Life Like Ours

Chapter 1

July 15, 2018

She grabs the phone and dials him. "Hey Betty," FP's tired voice says. "You need me to pick you up again?"
"You don't have to," she whispers, sniffling her tears back.
FP can clearly hear the situation she wants to get away from on the background and sighs. "Yes I do. I'll be right there. Please put something on, it's cold outside." Betty nods to herself a little and whispers a quiet thank you and ends the call. She slides out of her old shabby bed and starts collecting some clothes for tomorrow.
The problem for Betty is her mom. She has a new man, Harry, who's staying over most of the time now and who Betty doesn't like. He and Alice are fighting most of the time and every time they actually break up, they get back together with even a bigger argument. They're yelling at each other every other night, sometimes Alice is crying or fake crying to get his attention more. It all makes Betty sick and not able to sleep. She doesn't get it why her mom just can't stay away from him. They have nothing in common. And it's been going on for a year now.
So the young girl grabs her old backpack with some clothes, a charger and the keys. She pulls a hoodie on her short pajamas, placing her phone into the pocket, then takes a deep breath and quickly moves out of her room.
The two grownups shut up for a moment, looking at her as she doesn't even want to glance towards them, disgusted of how both of them were yelling horrible things to each other. She unlocks the door and is already on her way out when her mom's voice calls after her.
"Betty, where are you going?"
"To FP's," she just says and slams it shut.

July 16

"Why do I have to go anyways?" Betty pouts, arms crossed on her chest, looking like a toddler probably.
"Stop. It'll be fine. You have to spend some time with them too," FP chuckles.
"So now that he got the DNA test and knows I'm his he's just gonna treag mr like Polly?" she asks sarcastically.
"Betty, stop," FP sighs and looks at the girl for a moment. "If you're not leaving your room at home even I'd choose to send you there."
"What's the point of leaving my room if I don't have anything to do anyways?"
"Stop having an attitude. Get inside, pack your things and go," he says, parking the car in front of her house.
She sighs and drops her head a little, twiddling with the end of her old baggy shirt. "I really don't wanna go," she says quietly.
He sighs and raises her chisn up a little. "You'll be fine. You can call me if you want to come home, okay?"
"Why do I have to go for two weeks...?"
"I don't know," he sighs. "But he'll pick you up in an hour, okay?" He kisses her hair softly. "Go."
She sighs and opens the door. "Maybe I'll at least get some new clothes," she murmurs, going out of the car. She shuts the door just as FP sighs at the saying, knowing she does need new clothes and a bit more food. He looks at her skinny body going inside her home and then drives away, worried for the girl who's not even his daughter and cursing himself because of it.

"Three hours and he's still not here," Betty whispers to herself, waiting for her dad. She knew he wasn't going to come even when it was 5:30, but still deep inside she had a hope; a hope that her biological father would at least call her and say he can't pick her up. Instead, she's been sitting here in the bus stop for three and a half hours, just crying, embarrassed to call anyone. For a 16 year old girl who had no friends because of how poor she was, this was one of the many things that actually made her cry and pity herself.
Suddenly, there's a flash of lights and a sound of a motorcycle takes over the surroundings. She's already shaking from the cold, unable to go home either, becuse of the strong cold rainfall this night, but the fact that the motorcycle stops right next to the bus stop makes her shake even more. She knows she's vulberable, scared and cold, but when after a few minutes no one comes or nothing happens, she just drops her head back onto her nape and keeps feeling gross and disgusted by her father.

