They were chilling in the parking lot, laughing, and didn't notice Betty standing there. She crossed her arms at her chest after feeling a subtle breeze brush against them, and she proceeded to make her way around them.
"Hey, look, Northside cheerleader. How cute," one of them said, calling out to her and Betty kept her eyes on her feet, trying not to look back at them.
"Come on. Do one of your little cheers for us," another one teased, and Betty heard a few of them laugh behind her, but she still didn't pay them any attention and kept walking.
When she finally walked far enough to lose sight of them, Betty found herself walking on the sidewalk of an empty road. She was alone, freezing and her phone was almost dead. Her house was a 30-minute walk from Pop's if Betty walked at a steady pace. She knew it was dumb to leave Veronica, but couldn't bear the thought of staying any longer. She didn't want to wait and watch the man that practically insulted her walk out of that bathroom, and strut to the door as if he owns the place.
Don't flatter yourself; it's a public diner.
His stupid words replayed in Betty's mind as if the record was broken, and she had forgotten how to change the song. She slapped her palm against her forehead a few times, trying to get the image of him out of her head. His blue-green eyes played on repeat for a few seconds before Betty switched the image, and then it was his lips glistening from his tongue after he had just licked them. Betty suddenly felt her heart pounding and her stomach churning, and she didn't understand what was happening.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
Betty winced, and she looked down at her hands. She hadn't realized her hands were fisted, and her nails were digging into her palms. She stopped walking and opened her hands up to a few red crescent-shaped moons placed neatly across her skin. Betty was fascinated by a drop of blood sliding from one of the moons and stopping at the line of her wrist. As many times as Betty has caught herself digging her nails into her palms, she has never made herself bleed before. This was new.
Betty's attention to her hands was disrupted when she heard the sound of a few motorcycles off in the distance. She curiously watched them get closer and closer to her before one sped passed her, and the rest followed behind him. There was one lingering behind the group, and as Betty continued to walk, he slowed down and turned around. He was coming towards her, and Betty's face grew cold when he hit the breaks and stopped right next to her. She didn't know if she should continue walking or stop to see what he had to say to her. Before she made the decision, he removed his helmet, and Betty immediately recognized him. He was the one who was telling Sweet Pea to cut it out in the parking lot.
"You were the girl from earlier, the one my friend was messing with in the parking lot, right?" He gave her a warm smile, and Betty took a deep breath before nodding.
"Yeah, I thought I recognized that ponytail and uniform," he laughed and looked down at her outfit. "Do you, uh... Do you need a ride somewhere?" He asked, and Betty cringed at the thought of getting on the back of a stranger's motorcycle.
He saw her cringe and let out a chuckle. "I'll go slow, I promise I won't hurt you, and you shouldn't be walking out on the street alone, in the dark... dressed in that." He pointed to her skirt, and she realized he had a point.
"Can you tell me your name first?" She asked, hoping that if she knew his name, maybe it would be easier to get on the back of his bike.
"The name's Fangs," he said, smiling at her, and Betty raised her eyebrows at the strange name, then she remembered Sweet Pea, who also had a strange name and figured they were just nicknames.
"Betty," she replied, returning the friendly smile and walked towards his bike. She stood there, examining it; she wasn't quite sure what to do with her body next.
He sat there with his hands still on the bar handles, and she looked at him. "Oh! Yeah, you can use my helmet," he said and took it off his head. "Here." He handed it to her, and she grabbed it without hesitation. She placed the helmet on her head and buckled the strap under her chin. She swung her leg over the seat behind him and adjusted herself on it, so she was comfortable. "Okay, wrap your arms around my waist and hang on tightly." She did as he told. "And whatever you do, do not let go. Okay?" He said with an alarming voice, and she suddenly felt her body tense up. This was her first time riding on a motorcycle, and Betty had no idea what to expect. The engine roared, and Betty could've sworn she felt her soul leave her body when he took off on the open road.
