Letters From Another (Bughead)

Chapter Forty

A/n  I've been on a roll tonight for some reason and have finished two more chapters.  It's really late (4:30AM) so they probably need some editing but I can come back later.  Hope you all enjoy chapter 40.

P.S. This is in Jughead's perspective and the next chapter will be Betty's perspective of the same events.

Jughead POV

As soon as she shut the window I darted back around the house to my car.

I had another chance. That's what this was, right?

I started my car and began to drive a pace that was most likely over the speed limit.

As I pulled into the driveway, much sooner than I should have, I remembered the mess I had made.

I opened the door slower than usual hoping that it would somehow make it go away, it didn't.

"Ok." I said to myself.

I walked over to the closet that held our cleaning supplies and took out the broom. I started to pick up the larger pieces of glass to throw away then swept up the smaller stuff.

The more I cleaned up the broken glass the more I felt my self esteem drop.

Was I really so fucked up that I threw a bottle at our living room wall? What was that supposed to accomplish?

As I was sweeping up the last few bits of glass I started to hear a car pull into the driveway. I threw the rest away and shoved the broom back into the closet.

As I heard her keys in the door I began jumping back and forth like a deer in headlights.

By the time she had the door open, I was leaning on a wall attempting to look calm and collected.

"Hi." she said radiating sarcasm.

I stood up straight and responded, "Hey Betts."

We both started glancing around the room waiting for the other to initiate the conversation.

"Do you want to move this over to the living room?" I said breaking the silence.

"Sure." she responded while delivering a half smile.

As we sat on opposite ends of the couch I watched her twiddling her thumbs.

"So..." I began. "Thank you for coming over." crickets.

As I was about to start up again she interrupted by asking, "Why am I here Jughead? I mean seriously. What is it that you want from me because this game of cat and mouse has grown tiring."

"I just want to talk."

"Ok then... Talk." she responded with an irritated glare.

"Ok Betts... I love you, so fucking much. The amount of love I have for you is overflowing and I need you in my life."

She scoffed.

"You're delusional Jughead. You don't 'need me', you need to have me as an option because you're a selfish narcissist. So if you really want to talk, you need to give me nothing but the truth or I will walk out that door so help me God."

Truth was an ironic word for this situation. Telling me to speak the 'truth' when it was her keeping one of the biggest secrets I could think of.

I started to rack my brain for something she would qualify as 'the truth'. "Do you remember when we were kids?" She returned her gaze back in my direction. "We were going through so much but we always had each other to lean on. Without you I doubt I would have made it this far." By now her entire body was directed towards me. "Can you remember all of the nights we spent together? Whether we were investigating, talking, or even just sitting in silence? Whenever I was with you I never felt alone. Do you remember our first kiss? How I climbed up your ladder into your room after we had finally found Polly. That was one of the best moments of my whole life." I noticed her inching closer and I returned the action. "Betty, every moment I spent with you felt like I was in a fairytale. If that isn't love... I don't know what is."