Author's Note : Okay! Here is the new chapter. I like this one. I'm really excited to share it and I am very anxious to hear from you! Please let me know what you think. I won't ramble on. Here's the chapter.
Chapter Nine Song : "Walk Me Home" by P!nk
Disclaimer : Don't own the characters. Just really like them.
CHAPTER NINE :
It was late when Jughead and Betty finally left the diner. Late enough that Jug decided he'd walk Betty home. He didn't think she'd do well on the motorbike, at least not in her fluffy pink gown. And so they trekked the fifteen or so minutes in comfortable companionship. They weren't silent the whole way but nor did they feel the need to keep up a constant running dialogue. They just...were...together.
When they arrived at her house, Jughead refrained from walking her all the way to the door and instead remained at the bottom of the steps that lead up from the street. Escorting her to the door would have felt too much like the end of the date, he would have been too tempted to kiss her. It was a temptation that haunted him every time she smiled, everytime she spoke, everytime all through their time at the diner she had reached up to wipe a salt from those soft looking lips. No. Better to put some much needed distance between them. But he did watch her until she disappeared, gracing him with one more heart-stopping smile on her sweet looking mouth, behind the solid red front door. He stood there for another minute, trying to rid himself of the feeling of inevitability that was creeping up his spine.
He turned on the solid heel of his boot and headed back to Pop's to pick up his bike. For the ten minute drive back to his trailer, he could focus on the speed, the road, the wind and the image of Betty's smiling eyes staring at him over the rim of her soda as she sipped from her straw.
Archie's girl, he told himself over and over and over.
When he pulled to a stop in his driveway, he spotted Sweet Pea and Fangs sitting on the steps of his deck...waiting for him.
"Fellas," Jug said pulling his helmet off and looking at his friends with suspicion, "it's kinda late, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Sweet Pea said as both of the young serpent soldiers rose to their feet to meet him at the base of the stairs, "but we knew you'd wanna know about this right away."
Brows furrowed, Jughead looked back and forth between the two, "Kay..."
Sweet Pea looked to Fangs, "Show him."
Almost reluctant, Fangs reached behind him and pulled out three striped, cylindrical wrappers. Jughead felt a surge of adrenaline rush through his entire body as though the sight of the too familiar wrappers caused his blood to boil. "Jingle Jangle! Where did those come from?"
Fangs shifted uncomfortable on his feet, "I found them in a girl I know's car."
"Whose?"
"I'm not gonna tell you that, Jones." Fangs said, "I'm sorry."
"But-"
Sweet Pea cut Jughead off, "Let it go, Jones. He won't budge. He won't even tell me."
Jughead cut a look at Fangs and recognized the stubborn set of his jaw. He took a deep breath in attempt to calm himself and rubbed a hand hard over his face, "Okay...God, I thought we were done with this crap when Southside High shut down."
"That's not the worst part," Sweet Pea went on.
Jughead peeked out from between his fingers, dread gnawing at his gut, "What?"
Sweet Pea hesitated, "This girl, whoever she was, didn't get the JJ from a Ghoulie."
That got Jug's attention. His eyes narrowed and his face tilted down in that menacing way he had about him. Both Sweet Pea and Fangs took a instinctual step back as Jughead asked, "Meaning?"
Sweet Pea nudged Fangs who said, "She told me she got it from a serpent."
"The hell she did!" Jug spat taking two steps forward.
Sweet Pea stepped in front of him and put a hand to his chest as though worried he was going to attack Fangs, "Jonesy! Calm down, man!"
Jughead jerked away from Sweet Pea and paced back and forth a few times, trying to get control of himself. After a moment, he stopped and looked back at his boys, "Okay. Let me think. Have you talked to my dad about this?"
"No!" Sweet Pea said.
"Of course not!" Fangs exclaimed at the same time.
Sweet Pea took a step toward Jug, "You know we always bring this kind of thing to you first."
"Yeah," Jug said, pausing and propping his hands on his hips, "Yeah, I know."
It was true that FP was the Serpent King, but when it came to the younger members of the gang, their loyalty lay first and foremost with their prince. They were his soldiers. He'd proven time and again that he had their back and they reciprocated a hundred times over.
Jughead chewed on his bottom lip, calming himself down before bringing his eyes back to his two most trusted, "She said specifically it was a serpent who got the drugs for her?"
Fangs nodded, "Yeah. She said she couldn't understand why I was so pissed when I found them since it was one of my guys that she bought them from."
"You get a description?" Jug asked.
Fangs shrugged, "She said he was tallish with slicked back hair. I mean, Christ, Jonesy, that could any one of us."
"Yeah," Jug said, "It'd help if I could talk to this girl-"
"Not gonna happen!" Fangs interjected.
Jug was not happy about that. "Fine! I want my A squad on this. You two, Toni, we'll bring Cheryl in and Joaquin. I wanna know what serpent is dealing this toxic crap and I wanna know fast."
"You got it, boss man." Sweet Pea said and he and Fangs headed off into the night.
