All your reviews were so sweet, thank you everyone who took the time! I appreciate it SO MUCH! :')
S/O and response to PeachyyyyBombshell: I actually haven't seen the story Remember Us on Instagram, but I just looked it up and I AM SHOOK how similar our stories are! But I guarantee you that YES my story will be more detailed and it is definitely going in a different direction ;)
QUICK POLL: what color do you think Betty's Serpent Jacket should be? I'm stumped, I'm not sure what her favorite color is. I've gotten requests for a light blue or a dark pink—what do you think?
I really want to make this story great, so PM me or review any plot suggestions or character requests! :) xx
Previously:
Intending to comfort her, Jughead reached out to stroke her hair, but she slapped his hand away. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she shouted, scooting as far away as she could from him.
He looked at her, confused. "Betts—" he tried again, reaching instead for her hand, but she recoiled and pulled both her hands close to her chest.
"Stop!" she insisted. Her breathing increased as she panicked harder. Then, she looked at him with a bewildered expression and asked the one question that made Jughead's heart stop:
"Who the hell are you?"
Betty had pushed herself to the very corner of her bed—the farthest away from him. Jughead stared at her in shock, but slowly registered what was happening. He eventually pushed down his rising concern and pleaded with her softly, "Betty…look at me." She did, but with such a frightened expression that it broke his heart. He was scaring her. "Do you…not remember me?" Betty looked at him with tears welling up in her eyes. She opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted when a man came rushing in.
He looked young, about twenty-five, with blonde hair and fair skin. He had an interesting set of eyes; one was blue and the other was brown. "Oh—I apologize, I didn't know she had visitors," he said, seeing an alarmed Jughead. "My name is Dr. Watkins." He held his hand out to shake Jughead's.
With a broken voice, he said quietly to the doctor, "I don't think she remembers me."
"Oh goodness, what a shame…" Dr. Watkins looked at Jughead with an expression that pitied him. "I take it you're the boyfriend?" Jug only nodded tightly in response.
The doctor then turned to Betty and said, "Hi there, sweetheart, I'll be taking care of you today. How are you feeling?"
Jughead glared at the doctor for addressing Betty as "sweetheart". But Betty didn't think much of it; she simply said, "I'm…tired. And confused." While this conversation happened, Jughead pulled out his phone and texted Veronica.
J: Betty's awake. You guys have to get back here, now.
V: OMG, Jug that's GREAT! We're almost there—Is she ok?
J: The doctor is checking her now…but V, I don't think she remembers me.
V: That's crazy, Jughead. There's no way she could forget you.
The doctor's voice caught Jughead's attention and he put his phone away to observe what was happening to Betty. "Can I ask you a few questions?" Dr. Watkins asked, and Betty nodded. "Can you tell me your name?"
Jughead tensed at the long pause she took. He was watching her intently when her gaze shifted from the doctor to meet Jughead's eyes. She frowned at him. "Betty. Or 'Betts.' That's what that guy kept calling me," she muttered, gesturing sharply towards Jughead with her chin. 'That guy?' he thought painfully. Really? He was just 'that guy' now?
"Oh dear." The doctor turned to Jughead and said sadly, "It appears she really doesn't remember you."
That comment really stung. He wanted to be angry at the doctor for rubbing it in, but it was a true statement—she really didn't remember him. Jughead swallowed his pain and spoke quietly to the doctor. "Is there anything I can do? To help her remember?"
The doctor tutted his tongue in a tsk tsk tsk; it was as if the man enjoyed irritating Jughead. "No…I am so sorry. That just wouldn't be a good idea…Betty really needs some time to process everything. In fact…I think it may be too overwhelming for her to have any visitors right now," he said, with the same pitiful tone of voice.
Jughead clenched his teeth. He was absolutely floored by this doctor's behavior—weren't doctors supposed to do their job without showing emotions that could upset the patients and their families?
He pushed his frustration aside and repeated his question. "So there's nothing I can do?"
"Well, you can leave," the doctor suggested smugly. With a fake smile plastered on his face, he gestured to the door.
Jughead glared daggers at the man. If Betty weren't in the room, he probably would have knocked this guy into next week. But, he didn't want to risk scaring Betty any more than he already had. So Jughead held his tongue, followed the doctor's orders, and left.
He was pacing angrily outside of Betty's room when he saw Veronica and Archie running towards him. Before either one of them could say anything, Jughead said, "Don't get me wrong, I am overjoyed that Betty's awake—but does she really need Dr. Asshole?"
Veronica and Archie glanced at him with confused expressions. "Who?" they both asked.
"Her doctor," Jughead explained. He shook his head, exasperated. "I know I shouldn't be talking shit about the person who's helping her get better—but he's just so infuriating!"
"Jughead, are you sure you're not just…emotional?" Veronica said carefully. "You know, from everything that's happened to Betty?"
