You found me | Bughead

21: The Smith-Jones house

I slept so restless. I woke up like a hundred times and that was before like two o clock. Then I woke up again, to my own screams. Four o clock. Soon after I had put myself back together, I heard knocks and I opened the door to Jug. We didn't need any words. He climbed to bed with me and stroked me back to sleep.

I woke up in his arms few minutes ago. I'm feeling so lucky. Only thing I wonder know, where that nightmare came. Is it because of today, my mom and FP. I was nervous about it, still am. Maybe that's why. And maybe, I hope, after I'll tell them my story, it helps little more with my nightmares.

Jug wakes up, smiles to me and pull me close to him. "I'm so lucky to get to wake up here with my beautiful girl" he says, cuddles me tighter and continues "even though I'm little worried about the reason I ended up in here". I explain him my theory about me being nervous. He agree. "So, maybe we just rip the band-aid, go to the store to buy some food and drinks to Elm Street and just go there early? You still have the key?" he suggests. "Yeah, I have, and yeah, maybe we just rip the band-aid," I'm with him on this. I can't wait anymore, it's not helping.

After hour of packing, we left to the store, bought snacks, soda, beer and wine. We used my old key to enter to our old home. It was weird. Empty house and us being there. We did a little tour since no ones there, there were two seperate guestrooms ready for us. I was lucky my old room was history, I think it would have been hard to see. In a bit we found ourselves enjoying our time there and it all became really easy. It felt normal. We watched few movies, drank coffee too many cups and ate snacks. Then they came. "Well this is like the old times," FP said and got his wryly smile on his lips. "It is so nice to have you here, both of you," mom walked to us and gave us hugs. She missed Jug too, I can tell.

I sigh. "Can we talk, like now, before dinner?" I say with a little shaky voice and I'm shivering and looking down. This will not be easy, but I want this over with.

. . . . .

Betty was panicing, this is so big thing for her. But she is so brave to do this. After like in a minute they came to house, she wanna talk. I don't care what they think, I put my hand on her shoulder and rubs it soflty. Her breathing calms down and she looks at me smiling slightly. But her eyes are glassy, she is struggling. Alice sits on the other side and places her hand on Bettys thigh. "You take your time honey," she says to Betty.

"I think it's better to start from the beginning. I'm sorry I disappeared. I just hated myself and didn't want to see or hear from anyone, who knows me. And when time passed, it was too easy to live my own life without anyone. But I apologize and I regret it all. I'm sorry mom," she starts and cries in her mother arms. Alice is there for her, I'm so relieved she grew up as a mother back then. First years of high school weren't her best ones as a Bettys mother. In a minute Betty calms down and continue with quick story about college years and first year of FBI. Dad is very interested about Feds, I think he enjoyed his time in Riverdale Police Department back then.

Betty is now there. Day of the arrest. I stroke her back as I know this is the hard part. So hard she couldn't even tell me, I red those medical papers. But now I hear this story, her telling it, with shaky voice, tears in her eyes, breathing rapidly. I notice my eyes are full of tears too, I swipe them off quickly. It's not fair. This thing. Her being so broken. Dad sits his head leaning his hand with unbelief in his eyes. "Oh my god, my baby. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You should have come home, you should have called me," Alice is a mess, cries and holds Betty.

Betty wipes her tears and lift her face up. "I chose to do this on my own and it wasn't the best call. But I'm recovering. My therapist is hopeful and since I've been here, only few nights I've had nightmares. And Jughead has helped with those. I wouldn't never believe Riverdale is a getaway from my nightmares and PTSD, but it is helping," Betty tells with calm voice. She is better now. Betty gets up and get her glass of water from kitchen. When she comes back, dad stands up. "Come here, sweetie!" he wraps his arms around Betty and holds her tight. Betty starts to cry, but I feel it's a good cry. She has her family back. She is my dads girl too. It feels good to see them like that.

