SMOKESTACKS
CHAPTER | TWENTY-FIVE.
"Let me know how it goes." Savannah sighed into the phone, her heart going out to the boy on the other end.
"I will." Jughead reassured the girl, a smile on his face at the thought of her. "I'll call you later."
He hung up the phone and Savannah clutched it to her chest, hugging it as if it were him. She let out a breath and stepped back into the living room, where Cheryl sat with Kyle, the two of them playing monopoly on the floor.
"Did you move my piece?" Savannah cried out in disbelief as she sank back down to the floor, retaking her position.
"No." Kyle scoffed, holding a hand to his heart as if she'd hurt him. "I am wounded, Sav, I can't believe you'd accuse me." He then paused before quickly pointing at Cheryl and announcing, "It was her!"
"Traitor!" Cheryl gasped, folding her arms in mock outrage. "You said you wouldn't tell!"
"Eh, I was losing anyway." Savannah shrugged, standing up to fall dramatically back onto the couch.
"Who was that?" Kyle waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Lover boy?"
"Hey! Don't refer to him as that." Savannah blushed, covering her face with a pillow.
Cheryl raised an eyebrow at Kyle, who mouthed his name and the girl gaped at him. "You and Jughead? Well I never, I am shocked."
"You're always shocked, Cheryl." Savannah let out a snort and looked at the clock. "The Jubilee is starting." She sang, "Archie and the Pussycats will be singing as we speak."
"You didn't have to miss it for me." Cheryl told her, losing her pep.
"I didn't want to go anyway." Savannah waved her off, "How boring."
"Uh, just thought I should let you know, Sav..." Kyle trailed off awkwardly, "Mom left again when you were on the phone. She had a large bag with her."
"Great." Savannah rolled her eyes. "I've spoken to my mother twice since dad died and she's off on an impromtu road trip."
"She better bring back gifts." Kyle added.
"I second that notion." Savannah nodded in agreement before turning to Cheryl, "Did you want to stay the night?"
"Would that be okay?" Cheryl asked quietly.
"Yeah." Kyle said from behind her, starting to clear up the game that they had been playing. "You can stay as long as you'd like. We have the guest room, or you could sleep in with Sav, if you'd like."
"Would it be alright if I stayed with you?" Cheryl asked Savannah almost timidly. "I don't want to be alone tonight."
"Sure." Savannah told her, holding her arms out for the girl to move into, the two of them perched on the edge of the couch.
"Tell you what." Kyle put the game back on the bookshelf and pulled out a movie, "How about we watch a movie? I'll even allow a chickflick."
"What do you want to watch, Cheryl?"
Cheryl had picked The Devil Wears Prada, a classic.
However, she and Kyle had fallen asleep on the couch, the girl's head rested on his stomach. Normally, Savannah would feel sick at the sight of them, but Cheryl was feeling fragile and needed the support.
She turned off the movie and placed a blanket over Cheryl, sacrificing her brother to the cool breeze, and ventured up the stairs, planning to go to bed early, for it was only ten past eleven at night.
Her hand reached up to turn the light on in the bathroom for her to brush her teeth and take off the layers of makeup she'd applied earlier, when she heard her phone vibrating on her desk in the next room.
Savannah lunged at the phone as soon as she burst into the room, answering the call without looking at the caller ID. She knew who it was.
"Hello." She breathed into the phone, her heart pounding.
"Hey, you." He greeted in return, causing her to feel weak in the knees and slide down onto the floor of her bedroom.
"How did it go with your dad?"
"Good." Jughead nodded on his end, "I think things are going to be okay. My foster parents are nice and I think I'll make friends at school -"
"Stay away from the blue haired girl." Savannah said suddenly, unable to stop herself. Her eyes widened after the words left her mouth, hand shooting up to cover her mouth in shock.
"What?" Jughead laughed through the phone, "Are you jealous?"
"Maybe." Savannah told him, her voice muffled through her hand. She took it away. "Yes."
"I wanted to talk to you about that, actually."
"Me being jealous?"
"No." Jughead chuckled. She heard him sit down, the creaking of the seat told her so. "I told you earlier that I had an answer for you."
"Yeah, before Cheryl..." Savannah trailed off, thinking of the girl downstairs.
"Oh yeah, how is she?"
"Better, she's asleep on my brother right now."
"Weird."
"I know, but stop deflecting, what were you going to say?"
She heard him take in a breath on the other side, as if he was debating on what to say. "I like you too, Savannah."
