Brickwall (Bughead AU)

Prologue

Jughead's POV-

    I sat at the foot of my bed, twiddling my thumbs anxiously as I waited for my dad to arrive home from the White Wyrm. He had called me about an hour ago and said that he had to talk to me about something, something important that couldn't wait until tomorrow which was when I planned to see him next (he was originally staying the night at the Wyrm like he usually did on Friday's). I knew it was probably something bad. Moderately to severely bad.

    I figured it was probably some sort of complaint about the way I was running the Serpents, the local gang, now that I was king. I had changed things up quite a bit since my father, FP Jones, had retired from being king six months back. For example, I stopped all drug deliveries the Serpent's had been making beforehand for money. I wouldn't be caught with any of those addictive drugs, not after my dad had become addicted to alcohol (an alcoholic, if you prefer that). We had fallen into some hot water with the ghoulies, the producers of the drugs, another gang in town, after that. And well, you can probably figure out what happens when a gang is mad at another. Lots of bloodshed, that was for sure.

    We had lost a lot of money since we had stopped driving around and delivering crates of drugs to people, but the income at the bar was beginning to increase as more and more Serpents joined the gang, and more high schoolers discovered it to be a nice place to become drunk out of their minds. Of course, it was illegal for them to become wasted, but they figured out ways to sneak past our laws anyways. I wasn't complaining about it either. I myself found ways to sneak a bottle or two every now and then before I actually owned the bar. It was easy now.

    I figured my dad would probably arrive home any second now, so I moved to unlock the door. As soon as I stood up to do so, though, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I fished it out quickly and smiled warmly when I saw Betty's name on the caller ID, a beautiful selfie of her appearing above it as her caller picture. I quickly swiped right on the facetime call and grinned when her face popped up on my screen.

    "Juggy!" she exclaimed, smiling widely.

    "Betts!" I replied in the same type of voice. Betty, my girl best friend, rolled her eyes, twirling her wavy blonde hair, unusually in a down style, between her fingers. Well, I guess it wasn't unusual for me to witness her this way. Whenever it was just the two of us, she would free the beautiful locks from her high, tight ponytail that it was almost always in.

    The blonde propped herself up from where the was on the bed, leaning back onto her bed frame. "Aren't you coming over?" she asked. "Dateline is on tonight and you promised to always come watch it with me."

    I pursed my lips, glancing at my door. I couldn't turn down my promise to Betty. We always watched Dateline together on Friday nights at one another's home, sleeping over til the next day  and then going to Pop's, our local diner early in the morning. It was a tradition that could not be broken, no matter the circumstance. That was a rule determined by the both of us when we were 13, almost exactly four years ago. But I couldn't just leave when I told my dad I would be home. He would be here any second now anyways. But it was a mystery how long he was going to take to share his important news or whatever with me. "I uh may have forgotten and promised my dad I would be home to talk with him?" I stuttered.

    Betty scoffed and shook her head. "Is it business with that stupid gang of yours?" I shrugged, giving her a look saying that her hypothesis was most likely correct. "Well screw them! You can't just miss an episode of Dateline, especially after it just returned from a two week break!"

    I gritted my teeth, shrugging, guilt spreading over me. "I have to! I told him specifically that I would be here. Can we catch up on it tomorrow?"