Keep It

Three

"Looks like it's just a minor concussion. Just take it easy." The doctor finishes his notes and walks away. Derek, Betty, and Jughead are sitting in a corner waiting for me, when I step out of the room.

"You gonna be okay?" Derek asks, stepping next to me and putting his hand on the small of my back. I nod and take a step towards the door.

As we walk outside, the glare and brightness from the sun stuns me. I feel my knees buckle and I begin to tumble to the ground. Before my body hit the cement, I feel someone's arm snake around my waist, supporting me. It's Derek. I give him a slight nod and a small smile before letting him guide me to the car.

The ride was quiet pretty much the entire time until Jughead spoke up.

"Mustang is in for it..." He muttered. I see Derek tense up and looks down at his hand.

"You got that right." Derek says back. I glare at him but he doesn't notice.

"Don't do anything stupid. He is bigger than the two of you combined..." Betty reasons. Derek clenches his jaw and looks out the window.

"Like that's gonna stop me from shoving my foot up his ass..." He growled. Jughead lets out a laugh as I nudge him. He gives me a confused look but continues to wear a nasty frown on his face.

When we get to my house, Betty drops Derek and me off at my door. He leads me into the house. My parents are still at work so I make my way to my bedroom. Derek is never allowed in there when he's over. At least Reggie doesn't allow it.

Derek drops my purse on my desk and takes a seat on the edge of my bed. I run into the bathroom and change into baggie sweatpants and a light blue drop top. I walk back out and lay down in my bed with my arm over my eyes.

"I want you to leave it alone... Okay?" I tell him. I feel movement on his side of the bed and I know he stood up. I open my eyes and look at him pacing back and forth at the foot of my bed.

"You're kidding right?" He asks. I shake my head no and he lets out a groan.

"Derek I don't want you getting hurt... It not worth it." I tell him. He nods but continues to pace.

"He hurt you, Balmor... I'm not just going to let that slide." He says stopping directly in front of me.

"It didn't hurt that bad..." I say rubbing my arm.

"It left a huge bruise on your arm... I'd say it hurt." He clenches his jaw once more. I get up and walk toward him.

"I am fine. You hear me? Just fine... So don't go doing something that could potentially get you killed..." I say. He looks at me with an emotion that I can't quite read. He nods and smiles. I begin to walk away from him before he grabs my arm to examine it. He runs his fingers gently over the bruise and I feel tingles run down my arm.

"Walk me out?" He asks. I smile and we descend the staircase. We get to the door and he stops. I give him a confused look.

"What?"

He doesn't answer. He waits a beat and then smashes his lips on mine. I am a bit taken back but finally my brain connects with his actions and I kiss him back. We break apart and he smiles.

"See you later..." He smirks before walking out of my house, leaving me rendered speechless.

•

"So he just kissed you and left?" I nod my head towards Betty, who seems just as confused as I am.

"And I haven't seen him yet today. He went all MIA on me last night." I explained. She looked down at her phone and began to call to Jughead. After talking with him for a few minutes she ended the call.

"He hasn't talked to him either. He said the last time he saw him was when we dropped you both off..." She tells me. I nod and swallow the bit of worry in the back of my throat.

"He's probably just skipping like he always does..." I try to reason. Betty nods but looks just as unsure as I do.

Betty gets a call from her mother asking her to come home. It's Sunday so I decided to just head home and take a little time to myself.

The day dragged on and I ended up binge watching American Horror Story all day. I tried calling Derek 23 times and every time there was no answer. I got a call from my parents saying that they were working late tonight so I decided to start on the new season of AHS. After a while I stopped trying to contact Derek and ended up falling asleep on the couch.

•

BANG!

I jumped out of bed and looked around my dark room. How did I get up here? I couldn't find my light so I grabbed my phone. I checked the time while turning on my flash light.

1:30 am...

I quickly and quietly went into my parents room to see if they were home. Nope. After that I ran to Reggie's room. He still wasn't home either.

I grabbed a bat from Reggie's room and slowly headed downstairs. Step by step my heart beat was increasing. When I made it to the finally step, I stopped and shined my light towards the living room.

My front door was wide open and in the corner of the room was a large dark figure, hunching over and groaning. I quickly shut and locked the door and turned towards the person.

Before I could think about my next step I began swinging the bat. I hit the figure square in the back!

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" I recognized that voice...

"Derek?" I say throwing the bat to the side and flipping on the light switch. Sure enough it was Derek. He was wearing his serpent jacket. His hair was all ruffled and messed up. His lip was split and his eye was cut. Blood was everywhere.

"W-what happened t-to you?" I stuttered, extremely terrified and worried. He didn't answer but rather crumpled to the ground. I ran to him and he wrapped a limp arm around my shoulders. I lifted him up and set him down the couch.

"Shit... Shit!" I say to myself. After going back and forth on what I should do I finally decide to get him into my car. When we are both in, I dial Betty's number. No answer...

Jughead is next. It continued to ring and just as I was about to hang up, I heard his voice, groggy and scratchy, on the other end of the line.

"JUG! I n-need help! D-derek is hurt a-and I don't know w-what to do...!" I shout in the car. Derek cringes from my yelling and I take it down a few notches.

"What? What do you mean...? Baltimore what is going on?" He asks. He sounds better now. More awake which is good because I need him to be focused.

"I mean I think Derek went after Mustang and Mustang won..."