Chapter 6- A night in conversation.
Jughead and Robyn sat and talked for hours in Pop's, breaks in the conversation coming whenever she had to serve customers. It was quiet so that didn't happen very often, less as the evening wore on. The first time she had to do this she returned to the table to find Jughead looking at her with a questioning gaze.
"You work here too?" She laughed lightly, clearly he hadn't realised she was working when he first came to talk to her.
"Not exactly, I help out occasionally, when he needs it. The waitress that was supposed to work this shift couldn't come in, I didn't have any plans." She shrugged and saw him smile lightly in response.
"You do this often?" She shook her head lightly.
"3/4 times in the last year, since I became a waitress at the bar." He had a questioning look in his eye again.
"How did you come by working there anyway, I thought they didn't take well to strangers?" She nodded to concede the point.
"They don't. I was connected." He couldn't help the confused look that came to his face at that remark. "My parents grew up here, my mum was a serpent. They both moved to New York to go to college but she knew your dad, she's only a year older than him. My dad told me that my mum was a serpent when we first arrived here but I didn't seek them out. Your dad recognised me as soon as he saw me, I look so much like her, it was just days after we moved here." She smiled as she remembered the first days of meeting him. "He spoke to me, gave me a job as a dishwasher in the bar to start with. When he believed I could take care of myself with the serpents he put me up to waitress."
"And you can take care of yourself?" His incredulous tone made her shrug and her smile drop.
"I learnt to take care of myself pretty early, I had to." He remembered what she had said about her mum and the violence and it made him fall quiet. "Plus, they are pretty easy going once they know you. F.P claims I have them wrapped around my finger." That made him laugh heartily.
"But you're not really a serpent?" He had been looking for a way to ask the question and now the conversation had made it's way to the gang he couldn't help himself.
"No, I was never really interested in getting involved with anything with them. F.P doesn't want me involved in it either, he's strangely protective over me. I know I have the protection and friendship of the serpents but I'm not a member." He raised an eyebrow at her statement and she smiled as if she already knew the next question.
"They're ok with that?" He watched as she made an odd half nod gesture with her head.
"Yes and no, they follow what F.P wants for now but he thinks they will want me to join sooner or later, can't say I disagree." She didn't mention that he was going to be facing a similar issue.
"And will you?" She shrugged lightly.
"That depends."
"On?" She sighed lightly.
"A lot of things within the group. Would you believe me if I said your dad was trying to make them better, more legitimate?" He laughed a short homourless laugh.
"No, I wouldn't" He looked at her and saw her wide honest eyes and that statement became a little less true, strangely coming from her he could believe it a little. "Is he their leader?" She shook her head wildly.
"They don't have a leader, not really. He's respected though and liked throughout, his suggestions are usually taken by most people in the group." She looked round as the bell above the door rang. "Excuse me." He nodded to her as she got up to take the order of the two people who had come in.
When she returned to sit down after setting food in front of the new patrons and wiping down the booths that people had left recently to find Jughead flipping through her notebook again. He looked up to see her looking questioningly at him as she sat opposite him, putting a couple of plates on the table, he was distracted by the arrival of the food and put the notebook flat on the table, an image of the town as if seen from a height looking up from it. He pulled the plate closer to him to see a slice of cake.
"Chocolate?" He saw her smile and nod at his question.
"Pop insisted he would only have to get rid of it, he says its your favourite." He already had a mouthful of cake as he nodded enthusiastically making her laugh lightly again as she took a small forkful of her own portion.
"Best cake around." He exclaimed as he finished off his own and pushed his plate away. "You're good." She raised an eyebrow to that but he tapped a finger the corner of the drawing to bring her attention back to it.
"Ah, thank you." He looked back down to the drawing.
"Where did you draw this from?" She smiled as she thought of the spot.
"There's a meadow a little out of town, leads up this ridge. You can see the whole town from there, it's a nice place to go, peaceful." He smiled at her description.
"You go there a lot?" She shrugged lightly.
"Not a lot, whenever I can though." She watched as he kept his gaze on the drawing on front of him. "I can show it to you, if you want. I was thinking of going tomorrow." He smiled as he looked up to her.
"Yeah, I'd like to see it." She nodded to him.
"My sister isn't back until the evening, say we meet around 1?"
"Yeah, I'll meet you at yours."
The bell rang again then and she turned to see a blonde teenage girl enter the diner, she turned back to Jughead to see him tense slightly and she knew who the girl was. Betty Cooper turned around to face the two of them, the first sign Robyn saw of this was a shift in Jughead's expression and it made her turn to face her herself. She saw Betty had tears in her eyes, turning back to Jughead she saw his attention had been completely taken by her.
"Well there's your damsel in distress." She said it quietly enough that only he heard her words and he turned back to her with a questioning gaze.
"You like to look after people and she clearly needs that right now." She started to stand for her seat and found Betty was walking towards their table, she took the notepad as well as the couple of other items she had brought with her as she stood up fully, clearing the table for Betty to take her seat.
"Betty, Robyn. Robyn, Betty." Jughead introduced them and Robyn smiled over to Betty and nodded slightly as a way of hello before moving out of her way. Betty nodded back to her, clearly attempting to smile but the tears were now running freely down her pale cheeks.
Robyn just moved away quietly just hearing the start of their conversation, Jughead simply asking what had happened. She walked around the counter to find Pop in the kitchen.
"Just about to come out and let you know you could go. It's quiet enough now that I can manage until the next shift waitress comes in." She smiled at him in thanks.
"Thanks Pop." He smiled his usual warm smile to her.
"Thank you, you were incredibly helpful tonight, seems you kept young Jughead in company this evening too." She looked back through to the table she was just at, that now Jughead and Betty were sat at together, was completely within view of the kitchen doorway.
"Yeah, we're...friends." She still hesitated as she said the word.
"Good, that boy is so often alone, and so are you. I think you'd make good friends." She laughed at his words.
"Well thanks, Pop." He laughed heartily back at her.
"What's the joke?" She turned to see a smiling Jughead at the counter, she moved so she was opposite him on the other side of it.
"Your making me work again, I'm supposed to be going home." He looked apologetic but she could still see the smile in his eyes. "What can I get you?"
"Just a couple of milkshakes, please. Chocolate and vanilla." She nodded and made her way to the machine and heard as he shuffled to stay opposite her. He was silent as she poured the two milkshakes and turned to put them in front of him, he nodded his thanks to her and she smiled in return. "I'll see you tomorrow, 1 o'clock?"
"Yeah, I'll see you then." As he turned back to his table she turned back to see Pop smiling at the interaction between her and Jughead. She grabbed her things from the side, smiled her goodbye to Pop and walked through the diner quickly before leaving, hearing the bell ring above her.