The week went by fast, Jughead visiting Pop's every day as usual, but spending a bit less time there than he had the previous few weeks. He got to hang out with Betty day after day, just sharing smiles and, when she and Joaquin weren't busy, playing cards. The highlights of his days, before going to work and leaving after spending a few hours with the girl, were the small conversations they would have during his friend's short lunch breaks.
Or they could be called late lunch breaks.
Joaquin ate at strange hours, even for Jughead. He had his lunch at 5 pm, and while it was odd, the beanie-wearing boy was happy to spend some quality time with only Betty when he wouldn't have to pretend they weren't friends.
The girl was still up for their date on Sunday, and he already knew where he was going to take her. It was gonna be different than the last one, but Jughead wondered that if he took Betty on a date to the exact same place every time, for the exact same activity, she would get bored, and it wouldn't be as special.
With the week, he had found out some things she liked to do—reading, watching movies, photography, of course, and fixing cars. The last part didn't come as a surprise to Jughead as the girl had mentioned the fact before, but he did get some flashy pictures of her in front of his eyes, in overalls, oily, and with a towel thrown over her shoulder, smiling at him.
"I also write pretty good, but it's mostly my parents' passion, not mine," she had told him on Thursday. Jughead nodded, noting that, and briefly wondered if he should tell her that he loves writing.
He decided to stay silent and turned the topic over to what her favorite movie genre was. At that the blonde had chuckled, a bit embarrassed, with her cheeks red, and while looking at her hands, murmured, "Old documentaries."
He hadn't been excepting this and chuckled a bit at her awkwardness before telling her that he had never seen any, but would be willing to try if she was okay with watching some crime with him.
Betty had laughed at that and promised to do that someday, not even knowing that it was going to be true sooner rather than later.
The girl was looking forward to Sunday while simultaneously dreading it. Her parents were going to be home on the weekend this time, and she had asked for Jughead to meet her about a block away, just in case.
In the early morning, Betty ate breakfast with her family, as they did every Sunday. And while in most households, one of the two days on the weekend, pancakes were served, in hers it definitely wasn't that way.
Alice Cooper wanted her daughter to be perfect. She demanded the best grades, the perfect attitude, etcetera. Betty was always pressured to be exactly that—perfect. Her sister and brother had been raised the same way, but somehow, they always got away with everything, being twins. When Polly had a baby while still in high school, her parents (mostly her mother), had become even more strict with her youngest child. She needed to come out perfect.
And for that reason, just two years ago, her diet had drastically changed, too. When younger, Betty and her siblings were allowed one milkshake a day, and a meal at Pop's once a week. But then, after Polly and Charles went away for college, Betty's mom had become stricter than usual, demanding her daughter to be the perfect weight (which in her eyes meant unhealthily skinny).
So, no, it wasn't a pancake Betty enjoyed that morning. It was eggs that her father had made with toast with bacon (and a side salad, of course), and when Alice Cooper rose from the table, claiming to have to work in the office, Hal pushed the plate full of bacon towards his youngest daughter who never was allowed any piece of it.
"Can I?" Betty asked timidly, her green eyes widening a bit in anticipation.
"Of course, honey, just don't tell your mother," the man said with a small smile.
Betty exhaled and reached for two slices of bacon instantly, limiting herself enough and not allowing herself the toast and butter.
Your workouts need to be worth it. Don't ruin your goals.
"Where are you going today?"
Her green eyes met her fathers as she chewed on her food, and the man patiently waited until she was done, just as they had taught her, before she spoke up. "Just movies with Kevin, and maybe I'll help Veronica shop for some clothes later on."
"Do you think you can take a day off work on Wednesday?" her dad questioned.
Betty looked at him in surprise. "Are you free?"
"Yes, your mom will do the work. I was thinking I could show you the car and maybe you can drive it around a bit?"
As if her mood could get any better today, the blonde girl beamed at her father. "Yeah, sure! I'll just have to tell Pop. I'm sure they can do without me for a day."
Her father smiled at the girl, and Betty quickly finished her breakfast that contained mostly the salad, cleaning her hands afterward. Then, checking her phone, a smile appeared on her face as she murmured, "He's here."
