Jellybean Jones

Chapter 61: Beverly Marsh

Jellybean POV
Dinner was oddly silent tonight. Usually we could at least come up with a topic of conversation, but we just couldn't seem to tonight. It turns out Dad was in the attic looking for a bank record or something when we had gotten home. It seemed equally odd. I set down my fork, done with my steak. I decided to ask the question that had been stuck in the back of my mind all day, even though I knew it wasn't true.

I was going to dig my nails into my thigh to distract myself from the question I was about to ask, but I promptly pulled my hands away. I took a breath. "Am I slut?" I blurted out. Dad dropped his knife and looked at me confused. Jughead blinked, slightly taken aback. "No, s-seriously. If I wasn't related to you would you consider me to be a slut?" I asked, consumed by the question. "Who called you a slut?" Jughead asked, knowing that's not a question I wouldn't just ask.

"First Jules, now Seth." I said, attempting to be casual. Dad was still staring at me. He snapped back to life. "You've really gotta stop talking to that boy." He said. I had to blink to stop myself to rolling my eyes. "Oh trust me, I don't do it on purpose." I replied. "I don't know why you'd even listen to them though, seriously I don't. You're not a slutty person, let alone a slut." He added. "Okay." I said dully. "I just thought, you know, if people are calling me that-" I started. Jughead caught me off.

"So what are you, Beverly Marsh?" He asked. "Oh." I whispered, instantly understanding the analogy. "You two and your pop culture references." Dad muttered, even more confused than before. "IT the Stephen King book. I haven't read it, I've just seen the 2017 version of the movie and from my understanding, Beverly Marsh is constantly called a slut and she isn't." I said quickly. Jughead nodded, agreeing with my summary of the character.

"That seems about right then." Dad said tiredly. I ran my tongue along my teeth roughly, wanting the pain. I snapped out of it. I was getting better. I had to be getting better. I had made tonight even more awkward then it already had been, lovely. I decided to go to bed early, despite the homework I needed to get done.

Jughead POV
Two people had called my sister a slut now. I mean, yeah, she does have a chest, but that doesn't make her a slut. Dad had looked at me for an explanation after Jellybean left for her room, I had nothing. I just told him how overwhelmed she was lately. He didn't really respond, just nodded in a pondering way. I finally had an excuse to leave the table when I heard my phone ringing.

I went to my room and picked it up. "Hi-" I began. "Guess what?!" I was cut off by Archie's excited voice. It was insanely uncharacteristic. "I have no idea." I said lightly, even though I knew that it had to be about a certain captain of a certain football team. "Reggie came and found me today and he told me to meet him at Pop's tomorrow." He said happily. I had never heard Archie speak in this excited manner, he rarely got this happy over something like this.

"That's great, Arch." I exclaimed. He kept talking about his plans for when they met up tomorrow, it was kind of adorable, for a lack of a better term. I was about to go to bed, as Archie and I had talked for a long time and it was getting pretty late, when I heard a muffled sob. There was a knock on my door. I hopped up and swung it open. Dad stood there, looking concerned.

"Yeah?" I asked, thinking it was going to be Jellybean. "Your sister is in her room crying her damn eyes out and I don't know if it's because she thinks she's a slut or what." He said quickly, sounding worried. "She doesn't think she's a slut, she just needs to be told she's not and we did tell her. This has to be about something else." I said rationally. Together, we went to check on her. She didn't answer her door, so Dad took the initiative to open it up and see how she was doing.

"Jellybean?" I heard him say softly. I could her hear crying and sobbing much more clearly now. "What's going on, sweetheart? Are you alright?" He asked gently. She shook with sobs. She sat up and pushed her hair out of her eyes. "M-my anxi-anxiety has been really bad lately and I just, I'm stressed and I want things to go back to normal, but there's never been a normal and I-I don't, I can't- everything is too much." She said distantly. It hurt to see her hurting.