I edited this myself so there is probably loads of errors.
Madness is a band from the 80's for anyone who doesn't know. They are mentioned in this chapter.
Sorry about this chapter.
"I don't want to go to this party." Jughead told Betty for the one-hundredth time. They had decided the only night they could work together was Wednesday's when they knew Archie wouldn't come in. This meant they were seeing even less of each other. Jughead wasn't inviting her over much and was a ghost on the rare times he came to school.
Betty nodded as she looked at her laptop, focused intently on what she was reading. "But it's for my birthday, Jug, you have to go."
"No, this party is for Veronica. She wants to invite people into her home so she can prove she is the richest and therefore queen bee." Jughead reasoned. "Which means people I hate are going to be there and they will be drinking and there will be music I hate playing. I don't want to go."
"You don't have to but I am. I need to get crazy and I would love if you could get a little crazy with me." She smirked at him before directing her attention back to her screen.
"What are you looking at?" He asked.
"I have to get all my residence stuff sorted and there are like a million forms to fill out." She ran hands through her hair roughly.
"Why live in res? You know Veronica will put us all up in some glamorous loft or penthouse or something." Jughead informed her.
"And I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time there but I'm required to live my first year in residence. It's like a rule at Juilliard or something." She informed.
"So we aren't going to live together?" Jughead asked crossing his arms over his chest.
"Not for the first year, no. I have to live on campus." She huffed when she realized how miffed he was at the news knowing this was going to turn into a fight. "Just think of it like Friends. Phoebe didn't live in the same building as the rest of them and everything was fine."
"Why didn't you mention this to me?" He demanded from her.
"I just found out about it. I missed an email and found out my registration window is in 15 minutes. They need a lot of info and I want to get a good room." She turned to face him trying to keep her now bubbling anger at bay. "And even if I knew about it earlier, when would I have told you? We barely see each other." She shook her head. "This is what you wanted for me, right? You said I had to go to Juilliard, I had to do this cause it's who I am. Living on res is just a part of it. Why is this such a problem?"
"I just..." He rubbed the crown of his head and turned away from her. "Never mind."
"Jug, can you please tell me how you are feeling? Anything. It doesn't have to be about your dad or FP or Archie. Just tell me, how are you?" She only ever felt like she was pleading with him nowadays. He only talked about superficial things; what music he was listening to, what happened on Game of Thrones, what he thought of the new book he was reading. "Just think about how good it felt when we told each other how we felt, how we loved each other. Didn't you feel lighter? Excited that maybe things were going to be better?" Betty took a deep breath in and sighed. "Talking about everything you are going through now could feel just like that. I would never judge you Jug."
Jughead looked at her like he as thinking about what she had said but she already knew what he was going to say based on his closed off body language. "I'll come to your party Bets and I'll try my best to have fun."
Betty sighed further. "Thanks Jug." She muttered turning back to her computer while Jughead took her phone and plugged it in. Madness started playing filling the silence between them.
Betty was looking forward to Saturday. She needed to let loose more than she originally thought she did. She was wound so tight and if she didn't let some of her stress out she was going to explode. She was going to have fun no matter what. While she hoped that it didn't have to come to it she knew she was willing to ignore Jughead that night to do so.
"So in retrospect this wasn't the best idea." Veronica admitted watching people flitter in and out of her kitchen.
Betty's birthday bash had quickly turned into the Anti-Archie Andrews party. Veronica made it clear to every person she invited that the red head was not allowed and some people took that to heart. Reggie was one of those people. He had a few hundred paper Archie masks made and nearly everyone at the party was wearing one.
"You think?" Betty sighed and downed what remained of her champagne. "He's going to freak out when he gets here."
"Maybe, and hear me out, he won't." Veronica shrugged waving to some people she had never spoken to in her life. Her black hair was in perfect silky waves and she was wearing a bright white party dress that hugged at the waist and flared at the hips.
"You know he's going to." Betty poured herself another drink and drank half of it. "Whatever, I need this." She brushed off her feelings of concern. "I've spent so much time worrying solely about him. I need to have fun and not be serious and be eighteen even if it's only for a couple hours."
