If I Were Him (Bughead) ✓

𝑻 𝒉 𝒓 𝒆 𝒆

Jughead was sitting on the couch in his living room, scrolling through a pointless social media app when he heard a knock on the front door. The boy's dad had left to run a few errands half an hour ago, never telling him to expect anyone to come over. He was a little confused on who it could be. 

The boy walked over to the dark-coloured front door, nervously unlocking it. There was no doubt about it, Jughead was an introvert. He didn't exactly do well with people he really didn't know. Deciding to just rip the band-aid off, he opened the door. 

He was relieved when he saw the kind face of Hal Cooper, his neighbour and ex-best friend's father. Because of how long he had known Betty, Hal and the boy had grown quite a father-son-like relationship. 

"Jughead," Hal smiled, happily patting the boy's shoulder. "I haven't seen you in a long time," He stated. "A little too long..." 

"Well, I guess life just kind of got in the way..." A sad as it was, this was the boy's go-to phrase nowadays when talking to someone he hadn't seen in a while, which was most people now after spacing himself out from everyone else. 

"Ya, life tends to do that sometimes." And like everyone else, Hal bought the lie. Or at least he thought he did. "Anyway, Alice told me about the bike that needs some work done on it." 

"Oh, um...it's in the garage," Jughead told him. 

"Mind if I take a look at it?" Hal asked.

"Uh, sure," Jughead agreed. "I'll have to open the doors first though."

"That's fine." 

Jughead quickly shut the door, walking over to the garage from the inside of the house. He entered the room walked over to the large roll-up panel door, clicking the button on the top. He watched as they started to wind back up, making quite a loud noise. 

Before he knew it, him and the older man were stood around the old piece of machinery, taking in the little features it had left. At this point, it was just an outer shell of black metal.

"I mean, it's not completely scrap..." Jughead started. 

"It's definitely fixable," Hal stated, bending down to take a closer look.  

"Really?" Jughead honestly couldn't believe that. 

"From what I can see, it only needs some parts, and maybe a coat of paint," Hal told the boy. "Believe it or not, I've worked on vehicles in worse shape than this." 

"That must have been hard," the boy thought out loud. 

"Not really if you know what you're doing." Jughead watched as Hal stood back up, walking around the bike. "Say, how about we roll it over to my shop, then we can get started on it."

"Sure."

━ ━ ━ ━ ━

Jughead was out of breath as he sunk down to the floor of Hal's shop, built in the Cooper's garage. Rolling that heavy motorcycle across the road was a pain. First off, both tires were completely flat, and so old they couldn't even keep the air inside after Hal pumped them back up. Second of all, the steering had managed to get stuck, which then had to be oiled, just to work the tiniest bit. 

Hal had already left to go inside to get a drink, and probably grab a snack too. He offered both to Jughead, but he declined. Jughead wasn't exactly fond of taking things from others when he didn't need it, being that he had just eaten a little before Hal arrived on his doorstep.