Juju's pov
"W-what? No…" JB says, her breathing becoming heavier. "No…" she repeats.
We're all staring at her now, me and Grayson and Everett and Mom and Dad and even Chelsea. JB's eyes swim with tears. "No…" she says again.
Mom sets her shovel down and walks over to JB, crouching beside her and rubbing her back, exchanging worried looks with my dad.
"O- okay. Goodbye," JB says into the phone before hanging up. She lets her arm fall to her side as if it were hundreds of pounds, her phone still held in a loose grip.
"What happened?" Mom asks softly.
Grayson, Everett, Dad, Chelsea and I all move closer to her.
"Why you sad, Mama?" Chelsea asks, pointing at her mom and frowning.
"Sh," I tell her, lifting her up and balancing her on my hip. I stare down at JB, who looks completely lost.
"Alex…" JB says. "There was a car accident… as he was going home from work… he…" JB broke down into sobs, leaning on my mom and hugging her tightly.
Mom's expression is strange, almost helpless. She looks at my dad, smiling sadly and nodding slightly towards Chelsea and I.
I look at the toddler in my arms, blissfully unaware that her father was either dead or close to it. I hug her a little tighter.
I look awkwardly around, unsure of what else to do. I glance behind me and see the ocean. The waves continue on as if nothing had happened, as if someone's world had not just fallen apart. The ocean kept going no matter what happened.I can't tell whether that's comforting or saddening.
JB takes a deep breath and pulls away from my mom. Her face is wet, shiny, and a complete mess. "Can- can you watch Chelsea for the night? He- he's not… gone…" she says that final word with difficulty. "She shouldn't see him like that. That shouldn't be the final image of her father," JB says.
"Of course," Mom agrees immediately. "Whatever you need. We're here for you."
JB manages a weak smile. "Thank you," she says, standing up. "Wait… I'll be taking the car from you. I can't do that," she says defeatedly.
"Oh my god, don't even worry about that!" Mom cries. "Take the car. My mom can come pick us up tomorrow. It'll be no trouble, I promise."
JB looks as if she wants to contradict, but at the same time, she needs to go back to see her husband.
"Go, JB. We'll be fine, Chelsea will be safe," I tell her.
"Okay," she says, nodding. "Bye, Chelse. I'll see you soon, okay, baby?" JB takes her daughter from my arms and gives her a hug and a kiss before handing her back to me. "I'll see you guys later. Thank you…" she says before beginning her walk back to the hotel to get the car.
We watch her walk away for a while. "Where Mama go?" Chelsea asks.
I look at my parents, unsure of what to reply with.
"She's going home a little early," Dad finally answers.
"Can I go?" Chelsea further questions.
"No, Chelse," I tell her.
"Why no?" Chelsea pouts, trying to squirm out of my grasp.
"Your mom needs to be alone right now, okay?" Dad tells her. He holds out his arms, and I pass him Chelsea. He looks at Mom sadly.
Mom looks around at all of the stuff we have at the beach. "Come on, let's clean this up," she says.
Everett doesn't complain like he usually does when asked to pick stuff up. He cleans the sand off of the shovels and buckets with Grayson. I help pack up the chairs with my dad, while Mom holds Chelsea and folds up the towels.
We walk silently back to our hotel. Everything is silent after that. Silently, we take showers, no one arguing over who goes first. Silently, Dad heats up our leftovers from the night before, and Everett and Grayson don't whine for room service like the nights before. Silently, we eat. Silently, Dad turns on the TV for Grayson, Everett and Chelsea to watch, silently. Silently, I read a book on our balcony, smelling the salty ocean air. Silently, Mom comes out to join me, and silently, we read our own books.
After around forty minutes, I shut my book. I can't read anymore. It's getting dark outside, and I just don't feel like it.
"What're you thinking?" Mom asks, breaking the silence that has engulfed us all since we left the beach.
"How do you know I'm thinking something?" I reply.
"You're always thinking something. You're like me in that way," Mom says.
