Mine (a Riverdale fanfiction)

Being in Love

Betty's night had ended with the news that she had a brother who had been given up for adoption. Her morning began with a phone call from Jughead that he had transferred to South Side High. It was where he belonged, he said. Don't worry about him, he said.

But what Betty heard was that he was leaving her. Yes, he said they would talk after school, he was pretending things would stay the same—but for how long? How long until the distance, figurative and literal, became too much, and it was easier, more convenient, to stay in their own places?

She turned immediately to Archie and Veronica.

"Where is he?"

"South Side High," she told them. "He said it's where he belongs, and that no one wants him here."

Immediately, as she had known they would, they mobilized to go get him. His friends weren't giving him up without a fight.

*****

Jughead had found South Side High less alien in many ways than Riverdale Central. It was dirty, messy, industrial. The teachers had given up, and the kids didn't care. But for a loner like him? An outcast? It felt kind of like home.

He had been reading alone at lunch when kids started to gather around him, and he found himself comfortable with them in a way he had never been at Riverdale Central. Maybe because he didn't have to pretend anything. No one here cared who he was, so he could be whoever, whatever he wanted to be, anything or nothing, and it wouldn't matter.

He was actually enjoying himself when he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find the three strange angels, Archie, Veronica, and Betty, standing there, come to take him back. For all that he loved Archie and Betty, his heart sank a little when he saw them. They were just a reminder of everything that had gone wrong in his life.

But he let them take him out rather than make a scene. He didn't want to start off that way. It was bad enough that they were here at all.

Archie and Veronica hung back and let him talk to Betty alone.

"Why didn't you tell me? You call me from South Side when everything's done?"

"I didn't tell you ahead of time because I knew you would try to stop me," he told her, not bothering to hide his irritation. This was exactly what he had hoped to avoid.

"Damn straight! And I'm still going to try."

"Betty. The South Side is where the powers that be want me. Maybe I want to be here as well. I may blend in better here. And it would keep you safe."

"I'm not letting Riverdale's civil war split us apart, Jug." She put her arms around him, and without entirely wanting to, he held her.

He loved her; that wasn't in question. But the life where he could have Betty and the life he had open to him were not the same. She was going to have to realize that sooner or later.

*****

Betty was by no means as certain as Jughead thought she was. She could feel him holding back, distancing himself from her. There was something missing now that had been there before. Transferring to South Side was going to take him from her, and she couldn't think of any way to stop it.

Seeing him arrive at the Jubilee just in time for her speech gave her the courage she needed to go ahead with it. If he was going to South Side, she was going to have to try to heal the breach between the two sides of town if she was going to have a chance of keeping them together. And she wasn't wrong—these things had been allowed to fester for too long. Too many secrets, too many shadows, too much darkness. She would shine the light on it here tonight, and see where the chips fell when it was over.

Not all of the speech went over well—but Jughead was the first to applaud, and Kevin and Betty's mother and sister were the first to rise from their seats. She would take it.

They went with Archie and Veronica to Pop's afterward, and it was almost the same. Almost right again. The four of them were happy to be together, happy to be at Pop's. If the others noticed any continued restraint between Betty and Jughead, they didn't say anything.

After they had said good-night to their friends, Jughead asked her to come back to his dad's trailer with him. Earlier in the evening he had talked to his dad, and come away convinced that FP was in a better place than he had been for a long time, even if he was about to go to prison. Jughead finally felt good about his life, as well. Watching Betty's speech, hearing the conviction in her voice, showed him how far she had come this year from the perfect, quiet little princess she used to be. He had helped her do that. He had given her strength and confidence. And she had given him love. Real love such as he hadn't felt in a very long time.

They were good for each other, he knew now. They needed each other. Tonight was finally the right time to straighten out everything that had gone wrong between them since his dad had been arrested.

Betty looked around, seeing the vast difference between the neat, clean trailer of tonight and the disaster she had seen the last time she visited. "Wow. It looks great in here."

"Cleaned it up," he said. "After Sheriff Keller trashed it. Just in case my dad—"

"Until he gets out, I'm not giving up on him, Jug."

Jughead caught his breath. She was extraordinary. He had been right when he told her how strong she was. Reaching up, he pulled off his hat, tossing it onto the table. "Hell, no. That is why I love you, Betty."

She froze at his words, the last ones she had expected to hear tonight, and then turned slowly to look at him.

"I love you," he repeated. "Betty Cooper." He meant it, his whole heart there in his eyes. And she could see that he wasn't sure what she was going to say.

Slowly Betty walked to him, a smile spreading uncontrollably across her face. "Jughead Jones. I love you."

She kissed him, sweet and soft. Suddenly he lifted her off her feet, and she laughed in the sheer joy of being with him, being in love.

They had kissed before. They had gone beyond kissing before. But tonight felt different. Tonight—tonight she couldn't get enough of him.

Jughead carried her to the kitchen, hitching her onto the counter. Kiss after kiss and Betty still wanted more. She stripped off her blouse and Jughead's sweatshirt, feeling him press against her intimately as he kissed his way down her neck. She was drowning in him, swimming in pleasure, and she wanted it never to—

A pounding on the door startled them both. Assuming it was her mom, they hastily fixed their clothes and opened the door ... to the South Side Serpents, who had come for Jughead.

Betty watched from the door as Jughead accepted the Serpents jacket and put it on. She was disturbed by it, by the way it looked on him, how it fit him, but a part of her was excited by it, too. And something told her that nothing was going to be the same.