Big thank you to everyone who commented and supported this story after the first chapter. I'm glad you're enjoying it and hope you'll continue to do so. :) The third chapter should be coming your way on Thursday
Jughead watches Betty as she storms out of the kitchen, a wide grin plastered on his face. There is something about the way she looks when she's angry with him. The way her cheeks flush and her beautiful green eyes sparkle. Like she wants to wrap her hands around his neck and strangle him, but she thinks better of it and stops herself, spiting petty insults at him instead. It amuses him like nothing else. There is something extremely endearing about it. And hot, he hates to admit. No other woman has been able to fire him up like Betty Cooper. And yet he hates her. God, how much he hates her.
The first month Jughead didn't really acknowledge her. Her position in the company is usually filled by interns and people who want an easy temporary job while looking for something better. But for some reason Betty decided to stick around and Jughead knew he couldn't ignore her forever. Well, he could, but she seemed to be trying very hard to change that. One of the many things that irked him about the blonde. Sure, she was pretty and hard working, but also overly friendly and nice with a disgustingly positive attitude. As if nothing has ever gone wrong in her life. And Jughead assumed it hasn't. Because who else would be so enthusiastic about the crappy job she landed. With her pastel cardigans, wide smiles and incredible need to please everyone around her, she seemed to be his polar opposite. And while opposites may attract, they rarely work.
In her attempts to befriend him she once brought him a blueberry pie and even though he would never admit it to anyone, it was the best pie he has ever eaten and Jughead wished he could've written about it for his section of the website. He has been secretly hoping she would bring it again ever since. But of course that's just one of the many things about her he would never tell her. Like the fact that the very first time he saw her he ended up spilling coffee on himself because he couldn't take his eyes off her and ran into a glass door. Not his proudest moment.
But a lot has changed since then. Jughead is an observer so despite the little interaction between them, he has learned a few things about her. She hasn't missed a single day of work, nor has he ever seen her leave early, often staying in the office during the lunch break. So she's either trying to keep her job and climb the career ladder very hard or she doesn't have anything better to do with her day. Possibly both, he assumes. She's most definitely a people pleaser, a fact he likes to throw in her face regularly. Not always to be mean, but to make her realize that the people around them don't always need her help, and they just want to use her, since she clearly can't say no them. But most importantly, he notices how disgustingly nice she is.
She reminds him of some of the girls he hated in high school. Not the typical mean girls who only cared about being popular and bullied everyone who wasn't. Though he hated those too. Betty Cooper reminds him of the girls who look sweet and helpful on the outside, but they are willing to quietly bring you down if it makes them look better in front of the others. The kind that used to look down at him and his sister all through elementary and high school because they were poor, which in their eyes meant that they weren't worth being treated decently. The girls who made his little sister come home in tears because she didn't have the latest Barbie and therefore wasn't worth their time.
But most importantly she reminds him of his mother. The sweet woman who read him stories every night before bed when he was little, held his hand during storms and helped him with any small or big trouble he may have had. During all that she had a huge smile on her face that assured him that no matter what happened, she would always be there for him. Until she wasn't. It was that day in late August when he came home after having a fight with his friend that she first yelled at him, saying he would turn out just like his father. That night she didn't come to read to him before bed, nor was she making him breakfast the following morning. She was gone and so was his sister. The next time he saw her was two years later when she brought Jellybean back, just to disappear once and for all with no explanation or goodbye.
Jughead knows it's an asshole move to hate Betty just because she reminds him of someone who was cruel to him at some point. But he doesn't trust people who are nice to him for no reason. In Jughead's experience, niceness precedes hurt and people you care about can hurt you so much more. Jughead doesn't want to get hurt again. And being an asshole usually helps him prevent that.
So after a few weeks of assessing her personality he made a decision that she definitely wouldn't be making her way into his small circle of friends. Therefore there was no need for him to try to be friendly with her. Not that he was before he made his decision. But unlike the other people in the office who mostly ignored him, she kept pushing. Kept trying to find a way to weave into his life. So he started pushing her away. At first just ignoring her, later letting some mean remarks slip. Sooner than he realized there was a full on war going on between them. Because instead of leaving him alone, she started coming up with her own ways to scorn him. And now not a day passes without them exchanging a hateful glance or a mean comment. Maybe he should hate it. Maybe he is too old for childish games like this. But seeing Betty all worked up over a particularly well thought through piece of insult he sends her way or the proud look on her face when she comes up with one of her own is sometimes the best thing about his day. Just another item on the list of things he would never share.
It's exactly 3pm when Jughead finally finishes his work for the day. Some days his articles write themselves, some days it takes a huge amount of thinking to put together something worth publishing. When he first started working for Clickfeed it was just one of his many side jobs to cover his tuition to NYU. But when his articles about the different restaurants and food chains he tried in New York started bringing a significant amount of traffic to the website he got himself a full-time contract. But with more popularity comes more pressure from his boss. He wants him to write more, but keep it positive under all circumstances. They wouldn't want to upset anyone, would they? It's far from an ideal job, but it pays almost well enough. And he needs the money. When his sister Jellybean got accepted to Columbia on partial scholarship, he promised her, but mostly himself, that he would take care of her. He wouldn't let her worry about whether she could afford to go back to school the next semester or not. And if it means holding onto the not so ideal job while also spending some of his afternoons and weekends at construction sites for at least a few more years, it's totally worth it. He may or may not be acting like an asshole sometimes, but when he cares, he cares deeply.
He gathers his things and moves towards the exit, casting a quick glance at Betty across the office. As usually, despite most of the people packing their things and getting ready to leave, she's holding a phone to her ear with her shoulder, while trying to balance a stack of papers with one hand and a cup of coffee, most likely meant for their boss, in the other hand. Jughead just shakes his head and a small grin grows on his lips. She is too nice. Too nice for her own good.