Chapter 10 - Bruce Wayne
Jughead stood right behind Betty as she knocked on Veronica's front door. He was shocked, to say the least, when Betty directed him into Veronica's drive way. He'd never been into a house of this magnitude before.
Veronica opened the door with her mouth poised to speak before locking eyes with Jughead stationed behind her friend. Her mouth spread into a mischievous grin.
"Please, come in." Veronica said in a sickly sweet tone, and they did.
"Nice to officially meet you Jughead, I'm Veronica Lodge." She introduced. He pursed his lips with a slight smile as he nodded.
"Nice to meet you too." He told her, he wasn't sure if that was true or not yet. People that live in places like this don't like guys like him.
"Been taking care of Betty?" She asked him as she headed towards the stairs. Jughead looked down at the blushing blonde, he liked the red on her cheeks. It was a common reaction she had to a lot of things he said, he really did love to tease her.
"I'd like to think so." He replied with a light smile at Betty. She looked down up at him from a few steps ahead, returning the smile.
"He has been, yes." Betty told Veronica.
"I see he decided to steal my thunder and had already switched up your wardrobe." Veronica commented in regards to her current shirt. "What's the 'S' for?" she asked Jughead, he looked at his shirt on Betty before looking back at Veronica with nothing but a grin jolting his brows. Veronica looked at him curiously before they hit the top of the steps.
They all followed into Veronica's room, Betty and Veronica took a few steps towards her wardrobe before the bed creaked behind them. They turned to see Jughead laying on his back, propped up on his elbows and his legs crossed at his ankles that hit the end of the bed. His usual smirk set on his face.
"Do you usually watch Betty change?" Veronica quizzed, a laugh in her voice, eyebrow cocked.
"Sure I do, got camera's all over my apartment." He chuckled.
"What?!" Both girls squealed in unison. He burst out laughing, throwing his head back.
"Fuck, I'm kidding, calm down." He told their balking expressions. Betty took three steps toward him, slapping several times at his thighs.
"What the hell, Jug. That wasn't cool, I had a damn heart attack." She scolded. He sat up, catching her wrists in his hands, before his soft fingertips trailed up her arms to rest on her upper arms.
"Sorry Betts, promise there are no cameras in the apartment, the closest camera is in the stairwell." He reassured her with a slight chuckle but genuine smile.
"Oh, you guys are just too damn cute. Stop it." Veronica said with a giddy chuckle. Jughead pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, he wasn't really the 'cute' kind of guy. His favourite blush crept up Betty's neck to her cheeks as she slipped out of his grasp and made her way back over to Veronica's closet.
Veronica walked through the expansive wardrobe throwing copious amounts of clothes over her arm, not that it made much of a dent. She sent Betty into her dressing room with the overwhelming pile before taking a seat next to Jughead on the bed, leaving a fairly safe distance between them.
Veronica was grateful that Jughead seemed to be playing superhero for her best friend and Betty obviously liked him... but he was still a serpent, so she was cautious.
"So, Clark Kent, what's up with you and my bestie?" Veronica asked, putting on her best serious shake-down look.
"Superman?" He chuckled, "I'd say, I'm more... Batman." He teased. An amused grin broke through Veronica's serious facade.
"Okay Batman, same question." She returned to her previous query. Jugheads head turned to the closed door of the dressing room where Betty was.
"I dunno," He replied casually, "Why don't you ask her?" He countered.
"I have, not that I needed to. I want to know your side of it." He pushed. He pondered for a moment before replying.
"Don't know what to tell you, Commissioner Gordon." He joked.
"Well," Veronica was stumped, she could usually read people easily, but she had a hard time seeing through his joking antics, "Just don't ever do anything to hurt her." Veronica told him, trying to muster a stern expression as she more or less threatened a gang member. He laughed.
"No one, not me and not anyone else, is going to hurt Betty. Not on my watch." He said confidently, crossing his arms across his chest eyes trained on the dressing room door as it opened. Veronica smiled at his comment turning to see Betty emerge from the closest wearing a scoop neck black blouse tucked into a dark maroon A-line skirt that sat on her waist and hemmed mid thigh. Over the top she wore a black leather jacket with an off-centre gold zip hanging open.
"Woah." Jughead exhaled lowly.
"You look hot as hell, I knew black suited you, not that you don't look cute in your usually pastel paradise, but you look like a badass." Veronica gushed. Betty blushed gripping the jacket and toeing the carpet with the pointed tip of the black flats.
"The jacket would be good on the motorbike." She said quietly looking up through her lashes at Jughead. A large smirk set on his face as nodded.
