The Theory Of Chaotic Perfection |BUGHEAD|

Chapter XXX - The First Lie

He turned off the engine. Jughead looked at his reflection in the rear-view mirror. He was tired and angry. This was the first time Rat called him over for a "job". The problem was that Jughead knew these calls would become more frequent. That was exactly how his father stopped being involved in his families daily life. What kept Jughead going was the thought of Betty being safe, perhaps he was starting to experience what his father felt. Taking the car keys out of their lock, he got out of the car and made sure it was locked.

Rat was standing by one of the sketchy looking doors. Swallowing his fears Jughead walked up to Rat and shook his hand. Rat opened the door and let Jughead come through first. There were cartons inside the room and it looked like a storage garage, or an apartment lacking any sort of furniture.

"Deliver these three boxes to this address," Rat gave Jughead a piece of paper and showed him three secluded boxes in the corner.

If this was a chance Jughead was going to take it, he grabbed Rat by the hand when he was slipping him the paper, "hey pal, this is a one time only thing!"

Rat smiled, "the Serpents owe me."

"We owe you nothing!" Jughead started defending his kind.

Rat pushed him, "you owe me everything! I have your girl in my little fingers, one wrong move and she dies."

This time Jughead decided not to take any risks. He backed down and picked up one of the boxes and went out to load his truck, which was Mr. Andrews truck to begin with. When he loaded the rest of the cartons onto the truck he drove off to the address Rat gave him. It was an old abandoned house. It seemed like no one was there, but there was a light on in one of the rooms. Knocking on the door, Jughead looked around to see if anyone was following him.

An old man opened the door and stuck a matchstick in between his teeth. He looked at Jughead suspiciously, but when he noticed the cartons in his truck, he moved aside letting Jughead unload. The man watched as Jughead brought the boxes into his half fallen apartment. Jughead didn't talk to the man, and the man didn't talk to him. He felt it was better to not establish communication since he was now a drug dealer for Rat, or a dealer of whatever was in those boxes.

When he was finished, Jughead got back into his car and drove straight home. The house him and Betty bought looked very empty to him. They were posing as newly weds who came to a new town, and already Jughead was in trouble. A thought crossed his mind, how Betty deserved better. But he pushed it down with all the other doubts he had.

Sticking the front door key into he keyhole, Jughead stepped into his new home and looked around. The house smelled new, or at least newly furnished. He was greeted by Betty who was standing in the middle of the living room putting a fruit plate on one of the side tables. She wore a perfect pink dress and her hair was up in a pony tale again. It seemed bittersweet to Jughead. He loved the way she looked, but it was all a little too much for him to take in.

"Betty?" He said, getting her attention.

She smiled, "honey, you're home!" She went up to him and kissed him on the cheek.

A small charge of electricity zapped him as she applied her lips to his cheek, warning number two. He already had a complicated enough day, so deciding to not question it and go with whatever Betty was doing he let her lead him to the dinning area and sit him in the father chair. She served him his dinner and sat to the side, watching him eat as if expecting him to tell her how good her cooking skills are. She smiled widely, anticipating the compliment.

"How was work?" She asked, "what did you do?"

Jughead's mind raced, he didn't want to tell her, he couldn't tell her, so he decided to lie. "It was good." He said, "we didn't do much just got introduced to some new things."

When she asked more specific questions, he didn't know how to avoid them, so he said that he felt tired and went upstairs. He took off his street clothes and pulled the covers over his body. When he heard her walk into the bedroom and call his name, he pretended to be asleep. He felt her sigh disappointingly and lie down next to him. He felt guilty when he felt her arm wrap around him. She was so innocent and he dragged her into a life she didn't expect. He knew that she couldn't keep up this act of a perfect 50s wife for very long, and when she breaks he'd have to deal with it. However, Jughead was ready to do anything to protect her.

Knowing that she fell asleep, he pulled her closer to him and smelled her perfect strawberry shampoo on her hair. Yes, she was back to being perfect. Hating that part of her, that she felt the need to be perfect all the time, he took the hair tie out of her hair and let it fall loosely around her. Kissing her forehead, he closed his own eyes and started thinking of how he was going to get them out of this new pickle he got them into. Rat was not going to back down and Betty would not leave this new town for no reason.