What We Once Were: A Bughead Fanfic

Chapter 14.

When Jughead walked into work the next day—after what could only be described as the best day of his life—he did not expect Betty to give him the silent and cold shoulder treatment.

He'd walked in that morning with a grin on his face that he couldn't disguise. Ever since he drove Betty home after their...moment, he hadn't been able to stop grinning. When he saw Betty that morning sitting behind her desk, her eyes narrowed in concentration, he wanted nothing more then to walk over to her and kiss her again.

But his desire to do so was shattered when Betty stood up from her desk and with blank, emotionless look in her eyes and handed him some documents to look over without saying anything more than, "here's some more files to look over. Our interview with Jude and Thomas Thacker is today at noon." After that, she'd returned to her desk and continued glaring at the computer and writing something down on the notepad beside her.

That had been a stab through the heart and Jughead wasn't able to focus at all from 8:00 to 11:45. And even when he was riding with Betty in her car, she hardly even glanced his way.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, he had to know why she was doing this to him. "Betty, what's going on with you today?" He had to be straightforward, granted he probably should've been gentler in his approach but right now, he just wanted an explanation.

Betty kept her eyes on the road, "what do you mean?"

"Don't give me that, I'd like to know why you haven't said a word to me since this morning." He was harsh but being nice was the last thing on his mind right now.

"Jughead, we have an interview in less than five minutes, I'd like to get on with that and discuss whatever you think the problem is afterwards." She said robotically.

"What happened to maintaining a good relationship so we can do our best as partners at work?"

"I'm feeling fine, or I was until you started accusing me of acting distant." Betty said blankly.

Jughead took a deep breath to keep himself from shouting, "Betty, I had a great time yesterday. And I think it ended on a pretty good note. And are we going to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Betty retorted.

"The kiss Betty." Jughead turned and gave her a hard stare.

Betty shut up immediately and her mouth was barely open, as she had no idea how to respond to that. "Betty, I know you, and I know that's why you've been avoiding me all morning." Jughead said calmly.

"You know—you know that's not true." She swallowed, her voice raising an octave.

"Why do I not believe a word you just said?" He stared and on that note, opened the car door and walked through the school parking lot, not even looking back to see if she was following him or not.

—-

It was Jude they interviewed first. He was a lanky kid with pale skin and eyes that looked so far away from reality he could come across as a day dreamer, (without the information of his shack out in the woods). "So Jude, I know you were going out with Alison. This must be hard for you." Betty tried to sympathize but Jughead knew her heart wasn't in it today.

Jude shifted in his seat and folded his arms against his chest, his trimmed head of platinum blonde hair and eyes so brown they looked black, stared at her with no traces of distraught or sadness.

"Yeah, I mean we fucked around, it was fun. Shame what happened though." He responded, almost sounding bored.

"You've got quite the reputation here Jude, the outsider bad boy. Seems like everyone here has a thing for you." Betty insinuated.