The weekend would be an exercise in frustration, yielding no real results and even fewer leads in which of his gang was dealing in Jingle Jangle. The one time he had tried to go into Pop's, his laptop in tow, intending to do some work while partaking in his favorite pastime of food, he'd set eyes on Archie and Betty snuggled up together in a booth, Archie's arm resting casually over her slim shoulders. If he'd stuck around, perhaps he would have noticed the tension in Betty's shoulders, but he didn't. He'd backed out of the diner and prayed no one had caught sight of him there. That was what was hanging over his head when Jughead made his way to school on Monday morning, weighing him down with so many other issues. A member of his troupe was dealing poison, his best friend was teetering on the brink of an illegal affair with a predator and he himself was completely infatuated with said friend's girlfriend, who in turn seemed to reciprocate and was the only thing keeping that friend from passing that brink. It was a convoluted and tangled web and he was stuck in the damn middle.
And of course, as though conjured from the twisted, masochistic inner-workings of his brain, when he walked through the doors of Riverdale High, he was immediately greeted by the sight of Archie wrapping Betty into a hug. If there was a God up there, he definitely had a grudge against Forsyth Pendleton Jones the Third.
At the beginning of second period, Jughead had watched as Cheryl had been escorted from the classroom by Sheriff Keller and Principal Weatherby. By lunchtime, it was all over that Jason's autopsy had revealed that he had been killed not on July fourth as originally thought...but nearly a week later on the weekend of the 11th. Cheryl had confessed to a plan she and Jason had come up with in which they would fake his death, allowing him to run away for reasons she claimed not to know. Archie went into full confession mode as he and Jughead sat by themselves at a table outside of the cafeteria.
"So, I heard Cheryl told Keller that Jason was alive when she left him. That they were together when they heard the gunshot. I told Weatherby and Keller when I heard the shot and apparently it backed up what they had heard from Cheryl."
"What'd you tell them you were doing?" Jughead asked.
"Writing songs." Archie said, not meeting his friend's eyes.
Jughead touched Archie's forearm in a brief touch of support, "You did the right thing, man."
"I know," Archie said, "it just..."
Whatever he'd been going to say was lost when Betty and Veronica joined them at the table.
"Are you okay?" Betty asked Archie, her eyes filled with concern and compassion and Jughead wanted to hit something.
"Yeah," Veronica added, "we heard about what you told Weatherby and the Sheriff. How awful. I can't even imagine."
Archie reached over and took hold of Betty's hand. She looked down at their joined hands and then up at Jughead. His eyes too were locked on their hands. Then his jaw clenched and he looked down at his food, stabbing at it with a fork. Archie had been through so much this summer. He needed someone to be there for him right now. Betty knew that he wanted her to be that person. He seemed so on edge. If she told him the truth, that she was developing feelings for someone...no...not someone...his best friend...if she told him that, would it push him over that edge? She couldn't let herself be responsible for something like that.
So, she'd be that person for him. She'd stand by him and support him. Eventually, things would get better. Either she'd move on from this attraction to Jughead...or, more ideally, Archie would decide they'd be better as friends and she could pursue something deeper with Jughead.
Yeah, right.
It was twenty minutes after three that she walked into the Blue and Gold office. No one had arrived yet, but there was a dry erase board propped against the wall with Jughead's uneven scrawl covering the surface.
Assignments.
She took a second to scan over them. Kevin's assignment made her laugh aloud. All that was written beside his name was 'Keep being glorious.' She frowned when she got to her own name though.
'Betty : First Annual Taste of Riverdale'
What the ever-loving hell?
Did he learn nothing from his attempt to assign her a damned dance? Was this her punishment? What would it take to convince him that she didn't do community interest pieces? Maybe if she staged a bomb threat and then covered the damn thing.
She zeroed in on a bright red file folder sitting by the computer and wondered over. When she flipped open the cover, she found Jughead's notes on the Jason Blossom murder. Her mind flashed back to the article he had been working on at Pop's when they had spent those too few precious hours together. As she began skimming over the folder, new questions started formulating in her brain. Even the sound of the door opening and closing didn't break her from her mind-whirling induced trance. It wasn't until Jughead dropped his messenger bag on the countertop beside the page that she was reading that she snapped out of it with a start.
"God," she breathed.
"Nope, just me." Jughead said, crossing his arms and leaning a hip against the counter.
"You scared me." Betty accused.
"Well, you were engrossed with snooping through my notes," he countered, "Interesting reading?"
"Actually, yes," Betty said, turning back to the pages, completely unashamed to have been caught in her pillaging, "Let me ask you something; Cheryl admitted that she and Jason heard a gunshot at the river's edge. Archie admitted to being in the vicinity and hearing the same gunshot."
"Right," Jughead said slowly, his internal sensors blaring at him that she was onto something and he should pay close attention.
"There was someone else at the river that day that hasn't said anything about a gunshot and no one has even brought him up," Betty stated turning away from the folder to look Jughead directly in the eyes.
Everything in Jughead's brain clicked into place, "Dilton Doiley."
Betty nodded, "Dilton Doiley."
Jughead's gaze went to the wall, his eyes darting back and forth as though he were watching a slideshow in his mind's eye. He was working something out, putting the pieces together. It was fascinating for Betty to witness. She wanted to be a part of that so badly. The door banged open and Kevin and Toni walked in, followed less than a minute later by Ethel. Jughead came out of his own head to acknowledge their presence then walked over to the dry erase board.
"No meeting today." He said, grabbing a marker from the countertop, "your assignments are on the board."
Then he struck through Ethel's assignment and Betty's name, "Ethel, you're on the Taste of Riverdale." With that, he threw the still uncapped marker on the counter, snatched up his messenger bag and headed for the door, "Coop, you're with me."
Author's Note : Well, that's it! That's all I got for now. Let me know what you think!