It was two days after her encounter with Jughead that she finally decides to get it over with. She shoots him a text, simple and sweet.
pop's?
Ignoring how her heart races, she shoves her things in her school bag. It's not long before her phone buzzes.
Currently Stationed. Getting your order right now
She can't help but smile, just a little. She allows herself that much. It was a friendly, 'he's my friend and he cares about me in a friend-type way and I'm allowed to have friends and he's a good one' type smile, she tells herself. And then she heads over.
She opens the door and is followed with the ring of a bell, immediately spotting Jughead positioned at their regular table. He turns his head and beams at her, and it's so radiant she can't help but reciprocate. She walks over and plops down across from him.
"Hey loser."
"One vanilla milkshake, slightly melted so it doesn't get stuck in the straw." He slides it over, coupled with an unwrapped straw, and she grabs it with a smile.
"Actually, I'm going no straw today. Save the Earth style."
"Wow. Get you a girl." Jughead smirks, and she laughs.
"I know right." She grabs the milkshake and takes the best slurp she can muster before setting it back down frantically. The shake had been tilted a little too sharply and vanilla was sent spilling on her face and down the sides of the glass. Jughead erupts in laughter.
"Max, you got a little something– "
"I know, shut up," She whines, grabbing some napkins with incredible speed and dabbing her face. Jughead throws his head back, apparently this was very hilarious to him. Max's eyes narrow.
"I am saving the Earth and this is how you treat me?" She jokingly accuses, and he continues to chuckle.
"I think you kind of dropped the ball when you grabbed all the napkins." He gestures to the plethora of them scattered on the table. Now it's Max's turn to laugh, swatting her hand at him playfully.
"I hate you Jughead Jones." She grins lightly at him.
"I know." He returns the smile with one of his own.
And suddenly she is flooded with reminders of caution, to not let herself get tangled into him any deeper than she already was. Her smile fades, and she quickly diverts her attention to her bag, fumbling around for her computer.
"Any new stories?" Jughead asks curiously, as she focuses intensely on the opening of her Macbook.
"Well there's this– " She pauses. She can't let herself do this. "–No. Not really." She comments emotionlessly. A moment of silence passes and she looks up, meeting his eyes. Jughead is sitting there with a questioning look on his face. He obviously expected her to elaborate.
"Uh–we are studying different author's works this unit." It's a lie, and she is literally pulling up her new story as she says this, but if Jughead is suspicious of anything he doesn't say.
"Huh. I guess they changed the curriculum a bit from when I took it last year." Max nods as he says this, but is internally screaming 'fuck' in her mind.
"Yeah, I don't know."
'You are probably the biggest idiot in the world,' Max thinks to herself, but says nothing. Her eyes burn holes in her computer as she pretends to be doing anything, and the conversation falls silent. It remains like this for a while before Jughead speaks up.
"Alright listen to this."
Max looks up at him timidly.
"Betty and I are working on this really intense piece for the Blue and Gold. See, we are ninety-nine percent sure that the meat from the cafeteria has been recycled and reused for literal months. Disgusting right?"
"Right." Max comments shortly.
"Yeah, and that's got to be illegal on some grounds, I mean that is completely insane! We have been gathering anecdotes for a while on different people who have experienced their meat tasting or looking strange, and we are almost done collecting information on the people who have felt physically sick. I think it's going to be an amazing piece when we are done, what do you think?"
Max wants to open her mouth, wants to get into a hearty conversation about how intense this piece is and how much she loves it, and pester him to add at least a few meat based puns in there, but she stops herself. If she did that, if she continued to do that, it would eventually kill her.
"Sounds really good."
She almost winces as it comes out of her mouth, she hated saying it so much. Her eyes bore into the words on her screen, refusing to make eye contact with Jughead. She doesn't need to look up to see his confused expression, slightly furrowed eyebrows and the corners of his mouth slightly turned down. She can imagine it perfectly.
"Yeah, I think we are going to get it out next week."
She says nothing to this, just continues to type. It stressing her out, he is stressing her out. She can't win. The noise of typing begins to emerge from his keyboard, and she knows he went back to work.
"I still can't believe Green Book won." He tries to make conversation once again.
'It's March, and you are still going on about this? I agree it was a travesty but it was a good movie, you dummy.' Is what she wants to say.
"It was good." Is what she actually says.
There is a slight pause as he tries to find some kind of response to that god-awful statement.
"Yeah, but did you watch Roma? The Favourite? Incomparable. I still feel robbed and it's been more than a month."
'The Favourite was not deserving of best picture and you fucking know it.'
"Yeah. It sucks."
Her face burns as she types furiously, praying for all of this to end. Praying for her feelings to have been swept away by the hurricane that hit her, and to consider him as nothing more but a good friend. Her fingers begin to gather aggression and hit the keys harshly, as if playing a choppy song on the piano. She doesn't look up.
There's a moment of silence.
It's deafening.
"Max?"
She looks up reluctantly. Jughead's eyes are full of concern.
"Are you…okay? Is something bothering you, because you are acting really standoffish and– "
Her phone rings.
Thank the fucking lord.
She mouths sorry and quickly swipes her screen. Veronica's voice floods her ear.
"Max! My love. It's wine night at mine tonight and you're coming."
Max can't even begin to describe the feeling of relief that floods her. It's as if she was on trial for witchcraft and the huge stones that had been pressed on her had all been lifted.
"Ronnie what? It's a Thursday, you psycho."
Veronica laughs. "It's thirsty Thursday, I'm overwhelmingly bored, and Arch already said in. Even Josie and Reg are gonna come."
Max thinks. "I don't know, Ron. You're gonna have to convince me."
Veronica scoffs. "I can't believe you forgot I'm supplying all the alcohol for you and Archie this weekend. Weekend starts now. I'm supplying. And you're coming."
Max erupts into a grin.
"How could I ever forget. I'll be there."
"Absolutely fantastic. Love you, see you at 8." Veronica chortles into the phone.
"Love you too." The call ends and Max looks at her watch. 7:15.
There has never been a more perfect savior than Veronica Lodge.
"Sorry Jug. I have to go. Veronica is expecting my attendance at her wine night tonight and I'm sure I have to help her set up." Max is shoving her things into her bag pretty rapidly.
"Oh," Jughead stares at her, but she can't read him.
"I'll see you around though, for sure." The rush of adrenaline from the overwhelming amount of emotions experienced has gotten to her, and she shoots him a smile that she tries her best to convey the answers to everything he is thinking. He smiles in return.
"Of course, Maximum. Your company is welcome anytime."
She shoots him one last comforting look to tell him everything is alright, before throwing her bag over her shoulder and speed walking out of the diner.
When the door closes she lets a breath out she didn't even know she had been holding.
