one-shots || bughead + sprousehart

"you're with her now." - bughead

Today was the day I found out he met someone else.

Breathing started to get a little bit harder and my vision became slightly clouded as tears started to well up in my eyes. But swallowing bile, blood and a feeling I can't really name I smiled and said I was happy for him.

That of course wasn't a lie, I'm happy that he's happy but it just kills me that he couldn't be happy with me because I tried, I tried so hard to make it work but in the end he knew what he wanted and it isn't me, it's her.

Now back on my bed, my head buried in my pillow, the tears flow. I sob loudly, apathetic to anyone who could hear me.

Eventually Veronica comes rushing, her face in complete concern. "Hey, B, what happened?" She rushes over to me, wrapping her arms around my trembling body.

"Jughead." I cry, grasping the edges of her shirt, "Jughead happened."

"Oh honey.." She mumbles and presses me tighter against her. I sob in her neck, losing all control.

"He— He's with Amelia now, and it's good, it's all good because he's happy but it just hurts, it hurts to see him with someone else. I just— I love him so much that it tears at my heart." I'm rambling words but I can't stop.

My heart is aching and I need release. I need this feeling of utter pain to disappear because I can't anymore.

"It's okay, hon, it will be okay. Jughead and you have hurt each other a lot and he needs this right now, but he'll come around."

"No V, this is it. He's moving on and he has all the right to, but I'm just not ready yet."

"Well then— Sometimes you just have to let things go. Maybe... maybe he wasn't the right guy for you or maybe he really was and you'll meet again when both of you are not as broken as right now. Maybe he crossed your path for a reason and broke your heart for a lesson. Maybe he was someone temporary to help you fix your heart for a while. Maybe he's just the guy who'll restore your faith in love and make you feel that, for the last time in a long time, the world was alright." Her words are so wise and so completely overwhelming that I pull her against me and cry some more.

She presses a kiss to my hair and strokes my back with her fingers. "Thanks Veronica." I whisper when I feel myself falling asleep in her arms.

—

As I walk into school I instantly watch him with the corner of my eye. He's working on something with Archie, and struggling with that.

I want to go in, want to put my hands on his hands and lead the way with him.

Instead I breath in, turn my sight away from him and head to the class. I see Toni and Cheryl and walk over to them.

They smile as I come up and it try to smile back, really, but it's more a small lift of my lips. "You okay?"

"I saw Jughead with another girl yesterday." I tell them and their mouths go wide.

"Really? With who?"

"It's this girl who he used to go to Stonewall with, I think her name is Amelia." The two of them smile mercifully before both wrapping their arms around me. "I hate that it affects me so much."

"Of course it affects you cousin Betty, you really loved him and—" Suddenly Cheryl stops talking when she spots something behind me.

I turn around and am met with two green eyes staring at me. My breath hitches in my throat and my legs start to wobble.

"Hi." He says, "you okay?"

"Fine." I answer, short and ignorant.

"You don't seem fine." He whispers, stepping closer. Instantly I take a step back.