Bughead Oneshots // Compilation

"Veronica's still shipping us, isn't she?"

|| B. COOPER ||

"Why don't you just leave, then?"

For the first time in my life, my mom gave me advice that I actually agreed to. I have always wanted to leave Riverdale, notsly because I wanted to get as far away from her as humanly possible, and now that I'm eighteen, I finally go to do it. I'm legally an adult now, my parents can't control me anymore.

From now on, I'm in charge.

I walked up to the steps of the Joneses' trailer, bags in hand and a bright smile on my face. I proudly marched to the old trailer and knocked on the door, like I always did whenever I came over. This was now Jughead's trailer—he had a valid reason to get himself out of the foster care system when he turned eighteen, months ago, and claimed the trailer once again for himself. But then again, Jughead was hardly in the foster care system. His foster parents didn't give a fûck wherever he was, as long as he was still alive and they'd receive money form the government as a reward for putting up with him and his mischief.

"I was just about to sneak up to your room for your birthday!"Jughead said once he opened his door, he must've seen me through the window. I giggled and put my bags down, wrapping my arms around him. Jughead had been my best friend since we were kids, he's been with me through thick and thin, and he's took it upon himself to crown him with the title as my 'shoulder to cry on'.

He returned my hug as well, chuckling. "Happy birthday, Betts. I can't believe you're eighteen!"Jughead told me, his arms around me tightening its grip. "I know, I couldn't believe it either! I've been waiting for this day for years!"It took a while before his grip on me loosened, and somehow I could feel him withdrawing himself from me—not just physically.

"You're leaving?"Jughead asked, looking at me with eyes filled with sadness after staring at my bags a little too long. So that's why he was suddenly distant. All his life, the people he loves just come and go, they go without saying goodbye. He's been abandoned and left so many times, and I know for a fact that if I leave too, he would be crushed.

He's said it to me before, months ago on the eve of his eighteenth birthday when we had stargazed, that I was the only thing that's keeping him in Riverdale. "I could've left this morning, and never looked back. I could've packed my bags earlier and set off to some city far away from this place the second I turned eighteen."He told me. To be honest, I thought he was going to leave me. I thought it was his way of saying that he was leaving soon, his way of saying goodbye because he didn't know how to.

I couldn't blame him, though. All he's known his entire life is watching people leave without farewell. Of course he wouldn't know anything about goodbyes.

"Why didn't you, then?"I asked him that night, looking straight into his green eyes. "You could've left. You could've called me and told me you're already in New York or in some big city. Why didn't you?"

"I would never leave you behind."He said, holding my hands, which was a natural thing for us to do. "You're my best friend, Betty. My only true friend. You're basically the only thing that's keeping me here."Jughead chuckled at that, and my heart ached at his statement. "I'm planning on running away soon, though. And I know you think this town is shîtty too, which is why I'm taking you with me. We'll have to wait for your eighteenth birthday, though, so we'll be free to do whatever it is we want. I promise you, we'll leave this town together."