Caught In The Storm

Chapter 5

Betty's POV
I hear the front door open and the steps creak. It must be Veronica. When she told me that she was coming over, I regretted calling her. Ever since the encounter with Archie and the reminder about what happened, I've felt guilty around her. It was a grand betrayal and I wish it had never happened.
Veronica comes walking in and sits on the bed next to me.
"Why am I so upset?" I ask while staring at the ceiling.
"It's normal to be upset when your ex is dating someone new" she replies.
"But it's been 7 years, V. I'm engaged. I'm getting married in 2 months. I shouldn't be sad" I say, still not looking at her.
"Maybe you just need closure. Like you just feel like it's not finished yet" she suggests.
I look over at her.
"Or maybe I still love him"

Jughead's POV
I take a deep breath and knock on the door. I haven't planned what I'm going to say, but I have to fix this. I stand there on the front step for what seems like hours until I finally hear the creak of stairs. I debate turning and running away, but this is something I have to do. Finally the door opens.
"Jughead? What the hell?!"
"Veronica? What are you doing here?" I ask.
Veronica closes the door behind her and we step outside onto the porch.
"You don't get to be here! You don't get to just show up at your ex-girlfriend's house after years! She's engaged and you already have a girlfriend. Why did you come?" she whisper yells.
"Veronica I don't have a girlfriend!" I say, irritated. "I know Betty came to my house to visit and saw me with another girl, but that girl was Jellybean! My sister!"
Her jaw drops.
"You mean to tell me that Betty is upstairs in her room crying right now, because your sister visited you?" she clarifies.
"Yes! Can I go see her? Please?" I beg.
"I'll leave that up to her. I'm going up to her room and I'm going to ask her if she wants to see you. I'll explain what happened. But, if she doesn't want to see you, you'll have to live with that. She's getting married in two months, her focus isn't currently on her ex-boyfriend of seven years!" she says, her voice rising.
"Alright I get it! Just please go ask if I can talk to her" I respond.
Veronica rolls her eyes and walks back inside. I hear the creak of the steps. The steps I know all too well, in the house I know all too well. The seconds seem like hours. It's awful, standing there waiting to see the girl I've loved for ten years. I start pacing on the porch. It's a nervous habit. After what seems like forever, the door opens. I look up.
"Jughead?" says a voice that I've missed so much.

Archie's POV
I see Veronica's car pull into our driveway. It's only been a few hours, is Betty already okay?
"Arch, you'll never guess what happened at Betty's" she says, barging into the house.
"What happened at Betty's?" I respond.
"I'm comforting Betty and everything, and then out of nowhere Jughead shows up at the door! And Betty wanted to see him! I was half listening to their conversation from another room, and it was like kind of awkward at first, but then they fell into the same rhythm they did in high school. They're like puzzle pieces that fit together just right. But anyway, we're meeting them at Pop's. Right now" she says, talking almost too fast for me to keep up.
It takes me a moment to process everything.
"Woah" is all I can manage to say.
"Arch, we gotta go! Come on!" she yells, already out the door.

20 minutes later...

The core four is back. We're all sitting in a booth at Pop's, just like old times. I missed this. I missed us. But I still can't meet eye contact with Betty without feeling guilty.
We sit and eat and talk for an hour. After the sun starts going down, we decide it's probably time to head home.
"I gotta pee. I'll be right back" Veronica says.
"Me too. I'm right behind you" Jughead says, sliding out of the booth next to Betty.
It's us alone in a booth. Again. I look down, too afraid to look at her.
"Is this always how it's going to be, Archie? Is it always going to be awkward and forced around us? Will it ever be nor-" Betty starts to say.
"No, it won't!" I snap, cutting her off. "Because what we did was bad. You know it and I know it. It happened and we can't pretend that it didn't"
"That isn't fair! It was one mistake! Two years ago! We can keep the secret forever, but we're going to have to find a way to live with it and move on!" she responds.
"It isn't that easy! It was wrong and you know it! We can't just let-" I get cut off by Veronica's voice from across the room.
"Ready to go, Arch?"
I give Betty one last look.
"Coming."

AN // Views are going down so I'm not sure if I should even keep writing this lol but yay Bughead reunited! The core four is back! As always let me know what you think and vote on this chapter if you think I should keep writing this. I'm going to take like a week off just to see what happens with views and if they keep going down I'm not going to write this anymore because it's just a waste of time :(