Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! Don't worry, I'm continuing this fic. It'll probably turn out to be 5? Maybe 6 chapters? It depends. I still haven't gotten to the part that appeared in my dream, and that's the part I'm really looking forward to cranking out for you guys. Enjoy, comment, share with your friends! I don't own Riverdale :)

3 years later

Jughead Jones sat in his very worn couch, trying to figure out how he screwed up his life so badly. Actually, he knows exactly how it happened. First, he took Betty to 9th grade Homecoming, and all was well. But then, his father got arrested for drug abuse, leaving Jughead Jones to go into the custody of his mother Gladys in Toledo. Problem was, he had no time to tell Betty (or any of his friends for that matter) why he was laughing in the school hallway with them one day and on a bus ride to Toledo the next.

But the worst part was that he couldn't bring himself to call. He couldn't willingly call Betty and Archie and tell them that FP Jones, the man that Jughead so desperately wanted to change, failed him yet again after the thousandth promise that he would clean up his act. He was embarrassed. But now, Jughead was 18 and had just arrived in Riverdale to claim his father's old trailer as his own.

Driving into Riverdale was like seeing a montage of a happier life. Passing by the Cooper's residence, Sweetwater River, and Riverdale High was like seeing another fucking cliche, another reminder that he left behind the best thing that could have happened to him: Betty Cooper.

As Jughead lay down on his couch, he closed his eyes to relive his most cherished memory of Betty Cooper on his arm in the streamer-filled gymnasium.

"Juggie, I'm so glad you came here with me." beamed an extremely content Betty Cooper. She was having a blast: the DJ had good taste in music, her favorite (extremely artificial) sugar cookies with frosting were available in the back of the gym, and she and Jughead were talking up a storm. Even better was the fact that Archie Andrews had repeatedly looked over at her and Jughead, almost in envy. She was making him jealous and she knew it.

Jughead hadn't wiped that smile off of his face since the day Betty said yes to going with him. With that ridiculous smile, he responded, "I'm glad you said yes, Juliet." Thanks to their Honors English I class, Betty and Jughead bonded over the Romeo and Juliet's story, and the nicknames simply stuck.

Suddenly, the DJ changed the song to a relatively slow cover of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by the Beatles. He instructed, "Alright kids, grab your date and head onto the dance floor."

Jughead looked over to Betty, who was bright red from her furious blushing. Then he looked to the dance floor and saw Archie and Veronica swaying slowly (with too little space between them). He looked back at Betty.

She was truly radiant. She wore a baby pink dress that clung to her upper body but cascaded onto her thighs like ribbons of liquid caramel. She didn't wear makeup, because she was currently in the middle of an animal testing boycott. But nothing mattered to him except for the fact that she was here, and she was here with HIM.

Betty turned to face him, saying, "Don't I get at least 1 dance?"

And with that, her soft, recently manicured hand grabbed onto Jughead's, and they danced together under the soft lights of the gym.

Every time he remembered this, Jughead felt joy, but he also felt pain. Pain in the fact that his childhood was stolen from him, pain because he had to leave the only girl who had actually made an effort to talk to him, and pain knowing that he had to throw everything away for a man who didn't even bother to ask him how his day went after school. But Jughead needed closure, so here he was, alone and sad in the place that once was so happy.

But inside, he never got over the swarm of butterflies that he felt when Betty grabbed his hand to dance with him. She was the only redeeming quality of the town.

Jughead simply had to see her. He couldn't take another year of silence from the charismatic cheerleader. And so he found himself in his car, trying to remember the route to the Cooper residence. His pulse quickened as his car approached their driveway.

As he arrived in front of the picturesque house, planning what to say after all these years, he was stopped by the sound of a door opening. And out of it walked Betty and Archie, hand in hand.

Jughead could've sworn he heard his heart breaking there and then.