No one ever said that it would be this hard

Chapter 25

♾ Jughead ♾

Things changed. After Betty didn't call me anymore, I completely lost it. Couldn't keep my ground, couldn't do anything. Not really. I couldn't stay at the house anymore. It had felt like it was closing in one me more and more with every day.

So I left.

I went to the trailer. It had seemed abandoned. Dad came by once or twice but I always managed to go unnoticed then, hid in my bedroom until he left. It usually just took a minute or so before he left again.

And then he disappeared completely.

The Serpents had no one to lead and since I didn't really have anything else to do, I decided to take up on the job as Serpent King. During a lonely night — when I was really drunk, in my defense — Toni made me the tattoo. I had the jacket anyways. Only the official part didn't happen yet.

It didn't matter anyways.

Not without Betty.

Nothing mattered anymore.

"Jughead!" Fangs yelled from the bar and I groaned, standing up from the couch, where I watched an exciting game of Billard between Fangs and Sweat Pea, to walk over to him.

"What?" I snapped and he silently reached me a phone.

"You left it at the bar. Betty texted you"

"Betty?" I asked, confused. We haven't talked since I was at the hospital. I tried to reach out to her for the next month but when she left everything unanswered, I stopped at some point. There was no use... why bother to hope for something that wasn't going to happen? She had five months. Five months for her to call or at least reach out to me. Five months for her to come back. Five months of me waiting. Five months of me hoping, ending up at the White Wrym more often then not.

But if she texted me now, then maybe there was still hope — for us. Maybe she hasn't given up on me yet, on us.

Touching my phone, I did see that it was in fact my phone. Though when I turned it on, I still couldn't really read her text. It was too much of a blur and the broken display wasn't helping there. I unlocked the phone before reaching it to Toni.

"C-Can you read that out loud for me?"

"Why?"

"Because I can't right now, okay?"

"Have you drank again?"

Toni noticed the excessive drinking too. She kept her mouth shut though. Toni didn't ask questions. But she also didn't let me get too far off the edge anymore. When I tried to, she pulled me aside until I would tell her what was going on.

"No. No, I didn't. I just didn't sleep much. Everything is b...blurry and spinning" I didn't eat much either, maybe that was reason for that too.

"She just texted you 'hey'"

"Oh"

What am I supposed to answer?

"Should I answer?" I asked.

"Why do you ask me?"

"Because I'm a wreck? I can't think rational if it c-concludes her"