heartbeats ; bughead

37

Betty

"I-I killed Jason Blossom." The look he gave me was a look of pure emptiness, like all of the happiness was drained from his eyes. 

I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. I could only think of Polly, how she knew this entire time. My entire family knew. And I didn't.

Because I was blinded by the mists of love and romance. I was just stupid. I didn't even know how to act. What was I supposed to do? Would I hug him, tell him it would be okay? Would I run away and never look back at the one person who I'd called my home. 

I jumped out of the booth, leaving a disgusted look behind, and ran out. Immediately, I heard his voice behind me, running towards me, ready to envelop me in his warmth.

But I couldn't look back. His voice drifted through the air like perfume, made me too dizzy to think. 

"Betty, wait. Betty, please, let me explain. Betty, stop." His hand traced my shoulder, and I spun around with a sudden fierceness. 

"I can't even talk to you, Jughead. Leave me alone, don't ever come and talk to me again--"

"I can't just leave you. Please." His eyes softened, and I could his shoulders sag. 

"Can you please listen?" I turned away, but he stayed. "Betty."

"Jughead, I can't even look at you. You didn't even trust me enough to say anything. You've been cheating me for the eight months we've been together. Don't act like nothing happened. You killed someone." He looked down, but not before I saw tears in his eyes. 

"Let me explain." He put his hand on my arm, looking at me with his soulful brown eyes, the same eyes that made me fall in love with him.

"Go away, Jug." He fell silent, his hand snaking off my arm. After a few minutes of silence, I felt a pang of guilt. He'd been there for me when no else was, he was the friend and boyfriend I never knew I needed.

"Fine." I gestured towards the meadow near the diner, where there was a bench. I gingerly sat down, but when he sat next to me, shoulders touching, I didn't think it felt appropriate, and I was still seething mad, so I scooted away, and he cringed.

"Explain everything. Don't lie. You don't have my trust anymore. Don't make it worse." He sighed. 

"It all started when Jason came to my dad for something. He and your sister were gonna leave somewhere. 

"He wanted a getaway car. Some money. And my dad agreed, but he owed him a favor. Any favor. Jason agreed, and on July 4th, he fleed into the forest, waiting for Polly. The getaway was deeper in the forest, and he waited for days. 

"Polly was his everything. So he waited. For three days he waited. It was the seventh. He didn't know that Polly was taken away. To the nun place. And then my dad called for a favor. He called Jason, but Jason wouldn't do it." 

"What was the favor?"

"To kill his dad." I drew in a breath.

"Why?" 

"He knew secrets about my dad even I don't know. So my dad called Mustang, one of his partners, to go into the forest and scare Jason into doing it. Which was a terrible idea, because my dad went too." He drew in a breath, and I knew what was coming wouldn't make me any happier.

"My dad followed Mustang from afar. He watched as Mustang held Jason at gunpoint, as he put a hasty finger on the trigger. But my dad didn't do anything. He...he just watched. But he should have run." A tear slid down Jughead's face, and I was startled.