"Well duh, we're friends." She teased, knowing exactly what he meant.
"Don't make me spell it out for you." He groaned. He knew that she was mocking him for not understanding what she meant when she first told him.
"You at the trailer?" She asked him.
"Yeah."
"Be there in ten."
She was at the trailer park in seven, parking Kyle's car at the end of the road. Her feet carried her excitedly toward the trailer that she knew was Jughead's, despite her not having been there before. He had mentioned the number in a previous conversation, and because she had a crush on him and wanted to be able to stalk, it had stuck.
In typical girl fashion.
"How did you know this was mine?" Jughead asked in amusement, leaning against the edge of the doorframe.
"I've been following you." She mocked, moving up the steps to meet him. "I used to watch you. Was much easier before I needed to start climbing the tree in Archie's front yard."
Jughead laughed, stepping back into the trailer to let her in, closing the door behind her.
"Nice place."
"Thanks, my dad tidied it up before -"
He didn't get to finish his sentence, a set of lips had planted themselves on his own, swallowing whatever he was going to say.
She'd bitten the bullet, unable to keep herself from attacking him any longer.
It had been tense, the first few seconds where she hoped that he wouldn't push her away, until his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer, starting to kiss her back in sweet little pecks.
That wasn't enough for Savannah though, her hands sought out his hair, knocking the beanie to the floor. She could taste mint on his breath, could smell the shampoo in his hair, her senses driving her wild.
Her back suddenly met the counter and he'd taken control of the situation, fingers grasping at the bare skin between her jeans and shirt, which had ridden up a few inches.
It was supposed to be a sweet kiss, he told himself internally, he wasn't supposed to have her pinned against the kitchen counter as his tongue assaulted her mouth. And yet there they were, like two teens in heat, unable to control their feelings.
It was when Savannah's fingers ducked under his t-shirt, starting to tug it upward, that alarms started going off in Jughead's mind. He broke the kiss and stepped back, taking in the girl's dishevelled appearance.
"What is it?" She asked, worried that she'd done something wrong.
"It's just..." Jughead broke off with a sigh, "I don't want to be another Jason for you, a distraction. I want this to be real."
"You don't want me." Savannah said quietly, feeling rejected.
"I do." Jughead insisted, moving back to her to cup her face with his hands. "Trust me, I do. I just want to know that I'm different."
"You are different." Savannah murmured to him softly, her eyes locking onto his. "You're not like him. You don't just make me forget about the pain, you make it go away," She paused to glance down at his lips before losing herself in his eyes once more. "And no one has ever done that before."
They joined together in another kiss, this time it was soft and gentle. It was how their first should have been, not ruled by hormones, but full of emotion and passion.
Savannah pulled away this time, her eyes still closed for a second afterward, before opening them with a smile on her face. "You know -"
She was cut off by a loud banging on the door.
"Who's that?"
"I have no idea."
"It's not your brother is it? Coming to kill me?"
"He doesn't even know where you live, and what did he do? Jog here?"
Jughead shot an unamused look over his shoulder as he opened the door, finding himself face-to-face with a group of Southside Serpents on the steps of the trailer. There was a dog too, he knew that Savannah would melt at the sight.
The dog started barking and Savannah gaped from inside, "Is that a dog?" She whispered, to which he shot her a silencing look. She zipped her mouth and threw away the key, hopping up onto the counter.
"Easy Hot-Dog. He's family."
"Hot-Dog?" Savannah mouthed with a scrunched up face. What a weird name for a dog.
"Hey." Jughead offered to the group, hesitantly.
"Heard your dad could've named names but didn't." The big guy at the front said, "Serpents take care of their own. We wanted you to know, no matter what happens to him, however long he's gone. We got your back." He lifted up a heavy jacket with a green snake on the back, "This is yours, if you want it."
Jughead took the jacket with a small smirk, sliding his arms through the sleeves until it fell neatly on his shoulders.
Savannah jumped off the counter, not quite believing what she was seeing.
Jughead Jones in a Serpent's leather jacket.
"Jughead." She murmured, her hands wrapping around the edge of the door, eyes taking in the new look for him, before she shared his smirk.
She'd always been a sucker for leather.
Okay there it is, guys! The end of book one, just in time for season two to begin!
Sorry that I changed the story about last minute, I absolutely hated it. And I know that it's a little choppy, there were parts where I thought ugh I can't be bothered writing Savannah in here, she doesn't fit in.
Hopefully I'll see you all next week (ish) for the first chapter for the second book, "Iridescent".