Jughead sighed. "Of course I am. But I'm telling you, V, that guy—"
He cut himself off when he saw Alice running down the hall towards them. She wasn't alone; an older doctor was by her side.
A confused Jughead looked at the man, and then back at Alice. "Who the hell is he?"
"This is Dr. Watkins, Betty's doctor." Alice said. She grinned at Jughead. "I finally found him!"
The man genuinely smiled at Jughead and reached out his hand in greeting. "Hi there," he said. "Alice tracked me down just as my nurses paged me with an alert from Betty's room."
Jughead's mind started working overtime. "Wait, you're Betty's doctor?"
Veronica laughed dryly and interrupted, raising her hands. "Hi—sorry, confused. If you're Betty's doctor, then who—"
CRASH!
Shattered glass sounded from Betty's room just as Jughead figured out what was going on. "Fuck!" he cursed. He tried to open the door, only to find it locked.
"Together," Archie suggested, and Jughead nodded in understanding. Together, the two of them kicked the door, hard. It flew open, and everyone rushed in to find a shattered window and an unconscious Betty.
The real Dr. Watkins had notified security, but it was too late—the strange man had already disappeared. Veronica, Archie and Jughead were asked to wait outside while Dr. Watkins checked Betty for any injuries; to ensure Betty's safety, Alice stayed in the room.
Out of nowhere, Jughead slammed his fist into one of the waiting room tables, making a loud BOOM! that startled some people nearby.
"Dude, stop," Archie said, grabbing hold of his arm. "That's not going to help."
"I should have known Doctor Dickwad was a fake—" Jughead said, pissed. "I was literally in the same room with that imposter, Arch. I mean, God, if anything happened to Betty because I left him there—I just—" Jughead was so mad, he struggled to form sentences. "Do you have any idea how I'm feeling right now?"
"I know you're upset, man, but that could've happened to any of us," Archie said, trying to comfort his friend.
Veronica scooted closer to Jughead and placed an arm around his shoulders. "Yeah, Jug, you gotta stop blaming yourself. Just be happy that Betty's still with us, and she's going to be okay."
But Jughead was far too absorbed in his own thoughts to respond. He wondered if Betty's memory loss was temporary; maybe waking up from a coma gets you all confused? He really couldn't know—and he definitely couldn't trust anything Dr. Asshole said to him. I should have rearranged his ugly face when I had the chance, he thought sourly. Ah, missed opportunities…
None of them tried to stir up the conversation. They sat in the waiting room in silence, too depressed and shook up to try and sugar coat the situation. Jughead knew one thing for certain: Betty was the glue that held this group together. Without her, they were broken. And it felt as though someone was trying to tear them apart.
But who?
As if things weren't already worse, Alice's sobs sounded from down the hall. Oh no… Jughead panicked and stood when he saw Alice come running towards them with tears streaming down her face.
"Mrs. Cooper?" Veronica asked, worriedly placing a hand on Alice's arm. "What happened?"
Between tears and shaky gasps, Alice looked at the group of teens and said, "Betty, she—she doesn't remember me, and—and she doesn't even know who she is!"
Betty had no sustaining injuries. They weren't sure what that strange man did to Betty, but no additional harm was noted. As Dr. Watkins explained to the group before they left the hospital, some amnesia is common in patients coming out of a coma—but complete and total memory loss? Even Dr. Watkins found the situation odd. He took some blood samples and said he would run some tests to be sure nothing else was wrong.
"Go home," the doctor had told them all. "Take Betty with you. If anything, being in a familiar home with her friends may jog her memories. Don't force her to try and remember—just let her familiarize herself with her surroundings."
So that's what they did. But as they would soon find out, their efforts to help her remember only made the situation worse.
Betty felt numb. On the whole ride home from the hospital, she stayed silent and stared outside. She tuned out this chatterbox of a woman who was apparently her mother, and instead watched the rain fall hard against the car window.
She knew that she lost her memories. She didn't know who she was, who her friends were, who her family was... It was unsettling, like her mind had been wiped clean.
All she knew was her name, and that was only because of that strange boy in the beanie who so rudely invaded her personal space back at the hospital.
The car eventually came to a stop in front of this big, beautiful white house. Betty sighed when she looked at it. "I assume this is home?" Alice's face lit up and Betty quickly added, "I don't recognize it, no…I'm just assuming this is where we live because you turned off the car."
Alice's face fell. "Oh…well, yes—this is home. This has been the only home you've known your entire life."
An awkward silence fell between the two before she noticed a pickup truck pull up next door and park. Betty recognized the three teens who were also at the hospital and she frowned. "What are they doing here?"
"Well, the redheaded boy is our neighbor. He's been your best friend since you were very young. And the others wanted to come and show you around the house, maybe pick out some things that might jog your memory—"
"I don't want them here," Betty interrupted, staring at the group outside.
