The news hit them the moment they drove back into Riverdale.
Camping had been fun, and Betty had had the chance to lounge around in shorts and a bikini bra every day, occasionally going for a swim in the small lake near their usual camping spot. But, throughout all that, she had still already wished to go home.
Archie didn't make those days easy for her.
His eyes were on her all the time, and once in a while, he would mention something about the way she looked. 'Hot', 'beautiful', and 'pretty' had been the adjectives she had heard multiple times in a row that made her sick to her stomach.
Her best friend was crushing on her. The best friend who had turned her down a few years ago. The best friend who was currently dating her other best friend. And nothing about the situation left Betty unbothered.
She didn't like Archie anymore. As a friend, sure; they had grown up together. But not as a boyfriend—never as a boyfriend.
Of course, there were times Reggie could make him move on from the topic or make him look away, and for that Betty would be forever grateful. They could play cards or kick around a soccer ball without feeling like she was being watched all the time.
But still, when they finally reached the car back at the usual spot, she felt at ease jumping onto the front seat. She didn't necessarily want to go back home to her parents, but she was glad to escape Archie.
Also, Jughead. He hadn't answered or seen her texts the previous night, and the blonde was slowly growing worried. That was until they drove back into the town.
The people were buzzing with the news. In the basement of Southside High, a drug lab had been found. The mayor had received an anonymous tip about it, and the cops had shut the place down faster than ever.
Southsiders were mad they were forced to go to another school, and Northsiders were mad their kids would need to share their school with all the 'damaged thugs' from the wrong side of the tracks. The classrooms were about to be overcrowded, and the rich parents were already looking into private schools out of town for their kids to attend.
"Shit," Reggie whispered when they stopped in front of his house to drop him off. "Who do you think was the anonymous person?"
"Probably someone from the Southside, worried about their kid's future," Betty said as she glanced back at the boys while Fred was helping Reggie get the things from the trunk.
"What do you mean?" Archie frowned. "They have a school, they have the same chances as we do."
Betty frowned, turned around, and glared him down. "Their teachers are abusive, as are their classmates if you get good grades. The town doesn't care about them. They're constantly being looked down on. And I'm sure inside Southside High, the walls are moldy and old, and closing it down was only the right thing to do cause it prevents all the allergic reactions and possible sicknesses, maybe even death."
"Whoa. That's a bit much, don't you think? They were perfectly fine until now." Archie looked at Reggie for some support, but the dark-haired boy was staring at Betty, a hint of amusement in his eyes.
The blonde quickly turned her eyes away from the boy and back onto her childhood best friend. "They weren't fine. Everyone's trying to suppress their cries because their area was made for people with low income and it's not fair they have fewer chances in life because of that."
"If they have a low income, then it's their fault, don't you think?" Archie said, rolling his eyes. They had had this discussion with Betty many times throughout their lives, and when they were smaller, it would result in Betty hitting him and stomping away. Not anymore though.
"Their parents were probably put in the same situation when they were younger. They had fewer chances to get good jobs because of the bad education there. So they took whatever they could. Same with their parents, and grandparents, and so on. It's a never-ending chain of people with worse opportunities than you and your ancestors, and you have no right to say they chose this life."
"Betty, let's not do this again," Archie said, clearly annoyed. "All I'm saying is that they shouldn't come to our school and overcrowd it if they have a place to go already."
"Well, it's not your choice, is it?" the girl snapped back and turned around on the front seat, glaring out of the windshield, arms crossed on her chest.
Reggie bid them a quiet goodbye, escaping the tension in the car, and Fred deeply sighed when he got back inside, having heard all of it. Betty was right, and he would need to have the same talk with his son all over again. Archie never listened to him about that matter, and he thought it might've had something to do with Veronica who shared his beliefs.
Jughead got her call while in the gym. He was jumping on the place, beating a punching bag with all the strength he had, trying to out all his rage before seeing his girl again. He knew Betty had done it. A few days before she had gone on the camping trip, she had asked him more about his school life, and he, of course, had told her.
But he hadn't thought she'd do anything like this.
He didn't want to change schools. He didn't need another complication in his life.
When he answered Betty's call, he didn't say anything and simply listened, attempting to hold his emotions back. He didn't want to be aggressive, and knowing his hormones and strong reactions, he simply held his breath.
"Hi," the girl silently said on the other side, but still, he didn't answer. "Jug," she sighed, "answer me, please."
He gulped. "Hi."
The girl breathed on the other side. "Can we meet up? We need to talk."
"Yeah."
"At seven?"
"Okay."
He lowered the phone and ended the call as fast as possible, groaning afterward as his head fell back to glare at the ceiling. Aware of the fact that his knuckles would be bruised if he only kept using the wraps without gloves, he brought his right fist against the punching bag with full strength and started bouncing on his feet, repeating the move over and over until he couldn't handle the pain anymore.