I shrug. "What's gonna happen to Chelsea, if…" I don't want to finish the sentence, so I don't.
"Well, she's still got JB. Chelse'll be fine, I'm sure. JB, though…" Mom says. "She's been through so much…"
That makes me think of something, a faint memory I have from years ago. "Mom, was JB ever in the hospital? I mean, before Gray and Rhett were born. When I was little," I explain.
"Why would you ask that?" Mom questions, looking at me strangely.
"I remember it, a little. Just… being in a hospital at night. And going home with Grammy," I tell her.
"Oh," Mom says softly. "Well, yes. That… that did happen." She puts her hand on her stomach.
"Why was she there?" I ask.
"JB… she was pregnant before having Chelsea, when she was in high school," Mom explains.
"What happened to the baby?" I ask, not remembering JB ever having a baby before Chelsea.
"The- the baby… died," Mom says carefully. "Early on, I mean. In pregnancy. She- well, she was in a lot of pain, and there was a lot of blood." Mom's eyes are beginning to fill with tears at the memory. "I was pregnant with Grayson at the time. Early on, though. I had found out the day before."
"Were you scared?" I question.
"For myself and Grayson? No, and I can't think why not. I mean, I was young. I didn't think anything would happen. Well, not that anything happened. I was scared for JB."
"What's gonna happen to her? If Alex doesn't… make it…"
Mom sighs. "I'm not sure, Jules. I'm just not sure."
I wake up early the next morning, with Chelsea cuddled into me. It takes me a minute to remember why she's there, because she and JB were supposed to be sharing a room, she wasn't supposed to be with us. Then it hits me, everything that had happened the previous day.
I sigh, moving Chelsea out from my arms, careful not to wake her, and I grab my phone from the side of the bed and begin to scroll through Instagram.
I decide to call Callie and Preston, tell them what's going on. Quickly, I rip out a page from my notebook, write a note telling them I went for a walk and yes, I have my phone, grab a jacket and flip flops and sneak out of the hotel.
Once I'm outside, I call the both of them.
"Hey Juju, what's up? Aren't you on vacation?" Preston asks. He sounds tired.
"Yeah, I'm at the hotel right now," I reply. "I'm the only one up, I'm going to take a walk. How are you guys?"
"I'm fine. I just had breakfast," Callie replies.
"Already?" Preston groans. "The phone call woke me up."
I laugh. "Of course it did," I say, and then sigh. "Anyways… so, something happened yesterday."
"What is it?" Preston asks, while Callie says, "Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah- I mean, no? Well, everyone here is alright," I say.
"Okay, so who's not alright?" Preston questions.
"Alex, he's JB's husband," I respond. We know all of each other's families. We're around each other's houses enough to have met almost everyone.
"What happened to him?" Callie asks, sounding worried.
"He was in a car accident, I'm pretty sure. He's not… dead, I don't think. I mean, as of last night, he wasn't," I say.
"JB was with you guys, right? She and Chelsea?" Callie asks.
"Yeah. She drove home as soon as she heard. We've still got Chelse with us. I think my grandma is going to drive up here and get us," I say.
"Wow… that's, uh… I hope he's okay," Callie says.
"Me too," I agree. "This year just keeps getting better," I add sarcastically. "First, my mom gets pregnant with a baby I don't want, then I find out my dad isn't my dad, and now Alex gets in a car accident."
"You're just livin' the life," Preston agrees, also sarcastically.
"I know, right?" I say. "Anyways, the beach is really nice, so that's cool. I'll send you guys a picture, hang on."
I text the picture to our group chat.
"Oh, that is nice," Preston says.
"Yeah," Callie agrees. "I wish I could be at the beach right now."
"I wish you guys were here too. That would be amazing," I tell them.
"We'll go on a beach vacation by ourselves someday," Preston declares. "We'll go out to California, they have nice beaches. I used to go there over spring or summer break when I lived in Arizona."
