Author's Note : Hello! So, thank you, thank you, thank you so much to everybody who reviewed. It really does mean the world to me! Here's the next chapter. Please keep reading, keep reviewing, let me know what you think!
Chapter Six Song : "Control" by Halsey
Disclaimer : Don't own the characters. Just really like them.
CHAPTER SIX :
"Hey, Ponytail!" A feminine voice called as Betty slammed from the Blue and Gold office. She spun around as the pink haired Toni emerged from the room and caught up to her, "Don't take it personal. Jonesy is just protective of the Blue and Gold."
"Yeah, well," Betty retorted, "it feels personal. I don't do light and fluffy cupcake pieces like a dance. He knows that."
"Think of it as hazing the new girl," Toni said.
"Hazing is illegal."
"A rite of passage, then! Whatever. Just show him you can handle it - and him."
"Oh, I'll handle him." Betty said, her mind going to all sorts of dark places in that instant. Then it dawned on her exactly how her words could be misconstrued, or correctly construed, and her gaze whipped to Toni, who was smirking with way to much insight, "I meant it! I'll handle it."
"Uh-huh," Toni said with a chuckle, "Later, Ponytail."
So, Jughead thought she needed to prove herself. That was how he wanted to play it. Fine. She could do that. She could prove herself, pay her damn dues, and then take his damn job!
"Hey, Toni, wait up!" She called out and took off down the hall in the other girl's wake.
"A retrospective?" Veronica asked, two hours later, one perfect brow arched high on her forehead as she sat across from Betty in a booth at Pop's, "On a dance?"
"Absolutely!" Betty beamed, "Tell me what the Back to School Semi-Formal means to you; your past, your present, your future?"
Veronica took a sip from her chocolate milkshake, "You're getting a little deep on this, aren't you? Usually the dance coverage is popular dress colors and who went with who."
"I'll leave the fashion police to Kevin. He's better at it than me anyway. No, my angle has more edge than that, don't ya think?"
"Definitely!" Veronica giggled, "Okay, well, let's see. I guess it's a great way to connect with friends that you haven't seen since last school year. It's kind of a cherry to the end of summer..."
Betty started scribbling notes. Her piece would be Dickensian; A Tale of Two Cities: The Riverdale Edition. Yes, school dances were all bright sparkle and dazzle dust for some students, I.e. The jocks and the cheerleaders which would be the point of view provided to her from interviews like V. But on the other side of the fence, the worst of times if you will, there were the scenarios like the one that Toni had told her about.
Toni was bussed in from the Southside of Riverdale, the proverbial 'wrong side of the tracks.' She had talked to Betty about the very real anxiety that the kind of social event like the dance could cause someone from her side of town. If she went and was found lacking, she wore the wrong shoes, a shabby dress, a bad hairdo, she ran the risk of being bullied, shamed and shunned. If she didn't go at all, would she be ostracized before the school year even really started? Toni had escaped the pratfalls because she was hot and dating the head cheerleader, Hell-on-Wheels-Cheryl Blossom. To each their own on that one but there had been other girls who hadn't been so lucky according to Toni.
The dance was a place to connect and a time for fun, but it was also darker than that. It was a way for the privileged to feel even more superior and the disadvantaged to feel even more alienated.
That would be her angle. Let Jughead Jones try to assign her a puff piece again!
Jughead sat on the top step of the Andrews' front porch. Waiting. He had been there for close to an hour and a half. He was a patient guy and what he had come here for was too important to let boredom or the chill of the night air drive him away. Every muscle in his abdomen clenched when he finally spotted his best friend coming down the sidewalk.
Archie's clipped pace slowed when he spotted Jughead. He got the familiar, somewhat confused look on his face. It was pretty late after all. "Hey Jug," he said, "what's up?"
Jug climbed to his feet and started down the steps to meet his friend, "What's up is I saw you...in the music room...with Grundy."
Archie began speaking at once, "Keep your voice down, my dad's inside!"
"I'm trying to help you, dude," Jughead scowled through the speech, "I'm trying to be your friend, here. How long? You and Grundy?"
"Since this summer." Archie said without meeting his friend's eyes.
Jughead propped his hands on his hips and let his head fall back, looking up at the night sky, "Man."
"There's more." Archie went on.
"There always is." Jug replied, once again looking into his friend's face.
"We were at Sweetwater River on July fourth."
Jughead just stared. He didn't know what to say to that. He didn't have to say anything, as it were. Archie continued talking.
"We heard a gunshot. The gunshot."
"Dude," Jughead interjected, "You have to tell somebody."
"I can't," Archie blurted, stepping closer, pleading with his eyes and voice, wanted Jughead to understand, "And neither can you. If people find out about-"
"A kid is dead, Archie!" Jug exclaimed, "Is she telling you not say anything?"
"She could go to jail."
"She's messing with you, man!"
"No." Archie said, his voice solid, "I'm done with her. It's over. I would never do that to Betty."
Betty. The name slammed into Jug with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. He looked away from Archie and clamped his jaws together so tight he was almost surprised when he didn't crack a molar. Blue blue eyes. Blonde blonde hair. Bright bright smile. Smart. Fierce. Determined. The way a woman was supposed to look, to speak, to think, to be. He couldn't blame Archie. Sucking in a deep, unsatisfying breath, he turned to face his friend once more.
