frenemies |jughead jones ✔

ix. this is wrong

Valentina

What makes a place feel like home? Is it warmth and familiarity? Some idealized, make-believe TV version of the American Dream? Is it love and acceptance? Or is it simple safety?
Or it's none of those things. And it's a place where the captain of the football team is murdered. Or maybe it's just a forgotten closet under a well-trod staircase, where it's just you and the mice and the spiders, like an extra in a Wes Craven movie.

ΨΨΨ

Avoiding Jughead is a lot harder than I thought. I see him everywhere I go, it seems like he's a ghost destined to haunt me for the rest of my days. I can't say I would mind that but this is a different situation.

He still has a few days left before I completely disappear from his life. I know I said goodbye to him two days ago, but I'm still hoping for something better. I'm hoping for the impossible, but the impossible feels so good right now. All I want is for him to choose me, instead of choosing Betty Cooper.

But I'm okay with it. I'm alright. There's only a tiny of pain buried deep inside my heart. I won't let anyone else hurt me like Jughead did. I will never open my heart like I did with him, even if I have to become the cold-hearted person most people believe I am.

I've been writing an article for The Blue and Gold but I believe Betty won't let me publish it. It's about my brother and the amount of theories related to his disappearance. If only people knew he has been hiding in my bedroom- and his sometimes- for a week now.

Once school starts after a weekend of discussions at home, I find the one person I do not want to see right now standing next to my locker, inspecting her perfect manicure with disdain.

"What do you want?" I don't look at her, I just open my locker and grab the book I forgot I left here. "Last time I checked, you weren't a fan of meeting me in public. What changed?"

Cheryl Blossom lost the respect I had for her when she started avoiding me while other people were around, only approaching me in the locker room or some isolated place. That's not what a real friend does. She changed, since Jason's death. I get it she is in pain, but it's not a good reason to push her best friend away and make her look like an outcast.

"I'm sorry." She states, flipping her hair to the side and looking at my face. "I just thought you would like to know that-"

"If you're here to tell me about the tree-tapping ceremony, yes, my family will attend it and every event your mommy and daddy have planned for us." I interrupt her and say, not in the mood for her games. "Just make sure you stay far away from me. We wouldn't want to ruin your reputation, would we?"