A certain black-haired beanie wearing boy stops the motorcycle after seeing a blonde haired familiar girl crying in the bus stop, looking exhausted and cold. He waits for a few minutes not to scare her in the dark and then pulls his helmet off and leaves his motorcycle in the rain, jogging back to the bus stop with the dmall glass ceiling. He goes there and observes her; head against the back of the glass wall, face red, lips blue, eyes closed. Her body has developed a lot, she's taller, but he's almost 100% sure that it's her; the girl he knew when they were young, the girl he had had a crush on, the girl who many people thought was her sister, the girl whose life was horrible at the moment from what his father had told him. He doubts and swallows many times before actually opening his mouth.
A soft deep voiced, "Hi Betts," leaves his mouth. He looks as the girl seems to tense up when she wipes her tears away rapidly and then her head shoots up, eyes meeting his. Her eyes widen just a little, seeing the exact eyes she was thinking about yesterday, just staring at her. She doesn't know what to say, feeling a familiar but yet so strange feeling running through her body. She was hoping for FP, her dad or even her mom to get here, but it's him. Gosh she has missed him.
"Jug," she whispers, staring at him with happy but tired eyes.
He manages a small smile and seeing the blonde girl's geniune smile, his heart starts racing. "Hey, uh..." He looks at her and her bag and bites his lip, not knowing the situation here, but thinking it's probably worse than he thought. "What are you doing here?" he asks, aproaching her by stepping closer, now covered from the rain as well.
"What are you doing here? FP didn't tell me you're coming... How are you here?" Betty asks in confusion, sniffling back her tears.
He just takes off his leather jacket what protected him from the rain, holds it between his legs and pulls off his warm grey hoodie. She observes him with a small frown as he puts the leather jacket back on and goes to her.
"It won't protect you from the rain but it's warmer than the jacket," he murmurs, handing it to her.
She wants to deny, but she's cold enough, so she just takes it and pulls it on her frozen body. She sighs in relief, feeling some warmness returning to her body and looks down at the long sleeves, not knowing what to do with them.
"Here," Jug says quietly, squatting down in front of her and starts rolling the sleeves up, but only a little so that her hands would be mostly covered for the extra warmth. The whole time she keeps looking at him, the joy of seeing him again over such a long time gone, replaced with sad eyes, wanting to cry because of how much they've missed from each other's lives and how they don't even know each other anymore. She just wishes he was here all of this time. Him, his eyes, his hands, his soul; all of it, she needs all of it.
He stays in the position even after he's done with the sleeves, just staring at their connected hands. He moves his thumb a little, feeling her soft cold hand and then meets her eyes. He gets a sharp pain in his stomach, seeing the sadness and curiosity in her eyes. So he lets go of her and stands up. She misses his hand immediately and hopes he returns it some time soon.
"I'll tell you everything if you tell me," he says with a playful tone, making her smirk a little. He smiles. "Come on, let's go to Pop's, I've been missing the cheeseburgers and your company for almost 8 years now."
She smiles softly at the fact he's been missing her too, but feels sadness, knowing she can't go. "I, uh... I don't really have money with me at the moment," she says quietly, nodding to herself, mentally kicking herself for looking so pathetic. "But it's fine, I should go home anyways or at leat call someone," she sighs.
"It's okay," he says, taking her old bag and placing it over his shoulder. "My treat."
She sighs and looks down sadly, biting her lip. "No, really. I don't want you to pay for me..." she says quietly. She has also heard about Jug from FP. He doesn't have much better economical state at the moment.
"It's fine," he says, really wanting to talk to her. But she does not get up.
"I'm afraid of bikes," she says.
He grins at that. "As much as I'd love to take you for a ride, I can't, because it's raining and dangerous and I would never ride with you while we have a possibility to fall, so... We have to go there by foot."
"But it's... What about your motorcycle?"
"When the rain ends, I'll take it home, or my dad will take it..."
"So he knows you're here?" she asks with a curious look, pushing herself to stand up, crossing her arms to get more warmth and his scent.
He smirks at that. "Right. I'll tell you everything when we're some place dry and warm with food in front of us. Preferably Pop's."
"Sounds great," she breathes out, taking a step towards him. He suprises her by taking her hand back into his and pulling her close to him.
"If you want the jacket, tell me," he says quietly. She nods timidly as he pulls the hood on her head and they both start running towards the diner.

"Thank you," Betty says quietly, stopping in front of her house. The rain has stopped by now, but the streets are still wet and she's still wearing Jughead's humid grey hoodie, enjoying the warmth. "For getting me food. And out of the rain. And giving me your hoodie. And walking me home..." Every time she adds another element to be thankful for, he starts smiling bigger, loving the fact that she wants to thank him for all of it. "And thanks for the company... I've really needed that," she adds quietly, looking at the ground, twiddling with the brim of the hoodie.
He frowns miserably. "Hey," he says softly, raising her head up with his index and middle finger under her chin. "If you need someone to hang out with or to talk with or you just want a hug or something, I'm always here... You just have to call, okay?"
She gets taken aback from the fact that he just offered hugging her every time she wants to. So she just looks back down, nodding, feeling confused, staring at their intertwined hands and the way his thumb keeps brushing over her knuckles just as he'd tried to keep her calm and not scared.
"Okay?" he asks again. Betty smiles a little, thinking about how much Jughead remembers FP to her.
"Okay," she says, looking up at him now.
He smiles a little as he hands her the bag and she throws it over her left shoulder. "Oh, uh," Betty says, touching the hoodie, ready to pull it off.
"That's okay, you can keep it," he says, stopping her by taking her other hand into his as well.
"I'll return it to you soon. But thank you," she says with a timid smile, biting her lip.
He tilts his head a little and smiles at the sweetness. "It's okay, cutie, you can keep it," he says with kind of a baby voice, making Betty blush and look back down immediately.
He smiles at that with a little raised eyebrows, feeling like his heart is crying. She's so adorable his heart says while his thoughts are in some other place, thinking about how amazing it is that she's stayed the same for all of thede years, always quiet and all blushy and cute, but so independent and smart. He also thinks about how weird it is that he keeps feeling things for her; that he is even able to feel like someone's cute. He thought these feelings were gone when he moved away from here, that no one could open him up or make him feel anything. Maybe it's just her.
His now free hand moves behind her head and he kisses her forehead gently, making a new shade of pink appear on her face, still looking at the ground.
The moment he lets go, she misses his touch and looks up to see if he's actually going just like that, without saying anything and knows the answer immediately. Of course he is, he's Jughead Jones for fuck's sake.