Alice looked at Betty like she grew a third eye. "What?"
"I said, I don't want them to come over," Betty repeated sternly, looking at her mother hard. "Please tell them to leave."
Alice was taken aback, but she reluctantly agreed. She got out of the car and approached the three kids that were walking in her direction. "I'm sorry," Alice said, "but you all have to leave."
"Leave?" Veronica laughed. "That's ridiculous, we just got here."
"Yeah, Mrs. Cooper, I thought you wanted us to help out with Betty," Archie said.
"Well…Betty says she doesn't want your help. She wanted me to tell you all to leave," Alice replied. She wrung her hands nervously. "Kids, I don't agree with it, but I don't think making Betty more upset would be helpful."
"Why is she upset?" Jughead asked. "What upset her?"
"I don't know," she replied honestly. "She was quiet the whole way home, but once she saw you all here, she got mad and asked me to keep you all away."
The kids said nothing in response except looked at each other uneasily. Jughead was staring back at the car, no doubt trying to see how Betty was doing.
"Please," Alice said, "Just go home for tonight and we'll figure something out tomorrow."
Betty watched from the car as her mother talked to the three teens. The boy with the beanie kept glancing back towards her, and she couldn't figure out why.
She also couldn't explain why they bothered her. All she knew was that she didn't want to be around them. How they were friends, she didn't know. Betty felt nothing but animosity towards the group. With her memory gone, Betty's only option was to trust her gut feeling—and right now, her gut feeling was telling her to stay away from those three kids.
Relief flooded through her when she saw them all leave. Alice Cooper came back to the car and opened her door. "They're gone, sweetie. It's just you and me tonight."
Betty said nothing. She also felt annoyed towards her mother, and she (again) didn't know why. Probably because she talks too much, she thought to herself.
Throughout the rest of the evening, Alice showed her around the house. She pointed out all her favorite things—none of which rang any bells whatsoever. Even her bedroom—with her pictures, books, and posters on the wall—didn't feel familiar to her.
"I think I'd like to be alone, now," she said quietly to her mom. Alice looked around sadly, but agreed to give her her space.
She stopped at the doorway before leaving Betty in her room. "I arranged for Archie to come walk you to school tomorrow, if you're up for it?" Betty shrugged uneasily. Alice quickly added, "If you don't feel like going back to school, we can postpone it another few days…"
"No," Betty said, "it's fine. School sounds good." Archie did not. But maybe something at school would help her remember who she was.
When her mom finally left Betty to her own, she let out a big sigh of relief and laid back on her bed. Her head hit something hard on her pillow and she muttered "Ow" in pain. She sat up and lifted the sheets to see a small, white box sitting on her pillow. It was big enough to fill her hand, and had a black ribbon that tied into a neat little bow.
Odd, Betty said with a frown. Even in her blank state-of-mind Betty knew she wouldn't leave anything on her pillow. Maybe this was a present of hers that she received before her accident?
But it was still sealed. A small card was tucked neatly into the bow and she pulled it out:
Betty
I hope this helps you remember me. I'll be in touch, soon.
All my love...
It was left unsigned.
Inside the box was a small glass bottle. The body was a beautiful red, with a black tinted cap. It was a perfume bottle—but with no tags or labels, so she couldn't identify the price or the brand.
She sprayed a little perfume on her wrist and inhaled. Roses. She had a feeling that she used to like roses a lot—after all, they were pretty and she liked the smell. She sprayed more on her other wrist and inhaled again. The scent of the roses was so pure, so subtly-sweet. Pleased with her gift, Betty smiled and lay back down, closing her eyes while taking in the floral fragrance.
Because of her lack of memories left her with nothing else to think about, Betty's mind wandered to roses—their beautiful colors, shapes, scents. Her thoughts drifted to the beautiful gift. She wondered who left it for her—a friend? A boyfriend? Secret admirer?
Her pleasant thoughts were shattered when a face suddenly flashed through her mind. Betty gasped, opening her eyes and bolting upright. Who the hell was that?
The face flashed a second time in her mind, and Betty tried to focus hard on its features. It was a young man, with light skin, a sharp nose, defined jawline...Dark hair—brown? Black? She couldn't tell.
The image of the man lasted in her head about two seconds before it disappeared. It was long enough for her to recognize those eyes. They were a dark brown. Almost black. Betty was positive she's seen those eyes before.
She obviously remembered someone significant—but who was this strange man?
I rewrote this chapter like 3 different times! I'm already hopping on the next one, because I really want to get it out a lot sooner.
I love writing from Jughead's POV, but I think we'll start seeing more of Betty's thoughts. She has a wild ride coming up—next chapter, some memories will be introduced!
QUICK POLL: What color do you think Betty's Serpent jacket should be?
THANK YOU LOVELIES for all the support and motivation! See you back in a few days! xx