Falling Apart

Chapter 8

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Jug asks after he has walked me home from our breakfast at Pop’s and we're now standing on the front porch, his arms snaked around my waist. We've been dating for two weeks now and he's been taking me out for brunch every single day. I don't think people know though. Only Pop. We're careful to keep it private, just between the two persons in the relationship.
I nod with a big smile, “And where are we going?”
He shrugs with a grin, “I guess you'll have to wait to see.”
I tilt my head a little and narrow my eyes. He chuckles at me and then another question hits me, but I keep my mouth shut. “I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I say, faking annoyance.
He leans down as I stand on my tiptoes and kiss him for a few seconds. When we pull away, he gives me a kiss onto my hairline and I feel him breathing me in. I smile and pull away from him. “Bye.”
“Bye,” he sighs. I grin at his hurt expression and go inside.
I run upstairs immediately and grab a novel from the bookshelf. Just as I'm about to open the first page, flopping down onto my bed, my phone buzzes. I smile and grab it rapidly, hoping for it to be Jug. It's Veronica. I sigh for some reason. You just saw him, Betty.
Hey girl. Wanna hang out?
I smile a little and think about it. She's your friend. You can't prefer a book you don't even know is good over her.
Sure.
When?
Where?
With who?
I imagine her grinning at my multiple texts. They always write everything in one text.
As soon as you can, my place, Archie will give you a ride, Kevin's already here.
I chuckle and sit up. The doorbell.
He's here. See ya.
I get up, grab my phone, keys and stuff 10 dollars into my back pocket. I go downstairs and see that dad is at the door, talking with Archie. My eyes go wide and I walk there rapidly.
“Uh, no,” Archie days kind of awkwardly to my dad .
“Don’t lie to me about this, boy,” dad says and I see his fist clenching.
“About what?” I ask quietly. Both of their heads fly up and they look at me.
“Is he your boyfriend?” dad asks me.
A little burst of laughter escapes from between my lips, but then I press them back together again, seeing his temporal muscle tensing. “No, he's dating Veronica.” I push Arch a little and he tries to say bye to my dad, but I just push him away.
As we get to his car and buckle up, he looks at me in confusion. “What was that?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not dating Veronica.”
I raise my eyebrows up. “Wait. Seriously? V told me you're dating,” I say quietly.
“Yeah, we were before, not anymore.”
I chuckle quietly. “Since when?”
“Since like… yesterday.”
I roll my eyes again and look at him. “You broke up yesterday?” He nods at my question. “Then… why are you still coming to hers?”
“I need to ask her something and she said I can bring you. Also Reggie’s there.”
I don't know who Reggie is, so I just look out of the window. The rest 15 minutes of driving is awkward. Veronica lives in a mansion, called ‘The Pembrooke', what is located in the rich area of the town.

