Dark Hearts || Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones [1]

Jealous

JEALOUS

After the previous horrible night, and almost sleepless one, Ellie gets up earlier than usually and decides to walk to the drive-in or whatever is left of it, not much. Only Jughead. She wasn't there for him last night, so she feels like she owes him for that.

But it isn't just her friend that's standing in front of the building. It's also his Dad, wearing a Southside Serpents' Jacket. It has been a while since she layed eyes on the man, but not much had changed, it's still the same FP Jones. "Ellie Cooper. You've been missing,"

"I'm here now," She gives him a small smile.

"Are you ok?" Jughead notices her tired eyes, and worries. "You seem off."

"I'm great." Ellie fakes every happy emotion in her face that she can, and tells him what she's here for. "Came to pick you up."

"That's very nice of you." FP nods at her words. "Take care of my boy, Ellie."

"Always." 

Both best friends walk away from the Drive-in, and it's so clear Jughead's leaving little pieces of him back there. Neither say anything really, at least not until they were far away, as if they needed that small silence to say their goodbyes.

"Why did you come, Ellie?" Jughead looks over to her. "You didn't have to. I heard what happened."

"You are more important than whatever happened." She shrugs, and it's not a lie.

"Don't worry about me." He tries to ease her concern. "I'll figure something out."

Ellie sighs, and feels the need to address the elephant in the room. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? We could have sorted something out, together. That's how we used to do everything. When did that change?"

"I know." Jughead looks down at his feet as they walk. "I felt ashamed, I didn't want anyone to know. Not even you."

"Me? Out of all people? I would understand. You know that, but you chose to shut me out." Ellie tells him, her voice softning as she continues. "You can't keep doing that, Jug." She stops walking now, and turns to face him completely, and he looks up to meet her eyes. "I love you, and you're stuck with me."

Jughead just smiles at her widely, and happily. He has her, always, and he just knows that everything would be fine as long as they stick together.

. . .

"This is how my father had his murder board before it was trashed."

Ellie walks in the room just in time to hear Kevin's voice. She had heard about the incident, clearly someone trying to hide something about Jason's death. "Do you know who could do this?" She asks as she leans against the doorframe.

Betty turns to face her at the sound of her voice, her tone is accusative. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here, remember?" Ellie doesn't wanna fight, she knows her sister has every right to be mad, she gets that, but she's not gonna stand there and let her push her away like that.

"You're –."

"Girls, let's not say things we'll regret." Jughead stands up from his chair, and reminds them. "We all work here."

Betty shakes her head. "What, no, I can't -." 

"I'm sorry, I've said it. A million times! Are you just gonna cut me out of every simple aspect of your life?" Eleanor steps forward, and sighs. "You can't ignore me forever."