Author's Note : So...here's the thing. I am not above bribery. This is a fairly short, but essential chapter. I do however, have a large portion of the next installment completed. Since it is a holiday weekend and this is a shorter chapter, if I get enough reviews (because I crave your thoughts) I will post the next chapter this weekend instead of next. I feel like that's fair. :-) Read on!
Chapter Eleven Song : "Awaken" by Klergy
Disclaimer : Don't own the characters. Just really like them.
CHAPTER ELEVEN :
Betty didn't know what to do with herself as she watched Jughead's leather clad back disappear into the crowd at the base of the stairs and then out the door. He was her ride, but that seemed inconsequential at the moment. She sank back down to sit on the top step, her breathing coming in shallow, uneven pants as she fought to keep herself from the brink of hysteria. She felt like jumping beans were in her veins; she was twitchy and frantic and there was a buzzing in her ears that wouldn't stop.
Stay away from me.
With that one sentence, it felt like Jughead had torn her soul into shreds. Betty pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She struggled to choke down her sobs while her body started to give off involuntary shivers. A warm hand touched her on the shoulder and she nearly jumped from within her skin.
"B?" Veronica's voice came, "Oh, my God. Are you okay? What happened?"
"Nothing," Betty said, very aware that she couldn't very well say that the guy, not her boyfriend, that she had intense feelings for had just crushed her fragile heart under his motorcycle boot, "I just had a fight with my dad. It'll be okay."
"You look like you're about to have a panic attack."
Veronica's mother came around and kneeled in front of her, "Hi sweetheart, do you want us to give you a ride home?"
Betty nodded, "Would you mind?"
"Of course not," Hermione said, taking her hand and helping her rise to her feet, "C'mon, honey."
Hermione and Veronica dropped her off at her door barely fifteen minutes after they had found her mid-meltdown in the stairwell. Throughout the drive, Betty had rested her head on Veronica's shoulder, who in turn had stoked a hand over her hair and whispered that everything would be okay. Of course, Veronica only thought she was comforting a friend after a fight with a beloved parent, but it didn't matter. The sentiment had the same effect regardless. In the moment, Betty felt loved and cared for and...comforted. Maybe when the sun came up in the morning, she'd find that Jughead's rejection hadn't in fact left a fist sized scar on her heart.
For tonight though, she'd let her friend stoke her hair and tell her things would be better in the morning and then cry herself to sleep and hope she didn't dream about green eyes and a sweet half smirk.
She walked through the front door and collapsed onto the sofa, assuming her mom and Alan were still at the Taste of Riverdale.
Her presumption was incorrect.
The hallway light flicked on and Alan emerged.
"Betty?" He said, "Wasn't expecting you home so early."
"Is it early?" Betty asked, letting her head fall back against the cushions, "It feels like it's been an eternity."
Alan came into the living room and sat down in the chair adjacent to the sofa, "I've definitely had those days. They just drag on. Mercilessly."
"Sounds about right." Betty muttered.
Alan leaned forward in his chair, bracing his elbows on his knees, "You just gotta tell yourself that you'll get through it."
Betty straightened in her seat and looked at him, "Be strong? It'll be better tomorrow?"
"Exactly."
"I'm getting tired of waiting for tomorrow; of being strong."
"Well, you know you've got someone to lean on if you need to," Alan said as he reached over and brushed a lock of blonde hair that had come loose from her ponytail behind her ear with his fingertips.
Betty's entire body tensed and she smacked his hand away, jerking backward in her seat, "What are you doing?"
Alan slid forward in his seat and put his hand on her knee, "I just want you to know you're not alone."
Betty knocked his hand away and stood, "Got it. Yeah. Thanks. I'm going to bed. Mom'll be home soon."
Feeling strange and awkward and uncomfortable, Betty rushed up to her room where she shut and locked the door before climbing into a scolding shower. She had to be exaggerating what had just happened in her head, right? She was an emotional wreck because of the whole Jughead/Archie thing and it was causing her hormone levels to fluctuate or something which made her brain concoct some creepy ass scenario that seemed worse than it really was.
That was all.
Nothing more.
The next morning did not bring with it the magical state of 'better' that Veronica and Hermione had promised her. She was exhausted from a night of restless tossing and turning, her eyes were bloodshot and puffy and she felt like she might burst into a crying jag at any moment. So, when Archie showed up at her door to walk her to school, it was really the cherry on top of her morning. He was nothing if not dutiful and attentive. Kind of a perfect boyfriend really. For someone. Somewhere.