Betty had already waited for about five minutes when Jughead showed up, jogging down the river. She kept her eyes on him, standing in the middle of the bridge and waiting for his arrival. He reached her some moments later, sighing as he stopped running during the last ten steps, slowly approaching her.
They were both in their training clothes—Jughead's old and shattered, Betty's new and freshly washed.
She was smiling a bit, but her teeth were sinking into her lower lip as she nervously watched him for a moment. They stood there for a while, just staring at one another, standing a few feet apart.
Until he decided to clear his throat and turn to look at the river, which Betty took as a sign. She needed to say something.
"Hi."
Her voice was so incredibly soft and familiar, and Jughead wanted to kiss her right then and there, but refrained himself from doing so, only giving her a nod of acknowledgment.
"Okay," the girl breathed, squirming on her spot. "So, um, I think you heard the news?"
Jughead scoffed, slightly shaking his head as he looked anywhere but at her.
"Look," she quietly started. "I didn't mean anything bad by it. I'm aware that I used the information you gave me, and that I maybe should've asked you before, but this is a good thing, right? You finally get to be yourself and study, and—"
"Nothing about this is good, Betty," he said, his stern voice cutting her off. He turned to look at her with a deep frown carved into his face. "Do you even understand what that means? I will be coming to your school. Those Northsiders hate us. It will be even worse than Southside High. The teachers will taunt us, as will the students, which will cause fucking fights and I will be the one who will have to break them up! God, did you even think about anyone other than yourself when you did that?"
Betty scoffed, crossing her arms on her chest. "Well, excuse me for caring," she threw back at him.
"Caring?" he laughed, arm flailing around in the air. "You just wanted that so that you could prove something."
"To whom?" she said, rolling her eyes.
"I don't know! Your mom? Me? Archie?"
Betty stood up straight, face petrified. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"I think you know what that means."
"No."
Jughead scoffed again and turned away from her, pure rage on his face. "You still like him."
"What?" the girl laughed.
"You still fucking like him!" he screamed into her face, Betty jerking at the tone and sinking her nails into her palms.
"That's just like me saying you like Toni," the girl argued.
"Well, maybe I do? What if I'm using you to get close to your family or some bullshit like that? Or maybe you are?"
Betty shook her head, face mirroring utter disbelief. "What the fuck are you on about, Jughead? I know I should've talked to you before going to the mayor, but I just hoped we could spend more days together this way and—"
"See?" he snorted. "You're selfishly doing this for yourself. Now the whole town will be at odds, and if there will be another civil war or some shit like that, that'll be your fault!"
They stood in silence for a moment, Betty's face sad, hoping he'd stop this nonsense and let her touch his hand soon enough.
"Jughead, I just want for you to have opportunities moving on," Betty whispered when he ran his hand over his face. She could tell he was trying to bring up stupid excuses for being mad at her, which he had the right to be, but she didn't understand why he was throwing all these random guesses at her.
It didn't help.
"Well, I'm not going anywhere, after this, okay!?" he screamed. "I'm going to be fucking stuck in Riverdale forever and I don't want you tying yourself down because of me, and you just made this stupid move that would make us closer and I'm fucking scared!"
At this point, there were tears in his eyes. "I'm scared to get hurt and I don't need you here telling me you did this for me because I fucking know! That's the problem, Betty! You can't do these things just for me. You..." he trailed off because of the groan his throat released and directed his glare at her glassy eyes. "Why the fuck are you just standing there and letting me yell at you!?" he screamed.
Her wide eyes were staring at him full of horror, lips pressed shut. Her breathing was starting to become shaky when he took a step toward her and she turned around, away from him.
"I'm gonna go home," she whispered and was about to start running when Jughead's hand was placed on her shoulder, tensing her up more than before.
"Betty," he said, voice soft this time. His arms cautiously wrapped around her from behind, the girl relaxing into his body the way she had so many times before. "I'm sorry," he whispered into the crook of her neck.
"No," Betty said, her voice quivered. She swallowed. "Jughead, my problem has always been that I only see the good aspects of everything. But that doesn't mean I don't know how hard life can be."
"I've never said that," he mumbled.
"I know it's hard with you and the Serpents. I know it would be hard getting away from them if it even was possible. But I also have faith, Jug. I want you to get out of here." She stood on the spot for a second before sighing and turning around in his arms. "I want to help you," she whispered, hands coming up to his face. "I love you. I know you can get a scholarship if you try."
"Betty—"
"No," she said sternly and pushed him away gently, dropping her hands. "You can do this. I'll help you."
"Betty—"
"I'll help you send some of your stories to contests and we'll get you a scholarship and—"
He pressed his hand onto her mouth, carefully holding it there, letting her mumble into it for a few seconds before she realized what was happening and shut up, staring up at him. "Baby, you're bleeding."
Her hands fisted immediately, gently this time as she shook her head. "I'm fine."
He leaned forward, lips touching her forehead, and remained the position for a while. "I don't ever want to be the reason you do that to yourself," he whispered against her skin.
