The Restaurant - A Bughead Story

Part Five - The Soda Shop

           

When Jughead entered the Shoppe, Pop was cleaning a glass. The booths were empty, and only an old man, a friend of Pop's, was sitting by the counter.

"Jughead!" said Pop, his voice raspy from years of yelling 'order's ready!' in his packed soda shop. "Are you okay? You look pale."

"I'm fine." Jughead mumbled. "Can I go to the back kitchen?"

"Sure."

Jughead walked passed the frowning Pop and through the bi-swing double doors. His stuff was lying on an unused table, beside Pop's office and the actual kitchen, with the ovens and the sinks. He knew he had a light-grey dress shirt somewhere in his suitcase, but he had a feeling it would be far from pressed. He found his pair of black braces and his black jeans before finally pulling the shirt from under his very rarely used running shoes and a pair of weird smelling socks. It had been crumpled up when Jughead had walked out of his house, many months ago, and hadn't been touched since. Jughead had a feeling it would take a lot of time to iron out the folds.

That is, if he found an iron.

"Pop!" he shouted.

"Yes, Jughead?" Pop's head appeared between the double doors.

"Do you have an iron?"

"Do I have a what?"

"An iron, Pop. You know, to iron clothes."

"I know what an iron is, I just don't understand why you would feel the need to iron your clothes today."

"I just felt like it."

Pop looked at Jughead with a blank glance, clearly not buying it.

"Okay, I might go somewhere tonight that needs pressed clothes."

"Oh." Pop's walked into the kitchen. "Where?"

Jughead cleared his throat. "Mar... Marvello's."

"Oh, really?" Pop was interested, that much Jughead could see. "You're going to Marvello's? Any special occasion?"

"No, just craving Italian food."

"You know, I have pizza and pasta here too, and it's way cheaper."

"Yeah, I know..."

"But...?"

"But... I might be going to Marvello's for another reason."

"Oh, you 'might'?" Pop actually did air quotes. Jughead knew he was pushed against the wall. 'And all I wanted was a stupid iron.'

"I have... I have a date."

Pop actually lifted his fist into the air. "I knew it! It's with that young Miss Cooper, right?"

"How do you know?" Jughead was shocked. He had been careful not to let his feelings show, hadn't he?

"Oh, please, Jughead." Pop shook his head. "You live in my soda shop. I've known you for all of your life. I could see that you liked that Betty the first time she walked into my shop."

"I haven't liked her for that long! She was in love with Archie for years."

"Yes, of course." Pop winked. "Archie. But that's not the point. You want an iron."

"Yes, finally!"

"Good. I used to live in the basement here. I think I left my old iron in the bathroom. Let me go get it."

Once Pop was gone, Jughead put his hands on his face. His heart was racing, beating so fast he was worried it would just explode out of his chest and go running down the street. His hands were sweaty, and he kept wiping them on his jeans.

That was it.

He was going to a date with Betty Cooper.

And he was ridiculously nervous.

---

She was sitting in front of him, wearing a small white dress and a daisy in her hair.

She was so incredibly pretty, and he was so incredibly dumb.

She was in front of her house at exactly seven when he stopped Archie's car to pick her up. She laughed when he jumped over the driver door to go open the passenger door – which got stuck when he tried to open it and he had to help Betty climb on top of it to sit on the worn-out vinyl seat. Archie's car was an authentic convertible Ford Model A – one of the first car to ever exist. The redhead had actually found her at the junkyard when he was twelve and took four years and hundreds of dollars to rebuild her to her original glory. She was pretty great, considering she almost had a hundred years – but she had her limits. The driver door was stuck, it took forever to put fuel in, the top had to be hand-pulled, Archie had to store it in his garage during winter and the tires were disproportioned compared to the rest of the car. But even Jughead could admire her waxed red exterior and her perfect sport coupe.

They rode to the restaurant in silence. Jughead was repeating Kevin's lessons in his mind: gentleman, dress well, pick her up, be nice, turn off cellphone, don't talk to her breasts, pay for her meal... He had picked her up (pick her up – checked), he was wearing a perfectly ironed (Pop ironed it) light grey dress shirt with the sleeves a little rolled up, with black braces hanging and clean black jeans (dress well – checked), he had taken a loan from Pop, which the shop owner added to his credit (get money to pay for her meal – checked), his cellphone was turned off (turn off cellphone – checked). He wasn't talking, so he guessed that meant he was nice (be nice – checked). He had – almost – opened her door (first part of being a gentleman – checked). He had dared a small smile. The date was going well, so far.

That is, until he got to the actual date.