Falling Apart

Chapter 19

"You got to be kidding me," I hear one of my brothers mumble and then his hand on my head. "You need to go to school," he says quietly. I move his hand under my cheek and snuggle my face in it. He chuckles. "Betty, come on."
"I don't want to," I mumble.
"I know. But you have to go."
I open my one eye to glare at him and see it's Dan. He smirks at me and I close it again. "Why are you up so early?" I ask tiredly.
"It's like 12pm in Spain. It's gonna take some time to recover."
"Mhhh," I groan, feeling the duvet disappear from me. I turn onto my stomach, but that doesn't help, he simply slides his arms under me and picks me up. I wrap my arms and legs around him and hide my face into the crook of his neck.
"Betty," he chuckles. I sigh and drop my legs so that he could place me on my feet. I open my eyes tiredly as he does it and look at him sadly. "Come on, get dressed. You have like twenty minutes until Jug is here."
I sigh and nod. He goes out of my room. I can sleep ten more minutes.

"Juggie," I say quietly, holding his hand in both of mine in front of my body. He says he loves the feeling, but it just makes me feel safe. He turns to me as we're standing on he street in front of our school, not moving forward anymore.
He pulls his hand out of mine softly and wraps his arms around me instead. At least this makes me feel safe. "I love you, baby," he says.
"I love you too," I say quietly and look up at him. He gives me a kiss on my hairline and then another one on my nose, making me smile.
"Hold my hand, okay? Makes me feel better if you're next to me the whole time," he says with a low voice.
I nod and he sighs, letting go of me. I take his hand in both of mine again and he brings them to his lips, kissing both of them once. We walk towards the school, all the eyes on us already.

"I have history next, okay?" Jug asks me quietly, squatting down in front of me as I'm sitting on a chair. "You'll be okay here." I nod just a little and he sighs, pressing his lips on my temple, sliding his hand over my hair at the same time.
He lets out a quiet sigh, standing up. "I love you," he says louder than usual making people able to hear it.
"I love you too," I say quietly. He kisses the top of my head now. As I've said before, he can't keep his lips away from me. Or his hands. I hear him sigh as he slowly walks out of my class. It's the fifth period. The lunch just ended. Turns out we all came to school and hate being here. Everyone apologized in front of me, but didn't say any words about my dad. I honestly would've preferred them saying something than looking at me like this.
"Betty?" I hear Sweet Pea asking softly. I turn my head to face him. He's sitting on the next table, next to me practically. "Why didn't you tell us?" he asks sadly.
I look back down at the table. "I never tell this to anyone," I say quietly.
"So you were planning on doing what exactly? Wearing sweaters and hoodies your whole life everyday?" I look at him and nod. He raises his eyebrows up. "Why?"
"'Cause it's..." I sigh. "I hate these scars and bruises. They will never go away. And I can't do anything about it... I just didn't want everyone to treat me like I'm something broken." I feel a tear drop out of my eyes as I'm staring at the table.
I feel his strong arms around me, hugging me or holding me safe, however you want to call it. I've never seen him hug anyone except for Jug and Jellybean. I hug him back, feeling a little better.
"There's one thing you could do about it," he says quietly after pulling away and squatting down to the same place Jug was before.
"What?" I ask sadly. He looks at me warningly. I let him pull my sweater sleeve up just a little to see the scars I've made myself.
"Don't let these multiply," is the only thing he says, before the teacher comes in and he rapidly pulls the sleeve back down, sitting on his own seat. Don't let them multiply. Don't hurt yourself anymore because of it.

I walk into the classroom. We have English and it's the last period. Everyone's eyes move on me, making me blush and bite my lip, looking at the ground.
"Ms. Cooper. Why are you late?" Ms. Opossum asks. I look at Jug. He's saving me the place next to him.
"Uh, I uh... I was in the Blue and Gold and got too carried away, didn't hear the bell," I say, hoping she buys it. I was in the girls' bathroom, making up with Cheryl who was the only one I hadn't talk to yet today.
"Okay, take a seat," she sighs. "There's an essay. You have two weeks."
"What about?" I ask, sitting down next to Jug.
"That's what I'm explaining," the teacher says, a small smile creeping on her lips.
"Oh, sorry," I murmur and take my things out rapidly. She keeps talking about what we have to do and how to do it correctly etc. I lean on Juggie's side and he wraps his arm around me, kissing the top of my head.
"How did it go?" he whispers.
"Good," I whisper back. I feel him sniggering at that simple answer. "I'll tell you later," I add.
"Archie Andrews," the teacher says. He stands up and goes to her to pick the topic of the essay out from a bowl. I feel Jughead tensing up, seeing Archie's blue eye and too many not broken bones.
"Jason Blossom." "Cheryl Blossom." "Chuck Clayton." "Elizabeth Cooper."
I push myself up and stand up and walk there. "Are they hard or boring?" I ask the teacher quietly. She's the best, she's the one who gave me the keys to the school newspaper where me and Jug are writing at.
"Pick one," she says. I sigh and take the top one. When I walk back towards my place and start passing Chuck, I feel his cold hand on my bare stomach as he tries to pull my sweater and shirt up for some reason. I give him a hard slap from that, making him freeze and stare at me.
"You fucking idiot," I mumble to him and walk back to my place, trying not to start crying. I don't succeed. As soon as I feel Jug's arms around me, a tear escapes my eye. He wipes it away with his thumb softly and kisses my cheek.
"Ms. Cooper, Mr. Clayton. Come with me," the teacher says. I let out a sigh and look at Jug, my shoulders raising themselves up.
"It's okay, just go with them, okay?" he asks quietly.
I nod a little. He kisses my temple and I pack my things up. I follow them, the last thing I see, Ronnie winking at me, making me smile and relax just a bit, but it still helps.