with a nod.

"You want to be my queen?" I ask her with a smile that will not go away.

"Of course," she agrees.

As we ride off to our best friend who is currently facing jail time, I am smiling despite it all, with my queen on the back of our stallion.