"I have Betty now."Archie said on a whisper, "I don't want Grundy. But I don't want her to get into trouble either. I want it to be over. Can you understand that, Jug?"
God, Jughead wanted to shake him. There was so much wrong with this situation, he didn't even know where to start. He could see that his friend was foundering, but would he drag an innocent girl down with him? What a mess. A murdered kid, an illicit, illegal affair and his best friend since childhood stuck in the thick of it with no clue how to get himself out. The desperation in Archie's eyes wasn't ineffective though. And Jug believed him; as long as Archie had Betty in his life, he'd stay away from that...that cougar.
The realization made Betty even more out of bounds. It wasn't easy for Jughead to stomach but he would. He had to. Jughead started to walk away, but his friend caught him by the elbow.
"Jug!" Archie pled.
Jughead patted his friend's hand once before removing it from his arm. "Don't worry, Arch, I hear you. I don't like it but I hear you. There has to be a way to do the right thing but I don't see it yet. To be discussed."
"Yeah," Archie agreed readily, "Yeah, thanks, Jug."
This time when Jughead went to walk away, Archie let him go.
Relaxing in a booth at Pop's, waiting for Veronica to get out of the bathroom, Betty eyed the basket of onion rings sitting in the center of the table. She plucked one up and nibbled delicately at it. Then, taking a covert scan of the restaurant to make sure no one was looking in her direction, she shoved the entire thing in her mouth. Sweet and crisp and just the right amount of greasy. So good. The door swung open with a chime and Betty glanced up to see Jughead Jones, complete with beanie and leather jacket saunter into the diner and up to the counter. He didn't see her and she slumped down just slightly in the booth as to observe him for a second...just one second. Also, it was hard to chew the onion ring in its entirety and she really didn't want him to see her with her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel hoarding nuts.
Pop Tate greeted Jughead directly, "Hey, Nighthawk. You want the usual?"
"Yeah," Jug said, "My dad's too and wrap it up for me?"
"You got it. Fifteen minutes, Kay."
Jughead nodded, drummed his fingers on the counter and glanced around the diner, not looking for anyone in particular but in that way of general interest for the bored. When his eyes hit Betty, his hands stilled at once. Betty froze as well, mid chew. If she chewed really, really slowly, would it be less obvious that she had crammed her mouth to its full capacity? She could also feel the grease from the lovely fried snack coating her lips to the point where a single bead dribbled onto her chin. Excellent.
Jughead pushed away from the counter and crossed over to her. She scrambled to cover her mouth with a napkin and then proceeded to chew as quickly as possible. His eyes were alight with amusement as he leaned an elbow oh-so-casual against the back of the booth seat opposite her.
"Betty," he said as though knowing she was unable to respond because her mouth was stuffed full of half-chewed batter and onion.
She nodded her greeting. He looked around the diner, "You here alone?"
Betty shook her head and managed to swallow her mouthful. Loudly. Jughead grinned. Asshole.
"No," she choked a little and gave her mouth a dainty dab with the napkin as though that would cancel out the ridiculously loud gulp, "no, Veronica is here. I was making some notes for my article."
Jughead quirked an eyebrow at that. "Making notes for your article? You're making notes for an article about a dance that doesn't happen until Friday?"
Betty beamed, "I like to be prepared."
"Uh-huh," Jughead replied, "So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how pissed off at me are you about that assignment?"
Betty didn't hedge. "Oh, we surpassed the scale miles ago."
He laughed. It was a lovely sound. "I figured as much." Then Betty watched his eyes soften just the slightest bit. "Anyway, I'm sure you and Archie will have fun."
"What?" Betty was taken aback by the abrupt change.
Jughead stared at her, "At the dance. You and Archie."
"Oh," Betty said and looked down at her hands, where she started shredding her napkin. She couldn't meet his eyes at the moment, "Right. I'm sure."
There was a long pause that hung heavily in the air between them. It was filled with the things that neither of them could quite bring themselves to say. Then Jughead cleared his throat slightly and Betty brought her eyes back up to meet his.
"Listen..." He started.
"Hi, Jughead!" Veronica interrupted as though appearing by magic behind him, causing Jughead to shake off whatever it was that he had been about to say.
"Hey, V." He said instead and stepped aside so she could slide back into her seat.
Betty fought down a surge of irrational anger at her friend. It wouldn't be fair to be angry at Veronica who had no cause to suspect that she was interrupting anything.
Veronica offered Jughead a pretty smile, "You wanna join us? We have burgers coming."
"Nah," Jughead said, "I'm just waiting on a takeout order for me and my dad. You guys enjoy your dinner."
With those parting words, he looked at Betty one more time and then turned away to wait for his food at the counter. Betty watched him for one more heartbeat before dragging her gaze away.
"So, where were we?" Veronica asked, pulling an onion ring into small bite sized pieces. She was clearly smarter at eating than Betty.
Betty lifted her pen and poised it over her notebook, "Southside vs the Northside treatment at the school dances."
"Right," Veronica nodded, "It really is kind of skewed."
Author's Note : Well, that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Be sure to let me know what you think! I'll say again, any feedback is so appreciated.