The wind was slamming against her bare skin, and Betty couldn't feel the effects of the cold air anymore. She had her arms tightly around his waist, making sure she didn't move them an inch. She couldn't see the road in front of them, but could only imagine how satisfying it looked. She felt a sense of calmness wash over her when she studied the pine trees surrounding the dark road. She had never felt so much exhilaration before, and for a few moments, she felt life crawl inside her. She felt free. She felt like she was conquering the world for once, instead of just surviving in it.
He parked a couple of houses down from hers and turned off the engine. Betty got off the motorcycle, landing her foot on top of the curb and faced him. She took her helmet off and handed it to him. "Thanks for the ride."
He took the helmet from her and rested it on his lap. "No problem."
She stood there for a moment before she smiled and started turning away.
"Hey, Betty, is it?" He called after her, and she stopped to look at him. "Yes."
She heard him exhale and paused for a few seconds before speaking.
"I know any guy would say this to lure you onto their motorcycle, but I'm an exception. Just because I said I wouldn't hurt you doesn't mean other guys on other motorcycles wouldn't... You have to be careful."
She squinted her eyes at him and tilted her head to the side slightly. "What- what other guys are you talking about?"
"All of them," he said bluntly, and Betty felt her throat swell as she swallowed.
"Anyone with a leather jacket and a snake stitched on the back of it like this-" He pointed to the back of his jacket. "-you stay far away from. I am not messing around."
Betty's mind immediately shifted to the one that made her blood boil. The one with the smoldering stare and the blue-green eyes, she wouldn't hesitate to stay far away from. If Fangs was saying that every guy in his gang was bad, she wondered just how bad each and every one of them was. With the way Sweet Pea handled Veronica's car, she wouldn't be surprised if he had handled another person that way too. Although, it was obvious Sweet Pea wasn't the leader. He surrendered quickly when he was told to back down, so maybe he wasn't the worst one.
Maybe he wasn't the one Betty should fear.
She cleared her throat and tucked a few loose hairs that escaped from her ponytail behind her ear. "Um..."
She exhaled and chewed the inside of her mouth before speaking further. "I'm not surprised everyone else is bad. I mean, your friend Sweet Pea scratched my friend's car and the one who told him to stop, he, uh..." She choked on her words, and her eyes fell to the ground.
His eyes darkened at the mention of the other guy. "He what?"
Betty met his darkening eyes, and a sick feeling in her stomach appeared when she saw his worrisome expression grow.
"He... uh, he just said some hurtful things to me, but it wasn't a big deal."
He sighed and closed his eyes as if her words had just disappointed him. "Betty..." he said under his breath and stared at her shoes.
"Jughead is our leader." He looked back up at her and shook his head. "What have you done?"
A wave of silence overflooded the streets as if the whole world had just been silenced from his haunting words. Betty thought she had gone deaf for a split second when she suddenly heard a faint ringing in her ears. That ringing was shortly interrupted when she heard the vibration coming from his throat.
"You listen to me, okay?" His stern voice made her ears perk up again. "The Serpent King is considered royalty on the Southside. You do not speak to him. You do not touch him. You do not look him in the eyes even."
"Why? What's the big deal?"
His eyes widened at her ignorant question, and she tried to swallow passed the huge knot in her throat.
"Okay, I'm telling you this, so you'll stay far away from him from now on, but if any of the Serpents catch you speaking to him when he didn't speak to you first, they might do something about it."
"It's for his protection. All the Serpents are required to handle people who disturb him."
"Handle..." She swallowed. "Handle as in...?
"As in they may hurt you. It depends on how easily you walk away from him."
"And what if I don't walk away easily?"
"Well..." He exhaled through his nose. "The last guy who didn't walk away was beaten to near death."
"It's not a game, Betty."
He leaned in closer to her as he held her gaze.
"So, don't get involved in it."
With that, he put the helmet on his head and buckled the strap under his chin. "It was nice meeting you, and please don't take this the wrong way, ponytail, but I really hope I never see you again." He gave her a good-bye smile, and Betty watched him ride off.
