Underneath ¤ Jughead Jones [2]

thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN, RECONCILING

"You fought with Jughead for the serpents? That's freaking cool." Fangs gushed, giving Sweet Pea a glance as he spoke. "See, Sweets? You're really regretting shit now, huh?"

Lauren Davis let out a quiet laugh, taking a bite out of her pop's sandwich, which she had brought with Mason and Toni, she was going to be dropped back at Riverdale high in the next thirty minutes by Sweet Pea who did not care about his studies so he decided to take time out to leave her. It was the morning, so almost half of the school hadn't arrived yet, making the outdoor cafeteria feel empty as herds of gang members didn't roam around.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, she may be a nerd but is dope too." Sweet Pea mumbled, taking a large sip from his soda.

"Who drinks soda, in the early morning?" Mason stated, disgusted, grimacing at his friend's habits.

Sweet Pea simply, ignored his friend and huffed out, as his phone vibrated signalling a notification, with that, everybody's phone rang too, making them all furrow their eyebrows and take their phone's out to see what the sudden commotion was. Sweet Pea started to laugh, showing everyone the thumbnail, which just so happened to have a very familiar redheaded male in it, Lauren groaned loudly. Slamming her forehead onto the steel table.

The Serpents gave her confused glances, no understanding why she had inflicted pain on herself on a boy they presumed she didn't know. Lauren sighed, mumbling. "Why, Archie, just why?"

"Who's Archie?" Toni questioned.

"One of my dumbass northside friends." Lauren said, her voice muffled because her head was still on the table.

"Let's watch it." Sweet Pea excitedly, stated, opening his laptop and finding the video on Twitter.He played the video, it being something less than two minutes long with Archie trying really hard to intimidate a serial killer, it ended up being funnier than serious, with a bunch of shirtless bulldogs and Archie sending threats to the Black Hood. Lauren found it so confusing how the idea popped into Archie's mind.

"We're called the Red Circle and we're coming for you. We will find you." Archie's voice echoed out, the video coming to an end as laughs erupted from her table, Sweet Pea's being the loudest while imitating some of Archie's words.

"Laur, you're friends with this idiot?" Fangs chuckled, shaking his head as her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

Everyone suddenly became silent, their laughs dying down as a figure approached, making Lauren look as well, watching as Jughead slowly walked over to the group, he was awkwardly walking once he noticed Lauren there, staring at her once he noticed, he decided that before she leaves he would definitely speak to her.

"I guess we're not watching funny cat videos." Jughead started, hands in his pockets as he stood opposite of the group.

"Check this out," Sweet Pea spoke up finally, turning the laptop around so that Jughead could see what it was. "Some sick-in-the-head Northsider posted a crazy-ass video and we were just talking about it."

"About what?" Jughead asked.

Sweet Pea started, tauntingly, winking at Fangs who tried to cover up his laugh. "Fogarty wants to earn his Serpent stripes, I say bring the head of the dude and your in."

Lauren was aware that Sweet Pea was simply taunting the boy, so she rolled her eyes at him and didn't jump in knowing he was trying to rile Jughead into showing some of his anger, Mason massaged Lauren's shoulder, knowing the girl was starting to get irritable.

"I'm down with that." Fangs added, making the Serpents who had arrived out of nowhere to laugh along with the tall one.

"No, guys, don't." Jughead defended, shocking everyone at his louder voice, except Lauren who knew he became defensive about his friends quick.

"What, Jones?" Sweet Pea raised his brows at him, still trying to taunt him and it was starting to work.

"Lauren and I know this guy, he's a milquetoast. He's a football player. It's a lame target that's all I'm saying. You wanna prove something? Why don't you go after the Black Hood?" Jughead adds, not so subtle with his words as Lauren huffed, wanting to leave the situation.

"And why would we do that? the Black Hood is targeting Northsider's, who do nothing but blame the Southside for everything that's wrong in this town. And we're sick of it. The Black Hood's doing out work for us, he's our hero." Sweet Pea rebutted, angrily.

A pang of hurt hit Lauren's heart, as she analysed the boy's words, she knew he hadn't realized that one of the Black Hood's victims was seated right next to him because he was angry at Jughead and spoke at his anger, a part of her knew he felt betrayed by the Northside and though she had stood up them all the time, she was still a part of them but it didn't mean his words didn't hurt.

"Stand down, Sweet Pea." Mason shot a glare at him, squeezing Lauren's shoulder as even Toni gave him a disgusted look, moving away from the boy.

"Yeah, what the hell, Sweet Pea?" Toni fired at him, giving Lauren an apologetic smile as Lauren tried her best to shrug it off.

She hadn't even noticed Jughead's reaction, anger was spread on his face, his fists balled up, face flushed before realization hit Sweet Pea and his words came to him, Fangs awkwardly quiet as well, looking at the boy, who stayed quiet for a moment, guiltily looking at Lauren.

"I'm so sorry, Lauren, you know that it's not what I meant for you, I'm just mad and-" Sweet Pea started, trying to explain it but Lauren just shrugged, shaking her head.

"It's okay, Sweet's."

With that the area became silent, making Lauren get up with her things, bag in hand, along with her coffee. "Can you drop me, now?"

"Yeah, let me just get some stuff from my locker." Sweet Pea nodded, getting up to leave whilst the crowd around them dispersed.

"I'll see you guys later?" Lauren hugged Mason and Toni, gave Fangs a high-five and started to leave the place, with Jughead following her towards the parking.

"Can we talk?" Jughead questioned, lightly touching Lauren's shoulder.

"Yeah." Lauren agreed, moving to the side with the boy, she could still sense her friends watching her from afar.

"I'm joining the Serpents. And I swear I'm not doing it to make you happy, or to be with you all the time but you made me realize where I was going wrong, I just don't want to end up like my dad because, I guess a part of me blamed the Serpents for what he became and it's not there fault. I'm sorry that you felt like I was attacking you too, but I didn't mean it and you made me realize it." Jughead went on, his waterline was red, as if he'd cried and his face was close to her, Lauren's eyes watered too, she nodded softly.

"I get that, I'm sorry for exploding on you, like that." Lauren said, chucking slightly with a watery laugh.

Jughead sighed in relief, eyes closing briefly, before pulling the girl into a strong embrace, arms wrapping around her shoulders as she took in his scent, closing her eyes as she let herself feel loose and melting into it as he squeezed her tighter, they had never been this away from each other, although the had disagreements but it had never gone as personal as this one has, them being in a relationship changed things too.

Jughead pulled away and he immediately, brought his lips to her's, kissing her sweetly, hands on her jaw, bringing her closer as for the first time in a long time they decided to stay in the moment.

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Heyyy, sorry for not updating in literal ages, I've been gone a long time and returned because I missed this, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! xx