Bughead One-shots | Riverdale

Soulmates; Her (2/3)

October second was probably Jughead's least favourite day of the year. Ever since he was younger he had hated his birthday. He could never understand how he was supposed to just celebrate this perfect day when he had such an imperfect family. He was used to the shouting from his parents and everything being wrong; it was foreign and strange for it to all be right all of a sudden. This birthday was probably worse than any others, however. This was his first birthday since his mother left with Jellybean and he didn't even want to celebrate it. His family was so fucked up that it was split over the country, and with that and his father constantly with a bottle of beer in his hands, Jughead wanted to be anywhere but home. Which led to him walking towards what sometimes felt like his second home; Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. He couldn't count the amount of times he had sought refuge in the diner, whether he just needed a break from his dad or a place to spend the night entirely. Pop Tate was used to him being there all the time, and let Jughead have free milkshakes and fries whenever he stayed, clearly taking pity for him.

The fact that he was supposed to be meeting his soulmate from his birthday onwards made him feel even worse as he walked towards the diner, kicking small rocks and cans that were in his way as he walked. Jughead could never picture himself with someone, let alone knowing that somebody could love him. Nobody wanted to put up with the baggage he carried; the problems of his life were too much for even him sometimes so why would someone else willingly put up with it? Maybe he was just going to be one of those people who never found their soulmate, who lived their entire life in black and white and never once saw colour. That sounded about right for him. He couldn't see himself with anybody, anyways. Nobody in this town was the sort of person he could see himself with.

He looked up once he had reached Pop's and sighed, catching sight of somebody through the window. Well, there was nobody he could see himself with other than one person.

Betty Cooper.

Betty was probably Jughead's best friend and favourite person. He liked her even more so than his redheaded best friend Archie Andrews which was saying something. If there was one person in that god forsaken town - hell, one person at all who was his soulmate, he would be happy if it was Betty. She was such a good person in his eyes he couldn't even imagine his life if he had Betty in it as his soulmate. She was kind and funny and understanding and beautiful. Without even realising it Jughead was head over heels for his blonde best friend. But of course he knew nothing could happen between them. There was no way that someone like him could be soulmates with someone like her. One day Betty was going to find her real soulmate and be happy with them, and Jughead knew that. So he had tried to push his feelings for Betty away and ignored them, knowing if he acted upon it then it would just end in inevitable heartbreak.

Jughead sighed as he stepped through the doors of the diner, a bell ringing above his head once he had opened the door. Other than his family only Betty and Archie knew about his birthday, so he knew Betty was going to say something about it. Honestly Jughead would rather it wasn't mentioned at all, but he didn't have the heart to tell Betty that. He knew she only wanted to be kind.

"Juggie!" He heard his best friend shout and took a moment to mentally prepare himself for the birthday wishes, before he turned to look at Betty with a smile.

A smile that dropped almost immediately when he saw the green in her eyes.

It almost felt like he couldn't breathe as he stared at her with wide eyes, watching as colours started burning through the black and white of his vision, leaving him practically breathless. Jughead could do nothing but stare as colour bled into everything he could see until it was all so bright and colourful. He couldn't take his eyes off of Betty as he tried to take it in. She was so beautiful. He was entranced by the rich green of her eyes, the pink in her cheeks, the gold of her hair. His eyes flickered down slightly to look at her pink lips and for a moment he had the urge to kiss her. His mind willed at him to just pull her closer against himself to hold her as he kissed her, but he knew he couldn't do that. They were best friends.