Chapter 14: Hello stranger

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She woke up groggily, the light coming through her bedroom window shining into her eyes. She groaned, she must have forgotten to close the blinds but she wasn't going to move now. She felt two strong arms wrapped around her, holding her closely. She smiled, remembering the same incident weeks ago, only this time she let herself sink into it. There was no school, nowhere urgent she needed to go, just her and Jughead. She must have woken him because he yawned loudly and snuggled closer to her, the grip of his arm around her waist strengthening. She sighed and he gently pulled her hair band from its ponytail. They must have fallen asleep quite late if she hadn't untied her hair. She felt the waves of her hairbrush her shoulders before, with tender hands, Jughead brushed some of her locks away and kissed her neck softly. He kissed her again and again, rousing her softly and sweetly.

She turned around in his arms, her body coming on top of his and his arms moving around her waist, keeping her there as she softly kissed him, her lips brushing his tenderly as she couldn't stop smiling.

The two stayed like that for a while, curled up on one side of Betty's large bed, having no care in the world but each other. Meanwhile, Jellybean too awoke but her thoughts weren't as pleasant.

Fucking window, she thought as she woke up to the morning sun shining brightly into her eyes. She groaned and rolled over, facing the other wall. Her blanket had half slid off her and now her feet were cold. She hated cold feet and generally hated mornings.

She reached for her phone like she did subconsciously every morning and cursed the world again when she remembered it was dead and pressed the on button furiously for a few seconds before letting her phone fall to the bed. Just great. She dragged herself out of bed a few seconds later.

She knew she'd have to change into yesterday's clothes and while she wasn't super excited about it she'd thought it might have come down to it. She pulled off her borrowed pyjamas, folded them neatly then pulled her own clothes back on. If she wanted breakfast she had to be dressed, her mom never allowed breakfast in pyjamas and while this was Jughead's girlfriend's house she wasn't about to parade around in pink pyjamas.

As she pulled her shirt over her head she noticed a bag in the corner of the room. Thank God, she thought. It was her messenger bag. Jughead must have brought it in, saving her the awkwardness of having to send him to get it from FP's trailer or having to get it herself.

She was still mad at her dad but now she'd gotten a good night's rest she realised she might have just been a little hard on him and it hadn't really been how she'd felt. They had been her worlds, she'd definitely believed it but they were the thoughts her mother relentlessly drilled into her. She wasn't her mother and FP wasn't her ex-husband or whatever he was to her mother, he was her father. They had a right to each other but perhaps he'd screwed that up, or maybe she'd been the one to give the boulder a final push off the cliff.

She decided it was too early to think of boulders and grabbed the charger from her duffle bag. She plugged her phone in and debated waiting for it to charge a little before checking it or heading for breakfast. She had one of those stupid nokias which could do nothing but play music, snakes and make phone calls and text.

She decided she'd let it charge and left the room in search of breakfast.

Just as she did Betty did the same across the hall, the two girls noticed each other and smiled.

"Good morning."

Betty said with a smile, her hair was up in the same ponytail Jellybean remembered her always having and she wore blue shorts and a pink shirt. Much nicer then Jellybean's pyjamas and she was suddenly grateful she'd changed them.

"Good morning"

She said back and waited by the door, not sure what to do. Without meaning to her eyes slid to Betty's room. From what she could see it was pink. Very pink. And she could just see her bed on which two sock-clad feet were visible, clearly Jughead's.

She once again wondered how serious their relationship was. It must have been quite serious if Alice had let him stay over.

"There's breakfast downstairs, I'm starved. Want some?."

Betty said and closed the door behind herself before heading for the staircase, Jellybean said she would love some and followed Betty down. She was relieved to have been invited for breakfast, not sure what she would have done otherwise.

They entered the dining room and Betty greeted her mother cheerfully before taking a seat.

"Hey, mom."

"Good morning Alice."