"That a girl." Veronica smiled and held up her glass to clink it against Betty's.
"This is going to be a nightmare." Jughead said letting his head fall against the headrest. Kevin drove towards Veronica's house with Joaquin in the back.
"You need to relax. All you have to do is have a drink and dance up on your girl." Kevin looked over at Jughead with a grin. "You might actually like it."
"I don't want to have a drink again for a very long time." Jughead groaned.
"I support that idea." Joaquin said, his black eye was only now starting to fade.
Jughead rubbed his face and sighed. "At least Archie isn't going to be there."
"That is a very good thing. I don't understand what's wrong with him."
Jughead stared out the windshield. "I think I do. There is a lot of anger in him like there is in me. We go about it in very different ways though."
"It doesn't excuse the things he does."
"No it doesn't and every time I see him I feel a rage I can't explain, a rage like I've never felt. If you left me alone with him, I would fight him. I want to feel his bones break under my force." Kevin looked at Jughead's hands which were trembling and he let out a shaky breath. "I hate that I feel this way."
"I wish I had advice to give you. The only advice I can think of is you need to talk to someone." Kevin said after a few minutes of silence.
"In a couple of weeks school will be over and then we'll be in New York and we can all move on." Jughead justified like he had been for weeks now.
Kevin didn't push and Joaquin stayed silent.
They were quite until they parked behind Veronica's Lexus on the street. There were too many people and cars in the driveway for them to get in. "This is a bad idea." Jughead said starting to panic.
"This is your home, if push comes to shove you can disappear upstairs." Kevin assured, wrapping his arm around the raven haired boy and steering him towards the house.
Jughead's heart started to race when he saw Archie's face over and over. He wondered if he was hallucinating again until he saw someone push the mask up over their head and Jughead relaxed.
"I wonder whose idea the masks were?" Kevin said with an air of sarcasm in his voice.
Jughead pushed past the crowds and entered the equally as crowded foyer as DNCE played over the sound system. "I had no idea there was this many people in Riverdale."
"The Southside is here too." Joaquin pointed out a group of moody looking kids clad in leather. Jughead vaguely recognized some of them.
Kevin took the lead and headed towards the kitchen. When he rounded the corner Jughead saw her. Betty stood at the other end of the island, her arms draped over Veronica's shoulders. Cheryl was sandwiched in the middle of them as they moved to the music. He watched the three of them giggle, singing along with the words they knew. Betty's champagne glass bumped against Veronica's back as they swayed.
Betty's hair was up in a loose up-do, her eyes were smokey and he lips dark red. She was wearing a black dress with sheer cutouts that hugged her body perfectly. She looked so happy and carefree that Jughead could barely take it. He hadn't seen this side of her for so long and he knew he was the cause of her misery as of late.
"Jug!" Betty shouted in excitement, untangling herself from her friends and rushing over him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her so their bodies were flush.
He couldn't help but enclose his arms around her waist and kiss her back in a way he hadn't done since they had almost had sex a week and a half prior.
He missed it. He missed touching her, her smell, her breath on his neck while she slept. He missed the way she talked about music, the future, how she used to look at him. He thought about how much he was going to miss it all when it over. He had too much misdirected anger to keep them together.
If they weren't together she would be happy. He could deal with his problems separate from her without taking her down with him.
He knew all he needed to do was talk to anyone about it. He knew a therapist would be best, he should listen to Betty but he knew he would have no idea what to say. He didn't how to articulate what he was feeling. Where was he supposed to start? He wasn't ready and he didn't know when he would be. He knew he'd have to destroy everything around him to do so.
She broke away from him and brought her lips to his ear. "I'm so glad you're here." She whispered, placing a beer in his hand and pulling him over to Veronica and Cheryl. "Sorry about all the masks."
He shrugged. "I'll survive. I did see someone wearing a "Fuck Archie Andrews" T-shirt outside though and I would love one of those." He laughed convincingly.
Their fingers were laced together as they talked with their friends but Jughead knew he only had so much of this in him. He could only act for so long. He knew if he kept going down the path he was going down he was going to lose everything. He figured tonight might as well be the night, all he needed was to find a way to piss off everyone he knew.
