Jughead moves back to Riverdale High.
It is all very sudden, Veronica got her father to pull a favor and even though Jughead didn't initially favor the transition back all too much, the more he talked about it with Max, the more he realized that this was where he belonged. With his best friends.
With Betty.
He immediately got thrown back into all the things he left. Writing for the Blue and Gold, sitting with the gang at lunch, and getting to spend more time with his girl.
It all hit Max very quickly. Jughead went from a 'boy who went to another school who was dating Betty' to just 'dating Betty'. Max had never really seen this before, and it was slowly consuming her like a wave in a hurricane.
They are at a party when the wave finally crashes, a sudden extreme aching in her chest and loss of breath when she sees Betty and him cuddling on the couch. They're happy. And they should be. They worked exceedingly well together, the ideal parts of one spilling over into the flaws of another, and somehow making them more complete. People say young love is stupid, but they can't deny that it's powerful. And their love was.
Jughead and Betty were obviously poking fun at each other, both lit with smiles and aglow with energy. They locked eyes and shared lips like a goddamn movie.
She left the party early.
It took a few days to really wrap her head around this. Yes, she had known it all along, but really witnessing the two of them in action, in love, was something she hadn't really absorbed until that night. And though she didn't believe in love at first sight until Jughead, that damned boy, she didn't want to base her entire life off of it. It would frankly be a waste of love to give. And though she didn't want to admit it, she had a lot of love to give.
She began to hang out with Archie and Veronica more.
For two people who were passionately in love one moment and completely broken up not even 3 weeks later, they got along wonderfully. Max could hardly understand it, and she didn't think they really did either. But they were fine, as all breakups turn out to be eventually, and a great distraction from her ever-collapsing home life.
"Maxaroni and cheese, my love. My bestie. My literal wife. Please, please help me with this Calculus." Veronica throws her pencil down on her stack of math papers with a huff, turning to Max with the saddest puppy dog eyes she could muster.
Max rolls her eyes.
"Only if you never say those god-awful things again, Jesus Christ." She reaches to pick up the pencil, her eyes examining the various problems.
"Ronnie, when is this due?"
Veronica looks at her with a sheepish grin on her face.
"Um. 6th period."
Max can't help but drop her jaw a little. "Oh my God. Oh my God! You're an idiot! There's like twenty-five problems and you have done two!" She tries her hardest to keep a straight face, but can't help but smile a little at the idiot move her friend had pulled.
"Max I really, really, need to get this done. I haven't done the last two homeworks and if I don't do this one I'm one hundred percent going to have to seduce Mr. Keller into letting me off the hook and I would actually perish if I had to do that." Veronica shudders dramatically at the thought, putting on a show for Max.
Max once again rolls her eyes, a grin plastered on her face.
"I will buy you an entire wardrobe for the parties this weekend if you do this for me, please Maxie." Veronica grabs Max's hands and pouts her lip, being as dramatic as she could muster.
"Well– "
Max is abruptly cut off at the appearance of Archie, who plops down at the cafeteria table.
"Hey ladies. Where's Jughead and Betty?"
"Working on something for the Blue and Gold. Here," Max grabs one of the homework sheets and places it in front of Archie. "Do this. Ronnie is buying all the alcohol this weekend if we get this done before 6th period, and I'm tag teaming you. We are tag teaming it."
Archie's eyes light up. "Oh shit, free alcohol? I need a pencil."
"Max!" Veronica cries out, her hands shooting up in a 'what the fuck' gesture. Max grins.
"I think it's a fair deal. Please Ronnie?" It's her turn to shoot the puppy eyes towards the raven-haired girl.
Veronica sighs. "Yeah, I guess it's fair. Only because I love you two."
"Sweet!" Archie cheers as he and Max high five. Archie digs through his backpack before pulling out the saddest, most pathetic pencil he can find. Veronica stares at him.
"Archie," She says.
He looks up.
"Please take one of my pencils and throw that God-awful one away, its begging to be trashed."
"It's probably the saddest thing I have ever seen," Max adds with a laugh, and Archie thinks a moment before grabbing the one Veronica had extended towards him.
"You guys have saved me in so many ways."
"Arch you take ten, I'll do ten, and Ronnie I'm giving you three. Can you do that?" Max looks over at Veronica for approval.
Veronica takes a short breath, staring intently at the paper.
"I hope so."
"Alright, dream team let's get it."
They finish the Calculus just before lunch ends, and Max and Archie could not be more stoked. They are excitedly chatting through the halls of Riverdale High when they (quite literally) run into Jughead and Betty.
"Hey, watch where you're going punk," Archie jokes, and their faces erupt in smiles. Max feels a small pang in her chest. Small, but still there.
"Arch, you really need to be more careful when you are bounding down the hall like that." Betty says with a smile.
"Well I'll be more careful if you stop bursting out of doors looking super suspicious," He beams in return.
They continue to banter when Jughead catches Max off guard, turning to her.
"Max! I haven't seen you in a while." He smiles warmly, and she tries to suffocate the butterflies in her stomach. "I'm missing my writing buddy at Pop's. Where have you been?"
Max pauses for a second to think about what to say.
"Yeah totally my bad. Things have gotten a little much, I guess. Been trying to distract myself." She gives him an uneasy smile and hopes he thinks it's because of her family life and nothing else.
"Well, Pop's and I are lonely. You will be very welcomed on your return." He jokes, and it's lighthearted, and Max is begging herself not to read into it any further.
"As soon as my allowance kicks in, I'll be there." She replies, and immediately is internally kicking herself. That would continue to make things so much worse.
He grins. "Great. Shoot me a text and I'll have a vanilla milkshake waiting." And then him and Betty head in the opposite direction. It all happened astoundingly fast.
"Oh my God I'm about to pass out in this next class, I'm exhausted." Archie declares, and Max lightly hits him.
"You're an idiot for eating barbecue for lunch, Archie."
And so, life goes on, and Max is shoving all of her thoughts about you know who (not Voldemort, the other one) into the back of her mind and pretending it's all okay.
Because it is.
Right?