FREAKS - jughead jones imagines

002. behind my back

Y/n's pov:
 *present time*

I shuffled behind a group of people crowding through the main entrance of the school, the small double doors small enough to slow us down to what was almost a complete stop. I could feel my bag being pushed from behind, but continued to ignore it and just kept moving forward as fast as I could. I walked through the halls barely looking where I was going, so sleep deprived I felt as if my mind was still at home, tucked underneath my blankets, far far away from me. I had music blasting into both ears, in an attempt to keep my thoughts quiet as I walked to my locker. Before I made it there, I bumped shoulders with someone walking full speed in the other direction, headphones on, head hung low, just like me.

I picked my head up to see my best friend, Jughead Jones, standing a foot away from me, with eye bags that matched the ones resting beneath my eyes as well. He was the first to speak after the slight moment of awkward silence as we just stared at one another;

"Y/n, Hi. Um, I was meaning to come find you, actually-" Last night was another one of our fights. We fought a lot for two people who claimed to be each other's best friend. But every time we fought, it was always for a reason, and we always made up afterwards. Last night he was having another angst episode where he took his anger at the world out on me. It was nothing we couldn't move past with a simple conversation. However that conversation was not happening at that moment, for Jughead's sentence was cut off by the sound of the doors being opened aggressively as a group of leather-coated teens walked into the main building.

Serpents. I was so absorbed in our hormone-induced argument that I forgot the northside's worst nightmare was coming true today; the teens from southside high were being transferred to riverdale high, due to their drug-ridden school being shut down.

Less than five minutes had gone by and there was already a clique battle happening, right in front of the main office. Sweetpea and Reggie were the main concern, while Fangs and a few of the other serpents looked like they were going to chew the heads off a group of football players. Reggie began babbling some recycled rant about how all southsiders are trash, or whatever else he decided to spew that day. Sweetpea looked like he had just about enough and stepped forward even more, clenching his abnormally large fists in anger. 

Both Toni and I knew what was about to happen, Sweetpea was going to swing at Reggie, and there was going to be a mass fight in the middle of the hallway. Before that could happen, Toni stepped forward, screaming for them to stop while pulling the tall serpent a few feet backwards. There was a short pause before Reggie looked like he was going to speak again.

"Why can't you just leave them alone for once?" I blurted, loud enough so I knew Reggie would be able to hear me. Reggie and I had our issues in the past, due to him just being a total douchebag at all times, so he already held a grudge against me.

"Why does it matter to you anyway, Y/n? Are you friends with these thugs?" I rolled my eyes at how dumb he sounded, glancing to the group of serpents, remembering how many times they'd helped me in the past, and all of the friends I'd made within the group.

"No, you idiot, I am one of these 'thugs'" I slightly lifted the sleeve of my t-shirt to show him the snake tattooed across my bicep, a symbol serpents used to identify themselves. Reggie just rolled his eyes, it's not like it was very shocking to anyone. It was expected, most people who knew me knew my father came from the southside. It was one of the things people used first against me in an argument.

Immediately after that, principal Weatherbee stormed out of his office, demanding the feuding kids go to class. The crowd parted, and while I tried to walk towards my first period, Jughead had other plans. He took me by the arm, forcibly dragging me into the nearest classroom, peering in first to see that the class was completely empty. 

None of my friends from the northside liked the serpents, in fact, most of them hated them. Jughead had never explicitly said any different, so I figured he agreed with them. So when he looked at me, saying nothing and waiting for me to speak, I couldn't help but think he was waiting for an apology.

"I'm not going to apologize, Jughead. If that's what you're looking for, you're looking in the wrong place" With our most recent conversation being an argument, I was naturally on edge for what this one would bring. 

"You have nothing to apologize for. I'm not mad you're a serpent, and quite frankly I'm not shocked either. You know my dad's a serpent right?" I nodded slightly, knowing how sensitive his family life was to him. "I just want to know why you didn't tell me, I thought we told each other everything. I just want to know what made you want to go behind my back" I could hear the hurt in his voice, he wasn't angry with me for not telling him, he was hurt that I kept such a big part of my life secret from him. 

"I'm sorry Jug, I really am. I just figured with everything going on, I didn't know how you'd react."

A smirk made its way to his mouth as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, "So you're in a gang now?" He asked with a laugh as we made our way to first period.

. . .

I tried to save this one the best I could but there's really no plot to it