Chapter Eleven

Jughead

"Are you sure about this?" I ask her.

She turns to me and nods her head. I grab her hand and lead her into the office. A few of the tattoo artists I know are hanging around. One more Serpent is getting another tattoo.

"You look nervous," I mutter to her.

"Just a little," she says. "I want them to trust me."

"I want you to trust them," I admit.

"Well I guess we have to start somewhere, right?"

Just then we are caught and all eyes are on us.

"The King and Queen are in the house!" Two-Tails shouts with a smile. He's a large man with a lot of tattoos a beer gut. But he has been a reliable man for a long time. I reach out my hand to give him a shake. He does the same. I grab Betty around her waist and pull her close to me. I know she is not afraid of them but she needs to learn that she is allowed to feel like she is a part of us. I think that this will really make her feel that way.

It is just for her protection or for her downfall. I want her to truly feel like she is a serpent, like she is family. She has been working non-stop on Archie's case so I can only see her on the weekends or at night and I want every moment to feel right for her. I think that giving her this will allow some of that trust to start growing.

"What can I do for ya?" he asks with a toothless smile. He is missing three of his front teeth and looks ridiculous. But he lost them a long time ago, some in fights and others in fights in jail. I guess everyone has their differences.

"Serpent tattoo," I tell him.

"For you? I can see yours right there, Jug," he says with a smile, slapping the side of my arm where my tattoo remains. The other side is almost all the way healed. The scars have to just fade from now on.

"For Betty," I say with a smile.

"Ah, yes! Of course," he says. "Right this way."

He leads us both to the back of the parlor where he tells her to sit down in one of the chairs. She takes her jacket off and hands it over to me. I set it down on the chair and sit right beside her, holding out my hand. She doesn't take it yet. I wonder if that is for some power reason or because she really thinks that this is not going to hurt.

"Where?" he asks.

She lifts her shorts a little higher to reveal the left side of her left leg. He nods and gets his stencil out. As he does all the pre-planning, I take her hand from her lap and curl it into my own.

"Jughead," she whispers.

"You worried yet?" I ask.

"No. I'm not worried. I know why I should be doing this and I know that it's the right thing," she says but I can tell there is something else going on. I brush my thumb over hand and look to her eyes, begging her to tell me more. I can see a familiar look on her face. It is one of a long-lasted friendship that is unbreakable.

"Archie?" I ask.

"He just seemed so worried about me, Juggie."

I roll my eyes. "He needs to be worried about himself. Don't you trust me to take care of you, Betty? I would never let anything happen to you. Keeping you as a serpent is the smartest thing we could do. The closer you are to me, the safer you are from everyone else out there," I assure her.

"Jug. I did not become a serpent just for you. Sure, I want to keep you safe and make sure you aren't joining the dark side. But I also wanted to be a part of your world. I saw how much loyalty and honor there is in being a member of this gang. Archie thinks that I am being reckless and that I am going to get hurt. I know that he might've been right once. But right now, this is the best thing that I could do."

"Bets, Arch doesn't understand this anyway," I say.

She nods and Two-Tails walks back over with his hand on the tattoo gun. He looks to Betty and then back to me.

"Stencil is on, Betty. Ready?" he asks.

"As I'll ever be," she agrees.

He begins tattooing. I watch as she realizes how much it hurts. She squeezes my hand and I hold her fingers back as she clenches her eyes. I don't want her to be in pain but I know that she wanted this. I even consider telling her to stop it and forget the entire thing but I know she is stronger than that.

Distraction will be the best answer.

"Archie was scared when I joined too. He doesn't understand us at all. That's okay. But he has a lot of other things to worry about. He knows that I am going to keep you safe here," I promise.

"I don't want you to keep me safe, Jug," she says.

"What do you mean?"

Her face scrunches up in pain but then she looks to me with honesty, even threw that layer of uneasiness.

"I want to be their leader in my own right. I want to be a Serpent in my own right. I think that I need to earn that status like everyone else."

"Betty, what are you talking about?" I demand.

"Everyone else did it, Jug. I should have to," she says.

"No. No way. You already did the Serpent dance. You don't have to do it again. That was all you had to do," I say.

I know where she is going with this and I don't like it. I know she wants to earn their trust and I know that she wants to be a real part of this but it will scare me to death if she actually goes through what I did. I don't think I could handle that.

"You want to do the phases?" Two-Tails asks.

"That seems a little redundant, you've helped us since way before you were one of us," I say, trying to convince them both now. He continues with her tattoo as she stares up into my eyes, moving her arms and even digging her fingers into her palms. The second I notice it, I grab her hands and put them in mine.

"Do it to me," I tell her.

She shakes her head.

I give her a pleading expression and she finally nods.

She takes my hands and digs her nails into them as she squeezes.

"You don't have to do all of that," I tell her. "You have done a lot for us. You are one of us, Betty."

She shakes her head.

"Not all of it. The last one. The gauntlet."

"No way. Absolutely not. I am not letting guys three times your size beat you the hell up, Bets," I tell her.

She looks determined. It is that look that scares me. she knows what she wants and Betty Cooper always figures out a way to get whatever it is that she wants. That is a fact that I have always admired. Right not it terrifies me.

"Jughead. Everyone did it except for the other person that is supposed to be leading them. If I am going to make sure that they trust me, I have to earn it too. If I am already creating problems for them, putting a target on all of us. I better have a damn good reason. Plus, I am not some weak puppy, Jug. The serpent queen is a warrior queen and I have to prove it."

I can't help but give her a small smirk.

I won't be able to change her mind.

"Fine, Betty," I say. "But they're not breaking any bones."

She smiles.

"Deal."

Betty Cooper always gets what she wants. I just never thought she would ask for a bunch of serpents to beat her the hell up. I certainly never thought I would have to participate in it.