“Hey,” we –V, Kev, Reg, Arch and me– say to Pop, walking into the diner. It's my second time here today, but I'm hungry all over again. It's like 6:30 or something now. We start walking to a booth, but then Ronnie freezes, grabbing my arm. I try not to flinch. It's not her fault though, normally people don't have bruises all over their arms. She is looking at someone, so I furrow my eyebrows and look at them too.
Jug is here with a really tall raven haired boy, a pink haired girl and another raven haired guy, who is for sure shorter than Jug and in whom I recognize the boy who yelled ‘New girl!’ on the first day I came to this town.
“Ignore them. They're from the Southside. Southside Serpents. They're dangerous,” Ronnie mumbles to me. I give her a little nod, holding back my grin. We almost walk past them when I see Jug's head eyes go at us and then back onto the burger in his hands. Just with a less than a second, he realizes I'm here and his head shots up.
I smirk and we walk past them, but then hear a voice, making me freeze. “Hey, new girl?” I stop and turn around slowly. All four of them are looking at me as my four friends pop down in another booth, two away from theirs.
“Hm?” I ask quietly, raising my eyebrows up. I look at Jug just for less than a second and he gives me a smile. Obviously they haven't heard the rumors of us dating yet. My friends haven't either. I guess there are no rumors.
“You're Alice's daughter, right?” the shorter boy asks.
“Uh, yeah, why?”
“Betty,” Archie says, coming to stand next to me. I feel his finger touching my hand, so I pull it away rapidly, my head snapping to look at him.
“I told you not to touch me,” I say quietly, between my teeth.
He rolls his eyes. “Come on, don't talk to them.”
“Ooh, Andrews got himself a girlfriend,” the taller one sneers. Jug doesn't laugh like the other three, he is looking at my hand and then back into my eyes. I drop my head and look at it too. The sleeve has slid up a little, revealing the scars on my palms. I pull it down quickly and give him a thankful look.
“So you're not even denying it, huh?” the girl smirks.
“I’m not dating him,” I say.
“You mean not yet, right?”  Fangs grins.
“More like not ever.” The four of them burst out laughing, even Jughead.
“What?” Arch asks me. I raise my eyebrows and shake my head at him a little. Doesn't he really get it?
“I don't like you,” I say. Now not only the four Serpents start laughing, but also all our friends few booths away.
“Way to burn a guy's dreams, B,” Veronica grins.
“I’m not the one who broke up with him,” I mumble. Archie narrows his eyes at me as they all start laughing again.
“Come on, sit down you two,” Reggie says.
“No, wait,” Archie says and looks at me. I can describe his face only with one world. ‘Unbelievable'. “Why not?”
“’Cause I don't like you, okay?” I chuckle. He narrows his eyes a little.
“Or you like someone else,” Kev smirks.
“Maybe. So?”
“Sit down and tell me who is it,” Ronnie says to us. I chuckle and walk to them and slide next to Kev. Archie just comes behind us, looking disappointed.
“So?” Kevin asks. The four Serpents are oddly quiet and I feel their eyes on me.
“None of your business,” I mumble and rest my head on his shoulder.
“Come on, B,” Veronica whines. “Maybe I can help you. You know his name, right?”
I hold back my laugh and see Jug doing the same in the booth next to us. “Actually, I'm kind of… dating him already. So thank you, but I got it.” I can't keep my big smile back as I talk about him. Not that I'd mentioned his name or anything, but I'm still talking about him. As my boyfriend.
“I wanna know too,” the tall guy says who's sitting beside Jug.
“Sweets, leave her alone,” he says and takes a bite from his cheeseburger. I smile a little and then suddenly my phone rings. I look at the caller ID and my eyes go wide as does my smile, seeing Matt's name. “I need to take this,” I say and get up quickly, walking to another booth, just a few away and sit down there alone.
“Hey,” I say with a big smile.
“Hey,” he says, sounding relieved. “Thank god you're okay. You're okay, right?”
I chuckle, “I’m fine. You?” I ask sadly now.
“Better than the last few weeks… It's freaking hot and I was trying to get service to reach you.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I… was away from home for a few days and I left my phone behind.”
“Away from home? Why? That doesn't sound like you,” I can hear him smirking.
“We had an incident, I ran away. Someone helped me and I was in a hostel for four days until my fever and cuts got better,” I say quietly so that no one else would hear.
I hear him sighing, “Have you found any friends?”
“Yeah. Quite many.”
“Does that mean 2?” he grins.
I giggle, “No. Like… 6.” One of them is my boyfriend who I really want you to meet.
“And… boys?”
I smirk. He always asks that. He's worried I'm lonely and need someone to love me. “Yeah, that's possible too.”
“Wait, seriously?” he asks happily. “You finally let someone in, I'm so proud of you.” He sounds truly sincere. No one knows me better than him.  He knows what I'm like and how hard it is for me to trust someone after everyone who has betrayed me. It makes me want to cry, thinking about him.
“I miss you,” I say quietly.
He shuts up for a few seconds before answering with a broken voice, “I miss you too, baby.” He has always called me baby. Always.
I hear someone yelling something to him. “Crap, Betty, I need to go, okay? I love you.”
“I love you too. Please be safe,” I say quietly.
“Don't worry about me. The next time I call you, I wanna talk with that boy.”
I chuckle, “Yeah right. Bye.”
“Bye,” he sighs and ends the call.
I stare at the table for a few seconds, then take a deep breath and exhale while getting up.