"Whole outfit is yours, that skirt really shows off those creamy legs of yours!" Veronica told her.
"You don't think it's too short?" Betty asked, it was a bit shorter than the other skirts or dresses she would wear, they usually sat just above her knee.
"No." Veronica and Jughead spoke in unison. Veronica chuckled peeking over at him but his eyes were trained on Betty.
"Next!" Veronica declared. Betty bounced back into the closet trying on outfit after outfit.
About forty minutes and many, many outfits later Betty had practically reinvented her wardrobe. Jughead usually has a smartass comment to interject and embarrass a blush to Betty's cheeks. When she emerged the dressing room back in her jeans and Jugheads shirts her stomach growled.
"I'm hungry." She announced.
"Pop's?" Veronica suggested.
"Pop's? Man, haven't been there since I was like ten." Jughead reminisced. His mum used to take him and his little sister, Jellybean, there when they were kids. That was before his mom gave up on trying to 'fix' his dad and left with Jellybean. She had begged him to go with her, but he couldn't let his dad loose his entire family in one day. He missed his mom and his sister, but he knew his mother would be disappointed to see what he's done with his life – following in his dad's footsteps. He hadn't talked to either of them in two years since he finished school and joined the serpents, save for a few 'I'm still alive' emails Jellybean and him sent once or twice a year.
"Oh my god, you poor deprived boy. It's settled, let's go." Veronica, shot up heading for the door.
After they each devoured one of Pop Tate's famous burgers and milkshakes they sat in the booth as Betty laughed at one of Veronica's of New York, sipping of the last of her vanilla milkshake.
"How could you have stayed away from Pop's for so long knowing how amazing the food here is?" Veronica questioned Jughead, disbelievingly.
"Well, Serpents aren't exactly welcomed around the north side. If I hadn't come in with you two, I probably would have been asked to leave." Jughead told her. Betty and Veronica didn't doubt that, only a few days ago if Jughead had walked into Pop's they probably would looked down their nose at him, thinking he was there to cause trouble. Betty felt terrible at the thought, she had trusted everything she heard about the 'terrible' Southside gang, never second guessing that maybe the men weren't as bad as they were made out to be.
"Well, I should get back home, Mom will be back from her business trip shortly. Don't want her to come home to an empty house." Veronica stated, eating one last fry before she stood up, slipping out of the booth. Betty had no idea where her mom and dad would be, if they would be home or not, either way she doubted they would care where she was if she just said that she'd been at the library studying. Mind you, she did have a very large pile of clothes in Veronica's car that she needed to take home and fit into her small closet.
"Did you want me to drop you and your new goodies home, B?" Veronica asked as they made it to where Veronica's car, parked beside Jugheads bike.
"That's probably best." She agreed as she turned to Jughead as he pulled his bandana slip out of his back pocket, slipping it over his head.
"Thank you again for last night." Betty said gratefully as Veronica popped into the driver's seat on the opposite side of the car.
"Anytime, Betts." He said with a grin.
"I'll see you later, Jug." She said as she opened the door. There was a pang in the bit of her stomach at the fact of saying goodbye to Jughead. She'd known him for less than 48 hours, but already felt a need to be in his company. He made her feel safe, despite his lifestyle. There were worse people out there than the Southside Serpents and that was the Ghoulies. The Ghoulies that had a vendetta against Betty, ones that had gone to the trouble of tracking her down at a north side party. All she could do was hope that they were over it, but the Ghoulies seemed like the type to hold grudges.
"You sure will." He promised with a wink, has he pulled the bandana over the lower half of his face and straddled the bike.
They pulled out onto the road, the thundering motorbike heading back to the south and the sleek black Mercedes heading home to the north.
So, life kind of got in the way yesterday and I didn't have much time to write. But! Still got around the getting another chapter done for today! Have been trying to post at least one chapter everyday if I can.
I know this isn't the most action packed chapter but its cant be GO, GO, GO all the time, Betty and Jug would be freaking exhausted! But have faith in me, the real good stuff is still to come.
I've recently decided that I dedicate the some 'Glad you came' to the story so far, to their weekend. Now personally I prefer We Came as Romans cover but if Metal isn't your thing than The Wanted's version isn't all bad. (Actually its like Jugheads version vs. Betty's version of the same song!)
All your reviews make me so happy especially the 'you should write the show' ones, I WISH, and thank you - heart warming complement right there.. But we will soon learn that if I were to write the show, it would far surpase an 'M' rating pretty quickly.
You, yeah you reading this right now, you're an amazing human being. Jughead thinks your great, trust me, I know what he's thinking ;)
- Kayla