Warnings: Angsty af. IT WILL BREAK YOUR HEART.
Word Count: 1632
A/N: Before anything. I dedicate this whole series to my twin southsidejuggie. I know how much she loves Jellybean (same as I) and that has kept me interested and happy through writing a not so popular series. She has been giving me priceless feedback that I can never fully express how much it means to me. Thank you so much Zoe! - I broke my own heart writing this. Changed a few things from the show to add something of my own. It saddens me to say, but this is the final part for this series. It was a pleasure writing this. I hope you guys enjoyed this journey!
Jughead lives his most fragile moment ever, feeling unable to take any other disappointments. First, he was betrayed by his closest only friends, then his dad's trailer was trashed by the police when they arrested him for Jason Blossom's murder. He can see nowhere else to turn to in Riverdale, so the apprehensive boy has one last glimpse of hope.
He stands in the phone booth outside the bus station, holding the piece of paper containing his mother's number and a ticket. Before calling, he memorizes the number and slips the two sheets inside his travel backpack containing all his stuff. The line rings for a while before being answered.
"Yeah." That's barely audible as loud conversation and plates clanking mix with her voice.
"Hi, Mom." This is the first time Jughead speaks to his mom since she left. He wishes it had been on better terms, but the boy had to learn the hard way early on to take what life gives you.
"Jughead! It's been ages, so great to hear from you." Gladys walks out of the diner lobby into the employees room to muffle the noise from the customers.
"Hey, guess what?", Juggie asks in a somewhat cheerful way. Seeing his family again is the one light shining on the darkness that's taking over his life.
"Did you win a writing award?", the woman speaks through biting her fingernails, nervous she may say the wrong thing. "What?"
"I got a bus ticket to Toledo.", Jug reveals excitedly, already anticipating how hugging his sister would feel like, finally able to see her play live.
"When? Why? Did something happen to your father?" That's not really the news she was expecting nor the response he was hoping for.
"Yeah. I thought I'd come see you and Jellybean for a while." Jughead feels weird at the need to have a reason for seeing them. In fact, something did happen to his father, but the beanie-clad boy doesn't think it's wise to share that.
"Oh, son… You know we are already crowded in here.", she explains hardheartedly.
"I could crash on the couch." He's been sleeping in thin mattresses on the floor at the Drive-in/School/Archie's house, therefore a sofa would be an improvement, to be honest.
"I'm already sleeping on the couch so JB can have the spare room… There's just no space. You get it?" Gladys opens her locker to look at a picture of the four of them under the tree house. She brushes her red fingertips over Juggie's face.
"Yeah." His heart tightens, barely allowing blood to pump through.
"You know it's not that we don't want to see you. I work all the time and JB has school and she's always at her friend's house. You'd end up wasting your time."
"Mmm-hmm." The eloquent writer can barely string two sentences together now.
"And you don't want to miss school, right?" At her every word, the light he was moving towards diminishes more and more.
"No." He's dumbfounded that's one of her arguments, like that ever mattered before.
"Maybe when I save enough for an apartment of my own. You can even have your own room. It's just not the right time, you understand?" In a different time maybe the prospect of that would've brought him joy.
"No, I understand." Juggie is used to being let down by his father, but this is a new feeling for him as for when his mom left, the last thing she said was "I'm always here for you, Jughead.".
"Expenses aren't really that great. Your grandparents are already throwing at my face that they're supporting JB." Money, the one constant ruining his family. FP not earning any was the reason she left, not having any is the reason she doesn't want her own son.
"Look, forget I said anything, okay?" The freckled boy has to use all the strength left in him to not fall apart then and there.
"I'm sorry, Jughead." Her words don't mean a thing at this point.
"All right. Bye." Jughead bites his bottom lip vigorously, trying to hold his tears in.
"Bye. I lov…" She's cut off by Jug hanging up the phone.
