Love And Leather

Chapter 26

“Mommy, daddy, wake up!” I hear Millie's exited voice and feel her jumping on our bed. Jug groans and the jumping stops so I open my eyes slowly and see how she fell on top of him. I chuckle quietly and Jug opens his one eye to give me a look.
“What’s up?” I ask from Millie tiredly, wrapping her up between our bodies.
“It’s Christmas,” she announces happily, making both of us chuckle.
“Yeah,” Jug says. “Have you been downstairs?”
“Yeah. Santa,” she happily.
“Yeah,” I chuckle. “Did you open the presents Santa got you?”
“No, I waited for you,” she says and starts wiggling again, too excited. “Please lets goooo,” she stretches the last word.
“Right after we wake up,” Jug says and we both close our eyes.
“No,” she whines and I feel her hands cupping my cheeks. “Mommy. Daddy.” I open my eyes and she's looking at me sadly. “I’m hungry.”
I sigh and nod, getting up. She claps her hands in excitement and takes Jug's as he stands up as well. She pulls him with her. “Wait, baby, I have to put on some clothes,” he chuckles and pulls his long pajama pants on his boxers. I pull on the short ones and Jug picks Millie up so that she wouldn't run downstairs and fall again.
Since our parents aren't around, my siblings and I decided not to repeat last year's Christmas when we just cried at home. So Kelly went to Toni's family and Kev went to Fangs' while Jug came here so that we could just be the three of us in the morning. We're gonna have dinner with his family later though.
We sit down on the floor next to the Christmas tree and help Millie unwrap the presents we got her. Here are some for Kev and Kelly as well what I got and then some for me what they bought. And a few for Jug.
“I wish I could feel that much joy just from getting a present,” I chuckle, looking at Millie.
“Yeah, life was easy back then,” he smirks, making both of us laugh.
“I got you a little something,” he says and I look at him with raised eyebrows as he puts a small box on my hand.
“Babe, I know I'm 18 now, but I'm not planning on getting married before I finish college,” I say, not even opening the box.
“Open it,” he chuckles. I sigh and lift the top of it up. It's a silver ring. I run my finger over it, suddenly a picture in front of my eyes of me and Jug with grandkids playing around us, this ring on my finger. “I promise I’ll love you forever,” he cringes at his own cheesiness.
“That doesn't count if I don’t have one for you,” I say with a small smile.
“I got that covered,” he admits with a smirk and pulls out another one.
I chuckle. “I’m supposed to get you that one. It's called exchanging rings.”
“Here.” He changes our boxes so that I have his and he has my ring. “Betty Cooper,” he says and I grin at him. “Would you do me the honor and accept this ring that symbolizes my love for you?”
“Yes sir,” I smirk and let him put it on my left hand middle finger.
“Perfect,” he breathes out and kisses my cheek softly.
I smile and slide his on his finger. That one is perfect as well. I guess he has measured my finger and his. I nuzzle my nose together with his and steal a few kisses on his lips.
“Is that for me?” Millie asks, coming to us. It's a small pink box, really similar to the ones we had, just mine was red and his was dark blue.
“Yeah,” Jug says and sits her down onto his lap. I smile as she opens it and does exactly the same thing that I did with my ring; she slides her fingers over it.
“Pretty,” she says quietly.
“It is pretty,” Jug agrees. “Do you wanna put it on?”
She nods and Jughead slips it onto her left middle finger like ours. Millie smiles as she looks at me. “Look,” I say and show her my hand. She takes it into both of hers and smiles.
“You have one too,” she says happily.
“Yeah, so does daddy,” I say and she looks at Jug's hand, holding both of them on her lap now with a smile, comparing the rings.
“Are you married?” she asks, looking at them curiously.
“No,” Jug chuckles. “Go open other presents okay?” She nods and he hives her a kids before she goes back there and tries to figure out which letters mean her name.
“You don't wanna tell her what's this about?” I ask him with raised eyebrows.
He sighs, holding me close to him. “You know… I just recently wrote a story about adopted kids and I got a few ideas which I think can also happen in real life.” He looks down and I wait until he continues. “I, um… She's probably gonna feel sad about the fact that we're not her real parents. And she'll start asking different kinds of questions. Maybe it'll come when you're pregnant or maybe later, but there's always some feeling of not belonging. And I don't want to let her feel that even when we'll have another child who is our biological one,” he admits, and I have a feeling like he's gonna cry. I'm already crying.
“That’s beautiful,” I tell him quietly. “You’ve thought about it a lot, huh?”
“Yeah,” he sighs and then looks at me. He has tears in his eyes too. “And Betty, we can't guarantee that we'll stay together forever. We're 18. But even if we don't, I'll always wear this ring to remember my two beautiful girls and to show that we're still a family,” he says with a weak voice, a tear sliding down his cheek. “Will you do that? For me?”
I wipe my tears away with my hands and nod, leaning my head onto his chest. “Good,” he sighs and presses his lips on the top of my head.
There's a silence for a few minutes as we just sit there together, thinking about a future without each other. I can't imagine that. I already have a great picture. We're gonna have a baby boy, about 6 years younger than Millie. I'm a writer, Jug's a journalist. We have a small house next to the Sweetwater River, a big garden and a dog.
“Even if your boyfriend is a dick and tells you to take it off?” he asks, making me laugh.
I look at him, still holding my head on his chest. “I don't think I'm changing my boyfriend any time soon,” I say quietly.
He smiles at me and nods with small movements. “I won't let you, even if you're gonna die.”
I chuckle and lean to sit up normally, but he pulls me onto his lap and I giggle into his mouth. When we're done kissing, we rest our foreheads together, his hand lingering on my cheek and both of mine on his neck.
“Merry Christmas,” I breathe against his mouth.
“Merry Christmas, darling.”