The Serpent of Love

23. Christmas in LA (Part 2: The date)

December 17, 2018

I wake up to the front door closing and then many many people talking in a hushed tone. “Is she asleep?” I hear Gladys asking someone.
Suddenly Jughead's lips part from my neck and I really understand what made me wake up. “She’s up now,” he says.
“She’s literally sleeping, dude,” I hear Reggie saying and then popping down on the ground.
“I agree with Reg,” Veronica says.
“Of course you do,” I hear Kevin saying, probably rolling his eyes.
“Shut up, she wants to sleep,” Jug says, lips on my neck again, making his way to my collarbones and over them, knowing damn well what he's doing to me, but still teasing. When he has done it for a few seconds and everyone starts getting quiet again, I bring my hands up and push his head away, making everyone shut up now.
“Stop teasing,” I murmur and turn around, not letting him spoon me anymore, hiding my face into his neck.
“You gotta get up, it's 12,” he says softly, fingers doing magic with my hair, playing with it, twirling it. I last cut it one and a half years ago, which means it's grown out by now. I'm keeping on growing it though until it's long enough to donate again and then whenever I'm in the mood, I'll just let someone cut it all off.
“I don't have school…”
“No,” he agrees and puts his lips against my ear. “But you have a date to get ready for,” he whispers, making my whole body shiver especially as he kisses the ear afterwards.
I smile. “And when's that?” I ask, face still in his neck.
“You have 5 hours, but I imagined you'd want to eat and hang out with everyone too…”
“Where are you taking me at 5?” I ask in confusion, opening my eyes and looking at him.
“I guess you'll have to wait and see,” he teases, fingers tracing musters onto my stomach under the shirt. I sigh and rest my head onto his chest, closing my eyes again.
“You can make me breakfast,” I say.
“What would you like?” he chuckles.
“Bacon and eggs,” I say.
“Do we have them?”
“Yeah,” mom says and I feel Jug nodding. He pecks my lips softly and slides me off of his arms and body and gets up. I open my eyes just as Kevin blows a whistle at Jug's abs and we all laugh.
I see Veronica already pushing her shoes off, so I raise the blanket up a little and let her climb next to me instead of Jughead. She rests her head on my biceps and I rest mine on her hair, closing my eyes again as she snuggles up to me; I'm not the only one who loves cuddling.

“It’s 56 degrees outside,” Jug says, staring at me as I pull on my coat.
“Cold,” I agree.
He rolls his eyes. “Californian.”
“I'm from the east coast, dummy,” I say.
“Californian,” he teases again, raising his hand up a little, palm upside down. I slide my phone into my pocket and bring my hand to his. He grips it tightly, loving the feeling just like I am.
“We're going and we'll be back later,” I say with a loud voice.
“Have fun,” Reggie smirks and winks at us. I roll my eyes and probably so does Jughead.
“Come on,” he says quietly, leading me out of the door. We keep holding hands as we walk slowly towards some place and talk about random things; something we haven't done for a while now.
“Do you know that I'm the kind of guy who wants to give his jacket to his girl when she gets cold?” he asks soon, with a loving smile on his face.
“Well, I'm the kind of girl who doesn't want her boyfriend to get sick,” I say back and lean up to kiss his cheek.
“You really need to grow,” he says, patting my head, teasing me because I'm only to his nose.
“What's the point if you're gonna grow more anyways?”
“Then you're not to my stomach,” he grins.
“I thought you liked the height gap,” I say.
“I do. But you have to grow to kiss my cheek, you kissed my jaw,” he says softly. I grin.
“Well maybe if you'd stop taking steroids, I'd catch up.”
He gives me a look as I laugh at my own sarcastic joke. He is far away from taking steroids.
“Honestly, you can go and date Archie,” he says, pushing me away.
I giggle and grab his hand back into mine as he's smiling too. “I’d rather die.”
“Nuh-uh, I'd rather you dating Archie,” Jug says. I roll my eyes at him and get him to talk about something normal.