Saying goodbye to her father, she hurried out the door, bringing a small bag with her point-and-shoot, wallet, and a bottle of water. Betty had no idea what they were doing this time but wondered she probably should bring at least one of her cameras to take photos of whatever they could be seeing today.
The girl smiled big when she saw Jughead leaning onto his bike, wearing a smirk on his lips, staring at her already, even from the distance. She felt a bit fat today, and for that reason, had substituted the dress she had laid out yesterday with her striped blue-and-white shorts that were a lot more comfortable than jean ones, and a white t-shirt.
Jughead's eyes moved down to her boobs as she stopped in front of him, but he quickly covered it up by tossing the cigarette on the ground and stepping on it.
"How many of those cancer sticks do you smoke in a day?" the blonde frowned, arms suddenly folded on her chest.
"A few," he smirked. "Only when I'm nervous though."
"And why are you, right now? Do you think we'll fall with your bike and die?"
Throwing his head back, loud laughter erupted from him, genuinely enjoying her lame jokes. "Right," he chuckled, and then cleared his throat while taking a better look at her. Her hair was loose, unlike every other time he had seen her. It was always up in a tight ponytail that he wondered must have hurt a lot.
But as it was down this time, he didn't even notice as his finger brushed against her cheek while tucking a strand of it behind her ear. Betty's cheeks burned, turning to look to her right for some reason, and Jughead smiled, finding her shyness endearing.
"You look beautiful," he said before interrupting himself with grabbing the helmet and rapidly handing it to her. "Here you go."
The blonde smiled a bit, pulling it on, and attached it to her chin. "So... What are we up to today?"
Jughead gave her a hand to climb behind him, and when she was seated, arms around him, just under his jacket, he murmured, "You have to wait and see. But I think you'll like it."
Satisfied with that, Betty tightened her arms around the boy as the motorcycle started moving and smiled as they drove further and further from her house.
"What are we doing here?" Betty smiled, her eyes a bit narrowed.
Jughead had parked his bike in front of the entrance of the town's drive-in. Every summer, it was opened on Saturday nights, showing three movies, usually old classics. But, even as the film choice wasn't what young people usually enjoyed, people went there to make out in the car, eat, and have a good time.
Betty wasn't allowed often, though, and so every time she got to go, she enjoyed the hell out of it, usually joking around with Kevin, and sometimes, when Veronica didn't have a date, she would join them too.
But, right now, on Sunday, with some charity workers cleaning up the huge area from the litter from the day before, Betty was a bit reluctant about why they went there.
"I work here," Jughead said, making the girl frown at first, and then smile.
"Really?" she asked, searching his eyes for some kind of lie, but couldn't find it anywhere. "I thought you worked in a bar..."
"I do. But, a little extra money wouldn't be too bad, and so I come here every Saturday to entertain people."
"Wait, you show the movies?" the girl asked in amazement. "Can you choose them?"
"Yeah," Jughead mumbled, distracted by the way her hair flew in the wind. "To both questions. Yes. I have a strict list of instructions to follow, though, and my... friends... usually make fun of me like choosing the movies in black and white."
"Oh. So you don't really like them?" Betty questioned, staring up at his face as they moved side by side to the entrance that usually the cars used.
"I do." Smirking, he directed his eyes to hers. "I'm a movie buff. Not many people know about it, but... I like the oldies."
"Really? Me too," Betty said, a smile on her lips as she watched the way his eyes smiled back at her while opening the small gate with his keys.
"Oh yeah? You enjoy like serial killer documentaries in black and white or something?" He sniggered at her small pout, seeing the way she couldn't hold her smile back either.
"Shut up," she murmured.
They froze on the spot, seeing a group of people watching them outside the area of the drive-in. They were smoking, drinking, and laughing, but not any of them looked innocent or like someone you could trust. Betty caught the way Jughead gulped when seeing their jean jackets.
"Are they the Ghoulies?" she whispered as if they could hear her voice.
With a brief nod, Jughead's hand touched her lower back, leading her further away from them, and into the small building he worked in. "They're dangerous," he told her when he closed the door. "Stay away from the Ghoulies."