He held her hand and lead her toward school, like leading a docile puppy on a leash, Betty thought. He told her about being grounded and that it sucked and he felt like his dad wasn't supportive about his music. He talked about helping the Pussycats write one of the songs they performed at the Taste of Riverdale the night before and how he had wanted to hear them perform something he had helped create.
Everything he was saying seemed like stuff that, as his girlfriend, she should already know. She tried to pay attention but her mind was swirling in about ten million different directions. Jughead saying Archie needed her, whatever it was the Dilton would be telling them today, Alan being creepy...there was so much going on.
Weirdly enough, it seemed like since she had moved to Riverdale, the only time her mind was calm and clear was when she was working something out with Jughead. He anchored her; provided clarity.
And he'd told her to stay away from him.
When they got to school, Archie followed her to her locker and stood there while she hung up her backpack and gathered her first period books. He started to reach for them to carry them for her, but she pulled them tight to her chest.
"Actually, Archie, I'm meeting with Jughead at the Blue and Gold before first, so I'll just see you in class, okay?"
"Oh!" Archie said with a raise of his eyebrows, "Okay. See you in a bit."
Betty nodded, "Mmmhmm."
She felt like she could breathe again when he walked away.
When she arrived at the Blue and Gold office, Jughead was already there. He didn't have on his jacket, but the gray sweater and faded blue jeans he wore made him look...cozy. Warm. Appealing. He sat at the desk with his feet propped atop it, a notepad open in his lap and a pen dangling from his lips. He glanced up when she entered and Betty felt the hurt of his words from the night before anew.
But, she was her mother's daughter. She pasted a bright smile on her face and breezed into the room, "Morning, Jughead!"
"Betty," he returned, wary and suspicious.
Jughead didn't know if he'd ever get used to the way the room lit up whenever she entered it. But that wasn't the only thing that leapt out at him on this particular morning. Her eyes were red. Like she'd been crying.
He was scum.
"No Dilton yet?" She chirped.
If she wasn't going to bring it up in conversation, he sure as hell wasn't either.
"Not yet." He answered.
No sooner had the words come than the scout master himself entered the office and shut to door behind him. He looked as though he'd had as rough a night as Betty had. He was sweaty and twitchy, his glasses were askew and his hair was sticking up in a few places as though he'd been tugging at it. A nervous tick of some sort?
"Come on in, Doiley," Jughead said, standing and coming around to lean against the front of the desk, "have a seat."
Jughead expected some agitated pacing of the room, shuffling feet, a few quick jerky movements; all the tell-tale signs of nerves. Dilton, however, did none of those things. Instead moved the chair and sat. Still.
Completely still.
The twitching from just a momnent before gone in a blink. Like a switch flipped inside of the boy.
Jughead had a quick mental image of the Elijah Wood character in Sin City creep factor. This kid was Dahmer junior just waiting for his trigger.
Jug cast a quick look at Betty. She looked just as weirded out as he felt and covertly positioned herself behind the desk so that the solid piece of furniture was between herself and young master Doiley. Jug had known she was a smart cookie.
They all three sat in an elongated silence for what felt like eternity. Finally, Dilton spoke.
"If you publish a story saying that I fired that gun, my life will be ruined. I'll be banished from the adventure scouts and charged with misdemeanor." He said, his tone calm and flat.
Jughead glanced over her shoulder at Betty, who quirked a single eyebrow at him. He then turned back to Dilton and crossed his arms over his chest, "Get to you point, Doiley."
"My point is," Dilton continued, "what if I have a better story?"
Betty shifted to lean in closer, bracing her hands on the desk in front of her.
"Go on," Jughead prompted.
"If I tell you what I know," Dilton's voice took on some emotion, showing the slightest edge of desperation in his tone, "promise me the gunshot stays between us."
Another shared look with Betty before Jughead gave him a solemn nod, agreeing to the terms.
Dilton took a breath, "I saw something at Sweetwater River. Something nobody else saw."
An ominous feeling crept into the pit of Jughead's stomach.
"Ms. Grundy's car...by the river's edge. She was there."
Jughead didn't let himself look over his shoulder again. He was too afraid he would see Betty putting the pieces together in that brilliant brain of hers. And, if by some miracle, she hadn't figured out the truth, he was worried that one look at his face would give it away. He just wanted to protect his friend, but then Dilton hammered the final nail in the Archie coffin with four little words.
"And she wasn't alone."
Author's Note : I warned you it was short. Let me know what you think!