I smile. "Yeah, that sounds amazing. We'll go to California beaches, and Callie and I will drag you along to shops, and we can go to an aquarium and you can tell us all the science behind it or whatever," I say.
"How will we get the money, though?" Callie asks.
"Who knows? We can work jobs through high school, and then go the summer before college. Callie, Preston, you guys could tutor kids in math and science, and I could do art lessons, or something," I plan.
"That might be able to work…" Callie says thoughtfully.
"Look, we'll plan it out tonight. You guys can come over to my house, or we can go to the park," I tell them.
"Can we go to your house? You have the best food," Preston says.
"Yeah, fine. But you have to deal with Gray and Rhett, then," I warn them.
"Whatever, I've got an older sister, nothing is more annoying than that," Preston says.
"Hey!" Callie and I cry together.
"Only to the younger siblings! You guys aren't annoying, or else I'd be hanging out with someone else," Preston says.
"Well… I think siblings just always annoy each other," Callie says.
"Yeah, that's probably true," I agree. "Oh, crap, my dad's calling me… Well, come to my house, say, five tonight."
"Alright," Preston says.
"See you then," Callie says, and I hang up on the call and pick up my dad's.
"Yeah?" I ask once I pick up.
"So, you just decided to go on a morning walk while everyone is asleep in a town you don't know?" Dad asks.
"I know it, we walked around all over the past few days," I tell him.
"Yeah, nice try. You need to come back, before your mom wakes up and worries herself to death," he says.
"Fine. I was only going so I could call Callie and Preston, though," I say.
"You don't have to leave the hotel. Come on, Chelse wants you."
"I'm coming," I tell him.
He's silent for a moment. "You know, I don't see why you're so opposed to having a new sibling."
"I don't know," I reply.
"You love Chelsea so much, and you like your brothers at least a little."
I laugh a little. "I mean, they can be alright sometimes," I say.
"I'll take it. Okay, I'll see you when you get back," Dad says.
"Bye," I say.
"Bye, Jules."
The drive home feels longer than the drive there. Maybe it's because we're not headed towards fun, but instead headed towards the brutal realities that are our lives. Or maybe there's just more traffic. Either way, I sketch out a road where one side is happy, with flowers and sunshine and rainbows. On the other end, it's dark, with fire, blood, and some evil-looking hyenas and wolves. On the road is our car.
"Is that how you see this trip?" Grayson asks, leaning over to look at it.
"Pretty much," I agree.
"I like the wolves," he says.
"Do you? They're not my favorite…"
"Can you draw me a wolf?"
"Sure. Do you want it to be realistic, or cartoon?"
"Mm… realistic."
"Okay. Let me finish this first. Then I'll draw the wolf," I tell him. I look up, feeling someone's eyes on me, and see both of my parents looking at me, my mom sitting in the front seat with my grandma and my dad in the middle row, next to Everett and Chelsea.
I smile at them, not sure what else to do.
We get home and the first thing I do is unpack. Then I take out my book and read a little, before there's a knock at the door. I jump up, remembering that I had invited Callie and Preston over and forgotten to tell my parents.
I set down the book and run to the door, which my mom is opening.
"Oh, hi, Mrs. Jones," Callie says.
"Callie! Hi…" Mom says, looking back and seeing me.
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you I invited Callie and Preston over," I say.
"It's fine. Have you had dinner? Who am I kidding, it's five…" Mom says. "I'll make you something."
"Thank you," Callie says, smiling.
"Come on, let's go to my room until Preston gets here," I say.
Callie nods, and we walk back there. "Your mom looks kind of tired. Is she okay?" she asks.
"She always looks tired recently," I reply, shutting my door. "She's fine. I think. Although, she did list all the symptoms of pregnancy she's ever had, and that's pretty much my birth control. That, and the fact I'm thirteen, haven't started middle school yet, and babies are annoying."
Callie laughs. "Yeah, sounds fun. My birth control is the fact that my mom said she thought she was dying before she found out she was pregnant with me."