If he could crawl into a dark hole right now, he would. They boy changes his ticket to Toledo for one to the next bus leaving, but there's still a long wait ahead. Before anything, Jughead wants to rid himself of the clothes that reminds him of the epic fail of the school dance. The closest place he can go is his dad's trailer. Getting there, Jug finds two helmets on the ground, his and JB's, dropped by unattentive police officers searching the place earlier. He thinks his sister has the right to know what's happening. Before even realizing, her voice is echoing through the small trailer as he puts her on speaker.
"Jug? Are you there?" Jellybean can hear his breathing.
"Yeah. I got something to tell you." Jughead puts his beanie back on, for he needs all the comfort possible.
"Mom said you called and sounded weird. Does it have to do with that?", the raven-haired girl asks. "Got worried something bad happened."
"No… Everything is fine. Just wanted to see you guys." In that moment, Juggie can't burden his sister and the lie just fell from his lips.
"Are you sure?" She doesn't really believe him. "Before I'm incriminated, I yelled at mom for telling you to stay in Riverdale." JB wanted nothing more than seeing her brother but her mother stopped that from happening.
"Well, I'm not staying, anyways.", he confesses unintentionally, speaking his thoughts out loud.
"What? You're coming regardless?", the confused girl begs for information.
"No… Nevermind that." Her brother denies her wish.
"I can't just let it go, Juggie.", she insists.
"Look, I gotta go, talk to you soon, JB." His heart is shattered into a million pieces now..
"NO! Forsythe Pendleton Jones the third! Don't you dare hang up on me.", she shouts desperately.
"I love you, Forsthia." He hangs up in tears.
His phone rings immediately. Ignore. Again. 1 Voicemail. Let it ring. 3 Text messages from JB Jones. Deep sadness.Turn off. He wishes the world had an on/off button.
He seeks mental refuge, turning to his only safe place in Riverdale. Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. Deserted at this hour. Surprisingly, not too long after his hit of cafeine arrives at his table, the bell rings. Jug doesn't even make an effort to see who it is until the person is standing in front of his booth. "Y/N, what are you doing here?" He drinks his coffee and she sits next to him, still in her Homecoming dress. "I've looked for you everywhere. You just left me there. I had to find out what happened by Reggie gossiping.", the hurt girl criticizes. "They went behind my back.", he explains. "THEM, Jughead. Not me.", she emphasizes by pointing at herself, but he just stares out the window, trying to keep himself together. "I know you are trying to leave. Do you know how much it would've hurt me if I found out you were gone?", the girl confesses, her voice breaking from keeping tears in. He doesn't have the strength to reply. "He was set up. You'd know if you had stuck around." That is the only thing that brings him back to reality, his eyes begging her for more information. "Alice confessed. She waited until he left to drop us off at the dance and set the gun in his closet, then called in an anonymous tip." He can't believe her words. "It was Grundy who killed Jason. They were having an affair, but then he wanted to be with Polly and she freaked out. Alice got the gun from Betty when she broke into Miss Grundy's car…" He kisses Y/N into silence, for all he needed was to know FP's innocent.
Pop brings the girl an extra cup of coffee. "I'm sorry. I freaked out.", Jughead explains, holding her hand firmly, scared of losing her, just as she was not too long ago. "I know. Just figured if you were going to run away you'd know I'd go with you." she rests her head on his shoulder. "Can we put this night behind us?", Jug requests. "Done.", she agrees. "Ok. Now explain to me what happened.", the inquisitive boy requests. "Sit back and relax, because things are about to get crazy. Even I can't fully understand it yet." Y/N instructs. "Alice found out Hal had stolen the files from the Sheriff. She flipped, thinking her daughters would be orphans if both their parents went to jail. So she confessed to both planting the gun and stealing the files." That is indeed a lot to take in, but the boy listens intently. Even Pop is eavesdropping. "She told Keller from whom she got the gun and he brought Grundy in for questioning. She broke easily, for she's very unstable." That concludes the mystery they've been trying to solve for the past months. "My brain has frozen. That's fucked up. Who would tell?", Jug comments shockingly, taking all that in. "Now let's get you unpacked, Mr.. You're staying with me.", Y/N instructs. The couple leaves the diner, feeling the weight of the world dropping from their shoulders. They leave everything that went wrong behind, as if it was just a nightmare.
