Chapter 13- A Change of Plan.
As Robyn approached the house she slowed her pace and made her breathing return to normal so it wouldn't draw concern. She turned her thoughts to how she was going to broach the subject of the evening with Jughead, she knew she would have to have a conversation with him. She entered the house to sounds of laughter and closed the door as quietly as she could as she followed the noise into the living room, she stood in the doorway watching her sister laugh heartily and Jughead beside her laughing lightly along. Suddenly Jughead looked up, the laughter was cut short and she saw a small blush creep onto his cheeks, she was glad to see his smile remained bright as he met her eye. Emma, seeing Jughead's movement, turned around and jumped up when she saw her, they hugged tightly for a moment before pulling back apart.
"Do I need to say it?" Robyn made her voice slighty harder as she looked down at her sister, it didn't have the desired effect as Emma just rolled her eyes at her.
"No, but you're going to anyway." Emma made her way round her and towards the kitchen, leaving Jughead slightly awkwardly sat on the couch.
"Damn straight. You have a phone for a reason." She followed her sister into the kitchen and watched her attempting to busy herself in the fridge, avoiding the seriousness of the conversation.
"I know." The silence dragged on, Robyn waiting until her sister looked at her, eventually she turned and made eye contact with her.
"You are supposed to call, or at least message me when things change." She watched as Emma nodded slowly at her. "I expect contact in the future."
"I promise." She pulled her sister in for another hug then.
"Good. Now what do you want for dinner?" The harder edge had left her voice now, she trusted her message had been received. "Jughead?" She raised her voice so he would be able to hear in the living room.
"You called?" He was smiling as he entered the kitchen.
"Thoughts on dinner?" Emma was the one to ask as she started looking throught the cupboards.
"Anything." Robyn couldn't help rolling her eyes at the response from him.
"Thank you, for the least helpful thing you could have answered." She smiled as that earned a small laugh from him.
She opened the fridge in the hopes of finding some inspiration on what to cook.
"Whoa." She turned at the sudden noise from Jughead.
Emma had climbed onto the counter to look into the higher shelves and Jughead was stood behind her with his hands up as if expecting her to fall any second.
"Emma, be careful up there before you give Jughead a heart attack." Jughead turned to look at her then, a small smile on his lips.
"This happens a lot?" He had lowered his hands now but still remained close as if still cautious.
"At least a few times a week." He chuckled lightly.
"Ah, do one of your pasta bakes." Emma had grabbed a jar of sauce and looked round to see their reactions.
"Sounds good." Jughead answered before she had the chance to ask him what he thought.
"There's a tomato one or a cheese with bacon one?" Emma had found another jar and was now holding out both. Robyn heard Jughead sigh at given another choice to make.
"Whichever you want." The two girls laughed lightly at his answer and Robyn reached up and grabbed the cheese sauce.
"This ones better." She turned to start getting things ready. "Why don't you to go find something to watch, I'll get this in the oven and be out in a minute."
She watched as Jughead helped Emma off the counter and she left to go do as she suggested.
"Is there anything I can do to help, I know my way around a kitchen?" She was already shaking her head lightly.
"I make these sauces in advance so I don't have to do much when actually cooking the meal." He looked mildly surprised at her answer.
"You put a lot of effort into meals." It wasn't a question but she thought for a moment how to respond while preparing the pasta bake.
"Well, I only work every fourth Saturday or so and I usually have an evening or two free a week, I don't spend a huge amount of time on it but I make a point of spending a little time every week preparing meals. The meals are pretty simple but at least it's a hot meal every evening, occasionally I'll do something a bit more involved, when I get the chance." She bent to put the bake in the oven.
"I think it's great that you do." She smiled up at him.
"Dinner will be ready in 30 minutes or so." She stood up as she spoke and received a smile back from Jughead. "Let's go and see what Emma has put on for us to watch."
Jughead followed her back into the living room to see Emma had found some rom-com on netflix that looked like it was two hours of his life he'd never get back but he refrained from saying anything as he took back up the seat he was in previously, Emma had taken the chair and Robyn had already curled up on the other side of the couch.
"Seriously?" He couldn't help but smile at Robyn's response to the movie pick, he could see she had similar thoughts on the movie as he did.
"It's supposed to be good." Robyn just snorted at the remark.
"You say that about a lot of movies that we end up hating." A look of mock hurt came on to Emmas face before it quickly faded to a smile aa she couldn't hold it.
"We have fun mocking them though." That earned a rolling of the eyes and small shake of the head from Robyn.
"Sorry, and don't judge my movie tastes based on tonight." Jughead laughed at the statement directed at him.
"I promise, no judgement." He was glad when he recieved a bright smile in return.
"I got the message from dad, he's out tonight. But as per tradition he will be picking you up Sunday after your party to take you out for the day, I don't think we will be seeing much of him before that." Robyn had turned back to her sister, she didn't look at all surprised by the development.
"Sounds good to me." She smiled and then took a deep breath to get herself ready for the the next bit of news to pass over.
"I also talked to my dad about you staying a while..." She turned to look at the look of complete shock on Jugheads face. "He said you can stay-"
"I said no to your offer." He interrupted her and didn't sound too happy about her pressing it.
"I know, and if youd really rather stay where you are then fine, I won't push. But you have a room, a bed and an actual stable roof over your head available here, if you find that any better that a shack outside." He could hear the sarcasm come up towards the end of the sentence and knew it made sense to take her up on the offer but he hated taking anything from anyone, he sighed heavily and he saw Robyn smile as if she had won.
"You're living in a shack?" He flinched slightly at Emmas tone and saw her looking shocked. "You have to come stay here." He sighed again.
"Seems we aren't taking no for an answer." He couldn't help but smile at them both then. "But you don't get a free ride, you'll be added to the chore timetable."
That actually made him feel a little better and the small smile on Robyns lips said she knew it, he returned the smile and nodded.
"Thank you." She smiled brighter and nodded in return.
"You're welcome. Do you want to grab your stuff before or after dinner?"
"Do I have time to go before it's ready?" He didn't think there was that much time left before it was.
"Not walking, but I can can drive you over there and make it back in time." He gave her a slightly surprised look before nodding, she started to get up as soon as he did. "You ok for 10 minutes?" She glanced over to Emma then.
"Of course."
"If the oven beeps take it out, it needs to sit anyway, and feel free to start the trainwreck of a movie, I'm sure we won't miss much.
They heard the loud peal of laughter from Emma as they headed out the door.