heartbeats ; bughead

41

"Jug, you don't need to make breakfast for me--" He rolled his eyes 

"Stop. You know I love it." He smiled into a soft kiss. "Every single moment." 

"You're so cheesy." He made a mimicking face. "Let me eat already. Gosh, I love your pancakes." His nose wrinkled.

"Would you kill for it?" I smiled. We played this game all the time. 

"I...would kill for the maker of these pancakes." I wrapped my arms around his neck, inhaling his piney scent. "Call me a murderer, I guess," I whispered softly and kissed his nose. 

He tensed up for a quick second, but I noticed it. He quickly replaced it with a smile, and I melted into his chest. 

Betty

How had I not noticed it? He hid everything from me. He lied to me. 

All the little clues had pointed to it, and I had been so oblivious. I--

"Betty?" My mom called, sounding like she was smiling. How could anyone smile on a day like this? 

I changed into a simple white tee and loose jeans. But these days, all my jeans were loose. My eyes were sunken. I'd been having these weird flashbacks of our relationship. 

Overall, I wasn't feeling too well. I spotted a few breakouts on my chin. I hugged my arms to my chest, and I faintly felt the outline of my ribs. My stomach felt empty. Life didn't seem as happy. 

It felt not worth living. Pointless. What's stupid is that it's so hard to live life, but ending it was so easy. If I could just--

Waving those thoughts out temporarily, I descended the steps to see my smiling mom. "Betty! Come eat!" I sat down gingerly, afraid my mom would spring something at me. 

"Okay, what's up? Seriously, Mom. I'm freaked out, and frankly, not in the mood." She smiled wider.

"I'm just happy. What, I can't be happy?" Polly smiled. 

"Yeah, Betty. Eat some food. It'll calm your nerves." She and my mom shared a look. I stuffed a mouthful of pancake into my mouth, but it just tasted like cardboard. I felt like puking. 

"Did you hear about the Jason Blossom murder?" I tensed. So much for calming my nerves. 

I sighed angrily. "Mom, can we not--"

"Apparently the murderer is still unknown, how weird is that? If people knew what we knew--" 

"Mom, I said stop--" I felt a rush of blood to my head.

"And apparently, according to my sources, the murderer was dating my daughter, but she loved him and he--" I banged the table.

"That's enough !" I pushed the chair angrily back. My mom kept smiling, though. 

"Don't worry, Betty. You made the right decision." I rolled my eyes.

"What would you know? You had a son with FP in high school." My mom's smile faltered. "Don't lecture me on what's right or not. You don't have that right." I stormed out of the room, and slammed the door. 

Polly quickly trailed behind me. I turned. 

"What the hell do you want, Polly?" My head throbbed, and Jughead's smiling face came back into my head. 

Her eyes looked sad. "Betty..."

"Look, if you have nothing to say--"

"Okay. I-I just wanted to tell you, that Jughead's side of the story is important. You...you should realize the position he was in. Instead of just being mad about it..." She looked down.