I'm Darkness || Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones [2]

I Was Asking For It

Eleanor left her Serpents' jacket at home.

She was a few feet into the building when she set eyes on the familiar symbol in a jacket, right in front of her. Everyone was looking too. She recognized the dark-haired boy and she approached him, grabbing his arm and making him turn around.

Jughead rolled his eyes as soon as he saw her, "Don't."

"What the hell is this!?" She touched his leather jacket.

"I'm trying to make a point here, Ellie."

"Are the others up to this too?" He didn't answer and she sighed, "Thought so."

"If you have to hide it, then it's meaningless." Jughead tried to explain.

"No." Eleanor shook her head, and punched slightly his chest at every sentence, "If you have to convince yourself that this outweighs the bad they did and do, it's bullshit, Jug! If you have to tell people they just don't understand, it's bullshit. And you know it is."

"But they don't understand, we do!" He replied, "I'm not giving up on –."

"There is a difference between giving up and knowing you just... have to stop!" She stopped for a second and took a deep breath, "Take that jacket off, Jughead. You don't want to get suspended."

"I'm sorry, Ellie. I can't do that."

Jughead Jones ignored his best friend, it wasn't the first time, he had done it far too many times, and lying, and hurt. But this time was different, this time Ellie understood.

She followed him, and when she saw him entering the students' lounge, she knew things would go bad right now, pretty bad – she had a good intuation on that kind of stuff.

"Jug..." Eleanor tried to stop him, when she set eyes on Reggie.

But Jughead wasn't stopping now.

"Hey, guys." He greeted the other Serpents with a defying smile.

"Take it off." Reggie stood up, his voice strong.

"Let's... keep it calm." Ellie spoke up.

The others Bulldogs followed Mantle's steps.

"Take that jacket off, Rat Boy."

Eleanor didn't know what she was doing, as most times, when she stepped in the middle of the two. Her hands slightly up, in sight of peace – something Reggie wasn't interested in anyway.

"You don't want to do this." She warned the guy in front of her.

"Does he need you to protect him?!" Reggie exclaimed, "That's new!"

"I can take care of myself, thanks." Jughead stepped next to the blonde, and faced the bulldog, "I don't think you know what this jacket means... Because you have no sense of honor, or tradition, or loyalty."

"That's it!"

Ellie stepped in front of Jughead again, colliding with Reggie's body, "Stop it!"

"I don't want to hurt you so why don't you step out of the way?"

Things happened too fast.

Toni went to try and take Eleanor out of the way, but it was already too late. The blonde was in the middle, trying too hard to stop both sides – that had always been her problem, not wanting to choose one, not completely. But truth was, she didn't want Reggie getting hurt.

It was Mr. Weatherbee who stopped it.

It wasn't until they were all sat down at his office that Ellie realized she was bruised. A sharp but almost insignificant pain on her left cheek, and if it's true what people say about bruises, that they are lessons, she sure had learnt her's.