Jellybean said politely before taking the seat Betty offered her. The table had already been laid for everyone and orange juice poured into the glass with a plate of pancakes freshly made. Betty took one just as Jughead came hopping down the stairs. Jellybean looked at him in amusement as he took the seat opposite her and grabbed three pancakes, thanking Alice over his shoulder as he dumped a generous amount of the chocolate syrup over it. Betty wrinkled her nose in disapproval but neither Jughead nor Jellybean minded. Jellybean did the same only with a lot less syrup when she remembered the bag.

"Thanks for returning my bag by the way."

She said in a whisper, even more, grateful because, since he slept here he must have gone and get it late yesterday or early this morning. He halted chewing the large mouthful of pancakes he was eating to look at her in surprise. He swallowed before saying, mouth still containing pancake.

"What bag?"

He asked softly, genuinely not knowing what she was talking about. Alice just leaned over Betty to place another plate of pancakes on the table and caught the whisper.

"But then who did?"

Jellybean asked. Who'd been to FP's and back if not Jughead? Unless….

"FP did."

Alice said to no one in particular as she took her usual seat at the head of the table. Jellybean felt a pang of guilt well up in her chest. After all, she'd said to him had he really come here to give her bag back, not looking for any thanks or favours. Just a small kindness. A kindness she perhaps deserved.

An awkward kind of silence hovered over the table for the rest of the meal, which thank god, was quite short. Alice had some sort of meeting, Betty wanted to go out for a morning run and was trying to convince Jughead to come too.

"C'mon it's good for you. You should come."

"No thanks." Jughead had said with a laugh, a mildly disgusted look on his face. "I'd prefer the company of these pancakes."

He said as he grabbed the last plate of pancakes Alice had left before leaving. Betty just rolled her eyes and shook her head disapprovingly. While no one had said it Jellybean felt that perhaps the Coopers hospitality had come to an end and she'd be better off finding somewhere else to spend her day.

"I'll be around town if anybody needs me."

She'd said as she came back down the stairs, bag resting on her hip and ready to go.

"Oh, you really don't have to go."

Betty said guiltily, and while Jellybean did find the idea of sleeping in very appealing she knew she'd been right. It was her time to leave.

"No, I want to. I want to see the place, see what else has changed."

Betty smiled understandably and with a last parting smile ran up the stairs to get dressed. Jughead was still seated at the table, shoving another pancake in his mouth when he suddenly looked like he wanted to say something. Jellybean waited, he swallowed but still no words came.

What could you say at a time like this? He thought. Should he bid her well, say 'see you later' or 'you want to get to know each other again sometime?' He really didn't know, so he said the first stupid thing that came to mind.

"Why Jo?"

As soon as the words had left his mouth he realised how stupid they were. Why wouldn't she give her name as something more normal than Jellybean or even Forsythia? Jellybean blinked at the random question and thought for a minute before saying.

"No-one calls me Jellybean anymore. Just mom and now I guess you and…"

She caught herself before she could make the same mistake again.

"Dad." She said, the words feeling weird on her tongue but she moved on from it quickly.

"It was on the first day of my new school. All new students were forced to wear name tags on their first name. Mom insisted I write Jellybean so I did but as soon as I walked into the hall I realised just how ridiculous that was."

She frowned at the memory. Looking back at her younger self she would have slapped the naive little girl for looking so ridiculous. Pink dress, pigtails, ridiculous bag and ridiculous name tag with a ridiculous name. The pathetic cherry on top, having to answer to the name Jellybean. Why hadn't Jughead changed his name? She was so lost in her thoughts she missed the sad expression on Jughead's face and the slight wince as she called her name ridiculous.

"I was ready to run to the nearest bathroom and burst into floods of tears. But luckily enough the first person I bumped into was nice enough to warn me and she helped me scratch it out and well... We ended on Jo. Since then I've been Jo."

She remembered it vaguely. It was one of those memories that just got lost in the excitement and a whole string of things her girlfriend had done for her over the years. Jughead nodded understandingly and smiled a little forced, before she decided against it she asked the question that had occurred to her seconds earlier.

"Why do you actually still go by Jughead?"

He shrugged, looking down at his empty plate as he ran his fingers across its rim, mopping up all the spilt syrup.