Archie felt like he had transcended his normal anger. He wasn't feeling angry anymore. He had become his rage. He embodied the fury coursing through him and felt robotic as he made his way towards Veronica's house.
He started to pass people with red cups in their hands; dancing, smoking and drinking with masks of his face over their own. One girl had a T-shirt that read, "Fuck Archie Andrews" on it.
The Anti-Archie Andrews party was in full swing.
He wasn't sure how there were so many people here and why they seemed to be down for the theme. He was worshiped at school, how could this many people hate him. He assumed these people would have shown up for any cause if it meant a fancy place to drink.
He ripped a mask off a random kids face and put it on his own and entered the house which was crawling with people. He moved through the house like an animal until his eyes fell upon them. The new 'IT' group with Betty and Jughead at the centre of it all.
He watched as Betty draped her arms over Jughead's shoulder and danced against him, her cheeks flushed from alcohol. Jughead placed his arms on her waist but his movements were stiff and uncomfortable. Did he not want to be here or he not want to touch her?
It was then Archie decided that this was the night he was going to break Jughead Jones.
His heart started to race at the idea of finally watching him lose everything. To feel how Archie had felt for the past four years. Surrounded by people but the feeling of loneliness constantly present. To have everything and never feel fulfilled, to always feel empty.
Today he would get what he wanted and take a step away from this chapter in his life into something new. He could become someone else, someone new. He could be anyone he wanted to be.
He watch Betty kiss Jughead's lips and grab her glass heading towards what he could only assume was a bathroom. He moved through the crowd and found the perfect place to lean. A place to wait.
Betty made her way to the washroom and breathed a sigh of relief when she was finally alone. She placed her glass on the marble counter and looked at herself in the mirror. She had a look on her face that she hadn't seen in a long time. She looked happy, happy like she used to before Archie forced his way into everything and Jughead Jones found out he was an Andrews.
Her cheeks were pink from drink and dance, wisps of her hair had fallen out of her up-do and her eyes were wide and sparkling. This night was going better than she imagined considering everything that was going on. Even Jughead seemed to be enjoying himself even with all his protesting. Betty could only hope this was the end of all the drama.
After relieving herself and washing her hands, Betty picked up her glass and opened the door. She was startled when someone wearing an Archie mask pushed past her to get inside. She sighed in relief and made her way downstairs to find Jughead.
She spotted her friends standing on the cusp of the living room and foyer and started to head over to them. She was stopped by someone grabbing her wrist pulling her towards them.
"Hey Betty." Archie said, the real Archie, with a smirk.
Betty sighed heavily. "What are you doing here?" She asked. "This is the Anti-Archie Andrews party or didn't hear. Look at how many people hate you." She made a sweeping gesture at the crowded room.
"These people like a pretty place to drink in. They don't care what the cause is and I heard this was your birthday party. May 7th, I remembered this time." He grinned and held out a small velvet box.
"I don't want anything from you Archie." She said looking away from him to see if any of her friends had noticed what was happening. They were all too absorbed in each other to notice where she was and who she was with.
He opened the box to show her a pair of diamond earrings. "Come on. Let me do something nice for you on your birthday." He stated.
"Please leave me alone Archie." She said trying to get past him but he put his hand up against the wall pining her in. He paused looking her up and down, changing his game plan, moving on to plan B.
"I always liked that dress on you." He noted. Do you remember when you wore it to the spring formal after party last year?"
She swallowed hard and looked away from him.
"How many times did we fuck that night? Four? Five times?" He pondered as her jaw clenched. "That was an unforgettable night baby. You let me in everywhere."
"I remember doing it so many times in a desperate attempt to get off but to no avail." She snarked and tried to push away again.
"God you were such a freak that night. Does he know that about you? All the things you'll do to please your man."
"Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to upset me?" Betty asked looking at the floor.
"Because an upset and distraught Betty antagonizes him." He made a motion with his head in the direction Jughead was standing.
Betty looked over to see Jughead moving through the crowd with quick and precise motions.