"Ah, lovely," I tell her.
"Isn't it?"
We hear a knock at the door. "That's probably Preston," I say. "Come on."
The two of us walk to the entryway, andI open the door. Preston is standing there, and his dad and younger brother. Preston makes eye contact with me, nods his head slightly in the direction of his dad and brother, and rolls his eyes.
"Hey, Preston…" I say, looking at him curiously.
"Hi," he replies flatly.
"Hi… what're your names again? Juliet?" Preston's dad asks. "And you… it starts with a C, doesn't it? Carol, was it? Catherine?"
"Juju," I tell him, smiling. "That's Callie."
"Ah, right. Well, I was close, eh?" Preston's dad asks.
"Yeah, Dad…" Preston says. He's almost as tall as his dad now. Skinnier, though, and much cuter. Preston looks like neither of his parents. We've joked that he's adopted before, and he said that he wished he was. I can't really blame him, though. I'm surprised his dad still remembers his kids' names.
"Juju, can you get your parents?"
"Sure…" I leave Callie and Preston in the doorway with Preston's dad and brother and run to the living room. "Mom, Preston's dad wants to see you," I tell her.
"About what? God, I haven't seen his dad in a while…" Mom stands up. I see what Callie means, by her looking tired. She does look extra tired. I wonder how tired she'll look once the baby is ready to be born. Or once the baby is born.
We walk to the doorway.
"Hey. Betsy, wasn't it?" Preston's dad asks.
Mom looks as if she already knows exactly how this conversation is going to go. She plasters a fake smile on her face. "Betty actually. But don't feel bad, it's been so long," she tells him.
He nods. "I'm sorry. I'm Mark. I mean, I know we know each other, but it's been a while, just in case, you know?"
"Yes, of course. So, what can I do for you guys?" she asks, leaning against the door, which is still open.
"Oh my god, are you pregnant?" he asks.
"Oh, yeah," Mom replies, her smile still fake.
"Preston, did you know?" Mark asks his son.
Preston nods a little.
"Oh, why didn't you tell me? This is so exciting. When are you due? Gender?" Mark says. He seems as if he wants to be friendly before asking for a favor.
"Thank you. I'm due in December. We're actually not going to find out the gender until they're born," Mom explains.
"Always fun," Mark says. He sighs. "Alright, here's the deal. The power's down at our place, someone didn't pay their rent and the landlord's pissed, you know the deal. Well, he's not turnin' the power on until the rent is paid, and I was just wondering if we could stay here a few days."
"Oh…" Mom says, smiling. "Uh-"
"I mean, of course it's fine if you say no, I understand you must have a lot on your plate, what with preparing for a baby and all, but it would be really nice if you could help us out here," Mark said, patting Preston's brother, Jake, on the back, as if he were trying to guilt trip us into agreeing.
Mom looks really uncomfortable. "I…" she says.
I look helplessly at Preston. He mouths "I'm sorry."
"I- I guess that would be fine…" Mom says. She likes Preston, I know that, but not a lot of people like his parents.
"Oh, thank you so much. We won't be in the way too much, don't worry. Jake, Preston, help me get some bags from the car," Mark tells his sons.
Callie and I walk outside to help them, and I'm surprised at how many bags are in the car. "This is a lot for a few days…" I say, grabbing a cardboard box and a duffel bag.
"Only the necessities," Mark replies.
"Right…" Callie agrees.
Betty's pov
I watch Juju, Callie, Preston, Mark, and Jake walk out to the car, sighing. I feel exhausted. I need to tell Jughead about these new visitors staying with us for… well, if we're being honest probably more than a few days.
I walk into the room, flopping down on the bed next to Jughead. I cuddle into him, and he puts his arm around me, shutting his computer.
"What're you thinking?" he asks me.
I sigh. "I just did something stupid," I tell him.
"Does it have to do with Juju?" Jughead asks.
I chuckle. "Doesn't everything? This year is pretty much titled 'Changes for Juju', like one of those American Girl Doll books," I say.