"I don't know. I got a hard time for it but not for too long. And I always thought it better than my actual name."

Jellybean agreed. They really had been cursed with the worst names.

"But since you and mom left I felt like it was the only thing you'd left behind."

She felt a sharp pang in her chest at his words. He still didn't meet her gaze as he continued.

"You left me and I was determined to still be me when you came to get me. I'd be Jughead then and always. Not being Jughead anymore felt like giving in to being without you, to accept it and move on. But as years passed I started to realise you weren't coming for me but still, I held on."

He looked at her now, and it hit her how old he looked. He wasn't the boy of sixteen he was supposed to be, he looked so much older, those eyes held much more sorrow then they should. So young and yet he'd gotten the worst beating life could give him. She now wondered whether FP had ever laid a hand on him, too drunk to care. Too angry. She wondered how old her eyes looked. Where those her own eyes staring back at her?

"You were too young to remember but it wasn't mom who gave me my name, Jughead I mean. I was always supposed to be Forsyth Jones the third but you couldn't pronounce it."

He laughed, his eyes full of a far away memory. And she smiled too, even if she felt tears slip down her cheek. They were sad and happy, confused and certain, unsure and confident, regret and guilty tears. Tears for her mother she'd left behind, tears for the brother she'd left behind so many years ago. She couldn't stop them, didn't want to. They were tears she'd held in for too long.

"You tried and tried but eventually we gave up to try and teach you so instead we did like dad did. We gave me a nickname, yours was soon to follow. You were allowed to choose mine and me yours."

He laughed again and she did too, laughing and choking on a sob.

"It was a terrible idea. Letting two siblings who loved and hated each other name one another but we did. We started with other shorter names but soon abandoned those. We had special, unique names, our nicknames should be too. Then dad thought of mashing different objects. God, they were awful. Ranging from anything to a certain something to a plate something."

They both laughed again but didn't move. He sat there, telling a story she'd never heard before or simply didn't remember and she stood there, bag under her arm and ready to leave again.

"One day we had a party or something. I can't remember what it was. Anyway, I couldn't reach the drinks upon the high table of this person's house, I reached and reached until I had the brilliant idea of pulling the cloth the jugs of apple juice and water stood with the intention of sliding them closer. But instead I pulled too hard and they all come down. Most missed me and shattered on the floor around me except for one. It had been knocked over, its content spilt over the table and rolled right over the edge and hit me in the head. Everyone came running to the noise and was staring at me in shock, embarrassment, worry or anger. And there was you, coming in behind my parents and the owners of the house and the other ten or something people. And you laughed. You pointed at me and laughed. I was rubbing my head, feeling a bruise starting to form and was about to cry yet you were laughing. No one said anything for a while and you just laughed, trying to speak around your laughing.

"Jug….Head."

You managed out before mom ran forward and dragged you out of the room, looking very embarrassed and scolding you. But I wasn't crying anymore, the pain was gone and I was smiling."

She'd heard the story before but hadn't thought about it for ages. And hearing it from Jughead's lips, a ghost of a smile on his lips made the memory so vivid. She'd always been told the story and never remembered any of it herself but now she did. And she suddenly remembered why she'd laughed.

"It was Nana's funeral,"

She whispered and Jughead stared at her. His eyes confused then widened and he didn't say anything.

"That's why mom was so mad, that's why I laughed. Everyone was so sad, you especially and I'd been trying so hard to make you happy or smile for so long. So when you stood there, new tears forming in your eyes, a new disaster for you to have to face I couldn't help it, I couldn't stand watching you sad anymore. I laughed, laughed because everything had been so sad for too long. No-one laughed anymore. I laughed because me laughing used to make you laugh. And as I was pulled away I saw that smile again. The smile I missed so much."

He stayed silent. He'd forgotten that part completely. He'd replaced one of the saddest memories with one of the best ones. But there hadn't been any happy memories that day to replace the one of his sister and mother left in the dead of the night. A long moment later Jughead broke his bewildered gaze and continued his story.