She closed her eyes and braces herself for impact. She was too close to Archie not to get hit. She took a deep breath in and a moment of serenity washed over her as the room when silent for a split second with the anticipation of a fight. She embraced the brief calm before the storm because she didn't know when she'd feel it again.
She was spun sideways when Jughead tackled Archie and she along with her glass fell to the ground.
Veronica's expensive champagne flute shattered against the marble tiles. She gritted her teeth when she felt shard of glass slice the palm of her hand, spreading blood all across the floor.
She heard Reggie yell, "Fight!" and Cheryl, "Cage Match!" at the same time as chaos broke out.
She looked up to see a circle closing around her ex and current boyfriend as Archie landed a painful looking punch on Jughead's lip.
Betty inspected her hand and assessed the damage. She was going to have to go to the hospital, she was going to need stitches.
"Betty, oh my god, are you all right?" Kevin asked coming up behind her to help her up.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She said trying to get away from him, trying to move towards the fight.
"Stay the fuck away from Betty!" Jughead growled as he continued to fight his brother.
"If you learned to control your woman this wouldn't be a problem!" Archie snapped back.
Betty rolled her eyes and pushed herself away from Kevin, moving towards the centre of the circle, her blood leaving a speckled trail behind her.
"Stop." She said pushing Ethyl Muggs out of the way.
"I'm gonna put you in the fucking ground, Jones!" Archie threatened as he tried to land another punch.
"You're not so big and bad when it's you all by you lonesome. You know you can't win this fight without your goons." Jughead taunted.
"Stop." Betty said a little louder shoving Dilton Dooiley to get past.
"Just break up with her already! You'll never be able to give her the life that I can." Archie stated.
"She doesn't love you anymore dude! Get the fuck over it!"
Betty broke into the circle just as Jughead punched Archie in the side.
"Stop!" She yelled, her high heels snapping against the floor. "Both of you stop now!" They ignored her as she put herself between the two of them. "Stop this now, Jughead!" She shouted pushing him away leaving a blood stain on his shirt. "Fucking leave, get out!"
He did as he was told and fled the circle.
"I knew you would pick me baby." Archie said with a snarky undertone.
She turned to look at him and smacked him so hard across the face it echoed like a crack of thunder in the foyer. It silenced everyone and left a smear of her blood on his face, her wound opening further. "What's wrong with you? For once something wasn't about you, for once you didn't win. Why can't you let this go? Aren't you exhausted? I know I am." She shook her head and sighed. "You told me that you couldn't help yourself, that you needed to destroy him but what will you be left with Archie? This is an Anti-Archie Andrews party, people hate you. You have friends because you're rich and strong but they are scared of you." She shook her head again and looked down at the small puddle of blood at her feet. "I want you to stay away from me and my friends and my boyfriend. You ruin everything Archie and I hope it keeps you awake at night." She turned to leave and find Jughead.
She was shaking as she hiccoughed, her adrenaline starting to fade and her hand began to throb in pain. She thought about what she said, how she told Archie he ruined everything. She remembered the story Jughead told her about FP telling him that he ruined everything too, that it was in his blood. She realized FP never meant Jones blood, he always meant Andrew's blood. He always meant Fred, Archie and Jughead; like they couldn't help fucking up everything around them.
"Jug, Jug please stop!" Betty said out of energy and out of patience. She managed to grab his wrist, finally catching up to him. "Jug."
He spun around in a dramatic fashion. His eyes were wide and his mouth was open, blood covering his teeth and running down his chin. "What Betty?! What do you want me to say?"
"I don't want you to say anything, I just, I just-" she wanted to say that she didn't want him to go away but she couldn't find a way to phrase it that didn't seem stupid.
"This isn't me! What am I doing? The brooding loner getting into a fight with the quarterback at a house party? Could I be more of a cliche?"
"It's a little more complicated than that." Betty said keeping her voice even not wanting to escalate anything.
"I almost forgot this is the world you come from, that this is a part of who you are." He shook his head and wiped his chin with his sleeve.
"No Jug, this was who I was but I still like letting go. Don't you wanna forget sometimes?"
