The Sad Breakfast Club // BUGHEAD + VARCHIE + KEVIN

OUNZE

"Just take the first shot. I'm begging you, take a shot. Just one hit. Come on, that's all I need, just one swing."

~ Richard Vernon, The Breakfast Club (1985)

🌻🌻🌻

JUGHEAD

JUGHEAD HAD ALREADY LIT up a cigarette once Betty came into the room. He was seated on one of the couches, the lit cigarette in between his lips as he pocketed his light. Betty stood by the door and watched him as he took a drag, before he pulled out the stick from his lips and in between his middle and index fingers, resting his wrist on his knee as Jughead's eyes snapped to meet hers. He breathed out a puff of smoke, his gaze lingering on hers.

"What are you doing here?"Jughead asked, his voice low and soft. Betty shrugged, starting to walk over to him, stopping once she was just about a meter from him, clasping her hands together in front of her. "I don't know."She truthfully replied, holding his gaze. "But I can't be in the same room as Veronica."

Jughead nodded, taking another drag of his cigarette, inhaling longer and unable to peel his gaze from hers. "What were you two fighting about anyway?"He asked, though he pretty much had an idea of what it was about. He was able to sneak in back into the library to know enough of what had gone down when he was gone. Betty remained silent, not wanting to answer the question. "Well aren't you going to sit down?"Jughead asked, pointing to the space on the couch beside him. "Pretty sure you're getting tired from standing up, Princess."

Betty, with an inaudible gulp, slowly took the seat beside him, keeping her head straight as she stared at the few rows of bookshelves ahead of her. Her legs were crossed, her palms flat against her lap and her head held high. There was a space between them that's screaming to be filled, both physically and emotionally. Neither said a word for a while, with Jughead hesitantly bringing the cigarette up to his lips. "You don't mind if I smoke, do you?"He asked her. "Go ahead."Betty assured with a small smile, and Jughead took another drag.

"When did you start smoking?"She asked him, keeping her eyes on the floor—actually, she kept her gaze on anything but him, and Jughead found himself doing the exact same thing. It was silent outside the room, and inside the room he and Betty exchanged very few words so far. It took a moment before Jughead replied to her question.

"The day I accepted the fact that I lost you."Jughead replied, his eyes quickly sneaking a glance at her, seeing her tense ever so slightly. Betty's breath hitched as she processed what he had said, and Jughead remained silent until he decided to tell her the whole story. "It was three days after you stopped talking to me, and the Serpents started to knock some sense into me. I started to slack off and literally tell everyone to fûck off, and on the first day they put up with me. But eventually they got sick of it, and on that said day they told me to get my shït together."

"There was this post-initiation thing they call 'The Gauntlet', and they said it was time for me to go through that. They said it was the part where I pledge full loyalty to the Serpents, and it's basically this twisted even where every male Serpent lines up and beats up the pledges. One by one."Jughead told her. Betty was facing him now, a horrified look on her face with her lips slightly parted. "Jughead,"She whispered, unable to think straight, or form words in her head.

"I was so angry at the world that time, at myself, and I was so depressed."Jughead spoke through gritted teeth, his cigarette long forgotten. "And that day, when you were still ignoring me, I thought—I knew, I had nothing else to lose, because I've already lost you."

Betty shook her head, disagreeing with what he's said. "I let them hurt me, because I wanted to feel something else other than the pain I've been feeling. But ultimately, all their punches, all the brass knuckles they used on me—the hurt they inflicted on me was nothing to way you've hurt me."

She didn't know what to say to him. After all this time, it was her who hurt him, when all those years she thought that it was him who hurt her. Instead of replying to him, she took a deep breath and her gaze dropped to his cigarette. "Can I try that?"She asked, subtly pointing to the cigarette, in between his fingers. He looked down at it hesitantly, before he nodded his head and passed it on to her, eyes watching her every movement. "You ever tried smoking before, Cooper?"He asked as she picked up the cigarette from him with her slim fingers, giving him a glimpse of her perfectly manicured pastel pink nails.

"No."Betty simly replied, bringing the stick up to her lips, before she inhaled tentatively. Smoke came rushing into her, and she coughed slightly at the suddenness, her eyebrows furrowing before she took another drag. It was comforting, Betty admits.

Jughead watched her as she finished the remainder of the stick, flicking the butt of the cigarette on the table near them before she put out the flame. He was filled with awe as he watched her, her good girl persona peeled down and her true self showed. A darker side of Betty Cooper, the one which Jughead used to love.

"Can I have another one?"Betty asked him, her voice still laced with innocence but her intentions very far from it. His gaze met hers once again and they both stared each other right into their eyes as Jughead reached into his pocket and took out his pack as well as his lighter and pulled out two cigarette sticks, handing one to Betty.

Jughead lit his cigarette first, and Betty watched him with wistful eyes. He flicked his lighter shut as he breathed in, puffing out smoke and letting it cloud aorund them before he lit up her cigarette, keeping his eyes on her as she exhaled a cloud of smoke after a moment. They sat in silence, letting the smoke blur their surroundings, but they still saw each other clearly. Betty had let the innocent facade she built crumble down to her feet, while Jughead let the wall he built around his heart demolish itself into a million broken pieces.

He could now see her real self, and she, subconsciously, finally found a way back into his heart.

"By they way, Juggie,"Betty spoke after a long while, still holding his gaze as she held the cigarette between her fingers. Jughead cocked an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to carry on with what she was going to say. "You haven't lost me."She finished, and Jughead could feel himself smiling. He nodded his head , letting her words mark itself into his brain. He wanted to hear her say it again, but he doesn't ask her to.

Subconsciously, Jughead knew he never lost Betty.