"What was it?" Jughead asks.
"She invited Callie and Preston over. Preston's dad and brother need a place to stay for a few days, and I told them they could stay here," I explain.
Jughead looks at me, raising his eyebrows. "It's going to be more than a few days," he tells me.
I sigh. "I didn't want to be rude…" I say. "God, I'm exhausted. I just… everything feels like it's falling apart, Juggie." Tears begin to form in my eyes, and I yank my hair out of the ponytail I have it in. "Archie finds Juju, who hates the baby and me by extension, and then Alex, and now we've got two strangers who're staying in our house…" More tears fall from my eyes. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault, if I had just gotten out of that relationship, if I had remembered to pick up my birth control… if I hadn't convinced JB to come with us, if I could just tell him no…" I sob.
Jughead holds me, rubbing comforting circles on my back. "None of this is your fault, Betts. None of it, okay?" he says.
"But it is, Jughead! It is…"
"It's not, Betty. Look, you should get some rest, alright?"
"I've gotten rest all weekend, I don't need rest," I tell him.
"Betts, you barely slept at all this weekend," Jughead tells me.
"I slept- I slept a little," I say.
"You need to sleep, lovey. You've gotta get some sleep, for you and for that baby," Jughead tells me.
"I can't sleep. I just lay there for hours. It's easier to not sleep," I tell him.
Jughead sighs. "Look, get some sleep, alright? Please try. For me."
I wipe a few tears off of my face. "Fine," I agree.
Jughead kisses my forehead. "Okay. Now, I'm gonna go find Preston's dad. We'll let him stay three days, but after that, he's out." He stands up and walks to the door as I lay numbly on the bed, no sheets over me at all.
Juju's pov
After we've brought all of the boxes in, and my dad talks to Mark to tell him it's only going to be three days he and Jake are here, Callie, Preston and I go back to my room.
We sit on the floor in silence. I look up at Preston. "It was you guys who didn't pay your rent, wasn't it?" I ask.
Preston sighs, nodding. He looks like he's about to cry. "Dad lied. It's not that the power's out. He kicked us out, too. So, now my dad and Jake are basically homeless, and I can choose between hearing my mom and her various boyfriends have sex every night, or living in a car, or both."
"It's so unfair," I tell him.
"Don't even get me started…" Preston says.
"I wish there was something I could do to help," Callie says.
"Me too," I agree.
"Your parents are letting us stay here a few days, you're already doing something," Preston counters.
"My mom is exhausted, I doubt she knows what she agreed to," I reply.
"Yeah, your mom did look pretty tired…" Preston says. "Is everything alright with her?"
"She's fine, I think. I don't know. Probably just stressed," I say. "I think insomnia is a symptom of pregnancy, it's just that."
"That's not gonna affect anything, is it?" Callie asks.
"Who knows?" I ask. "I mean, I guess we'll find out."
Betty's pov
I wake up in the middle of the night, and realize I've slept for hours. It feels nice. I hear my phone buzzing, and reach over to grab it. A call from JB.
"What's going on?" I ask, my voice dry.
"Alex… he- he- he's gone," JB sobs.
I sit up. "Oh my god. I'm so sorry, JB. I love you, and we're always here for you, okay?" I tell her.
"C-can I come over tomorrow?" she asks.
"Of course. Whenever you'd like," I tell her.
"Thank you so much. I'm sorry if I woke you up-"
"Don't even think of that. Just… try to get some sleep, okay? It's good for you," I tell her.
"Thanks, Betty."
I set the phone down and lay there for a while. I debate waking up Jughead, but decide to let him get some rest. I can't fall asleep after that, though.
Hope you enjoyed! A lot is going on and I keep getting so many ideas but they conflict each other and I'm really not sure what's going on inside my brain anymore. Also, I can't tell if I'm tired right now because I'm about to go to bed or because I was just writing about Betty being exhausted. Anyways, please review and tell me how you like the story, it means a lot to me when people review. :)