"I want to forget everything." Jughead sighed pulling off his beanie and tonguing his busted lip.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Betty asked genuinely curious.
"I've been thinking a lot about everything lately. How everything happened. How I got here and no matter how I structure it, no matter how I draw a line through it, it all comes back to you." He looked up at her.
"Jughead." Betty said with a hint of a warning in her tone.
"If you got out of that library without getting caught none of this would have happened."
"Are you blaming me for events that happened before I was born?" She asked, half shocked, half annoyed.
He let a laugh of defeat. "You're the reason I know. It's your fault." He pointed at her accusatory.
"Jughead I know you're hurt right now but you are lashing at the wrong people."
"It would have been so easy if I never met you. I would have finished school and gone to New York and you would have finished school and gone to Harvard. That's the way it's supposed to be. We don't make sense."
"We seemed to make sense until a couple of weeks ago."
"I was fooling myself." He shook his head again. "The valedictorian cheerleader and the beanie wearing pariah? We don't work outside of our bubble." He stated.
"What are you talking about?"
"Every time an outside variable comes near us our relationship crumbles. How do you think this is going to work when we leave Riverdale? When we go to New York and you are off playing piano with all your new musical friends and I'm at NYU doing whatever I end up doing, do you think this will work?"
"Relationships aren't something that just happen, they take work and I want to put in that work." Betty pleaded him.
"But I'm already so exhausted and it's barely begun. Look how easy it is for Veronica and Cheryl, Kevin and Joaquin. It's been nothing but starts and stops and friends interrupting us. If it's not that it's an ex boyfriend inserting himself whenever he can and our fucking parents. When does that bad outweigh the good?" He took a step away from her and flexed his hands, a few of his knuckles were split open.
"Jug-" She went to reach for him but he moved away from her further.
"Please don't." Jughead shook his head and was silent for a long time. "Lately it feels like you were the worst thing that ever happened to me." He finally said.
The words felt like a baseball bat to her chest, like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs.
"Jughead!" Veronica scolded from behind Betty. "Get out of here before you say something else you might regret." She tossed him a set of car keys.
He glared at Betty one more time and shook his head before heading towards Veronica's Lexus. They watched as he walked down the driveway and out of sight.
"You need to go to a hospital Betty." Veronica said looking at her hand. "I'll call a cab."
Betty sniffled as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Why do things have to be like this?" She said. "I just wanted to date a cute boy and it's been nothing but trouble." She wiped the tears from her face. "Did he just break up with me?" Betty asked her dark haired friend.
Veronica scrolled her through her phone and brought it up to her ear. "I honestly don't know." She paused to order a cab and then scrolled through her phone again. "I think he's hurting and doesn't know where to place blame. He needs to place it on someone so he can feel relief, that he can get some of his anger out." She stopped again to ask Kevin to bring out some tea towels and grab hers and Betty's purses. "He's doing to you what Archie is doing to him and it sucks but he needs it."
"It's a fucking shitty thing to do." She stopped and stared blankly at the ground before she started sobbing. "I love him Veronica, why isn't that enough?" She hiccoughed, sinking to sit on the steps as people filtered out around her.
Veronica was silent. She knew that nothing she could say would help and instead she wrapped her arms around her friend and let her cry. There was nothing that couldn't be said, not right now. Not when their heads were clouded with alcohol and Betty had open wounds both physical and emotional.
Veronica nudged Betty when the cab pulled up and helped her to feet.
Archie moved past them, knocking them both off their centre in the heels they were both wearing. He turned, staggering slightly as he stepped backwards looking at the two girls. Betty must have looked awful, blood everywhere, her eyes red rimmed, her hair and makeup a mess.
On Archie's face was a look that Betty didn't expect. He looked sad and embarrassed. He looked like a man who got everything they wanted but the outcome wasn't what they thought it would be. He shook his head and moved away from them and towards his house.
Veronica and Betty righted themselves, walked to the cab and headed to the hospital.
This won't last too long. I want to get out of the corner I wrote myself into and end this mother.
Thanks for reading and reviews are appreciated.