"Since then you called me Jughead and eventually dad and mom did too. And I continued the search for a good nickname for you. Until finally you came home from a walk with mom one day and you walked into the door and with one look at you, me and dad were laughing. You'd gotten a Jellybean stuck in your hair and no one, not mom or you could explain how it had gotten there. You'd looked at us in confusion, no idea why we were laughing until I'd pulled it out and you'd cried a little at the pain as it pulled at your hair but as I bend down before you and said,

"Jellybean. I'll call you Jellybean."

You laughed. Happy and joyful."

His smile faltered a bit.

"It had been a hard time, none of us had laughed in a while and that Jellybean had come like a charm of good luck, making us all laugh, making us forget all the bad for just a single, sweet moment. The name stuck and ever since you were Jellybean to everyone."

He stopped for a second and she whispered, her voice hoarse.

"I didn't know. Mom never told me."

And suddenly she felt ashamed for ever hiding her name, changing it. For thinking it childish and embarrassing. It wasn't embarrassing or silly, it was wonderful and beautiful how two kids, three years apart had made all the bad moments as happy as they could. When their father had started losing money they'd made good memories, when he donned a Serpent jacket they continued to laugh but when they were pulled apart their laughs no longer came. They found happiness with others and did all they could to make themselves happy.

Now they stood opposite each other, nothing but a table and lost time between them and they both hoped, a childish, naive hope in the depths of their hearts that all the pain had passed, that they'd had their fair share of misery and could be happy, together.

They simply stayed where they were, a silent agreement passing between them.

No more separation, no more misery, no more loneliness.

They were snapped out of it as Betty called down the staircase.

"Jughead, have you seen my headphones?"

She yelled and Jughead got up and returned his plate to the kitchen as he said,

"Check under your cushion!"

He yelled and after a moment she replied,

"What cushion?"

She yelled back and he sighed and ran up the staircase, going up to help her find what she was looking for.

"Later Sis!"

He cried over his shoulder and she yelled back a simple bye and left the house. She closed the door gently behind her and stepped out onto the path, only to walk right into someone. They collided hard, her head going right into his shoulder. Her hand flew to her hurting head as she mumbled her apologies, stumbling back, whoever she'd just run into was doing the same, apologising frantically.

"Sorry, I should have seen where I was going, I had my headphones in."

He said as if it were a valid excuse for not seeing her.

"It's alright. It's partly my fault, I shouldn't have walked out like that."

She still hadn't faced the man she'd run into, she was too busy holding her thumping head and making sure she didn't fall over. He'd steadied her with a hand on each of her shoulders as she'd wobbled. She looked up and met the man's gaze, only to find it wasn't a man at all. It was Archie Andrews, nothing more than a boy. All though his muscular arms would suggest otherwise.

"Jellybean?"

"Archie?"

They both cried out at the same time then just awkwardly stood there for a minute, his hands still on her shoulders and she was also still holding her head.

"How's your shoulder?"

She said, breaking the awkward silence. He released her eventually, she'd regained her balance ages ago and now it was even more awkward. He looked at her in disbelief.

"Fine, your head?"

He asked, pointing at it. She no longer held her hand to it and shrugged.

"Fine, nice shoulder you have there."

The words had slipped out before she could stop herself. It wasn't that she found him particularly attractive, it was more so that she didn't know how to talk to Jughead's friends. She never had really. Archie had clearly been out for a run when he'd almost knocked her over, dressed in short shorts and running top.

"So I'm back in town," She covered up a lot smoother. "Anything change particularly?"

He too seemed glad for the easy conversation and shrugged.

"Nothing much. It's just one of those towns I guess. Although, we almost got a prison."

She'd have to look into that. She'd heard something about it, but for now, she had more urgent things to take care of. Her phone remained in her pocket, off for now but as soon as she found a good spot she'd face all her responsibilities. She couldn't run from them any longer.

"Oh yeah, I heard about that."

He nodded sadly then looked passed Jellybean's shoulder to Betty's house.

"Hey, what ya doing there so early?"

She wasn't in the mood of conversation but hey, why not?

"Oh, I stayed the night."