After the long conversation in the living room, Alice heads to the kitchen preparing the dinner. She brings Betty a glass of wine, dad and I took the beers. "Betty, I have an almost ancient car in the garage, wanna come and take a look at that with me?" dad surprises. She nods with wide smile on her face, she is so happy. I didn't remember how keen she is for cars. "You take me with you, I can be useful?" I ask. "You can come, but I'm not sure can you be useful," Betty laugh. "Hey!"

We had very pleasent evening despite of mine and Bettys fears. Alice made so tasteful dinner, we laughed, we talked, we played Scrabble and Monopoly. Dad was close to losing his mind on playing Scrabble. Well, he played that with one journalist, one author and one in Feds and their own vocabulary. After we all went to bed, I waited to hear my dad snoring and sneeked to Bettys room.

. . . . .

He came to me. I crawled to his arms. "Well this was actually really nice day. Apparently when you are an adult you can have fun with your folks" I say to him. "You did a good job by telling them," he kisses my forehead. I place my hand on his cheek and with other hand I play with his dark brown locks. He keeps looking at me. "It's not very easy. To do nothing and lay here with you," he says with a soft voice and caress my cheek. "What if.. we start to explore each others a little. And some day we are there. But we do this with no rush. We take our time. To learn our bodies again," I grin and then he presses his lips on mine for the answer.

The night was a something new. It was living on the edge of pleasure. I had a shorts and t-shirt on, Jug was wearing his boxers. And we kept our clothes on. He kept kissing me down my jawline, my neck, my arms, then back to my lips. I was shivering and gripping his hair tightly. All I wanted was to moan, but I kept it in my mouth to keep things going slow. I needed to feel his skin too so I took the same way, kissed his lips, bit his earlobe, kissed all the way his jawline to his adams apple and neck. I felt his bare chest, ran my fingers up and down on it, licked and kissed it and then I connected my lips back to his. His hand found my hips and from there he moved one to my ass to squeeze it. He ran his hand on my inner thighs and gasped. " I think we better stop now or I can't keep it quiet anymore," I whisper to his ear. "You are right, need to leave something for the next time," he kiss me one more time. "In some weird way, I'm enjoying this slow burn, even though it isn't fun to stop when you feeling like this," he smirks. "Me too. Night Jug." I say and some how I fall asleep like immediately.

. . . . .

I woke up someone yelling Betty. Flashbacks to last months of high school.. "Elizabeth, Elizabeth!!" Alice yells from the stairs. And then she just opens the door of Bettys room. Betty who was just sleeping wakes up and hides under our cover, which makes me laugh since I'm the one in the wrong room. Alice stares us for a second but she always finds her words quickly. "Well.. This is one pleasent deja vu. Good morning Jughead," she smiles. "Morning Alice," I murmur with my morning voice and smile to her. "FP honey, come here!" she then yells for some odd reason. And then dad come, looks to the room and starts to laugh.

"Madmen have cheap pastimes!" Betty shouts from her hiding place. I bet she is blushing there like a tomato. Alice and dad leave with the stupid smiles on their faces. "Your plan sucked," she tells still under the cover. I go under the cover too and give her one soft kiss. "Can you forgive me?"

We changed and went to downstairs for the breakfast. We felt like some teens, but dad just laughed and Alice was happy for us too. "We were hoping you two find back to each other, so don't look like that. This is a good thing. For both of you," Alice says. I put my hands on her waist and give kiss on her cheek. This just became real. I have Betty with me. For real. "Yeah, this is a good thing," she says and looks at me with a big smile. "But our friends don't know yet. We needed to start things with just us knowing," I point out.

Old gang, new tricks 💀:
R: Get ready, we are going camping today! ⛺️Leaving at noon from our place, bring something where you can sleep. We'll get the food.
K: Is this for real? 😵
V: Start packing. Betty or Jughead, can you have your folks car since you'll come from there? We need an another one beside ours.
J: We'll take my dads truck. See ya!

We were suddenly on rush. We ate our breakfast quickly, found some camping stuff from the garage and at noon we drove to Reggies and Ronnies.