Underneath ¤ Jughead Jones [2]

sixteen

I'm so distraught over the shooting in New Zealand. I'm sending so much love and prayers to the people and their families for such a tragic loss and hoping they recover from this nightmare. xx

CHAPTER SIXTEEN, SERPENT INITIATION

Lauren Davis walked towards the common room, catching up with Betty and Archie who seemed to be in a panicked conversation as she approached them, halting their conversation upon her arrival. They glanced at each other briefly before the blonde sent her a wide smile, feeling genuine happiness at her arrival before her lips fell along with her attitude. Lauren stopped in her tracks immediately knowing that Betty was not okay and grabbing a hold of the girl's hand to stop her from walking away.

Red lined, Betty's eyes and her palms had scars of her nails in them, Lauren recognized her demeanor instantly, she was worried about something. "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean? I'm fine." Betty responded quickly glancing at Archie who didn't say anything in return.

Lauren sent her a knowing look, eyes glistening with concern and she brought her closer to herself, squeezing her hands softly. "Betty, you and I have been best friends since kindergarten, don't you think I'd recognize that something is wrong?"

Betty sighed in agreement, nodding her head solemnly, gulping as she worriedly looked at her friend, tears lining her eyes, eyes darting around to see if anyone was around. "The black hood called me."

"What?" Lauren questioned confused, eyes widened in disbelief and shock, heart pounding against her chest at the thought of the man who was after her was still plotting against the citizens of her town.

Betty nodded, eyes watery as she let out a watery sigh, frowning deeply as Lauren pulled her into a tight embrace, feeling Betty let out silent tears as the stress radiated off her. Pulling out, Betty quickly wiped her eyes and then her palms on her jeans. "I don't want you to know about it so let's pretend this conversation didn't happen."

Before Lauren could answer, Betty had walked away, gesturing for the girl to follow as she obliged with furrowed eyebrows as they continued to act like nothing had happened, but it was difficult to get rid of the stress despite it. Veronica and Kevin sat on their regular spots, discussing a topic loudly. "Nick and I were the 'will they or won't they' of our jet set. He's an outrageous flirt but we never dated. We'd hop from club to club, go on these madcap adventures,"

"Who's this now?" Archie interrupted, confused as he took a seat in the couch beside the raven-haired girl. Lauren smiled a greeting to Veronica and squeezed Kevin's hand as she sat right next to him.

Veronica let out a taunting sigh, fluttering her eyelashes. "Oh, Archiekins, don't be jelly. It's just a ghost from my bad-girl past, Nick St. Clair, breezing to town for the open house. You have nothing to worry about."