She said occasionally and he seemed extremely surprised.

"Really? You didn't stay at your dad, FP's place?"

She almost flinched at the mentioning of his name. She'd grown so used to the name never being spoken, FP was always a taboo subject around her mother. But when they did or one of them talked about him it was always FP but never dad.

"No, it's complicated. But anyway. Nice seeing you again, you live next door right?"

She asked, remembering some distant memory of it. Funny how it always seemed Archie and Betty would end up together but instead Betty and Jughead did.

"Yeah, are you going to be staying at Betty's…."

He stopped, not sure how to finish the question. Not that she knew either whether she was visiting, staying forever or ever going to face FP.

"We'll see."

Was all she said and Archie got the messaged it was time to go.

"Nice seeing you again too, see ya."

He said and waved once more over his shoulder as he continued his run, earbuds going back in again. She almost sighed in relief at the easy escape and continued the way she'd planned on going in the first place. She wondered if it was still there. There was no way of knowing.

She could remember most of the way there, only taking one or two wrong turns. She was afraid she might be lost but as she passed around the back of the trailer park she sighed in relief and knew she'd gone the right way. She waded through the overgrown, unkept grass, going dead straight and coming close to entering the woodland. The path she'd made by coming here so often had disappeared with time and her absence but she was sure she knew how to get there again. Just when she thought she'd gone too far or went the wrong way she found it. She grinned uncontrollably, there it was, hanging from the tree was her swing and the ladder built into the drunk that led up to the tree house above it. The tree house itself was hidden behind the branches but as she came closer she could see more and more of it and her relief grew. God, she'd missed this place.

She climbed up the steps of the ladder that had once seemed impossibly big and climbed through the hole at the bottom of the tree house. The hole was almost too small for her but she managed to squeeze herself through. She could just stand, the roof brushing over her hair and looked around. It didn't look as magical and amazing as she remembered, the pictures and paintings on the walls were fainted and definitely not as good as she'd thought they were at the time. They were pictures of Riverdale, Jughead, Jellybean and little Alice. That's what everyone had called her best friend, little Alice. She was small for her age and always looked much younger than Jellybean even though Alice was only two months younger than her. She wondered where Alice was now as she traced her hands over the faded drawings. She'd come back and fix them one day, add a fresh layer of paint, come and wipe away the cobwebs. But as she looked around the small room she suddenly realised there wasn't any dust or cobwebs, the place was clean. Why and how was it clean? Had someone been here since she had? Did Alice still come here?

As she kept walking through it, looking at the different walls she remembered paintings she'd forgotten and new ones. Pictures that hadn't been there before, better pictures of the tall grass, the tree house, the old swing as it looked now. Whoever had painted them had odiously been cautious of the old pictures and hadn't dared to paint too much else. But as she came round the rest of the room she saw two faces, beautifully drawn, her and Alice exactly as they had been, looking at each other from the corner of their eyes. Two giggling, happy little girls who were best friends.

She let her hand trace the beautiful details and knew she had to find who'd drawn this, had it been Alice? Could they together finish the rest of the tree house? Make the paintings beautiful and vibrant again?

She walked away from the wall and climbed down the hole and steps down to the floor again. She cautiously sat on the swing, afraid it would collapse from wood rotting or her heavyweight. When she was sure it wouldn't she put down her messenger bag and pulled out her phone. She stared at it for a long time before she dared to turn it on. The familiar chime as it turned on seemed too loud as she clutched the phone in her hands. What was she going to find? A hundred missed phone calls from her mom? Or none at all? What would be worse?

She was just about to put her password in when she heard a rustle in the bushes before her, the sound coming from the path she'd walked on two minutes ago. She looked up, phone still in hand and in the small clearing the tree house had been built a girl appeared. Jellybean stared at her but the newcomer didn't seem to notice her until she looked up, stopping a short distance away from Jellybean.

"Oh," The girl said as Jellybean just stared at her, no idea what to say. The two girls stood like that for a second until the intruders surprise look fell and a grin broke over her face, one lip coming higher than the other.

"Hello, stranger."