Serendipity - A Bughead Fanfiction

twenty eight - the deal

♥betty♥

My leg bounces at a mile a minute as we make our way to Pop's, anxious as to what Jughead is about to tell me. I love him with everything in me, and I pray that whatever he has to say won't make that difficult. 

"Hey," he says, putting a hand on my thigh to steady it, "I promise Betts, it's okay. Everything's okay."

I gulp. I didn't believe him. Gangs don't hunt you down unless something is very wrong. I put my hand over his, gripping it tightly. I'm sure he can feel the moisture seeping through my palms from my nerves. The short drive to Pop's felt ages long. 

We pull up, parking at the far right of the lot, distanced from the rest of the cars who are at Pop's for a nice meal - it's only 8pm, we're in public, we're safe. 

He inhales deeply, pulling off his seatbelt and turning towards me. "How are you feeling?"

I pop off my seatbelt as well, pulling my legs onto the chair and facing him. "It doesn't matter how I feel, Jug, please just tell me what's going on."

"Before I do, I'm not saying this for pity, or out of insecurity or anything like that, but, I completely understand when you decide you can't be with me after I tell you this. Trust me Betty, I won't resent you, I won't be upset, I understand, okay? So don't feel guilty for however you need to react. You know the most important thing to me is making sure you're happy, comfortable and safe."

"Jug, I won't-"

"You don't know that." he stops me. "You can't say that, you don't know what I've done." he says, rubbing his eyes harshly, clearly in distress.

"I love you, Jug. No matter what happens, I do. You know that, right?"

He smiles, a sense of sadness behind his eyes. "Of course, Juliet." He leans in, kissing my cheek gently. 

"Okay, so.." he starts before the air around us drifts into silence for a few moments.

"So?" I question - I didn't mean to be pushy or bothersome, but I was too anxious to wait this long.

He inhales again, "I killed somebody."

My breath catches in my lungs - I never expected this of all things. "You- You what?" I don't mean to be afraid, I could never be afraid of Jughead. He wasn't that person. There must be a reason, a real reason behind this.

"I killed someone. Me and Toni, we killed somebody." 

I impulsively pull my hand away, putting my face in my hands to hide the tears that fight to spew. Tell me this is all a lie, that we can go back to being the same old Betty and Jughead - regardless of if that was far from normal, this is too far. 

"Who, Jug? Why? What happened, please explain this to me you can't just stop there, speak." I yell, the tears now breaking through the walls I tried to put up, my lips and body quivering. 

"I'm sorry, I-" he starts, he looked numb.

"Don't apologize," I say, my heart can't help but hurt as I see him stare blankly at his lap, as if he was playing whatever happened in his head, "Hey," I say, gripping his face and staring him in the eyes, "I'm sorry for screaming, I know there's an explanation, please Juggie, tell me."

"I didn't want to Betty." he says, his eyes welling up as he stares at me, his eyes feel like they're begging for some type of help, for some escape from the past. 

"I know you didn't." I say, caressing his cheek with my thumb.

"Before we met, my dad was in jail for running a drug ring. Not surprising, but he made a lot of enemies. People who he owed money to, people who he didn't get drugs they paid for, you know, the lot. Majority of them were also in gangs, and so everyone had connections in jail."