Smokestacks - Jughead Jones [1] ✔

Chapter Eleven

SMOKESTACKS

CHAPTER | ELEVEN

Elizabeth Cooper sat in her bedroom, cuddling into one of her stuffed animals.

The girl was reflecting on the events that had taken place that morning. She couldn't get the look of her sister's horrified face as her heart broke into two, as Betty told her sister that the father of her child was dead. Her child.

Polly was pregnant - she couldn't get her head around it.

Her arms wrapped around the bear tighter, and she closed her eyes to try and block out the memory.

A knock on the window broke through her thoughts, and she turned to see Jughead at the window.

She forced a smile and slid off the bed to let him in, stepping back to give him space.

"Hey Juliet." He leaned against the pane, "Nurse off duty?"

*

"There's a car." Jughead spluttered, as Savannah rushed out of the house less than an hour later, still pulling on a boot as she hopped down the steps. "Polly told Betty about a car that she and Jason planned to run away in."

"Okay." Savannah nodded frantically, "What are we waiting for, let's go?"

"Okay." Jughead agreed, yet he didn't move.

"Jughead?" The brunette questioned, almost impatiently. "What is it?"

He wasn't sure how to tell her, he hadn't meant for it to happen and yet it had. She was the one who had planted the idea in his head and suddenly he had just - "I kissed Betty."

Savannah deflated visibly as the words left his mouth. "Oh."

"It was just for a second and - I don't know, I wasn't sure after you mentioned it last night and I had to check."

The girl cursed herself for even mentioning her suspicions. "And?"

"And nothing." He let out a small laugh, "It was weird - awkward, even. We just kind of laughed it off, I guess? Then Betty remembered the car."

Savannah felt disgusted that she was relieved. She should have been happy for them, teasing them until their cheeks flushed red. But she wasn't - and she didn't. She was happy that he didn't like Betty because it meant that he could like her, and she had never felt so dirty before in her life.

Savannah felt guilty. She had been with Jason for six months, how could she be into Jughead so soon after? Especially after blowing off Jason when he asked her on a proper date.

"He cheated on Polly."

She ignored the voice in her head and offered a smile at Jughead, "Come on, Betty's waiting."

It was pouring with rain by the time that they'd passed the sign that Polly had mentioned, Betty clinging to Savannah's arm with one hand and a flickering torch with the other. Savannah was trying to keep herself warm by rubbing both of her hands up her bare arms.

Jughead moved ahead of them, toward some foliage that looked promising.

"He doesn't like me." Betty whispered to Savannah, absent-mindedly as her eyes followed the boy tugging at the sticks and leaves. "Don't worry."

Savannah frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but Betty had broken away from her and joined Jughead in pulling a plastic cover off the top of what they assumed was the car that Polly had been talking about.

In that moment, Savannah forgot all about Jughead and Betty, for all she could think about was that Polly had been telling the truth. Savannah had hoped that she was lying, that there was no car and that the girl hadn't been waiting on a boy who would never show.

She covered her mouth with her hands as Jughead opened the trunk, exposing the car full of supplies, drugs and... a Riverdale jersey with Jason's name on it.

They couldn't hear her heavy breathing over the rain, and Savannah was glad. She turned away from her friends to try to pull herself together. How was it possible that this boy had such an impact on her, from even beyond the grave?

She wiped her tears away angrily, a shaky breath falling from her lips. She had felt bad for allowing herself to feel for Jughead, for wanting him to feel the same way about her, when the boy she'd spent six months with had been planning to run off with Polly Cooper.

"Wait a minute." Savannah frowned, a sudden thought coming to mind.

She turned to face her friends again, neither had looked in her direction as Betty slapped Jughead's hand away, hissing that the car and everything in it, was evidence.

"Betty." Savannah spoke calmly, although she appeared anything but calm. "Why were Jason and Polly planning to run away together?"

Betty froze, feeling like a deer caught in headlights as she shared a fearful glance with Jughead, who had hoped Savannah wouldn't ask that question.

"Betty." The brunette repeated, she blinked furiously. "Why did he pack a freaking car with drugs in it?" The girl was growing hysterical, stomping over to force Betty to look at her.

The blonde looked at her friend with such pity as she finally let the words escape her mouth. "Because Polly's pregnant."

The only way to describe how Savannah felt in that moment, was as if someone had reached down her throat, grabbed her intestines and proceeded to strangle the life out of her. She couldn't breathe.

As if it came to a surprise for her that Jason was unfaithful to Polly, as if he were incapable of such an act -something she knew to be untrue, she knew that for sure. But Savannah had been sleeping with Polly's boyfriend when she was pregnant.

"Savannah..." Betty choked, reaching out to her friend who stared back at her, blankly.

"We need to tell Sheriff Keller." Savannah said, stonily. "You're right, this car is evidence."

And that's what they told him, rushing through the school corridors in complete silence - minus the occasional squeak of a wet sneaker against the floor. Jughead held up his phone, showing the Sheriff pictures of the car that they found.

Savannah watched as Betty's face morphed into one of recognition, her eyes travelling up to the speakers where the soft voice of their friend, Archie Andrews, filtered through.

She allowed herself a second to listen, before she forced herself after the Sheriff and Jughead, not realising that she had left Savannah behind, to take her place.

"I'll try. I'll try to let it go."

Savannah couldn't help but feel like Archie was singing to her, in that moment, for the words that he sang felt far too real to be coincidental.

She didn't chase after Jughead and Betty, but instead found herself wandering into the hall where the red head was singing beautifully, and stood beside Veronica Lodge.

The raven-haired girl glanced over from the boy, to look at the soaking wet girl on the verge of a break down. Veronica hesitated, knowing that she and Savannah did not get along, before asking, "Are you okay?"

Savannah said nothing, but Veronica understood and wrapped an arm around her shoulder in comfort, an act that would change the way that the brunette felt about the Lodge girl.

Little did they all know, as Betty and Jughead ran down the dark hallway toward Polly's room, that the blonde girl, pregnant with Jason Blossom's baby, would be nowhere to be found.