Slowly Bleeding Lies ~Bughead~

four

          Betty's POV: I still remember when my life was going smoothly. Everyone thought I was perfect, and they didn't pity me. Everyone would always wave to me in Pop's, or the school hallway. I was average. And now? When I see people from school they don't say hi. They give me the look everyone hates to be given. They whisper to their friends, and their friends whisper to others. They don't laugh at me, but they see me differently. I knew it would happen. And I don't exactly hate the feeling. I like silence. I like it when people don't walk up to me. It's not all about not being bothered though. I never know what people are whispering about me.
           "Rise and shine, Betty." I heard. I opened my eyes, and fluttered them a little. When they were ready to focus, I saw Veronica. She was painting her toe nails, and sitting on the end of my bed. "Veronica? What time is it?" I asked her. "Why're you asking?" She asked. I tilted my head. "Fine. It's not like it's morning. It's already 12:00. "What?" I asked while getting up. "Yep." She said. She was painting her toe nails a violet color, obviously her favorite. "Well. What do you wanna do?" I asked her while she put up her bottle of nail polish. "Hmm..." she thought. "What's the main place we always go to?" She asked. "Veronica. No." I said. "Oh, come on. We'll leave after my nails dry." She made her way to my bathroom, walking on her heels. "You're going to pay for this." I said while she was looking for something in my cabinet. "What're you looking for?" I asked her. "Where is your razor?" She asked me while putting her hand on her hip. "Why?" I asked. "No reason." She said. "Veronica. Why?" I asked her again. "Because. I don't want you doing anything stupid." She said. I took a deep breath. I walked in, and started looking for it. "I'm not sure. I haven't used it in forever. I've been using one my mom brought me at the hospital." I said. "How do you lose a razor?" She asked me. "I dunno." I told the truth. "Ok then." She said, and walked back to my bed. "Where are your parents, anyways?" She asked me. "Newspaper." I said.
When Veronica's toes dried, she put on a black mini dress, and her pearls. She swiped her lips with dark purple lipstick, and then went to her eyes. She slipped on her black heels, and put her cloak on. "Are you ready?" She asked. I had on my blue sweater, with jeans folded at the bottom. "Yep." I said. "Put your hair down." She said. "What? Why?" I asked her. "Because. Just do it." She said. I went to my vanity, and took my hair down. My curls fell over my shoulders, and tickled my neck. "Keep the curls." She said. "Why're you telling me how to do my hair?" I asked her. "Because. I can." She teased. "Whatever." I said. We both walked out, and I shut my door.
We walked in Pop's with snow all over our clothes, and we went to our booth. "At least no ones here." She said. I crossed my arms. "Sorry." She laughed. We both ordered milkshakes, and talked about what happened while I was gone. Apparently, her and Archie made up. She wouldn't stop talking about him, which made me feel guilty. He almost kissed me. I had to tell her.
"Veronica?" I asked her. "Yeah?" She said. "I have to tell you something. And... it's not good." I said. "Archie tried to kiss me last night." I said. Her jaw dropped, and her mouth fell into a smile. She laughed, and said, "What'd you do?!" Her reaction surprised me. Just then, a black figure walked into Pop's. It wasn't who I thought it was. It was FP. He looked straight at me, and I looked away. Veronica noticed, and she saw him too. "Betty! Isn't that your Serpent leader or something?" She asked me. I tried to hide my face, but he walked up to us. Veronica cleared her throat, and I lightly smiled. "Betty." He said. "Hi." I said back. "You still got that jacket?" He asked me. "Yes. I do." I said as sweetly as I could. "Good. Don't let that thing go." He said, and stopped himself when he tried to walk away. He turned back around, and saw the huge bandage under the holes in my sweater. "So that's why." He said. Veronica looked too, and I started to get nauseous. "You know, he really liked you." He said. I knew he was referring to his son. All I could do was shake my head, and I looked down. "He needs you. He would never admit it, but he does." He said. "He's tearing himself up." He said. "I couldn't ever give him the happiness you could." He said, and walked away. Veronica looked at me with wide eyes. "Wow! That's Serpent guy?" She asked. "Yep." I said. "Maybe he's right." She said, and looked away while sipping her drink.
Later that night, Veronica said her goodbyes and went home. I was getting bored with just reading, so I decided on going for a walk. It was snowing, but peacefully. The snowflakes came down much softer than the rain, and it was comforting. I could feel snow falling on my curly hair, and I saw it on my jacket. The streetlights revealed snow piling up on the sidewalk, so I was careful not to slip. When all of the streetlights suddenly went off, I hurried to the last one on. I looked up into the streetlight, and let the snow fall on my face. I started to back up, and I hit something.
Jughead's POV: I saw all of the streetlights go out, so I went to the last one, and found Betty. She accidentally backed up into me. "Sorry!" She said, and then she saw me. "My fault." I said quietly. She stood there for a while, examining my face like she was making sure it was me. She opened her mouth to talk, but she couldn't. "Betty." I said. She didn't reply. There was snow in her hair and her eyelashes, which made her look even more beautiful. All of a sudden she saw the huge mark under my eye, with dried blood from the night before. She lifted her hand, and put her thumb on the scratch. She wasn't used to seeing me without my hat, so she kept looking at me. She suddenly took her hand away from my eye, which made me flinch. "Sorry." She said again. This time, I couldn't find my words. "Why did you leave, Juggie?" She asked with a tear racing down her face. Juggie.  I hadn't heard that in a while. "I was sad." I whispered. "I felt like no one wanted me here." She tilted her head, and let go another tear. "I did." She said. This made me tear up. I was so stupid. I lost something important because of my mistake. "Why'd you break your promise?" I shot back. She knew what I was talking about. "You promised me, that you wouldn't do it again." I said. "But you did it three more times. And it was worse." I added. "I'm sorry." She said. "You didn't answer my question." I said. She looked up at me, and my heart broke into pieces. How'd we get from then to now? I picked up her hand, and rolled up her sleeves. The bandage was wrapped tight, and her wrist was begging to not be cut again.
          "I thought it was the right thing to do." She started crying. She was crying hard, and she wiped her eyes with her hands. It took me so much, to not do anything. I wanted to pick her up, but I couldn't. The sight of her crying, made me cry. My tears stung my cut, and it released a little bit of blood. I flinched, and she saw the blood. She wiped her own eyes once more, and dried her hand. She used her thumb to wipe the drop of blood from my cheek. My face was with no doubt smeared now, but she didn't care. She hugged me, and buried her face into my jacket. "I'm so sorry." I said while hugging back. We stood there until our legs started to hurt, and she let go first. "Explanation?" She asked while pointing to my scratch. I didn't want to tell her that I followed her. But something stopped me from lying. "I saw Archie last night." I said quickly. "Juggie..." she began. "No. No, it's fine." I said. "You deserve a guy like him." And with that, I walked away. And didn't look back.