Author's note: I don't own "Riverdale" or its characters.
Hugging in a Horror House
She ran into the next bright, free room she saw. She didn't care about whether it was appropriate or clever to enter another private part of this horrible mansion once again, or not.
She just desperately needed to get out of there, out of his room.
.
Out of the dead boy's room.
Out of Jason Blossom's room, their school's former football star number one.
Her own sister's dead fiancé, as it seemed...
.
Seconds later, the bedroom door opened again, and clunked shut.
"Betty, wait!"
She turned around as he grabbed her sleeve. She sobbed, slightly hysterical, and suddenly he was hugging her.
.
And she allowed herself to be hold, for a moment. To lose her grasp on that perfectly calm facade, - of the perfectly perfect, normal girl she was supposed to be. She didn't hide the terror she felt, didn't play it down.
"Did you hear that, Juggy? They wanted to marry! Polly wanted to marry Jason!"
.
Jughead's arms tightened a little around her, as if he wanted to comfort her. It worked.
His clothes smelled like cleaning powder and library books, but in a nice way. His breathing was incredibly soothing, for some reason. Betty lay her head on his shoulder, close to his neck. ' Juggy's got the perfect height for this', she abstractedly noticed.
"Perhaps she's lying, Betts.", he said, and gently stroked her back.
"Or perhaps, it's true, and your sister wasn't manipulated by Jason. Perhaps, he really liked her, and wasn't such a douchebag after all..."
.
"But would that be better? Jughead, what if that creepy lady in there is right, and if Polly.. you know... 'lost the love of her young life', or something? What if she'll never be sane again, after this?"
He chuckled, darkly, so close to her ear that her skin tingled.
"Betty. We don't have a clue what's going on here, we shouldn't rely on the first creepy old lady we meet in some horror movie setting to get our answers. We should talk to your sister first, shouldn't we?"
.
Betty sighed and took a last deep breath, nodding. She freed herself from his hug, gratefully smiling at him.
"You're right, of course. I'm just overreacting..."
He shook his head, smirking. "Not really. Yours is a condign dose of an overreaction, I think."
Betty laughed at this. "Thanks, Juggy.", she earnestly added.
"Sure.", he murmured. His smile was casual and warm at the same time. "Always...-"
.
"-..Wait. Betty, do you think we might be standing in the bedroom of Cheryl's parents?"
"Oh. Gosh, can this day get anyhow more creepy?"
.
"Well, I mean, every town needs its Horror House, doesn't it?"
.
They left the room with a chuckle and inconspicuously sneaked downstairs, back to the obsequies.
And while the secret she'd just might have discovered about her sister was still distressing Betty, and while her head was still full of fears and questions, it somehow didn't seem to be that horrible anymore with Jughead around.
.
Perhaps, this whole thing about Polly being engaged to a dead Jason Blossom wasn't a catastrophe trough and through, Betty thought.
Perhaps, it was just another mystery for the "Blue and Gold"'s fantastic editorial department to solve.
Author's note: Okay, so I'm not that happy about this one, since it's probably much too positive for their situation. I wanted to post it, anyway. Reviews are loved. Have a nice evening. ^^