Underneath ¤ Jughead Jones [2]

nineteen

CHAPTER NINETEEN, HIGH EMOTIONS

"Our drugstore cowboy should be passing you in, three, two, one."

Betty and Lauren step out of their spot, both smiling smugly at each other, nodding their heads despite knowing the raven-haired girl couldn't see. As they followed the drug dealer, him running in panic, looking back every other second, eyes wide before the three girls bumped into a large male, his arms crossed over his chest. The bouncer took Lauren's arm, glanced at her serpent jacket and sling before chuckling humorlessly causing Betty and Veronica to follow awkwardly. 

The bouncer pushed the three girls into the club, causing them to stumble, his grasp on Lauren's jacket not loosening. Lauren glared at him, huffing out. "Don't touch me, asshole."

"They were following me, tried to get into the garage." The drugdealer snapped angrily, sending a disgusted look towards the three girls. 

"Lauren?" "Veronica?" "Betty?"

Lauren's head snapped in the direction of the voices, her angry features turning softer as the confusedly looked at three boys in front of them, the girls voicing their own confusion. 

"Jughead?" "Archie?" "Mason?" 

"What are you guys doing here?" The teens all asked simultaneously, Lauren's eyebrows shooting up in surprise of the unison. 

"Hands off, wannabe hulk." Lauren snapped again, forcefully pulling herself out of the mans hold, giving him a dirty look as she surprised herself with the nickname, cringing at herself almost immediately, she could not speak like Veronica.

"Ah, the serpent princess." Malachai stated, looking at the girl's arm and nodding at her, impressed, looking at the other boys. "So these are your bitches?"

"I beg your misogynistic pardon?" Veronica scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Betty and Mason stared at each other, both pained as they finally avoided each others gaze, the latter pursing his lips, hands on his hips. Jughead took Lauren's hand, giving her a questioning look as she stepped forward, waving him off with her hand giving him a look to say 'we'll talk about this later'. Malachai angrily watched the pairs interact, chuckling halfheartedly, pointing an accusatory finger at Jughead, eyes narrowed. "Why don't you take your skanks and get the hell out of here? Until you make me a better offer, there'll be no race."

Jughead hesitated, glancing at Mason who nodded at him in assurance, the boy looked at Lauren's worried expression, conflicted herself as he nodded finally. "If you win, we'll give you the Whyte Wyrm. You can expand your drug-dealing horizons and upgrade out of this literal hell hole."

"We'll take the Whyte Wyrm and Sunnyside Trailer Park. Maybe even a dance with the princess." Malachai added, a smirk on his lips as he thought he had won. 

"Well, the princess doesn't want to be anywhere near you." Lauren hissed at him, hand still in hand with Jughead's as he glared at Malachai.

"You heard her, Malachai, it's a deal on the race, nothing more, nothing less." Jughead snarled calmly, hand gripping her's tightly. 

Malachai shrugged. "Fine." 

****

With the race approaching, Mason and Betty had decided to fix Reggie's car, the boy letting the serpents use the car so as the couple were seated in the garage, watching the other two who seemed tense. Lauren squeezed Jughead's hand, knowing the boy stressed and she was too, the serpents lives were on the stake. 

"You'll be fine, Jug." Lauren tried to calm him, rubbing his hand with her thumb.

Jughead inhaled, shaking his head. "If anything goes wrong, Lauren... I don't even want to imagine what could happen." 

"Then don't let anything go wrong, if you worry about what could happen you could get distracted and it may happen." Lauren said, grabbing his face, a soft smile on her face. "You're gonna be fine, okay?" 

Jughead nodded hesitantly, eyes squeezing closed. "I met my dad." 

"Yeah?" 

"Yeah." Jughead replied, eyes darting on the floor, filled with sadness. "He looked okay but it was really hard to see him, behind the glass." 

"I know." Lauren agreed quietly, her own throat closing up at the thought of her own mother sitting in a jail cell. "It's never easy." 

"I don't wanna bring this up at a weird time but these days I can't stop thinking it." Jughead admitted, glancing at Lauren briefly, heart pounding against his chest, "Those 6 months that you were gone for freshman year, what happened, why were you sent there?"

Lauren's breathing hitched and her eyes squeezed closed, swallowing the lump in her throat as she finally glanced at the boy seated beside her. She knew that he would ask about it eventually but she wasn't sure if she was ready to talk about it, she had barely talked to her sister about it. "I, uh, I was really upset when mom got arrested. I couldn't really take the sudden stress that was on me so I tried to-"

Lauren inhaled sharply, eyes welling up with unshed tears, her eyes growing hazy. "I tried to swallow a whole bottle of pills." 

Lauren Davis' erratic breathing slowed down as she felt Jughead's warm hand grab a hold of her, she bowed her head in slight shame, not being able to look the boy in the eyes or at him at all, though she flt calmer, the hollowness in her stomach has returned, making her feel queasy. "And then Maya took me to the hospital and they told her that I had to be transferred to a rehabilitation center and I stayed there for 6 months." 

"I couldn't tell you guys, I wanted to but I just couldn't get myself to tell you so I decided it would be best to vanish, act like I never existed in the first place." Lauren continued, memories of the white walls flashing by her eyes. "It wasn't a good place -I don't know, maybe I just thought so because I wasn't in a good place. But it just made everything worse, it constantly reminded me of why I was there in the first place. I'm better now, though, much better. Call me crazy, jug, but I saw my dad when I was in surgery and it felt like all my sadness went away." 

Finally Lauren turned to look at Jughead who had turned away, head down making it hard for her to see his reaction, for a moment she didn't know what to do until she realized he had stayed quiet too long, lifting her head, she was surprised to see him teary-eyed, eyes lined red, a small breathy chuckle of disbelief left her slightly chapped lips. "I'm so sorry." 

"Sorry for what, Jug?" Lauren asked, her voice barely above a whisper, holding his face so she was looking directly into his eyes. 

"For not being there for you, I could have- I should have." Jughead stated, voice almost inaudible as he tried to blink his tears away. 

Lauren exhaled, shaking her head, a frown on her face. "There was nothing you could do." 

"There was, I just didn't try hard enough." Jughead answered as he pulled her into the tightest yet most loving embrace he could, hand on her head as she wrapped her own arms around him, her eyes screwed close, the comfort sending warmth to her heart. He shook his head at himself, practically disgusted as he breathed out, "I'm sorry for everything."

****

Yay, I updated!! Im sorry for being gone so long, I just haven't been as motivated to write this story. But I watched Endgame and I'm shattered and all I've done is binge every Marvel movie ever, for the 12th time, no jokes.

If anyone wants to, check out my avengers ff, it starts at Infinity War or my Umbrella Academy book, I'm super proud of them :)))