Hold On || Jughead Jones

The Dark Secret of Harvest House // Part One

My boyfriend departed the apartment in the morning with the intention of meeting his dad to continue the investigation of what went on last night. Clearly, the high school had some cleaning up to do and bodies to identify according to Betty.

With a groan, I pulled myself out of bed to head into the kitchen. My sister was already behind the counter in her silk pajamas while Archie sat shirtless on the barstool.

"Morning," Veronica greeted with a smile as she sipped her tea. "Sleep okay?"

I scoffed and sat next to Archie. "If you mean I woke up constantly nonstop and thought every noise was going to kill me, I slept fantastic," I mumbled, "Has anyone talked to Betty?"

Archie shook his head. "I think she's still asleep. She hasn't come out of her room yet."

I nodded, giving Veronica a grateful smile as she placed a cup of coffee on the counter in front of me. "I'm gonna go talk to her. Will you make me waffles?" I smiled brightly at my sister as I held my hands together pleadingly.

She rolled her eyes. "Only because your prom got ruined."

"Oh, not because you love me or anything," I huffed as I climbed down from my seat, wincing at the pressure on my overly swollen ankle that wasn't getting any better thanks to my marathon last night. I knocked on Betty's door softly but didn't hear any response. Frowning, I pushed it open slowly to not startle her if she was asleep.

To my surprise, her bed was completely untouched but her prom dress lay scattered on the floor. I surveyed the room for a moment before walking back to Archie and Veronica. "Betty's not here."

"Not here?" Veronica questioned as she poured waffle batter into the iron. "She came back last night, right?"

I nodded as I hopped on the stool again. "Yeah, FP dropped us off here and she said she was going to sleep. Maybe she's at Pop's or something or went to see her mom. She mentioned doing that too."

"I'm sure she's fine," Archie responded, "Jughead gone too?"

"Yeah, he left to go help his dad record everything from last night. It's a mess, I didn't go because I wanted to see if I could fall back asleep but clearly that wasn't happening," I explained as I leaned on the palm of my hand.

The sound of the front door opening had us turning heads to where Felicity was walking in, heels in hand as she entered the apartment. Her cheeks were slightly pink as she stood there in an oversized sweatshirt and shorts.

"Hey," She greeted as she kicked her shoes off by the door. "I'm going to take a shower and then evidently, we have a lot to catch up on." She pointed to me as she walked past all of us and slipped into the guest bathroom.

"Speaking of catching up," Veronica switched topics as she pulled the finished waffle off to set it on a plate. "I forgot to tell you last night. Pop informed me that Daddy gave me a fake deed to both Pop's and La Bonne Nuit, which means he owns both properties still."

My jaw dropped as I accepted the meal from her hands. "Are you kidding me?"

My sister shook her head in annoyance. "Nope. No lie. I'm going to talk to Archie's mom after stopping at the Pembrooke to see if she has any options on what I can do," She sighed, "It's a mess, Vanna."

"Everything is, honestly," I stated as I dumped syrup all over my waffle. "I'm eating this yummy ass waffle, thank you by the way, and I'm going back to bed."

As planned, I finished my breakfast and had a brief catchup with Felicity, who was extremely apologetic about everything that went down. From there, I made my way to school where Jughead promised to meet and catch up on everything. I found my boyfriend in the Blue and Gold office, as requested, as he paced the room.

"You okay?" I asked as I entered and shut the door behind me, tossing my bag aside. "You look stressed."

Jughead laughed, "Stressed isn't the word. Try confused for a change."

"What happened?"

"Hal Cooper faked his own death," Jughead explained as he sat on the desk. "Dr. Curdle Jr. revealed that the hand had been amputated, hence the reason they assumed it was him, but he was alive. Betty was right. Her dad's back, with a vengeance no doubt."

I sighed and covered my face with my palm. "Great. Lovely. Just what we need." I walked forward to stand between his legs as I wrapped my arms around him. "We can't catch a break."

Jughead didn't say anything and instead pulled me close. "I'm sure you could survive a day if you skipped. You deserve it anyway. Both you and Betty."

"Speaking of which, she wasn't in her room this morning. Have you seen her? I tried to call her but she didn't-" I was interrupted by the girl's name popping up on the screen of my phone. "Speak of the devil," I mumbled as I clicked answer before turning it on speaker. "Hello?"

"Savanna? Hey."

"Hi, Bets. What's up?"

"I uh.. I was calling to let you know that I won't be back at the apartment for a while. I went to The Farm last night to tell my mom about everything and... and I'm staying here."

I gave Jughead a wide-eyed look as I continued to lean against him. "What? Why?"

"I thought that The Farm would keep me safe from the Black Hood. But, bonus, I'm also learning a bunch of fun terrifying facts about myself. I had a session with Edgar and I still can't wrap my mind around what happened."

"Uh, Betty, don't let Edgar or these Farmies get inside your head," Jughead interrupted as he stared at my phone in shock.

Betty sighed, "Well, he had these magnetic balls on his desk that were clicking and clacking..."

"Betty," I cut her story off. "Do you need us to get you out of there? We can come right now and pick you up."

It was quiet for a moment as she thought over her answer. "No. No. I think I have an idea for my next session with Edgar. It's time I find out what The Farm is about, right?"

"Yeah, meanwhile, we need to find out the connection between the Gargoyle King and the Black Hood," Jughead stated as he looked down at me, speaking about the two of us.

"Oh, I had a thought about that. The reason Savanna and I wondered off during prom was because of a letter from the Gargoyle King."

Jughead nodded as he took in her words, piecing everything together. "Alright, then we have our quest. Follow the envelope."

The bell rang loudly as we finished our conversation with Betty. Jughead decided to fully follow Betty's suggestion and track down each person which eventually led him to speak to Louie in the student lounge later that day.

I stood in the doorway, watching as Jughead handed the kid a $20 in payment for answers. A quick conversation was held before my boyfriend was on his feet again, this time a tint of anger in his eyes as he walked toward me.

"What'd he say?"

Jughead remained quiet as he grabbed my arm and spun me so we were walking through the hallway. "Some homeless kid gave it to him. Around thirteen."

"Ricky," I answered with a groan as I continued to follow him. "So now what?"

"We go to Jellybean," Jughead answered simply. "She'll have a hint of where he ran off to since they played together that night. We just have to hope she still has tabs on him."

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