Braking Hard (Riverdale-Jughead Jones)

20

"I'm so boreddddd!" I groaned at Cheryl as I let myself fall back onto my bed.

"You are not fixing bikes!" Cheryl scolded as she continued to fry whatever food she was cooking. "I have school tomorrow by the way, I'll be back at 5 because I'm going into town briefly, and I expect you to be home resting! The doctor said no heavy lifting for 6 to 8 weeks and I'm pretty sure fixing heavy bikes qualifies as heavy lifting."

I frowned and sat up, my eyes trailing to where she was making dinner.

"What even is that?" I asked in disgust as Cheryl stirred what looked to me like dog food.

"It's mince. I'm making bolonasge. For pasta." She retorted as she grabbed a can of tinned tomatoes.

I groaned and flopped back down again, my dressing rubbing slightly and irritating my skin.

"Again?"

"Stop complaining. At least you're getting fed." She said sarcastically as she began chopping some onions.

"Whatever. If you call that food." I was grumpy. I hadn't managed to work for 3 weeks now and I was extremely annoyed at the fact I wasn't in charge of my yard like normal, and I was worried about our customer intake.

Mary hadn't got in contact to let me know whether the customers had come back yet, so I was worried about having to let someone go.

As I stood to go to the bathroom, I heard a knock at the door and instantly walked over so Cheryl could continue cooking.

I opened the door to the Sheriff and instantly stood aside to let him in.

"Alison I have good news. We've found and managed to arrest Jared King. We will be taking this to court, but don't worry to much, its likely the court will rule against him, as we've had another victim come forwards." The Sheriff told me.

The pressure that had been on my chest the past few weeks finally released slightly, and I heard Cheryl gasp from behind me.

As she grabbed me into a hug a wide smile found its way onto my face, and a happy sigh of breath out of my mouth.

"Thank you Sheriff. Thank you so much!" Cheryl shook his hand and I turned to her.

"Maybe this can all be over soon?" I asked hopefully, her eyes growing slightly dim again at my words.

"Maybe."

We said goodbye to Sheriff Keller and I had a quick look at the Facebook page Cheryl had created for me, rolling my eyes at the tributes and get well soon messages people had posted, before turned to the food Cheryl had made and eating a well cooked dinner.

When I say well cooked. I don't mean it was cooked well.

I mean it was burnt.

So after scraping some black bits into the bin and finishing off the pasta, I turned the TV on and flicked to a channel showing some reality show that Cheryl was into, and grabbed some popcorn for her.

"Here. Enjoy your show. Can I please just go for a walk?" I begged.

"Is this to bribe me?" She asked, raising her eyebrows at the show.

"Yes."

"It's working. Go on. But only be 5 minutes and come straight back. Don't overwork yourself." She replied, settling into a comfy position on my bed so she could see the TV.

As I got outside my eyes locked with a certain boy who was sat outside his own trailer.

"Hey Jug." I said quietly, sitting next to him.

"Hey Al, you ok?" He asked in confusion.

"Yeah. They caught him. They caught him Juggie and he's going to prison." I told him, resting my head on his shoulder.

"Seriously?" He locked eyes with me and I smiled, grabbing him into a hug.

"He's never going to bother me again."

"He wouldn't have anyway. I would've stopped him." He replied, kissing my forehead gently.

"I love you Jughead Jones."

"I love you too."

As we sat together I looked up towards the sky and smiled as I started noticing the different constellations and pointing them out to Jug, my eyes wide to take it all in.

Jug stayed silent, drinking it all in as I chattered on about Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

"That reminds me," I started. "Can you come round tomorrow at 6? I have a surprise for you." He looked at me in shock and nodded, his eyes looking deep into mine. I gently whacked him. "Stop trying to figure out what it is."

He chuckled in reply and gave me a tight hug before heading back into his trailer, my arms feeling somewhat emptier than before.

As I clumped back over to La Bella Vita I sighed as I saw Cheryl standing in the window with crossed arms.

"You know if you wanted an excuse to see Jughead you could have just told me. You've been 20 minutes." She frowned as I entered my home.

"Sorry. I meant to go for a walk but Jug was outside, we just ended up talking for a while." I apologised, looking down whilst blushing.

"I could see that, I was about to come and find you when I noticed the two of you making lovey eyes at each other." She teased, her eyes moving back and forth between me and the TV.

"Hey, we do not make 'lovey eyes' at each other!" I whined, throwing my flat at her. She knocked it out of the way and chuckled at my childishness.

"Come on, it's The Flash next, I know you like it." She said, motioning for me to sit next to her.

I walked over and flopped down, nearly knocking my dressing off as I did so. I swore and Cheryl shot me a disapproving look, however in reply I just smirked and shrugged.

She rolled her eyes and flicked over to the channel showing my favourite show, and we sat together and watched Grant Gustin's beautiful face.