She was blinded by the information Fangs gave her, and felt the adrenaline pump through her body when she realized how oblivious and ignorant she acted towards this Jug-head person. She felt like an idiot for making eye contact with him and wanted to go bury her face into her pillow and pretend like this night never happened. Her obliviousness gave her a bold and brave facade that Jughead was most likely ruffled by. Just a few more exchanged looks with him and Betty could've been seriously injured.
She walked to her front door and stared blankly at the doorknob. Betty hesitated to knock because she knew her mom would be angry with her for walking herself home in the dark, and it's not like Betty could reassure her by telling her she hopped on the back of some gang member's motorcycle, and he drove her home.
She threw her head back in frustration and turned around to head off her porch before she heard the doorknob rumble. Betty turned around as soon as the door swung open, and she was face to face with an angry Alice, who was already in her nightgown. They locked eyes for a few moments before Betty blurted, "I can explain" out, trying to break the awkward silence between them.
She held her hand up to stop her from talking. "Don't bother. I'm tired. We'll talk about this in the morning." Her mom snapped her fingers and opened the door wider, so Betty could walk in, and she did. "Go to bed," Alice said before she closed the door, locked it, and walked back into her bedroom.
Before she headed upstairs, Betty went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. The night that she was hoping would be one of the best nights of her life ended up being one of the worst. She sighed and walked upstairs to her room with her glass of water. She set it down on her nightstand and turned on her bedside lamp. She put her now-dead phone on the charger and reached behind her back to pull down the zipper on her uniform. It easily slid down her backside, and Betty removed the shirt from her body and laid it across her desk. Now just in her sports bra and skirt, she side-eyed her window and realized the curtains were open. She walked over to it and noticed the light to Archie's bedroom was turned off, which made Betty wonder where he could be. Archie lived right next door to her, and the two of them had been exchanging mutual glances at each other for years. Sometimes Archie would be changing in front of the window as if he knew Betty was watching, and she shamelessly did. He was never completely naked in front of his window, but Betty could recall how many times she had seen him in just his boxers.
As she stared through her window and his, she felt a little spontaneous. She backed away from the window so no one below them could see her, and reached behind her back to unclip her sports bra. She smiled to herself, her gaze never shifting from Archie's window as she slipped the bra off. Her heart beating quickly inside her chest, she turned around so that her back was facing the window, and wasn't aware of Archie's light turning on.
He was headed for his bed when his eyes immediately darted up to the half-naked blonde, who had her bare back facing him. His mouth dropped open as soon as he realized she was just in her cheer skirt. He had never seen anything less than a bra and underwear on her. He sat down on his bed, his attention never turning away from the pretty girl, who was obviously taunting him. He watched as she kept walking to her dresser, and Archie didn't get anything more than a slight view of her sideboob before she covered herself up with a nightshirt. He wondered if him asking her to the dance tonight made her feel a little more comfortable in front of her window because she had never been so open about changing out of her bra before. Then, he remembered he had just walked into his room, which left him a sickening thought that maybe she wasn't aware of his presence. Quickly snapping out of his daze, he turned off his light and got into bed.
Betty proceeded to change into her pajama bottoms and turned around to see Archie's light still turned off. She crashed down onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. His blue-green eyes flashed inside her mind, and she tried to swallow the image down her throat. Her body tossed and turned on the bed, and she felt some heat build-up in her stomach that flowed down to her underwear. She fought the urge to slip her hand inside her bottoms, figuring the heat was leftover from her scandalous act in front of Archie's window. Then, the cigarette between his glistening lips overflooded her mind and she squirmed. She didn't want to think about him right now or ever again for that matter and immediately shifted her thoughts to school and the project she had to work on with Veronica over the weekend. She groaned at the thought and moved to the top of her bed and got under the covers. She reached over to turn off the light, then made sure her body was in a good sleeping position before she closed her eyes tightly and drifted off to sleep.