Just Friends ▻ Jughead Jones

15

 Later on that night, Victoria sat with Veronica and Cheryl on Cheryl's bed, looking through an old photo album that had pictures of Jason in it.

"I hope this isn't weird, but Jason was crazy handsome," Veronica commented, smiling, causing Victoria to smile also. 

"The handsomest,"  Cheryl replied, smiling brightly, "Something tells me he would've liked you." 

"Why did you invite us tonight? Why not Tina? Or Ginger? Aren't they your best friends?" Victoria asked the redhead confused.

"And yet, that night at the pep rally, after I had my panic attack, Veronica helped me. Not them. And you, Victoria, you were one of JJ's best friends, he would have wanted you here."

Veronica sighed, "Cheryl. You're allowed to say goodbye to Jason. But, why does it have to be—"

"In front of people?" Cheryl answered, finishing Veronica's statement.

"Yeah,"  Veronica replied.

"Everything with Jason's been so public. Everyone has an opinion.
Has been gossiping. Saying he got what he deserved, or that he didn't. I just I want everyone to know that I'm...I'm sorry. And that Jason deserved a better family than what he got."

"Then do it." Victoria spoke up smiling, "Veronica and I will help you. And let Penelope and Clifford Blossom do their worst."

"Oh, they will." She agreed with them, "They'll kill me." Cheryl commented, making the two girl look at her sadly.

________

It was the middle night and everyone at Thornhill was fast asleep, everyone except Victoria. For some odd reason, she couldn't fall asleep. There was too much on her mind at that moment.

Her phone vibrated, indicating she had gotten a text. She sighed, picking up her phone to that it was a text from Jughead.

'Look, I'm sorry for everything that has been going on with us lately. I miss my best friend. Can we just erase everything has happened after the closing night at the Twilight Drive-In?'

Victoria didn't answer for a moment, wondering what to text exactly. She finally decided to make it brief.

'Yeah, sure.'

As she went to place her phone down, her phone buzzed again, causing her to sigh dramatically. She unlocked her phone once more to see that it was another text from Jughead.

'Everything okay?'

Victoria was hesitant to leave him on read. She didn't really want to pour her heart about what she was feeling at that moment but decided to. She also decided to leave the part out about liking him.

'I like someone, but this person doesn't like me back. I don't mean to sound selfish or anything, but anytime I've liked someone before, they've always seemed to like me back. But this time, it's different and I hate it'

It took Jughead a moment to reply before he finally answered.

'If you're talking about Archie, let me just tell you, he likes you back'

Victoria scoffed before she responded once more.

'Why do you always assume I like Archie!'

'Wait, Archie likes me? Shit.'

Victoria could tell Jughead must have been feeling stupid for telling her Archie liked her. That was why it was taking him so long to type back.

'Wait, you were talking about Archie, right?'

Read 12:43 am

__________

The next morning, Victoria stood in Cheryl's bedroom alongside Veronica. The two teenage girls walked up to Cheryl, who was in the middle of looking at herself in the mirror,  "You ready?"  Victoria asked the redhead.

     "Just about." Cheryl answered quietly, "You two go ahead. I'll be down."

"Okay," Veronica nodded her head before she and Veronica made her way downstairs to where the memorial was being held.

Numerous people were already there, including Archie, Jughead, Kevin, Valerie, and Betty.

Victoria shared a quick glance before taking a seat beside Archie, who sent her a small smile. He had Jason's jersey in his hand and Victoria had the feeling he was about to give it to Penelope. Just a moment after, Archie did exactly that.

He got up from his seat and walked over to Penelope, handing her the jersey. Victoria frowned when she saw Penelope touch Archie's hair, which the redhead seemed to be just as confused about.

When he came back, Victoria was quick to ask him about it, "Did she just touch your hair?" She asked confused.

"That was really sweet of you," Betty added in.

"She needs it more than I do," Archie told them.

_________

"Oh, my God."  Victoria  gasped as she watched Cheryl walked down the aisle in the white dress she was found on the day Jason went missing.

"Yes." Kevin whispered to himself, smiling.

"Welcome to Thornhill. Thank you all for coming." Cheryl smiled, walking up to the podium, "If you'll kindly take your seats. I'd like to start the memorial with a few words about Jason."

Victoria looked over at Penelope who was trying her hardest not to go up there, "You are only going to make things worse." She whispered to Penelope, who gave her a dirty look.

"The last time I saw Jason, I was wearing this dress. I know it's impossible. But I swear, when I put it on, it...It feels like he's in the room with me. Even though we were twins, I used to demand I have my own birthday party. Until one year, out of the blue, Jason convinced me we had to combine them into one. It wasn't until years later, I found out why. It was because no one wanted to come to mine. And Jason didn't want me to know. He protected me. Every single day.
I wish, that day at the river, I had protected him." Cheryl explained, trying not to cry, "I'm so sorry, JJ." She sobbed as she turned towards her brother's coffin, "We failed you. All of us." Victoria quickly got up from her chair and went over to Cheryl, pulling the redhead into a hug. 

      Penelope was quick to go up to the podium, smiling, "I think we'll adjourn now to the dining room for a light supper."