"More dangerous than the Serpents?" she asked quietly, biting her lower lip.
"Betts," he exhaled, catching her attention again. "The Serpents... we aren't dangerous. Yes, most of us are drunk all the time, and stupid, so you should definitely ignore them on the streets, especially in the dark. Some are violent, and some sexist, but it's the same with other men. Just don't let them too close to you."
Betty smirked a bit, eyeing him up and down for a moment, wordlessly reminding Jughead that she was close to him.
"That's not what I meant," he rolled his eyes with an amused smirk. "You can get as close to me as you want, I don't mind."
"Idiot."
Face back to serious, his eyes got worried really quick. "Just promise me to stay away from the Ghoulies. They're hardcore. And they do stuff you and probably no one else on the Northside is even aware of."
"Like what?" she asked.
"Can't tell you. But they take advantage of women. So, please. Stay away."
"Okay."
Satisfied with that, Jughead nodded and pointed at the antique movie projector in the corner in an attempt to move on from the topic and get Betty's head in different thoughts. It worked.
The blonde girl gawked over everything in the small room, from the shelves filled with tapes to the old smelly books in the corner that Jughead had read. She ended up holding a book, paging through it, and smiling to herself. "I don't think I've read that one."
"It's not very common," Jughead said, looking at it over her shoulder. "The author is African, actually, and it describes a lot of brutal racial situations in the 30s or so... It was banned in the US for a long time because of the slave trade, and when it finally came out, people found it too... harsh?" He shrugged, "If you ask me, they're just fucking racist and don't want to look past their mistakes."
Betty didn't know if it showed or not, but her green eyes were filled with admiration, looking at the boy standing in front of her. He surprised her every day. He always said something so different from what she had previously thought he was. Sometimes when he used vocabulary that even she didn't understand, she'd just smile at him, and later, after going home, googled the meaning from online dictionaries.
Jughead was mysterious. He was super intelligent. But he had also mentioned how having good grades in Southside high meant getting beat up. Briefly, he had mentioned going to college and trying to get scholarships, but Betty had never directly gotten an answer about what he wanted to study. Standing there at that moment, she wondered it probably had something to do with movies or books. Maybe literature or even history?
"How do you know so much about this stuff?" Betty questioned, her hand reaching for his in the intimacy of the moment, only standing about a foot apart.
"How do you know so much about photography?" His eyes fall on their hands as he laces their fingers.
"I love it?" she offers with a small smile.
"Well, exactly, there's your answer."
"So would you say you're into history?"
"Yes."
"Literature?"
"Yes," he repeated, an amused smile on his lips.
"Films?"
"Yes."
"So, if you had to rank them from best to worst, what would that look like?" Betty questioned, tilting her head a bit.
Jughead smirked at her, and while holding her hand, led her upstairs. "Best to worst. Literature, films, history."
The girl smiled, following him up the narrow stairway, not caring where he was taking her as long as he answered her questions and kept his hand in hers. She asked something she had been wondering for a while, because of his vocabulary and love for books. "Have you tried writing?"
"Yep," Jughead mumbled, but that was all he gave her before they reached the top of the stairs, and Betty's eyes widened, looking at the scene in front of her.
There were another one of the old movie projectors, directed towards the old white wall, a few tapes stacked on it. The antique chairs and table had been pushed to the side, next to the small bookcase, to make room for the mattress that had been laid in the middle of the room. There were lots of pillows, some blankets, and it was covered in clean sheets.
Usually, Betty didn't like small closed places or old rooms that were dusty, but this one was clean and certainly was looked after. It reminded her of some of the antique boutiques that had all types of furniture in them. Everything in the room was old, but none of it smelled like it, and if she had to inspect for dust, she wouldn't have found it.
"Wow," the blonde breathed, eyes falling to the snacks on the small table and the cans of soda and water in a bucket full of ice. She gazed over the Christmas lights on the walls, giggling when looking at Jughead. "You did this for me?"
"Well... For us," he smirked, bucking his head a bit. "And I know how it can look like," he mumbled, "but I swear I'm not going to try anything and the mattress is just here so that we'd be comfy, and I don't mean to come off as creepy or—"
"Hey," Betty chuckled, letting go of his hand smoothly and bringing hers to his cheek. "It's lovely, Jug. Thank you."