"Don't worry about it."
"You can make me change schools because you're worried but I can't worry about you self-harming?"
"First, don't bring that up as an excuse," she said, planting her hands on his chest over the dark shirt, pushing him away slightly. "And second, you self-harm as well."
"By cutting and scratching when I'm pissed or hurt, yes," he said. "But never because of you."
"Well, what if you hadn't come to your senses just a minute ago and gone home? Wouldn't you have been pissed?"
"Come to my senses, huh?" he asked with a small smirk at which Betty simply rolled her eyes. Jughead sighed with a slight shake of his head. "Yeah, maybe..."
"See? But still, I'm not afraid to yell at you, scared that you could hurt yourself because of me. So, please, don't either. I don't like it when you treat me differently just because I'm... scarred."
"Everyone's scarred, Betts. Just the scars can't always be seen."
"Exactly," she whispered. "So, please."
"Okay," he mumbled, sighing afterward. "Can I kiss you?"
"What about our argument?"
"This isn't a fucking book where we'd need to finish that," he said, making her smile at that. "We can talk later." His hands gripped her waist as he tugged her against himself. "Now come here," he murmured and leaned down to kiss her lips.
It was late at night when Jughead returned home. He took a quick shower and pulled on the first jeans he saw on the floor, accompanied by a white t-shirt, and pulled on his Serpent jacket before leaving the trailer again.
He walked toward the bar that wasn't far away, thinking back to the conversation Betty and he had had about an hour ago. They had talked about the school situation, and he had apologized for freaking out over it while she had rambled on and on about how she should've asked him first.
But, in the end, everything had solved nicely.
And that's when she had told him about the problem that had surfaced while she was away. Archie had eyes for her.
Jughead's jaw clenched at the memory of her words. She told him all about the days she had spent away, careful to keep to herself the parts where the guys were worried about her eating habits.
Archie had been flirting with her, and looking at her, and checking her out... Jughead just wished she had given him permission to go and take the carrot out. He really wanted to, after all.
"Jones," Jughead heard when he walked into the Wyrm.
"Hey," he greeted, the whole bar falling silent. "What's our problem today?"
He practiced going to Serpent meetings with his father. He always spent them sitting beside him on the tiny stage, once in a while expressing his opinions that nobody ever listened to. Apparently, he needed to train to be a leader.
He was smart enough not to tell them he'd try to leave once high school was over.
"You're going to Northside now, boy," FP said when he took a seat next to him. "You're going to have to step up."
"What do you mean?" Jughead asked, looking bored.
"Once you're in another territory, nobody is safe," Tall Boy spoke from the crowd, and Jughead tried his best not to roll his eyes at the old man that wasn't on good terms with him. "You're going to make sure everyone stays out of trouble."
Sweet Pea snorted in front of the stage while Jughead scoffed. "I'm not going to babysit anyone. Nobody here needs a babysitter."
"Damn straight," Pea said, rolling his eyes. "Nobody needs protection."
"I'll make sure the younger kids will stay out of fights," Jughead spoke up again, ignoring Sweet Pea's words. He looked at his father who seemed confused. "You know, freshmen and sophomores. The ones who aren't Serpents but have family who is. I'll make sure they're fine."
"Take care of my daughter!" a man from the back shouted, and Jughead nodded, already knowing who he was talking about. His daughter was fifteen, a Serpent, and deaf. She had problems with being bullied on the Southside already, mostly by the Ghoulies, and Jughead knew she'd be an easy target with the snake symbol on her back.
"I will," he promised. "Now, can we talk about the fact that some of us," he directed his eyes at Sweet Pea, and then moved them to Toni behind the bar, "can't keep their emotions at bay and will get aggressive if a Northsider should mention something they're not a fan of."
"Shut up, Jones," Toni grumbled behind the bar and rolled her eyes. "We'll all be perfectly fine. Just everyone lay low and sit in the back and actually study."
"Why would we do that?" Sweet Pea said, rolling his eyes. "We're fucking drug dealers, why do we need education for that?"
"You need to be smart not to get caught, which I couldn't say you are right now, Pea," Jughead said, and smirked when the other boy seemed to get angry.
They used to be friends when they were younger, but over years, Sweet Pea had become the man Jughead had tried to be (hooking up with girls, drinking, doing drugs, setting trash cans on fire), and he attempted to stay far away from him. It wasn't the life he wanted, and he hadn't particularly enjoyed it when he had tried it out, either.
With Fangs, the story was different. Jughead wanted and tried to be friends with him, but the other boy had always been Sweet Pea's tail, always doing what he did and mimicking his actions, so that hadn't taken him anywhere either.
"Everything will go smoothly, FP," Joaquin promised. "Serpents eat Bulldogs for lunch."
That erupted a cheer from the crowd, and Jughead couldn't help but grin.
Maybe he would have the chance to fight with Archie after all...
☆☆☆
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