The Theory Of Chaotic Perfection |BUGHEAD|

Chapter XII - Dust

Silence filled the room. Alice Cooper stared out the window, watching her neighbors car park as the suburban wind blew through the curtains. Her daughter was sitting in front of her, motionless, waiting for her mother to say something. Fixing her perfectly blonde hair she looked at Betty. Alice was disappointed, shocked, angry. Betty, who was supposed to be perfect, has gone behind her back and did something intolerable; she escaped her mothers controlling hand. 

The silence continued, until Alice finally decided to give her daughter another lecture on safety. What she viewed as protection, her daughter viewed as prison. One day, she'd understand, something Alice Cooper always told herself. 

"You won't see that boy ever again," Alice said with almost no emotion. 

Betty furrowed her eyebrows, "I don't understand, is my happiness too much to ask for?" 

"Happiness? Jughead Jones is nothing. I've heard a lot about his family, did you know his father is a drug dealer?" Alice asked, pointing her finger at an imaginary image of Jughead's father. 

She didn't know. In fact, she was a bit astonished, "no..." 

"I thought so. Betty, everything I do is for your own good," Alice stood up and approached her daughter. She looked into her tear filled eyes and stroked her cheek. 

Alice smiled, "I love you Betty," she leaned in closer to her daughter and whispered, "but if you cross me again, I have ways to make you feel pain!" It was as if a snake wrapped around Betty's throat and tried to kill her. The words of her mother were like venom. 

Still smiling, Alice let her daughter go and walked up the stairs to her room. In a few minutes she came down in a bottle of pills, she poured them out and made her daughter swallow two. Betty quickly calmed down, the tears stopped flowing and she tried to smile to please her mother. Alice sent her daughter to bed with that. 

The first thing Betty noticed when she came into her room was all the dust on her shelves. They were filled with books she only read once in her life and had forgotten about. Not being able to close her eyes for a good nights rest, she pulled out one of the books from the shelf. On the sides the same dust covered the book, and on the front page with golden letters stood the title; Romeo And Juliet. 

Betty flipped through the pages. She wasn't interested in reading some old play she already knew a lot about, but there was something calming about the smell of old pages. She turned off her nightlight and took in the darkness of the room with the book in her hands. Her fears started to rise, the monsters crawled from under her bed and in between the cracks in her closet. Betty closed her eyes and tried to imagine any place but her room, except she couldn't. 

Realizing that her bravery was gone, she flicked on the nightlight and opened her eyes. The strange shadows and figures were gone. Betty was safe by the welcoming pink wallpapers of her room. Outside it was dark, the night almost daring her to go out and scare herself. The thought of leaving did cross her mind, but she wasn't that desperate yet. 

All her life Betty knew that she would end up with Archie Andrews, the boy next door, but for the first time in her life she didn't want to. She didn't want the typical family dinners, the roasting chicken, the red hair, him. She wanted throw all of her "dreams" away. Realizing that it wasn't her happy ending, but her mothers, Betty didn't want a happy ending anymore. To no surprises, Jughead found his way into her mind. She pictured his sneaky smirk, his strong arms wrapped around her tiny shoulders, and his raven dark hair. 

Her mother took away her phone, probably so she couldn't have a way of talking to him, and Betty realized that she wanted to. The strange and dangerous Jughead Jones took her out on one of the best dates of her life, and that wasn't a coincidence. How could someone described as a monster be so sweet? She knew there was more to him, the man behind the boy. 

Betty was angry at her mother, her father, Veronica, Archie, and anyone who tried to separate her from Jughead. The only monsters that lived in the house with her were her parents. Turning her nightlight back off, she swallowed her fears. The shadows started to emerge again, but this time they were frozen in one movement. Betty realized that they were just tree branches reflected in the moonlight through her window. Smiling at herself she closed her eyes and tried her hardest to remember the features of the odd boy who made her happy. 

____

Alice Cooper lied down on the bed beside her husband who was reading a newspaper. She wondered about her own life and the family she made, the husband who pays so little attention to her, and the daughter who desperately needs her protection. All her worries were on the edge that night. She didn't ever expect Betty to disobey her, but she was always prepared for it. Perhaps she was too harsh on her, but she had to be if she wanted Betty to learn anything. Besides, Alice Cooper knew the Jones's too well, everyone in town did. 

Turning off the lights on her side of the bed, she slid down to hug the pillow and looked out into the direction of the window. The night was cold and the wind was blowing into her window. Alice closed her eyes, trying to imagine a place better than her warm bed beside the man she chose to marry.