He nodded and watched the way she pushed her shoes off and grabbed a can of sparkling water before moving to the bed and crossing her legs, turning her attention to the drink in her hands. "So, what are we watching?" Betty asked with a small smile, opening the can in her hands, and bringing it to her lips.
"Well, we only have old movies in here, and you promised to watch some crime with me so... Have you seen some of these?"
Jughead passed her four different tapes with their names and years written on and watched the way the girl looked through them, pushing her hair behind her ear.
"I've seen these two," she said and read the next two covers. "Nope." Looking up at him, she was met with a charming smile on his lips.
"Nice. Let's watch my favorite first then."
"Which one?"
Their fingers briefly touched as she passed the movies back to him. Jughead smiled, seeing the way her eyes were directed to look at him, waiting to hear the details and everything he knew.
"Vertigo. 1958. It's based on a novel written a few years earlier, originally in French. It's what they call a psychological thriller, one of the first from many of its genre, but honestly, it's a Hitchcock film, so I think you'll appreciate the aesthetics of the scenes."
"Ooh, you like Hitchcock blondes?" Betty teased.
The boy smirked, attention on his hands as he got the projector working. "Sure," he murmured, before glimpsing up at her. "Blondes in general, actually."
Her cheeks turned pink faster than he had seen, and as he chuckled, shaking his head a bit, he walked to the table, grabbing a bag of Doritos and a Sprite before sitting down next to Betty.
Jughead smirked while watching the way the girl pressed the cold can of water against her cheeks, one by one, and took a sip from it later. "I'll close the curtains," he breathed, pushing himself up once again, and doing just that, leaving them with a better quality of the movie.
When he sat back down, he offered Betty some of his chips, to which she smiled and shook her head, scooting back into the pillows and making herself comfortable. While her attention as solely on the movie in front of them, trying to grasp every aspect of it, Jughead's attention jumped between her and the screen (or wall, more likely).
Betty knew it, but there was also something about the guy that didn't make her too self-conscious about herself. She knew he didn't mean anything bad by watching her. She knew he thought she was pretty. And so, the girl let him do that until a few minutes later, when his eyes stayed on the screen as well, too engrossed in the movie to look away.
"Hey, can we do one now that wouldn't have a depressing ending?" Betty chuckled after having watched the first movie and discussed it for about an hour before deciding on watching another. "Maybe some actual romance without shit going down?"
Jughead smirked at her words, knowing she probably never got to curse at home, noticing the joy in her eyes as she did that. "Like what?"
"What can we choose from?"
He pointed at the bookshelf and Betty felt his eyes on her as she stood up, tugging on her shorts a bit, and squatted back down in front of all the tapes. She found a few good ones within a minute and smirked over her shoulder at him, holding one up. "Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
Jughead narrowed his eyes a bit, "You promised to watch crime with me, though."
"I did. We did. And it was great. But now it's my turn."
The boy shrugged and accepted the tape from her, trading places, and putting the next film on. "So, you like romance too?" he questions as he lay down next to her.
"Who doesn't?"
"Assholes."
They sniggered together, and Betty scooted closer to him, allowing his arm around her shoulders, under her nape. She tensed a bit when his fingers touched the side of her head, fiddling with her hair, but took a quiet shaky breath when moving her head to rest on his biceps.
Jughead was grinning like an idiot when she gazed up at him, but as their eyes met, she couldn't hold herself back either, giggling quietly.
Both of them knew that hanging with the son of the Serpents' leader was probably the riskiest thing Betty Cooper had ever done. She had tried to rebel against her mother in many ways, none of which had worked, and yet, there she was, in the arms of a snake, feeling nice and comfortable.
And the funniest part was that it was done for her own pleasure, and not for the sake of pissing off her mother. In fact, she couldn't let her find out, or both she and Jughead would be dead.
She would be in deep, deep trouble.
Jughead Jones was deep, deep trouble.
☆☆☆
Another long chapter (((:
150 votes for the next one! <3