Matches ♕ Bughead

♕ | Chapter Forty-Seven

chapter forty-seven: family ties

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♕ betty♕

ONE OF humanity's greatest superpowers is their ability to eliminate any form of guilt, remorse or sorrow with willful blindness. It's through the act of diligently ignoring the problems at hand that we are to live our lives normally.

It's this act of purposeful ignorance that amazes me. We as humans choose to ignore the simple things around us every day for the sake of protecting our own happiness and our own sanity. We choose to ignore climate change, poverty, and other political crises that pose a risk in making us feel bad. We simply shrug it off, hoping that the guilt of our neglected responsibility will fade.

We often think that something as big as climate change or world hunger are problems that cannot be solved with our help, as we don't see the bigger picture. We recognize how bad it is, and our humane hearts shrivel up with guilt and sympathy every time we think of it, yet we fail to do anything. We choose to ignore things to keep ourselves happy, to pretend that the world is perfect. I too am guilty of this willful blindness disease.

To think I nearly grazed past death's door just a day ago still rattles me every time I think about it. I quite literally held the liquid intended to kill me in the palm of my hand. I was seconds away from mistakenly drinking the poisonous fruit punch meant to kill me, but instead Cheryl took the blow. I know she didn't mean to, and she certainly wouldn't willingly sacrifice herself for me, but I can't help but feel bad about the whole thing.

She drank the poison meant to kill me without even knowing it. Ms.Grundy meant to poison me, not Cheryl, and yet she's the one in the hospital. It's this very guilt forces me to take a trip to the hospital the next day, all to visit Cheryl. In the wake of everything, I could use some fresh air and something to take my mind off everything. God knows Cheryl's dramatization of every detail in life can amuse me for a while before I'm forced to face reality again.

We forced Jughead to stay at Archie's last night, given he shouldn't be alone for the time being. Allowing him to return home to his father's trailer would be like letting someone sleep in the room where their parents died. It would do nothing but remind him of the circumstance at hand, drag him deeper into the hole of misery that he's already trapped in.

I haven't heard from any of them all morning, so I'm assuming they're still sleeping. Considering we were out pretty late last night, I wouldn't be surprised. Frankly I would be sleeping too, but the guilt inside of me keeps me from doing so. I was up bright and early, finishing homework and cleaning my room as I refuse to just sit around here and do nothing. That's also part of the reason why I'm visiting Cheryl.

I walk out of the house unnoticed by my mother, not even bothering to quietly close the door as I rush down the porch steps.

"Betty!" A voice calls.