Bughead One Shots

Her Hands

 "Go to Hell Serpent Slut!" Chuck yelled at Betty as she walked past him.

The guys around him burst into laughter as Betty tried to control herself. She walked out of the hallway and noticed her fists were clenched. She slowly opened them, knowing what she would see. There was blood, a fair amount of it. She ran into the girls' bathroom and swiftly grabbed her first aid kit from her bag.

She grabbed the tape and set it down on the sink. She looked up into her eyes and saw fear and pleasure in her eyes. Fear that she was doing this to herself, pleasure because it felt so nice. And, somewhere in her mind, she knew she deserved it. She deserved to be in pain, to be scared of this. She shook her head of these thoughts and rinsed her hands of blood. She grabbed the tape and as she was wrapping her hands, the tape ran out. She cursed herself for leaving the other roll at her house. That meant she would have to leave it on for the whole day. Stupid Chuck, she thought. But she knew it wasn't his fault.

Brrriiinnnggg!!!!!!!! The school bell rang.

Betty threw the first aid kit in her bag and practically ran out of the bathroom. This will be a long day, she thought, as she stalked off to first period.

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Time Skip; After school

Betty walked home by herself that day.  Archie had something to do at the gym so he couldn't walk with her like they usually did.  That left Betty alone with her thoughts.  Of course, the first thing that Betty thought of was how uncomfortable the tape on her hands was.  She had the tape on all day and she didn't have anything to change it out with.  Just five more minutes till I get home.  Betty eagerly thought.  She hated thinking more than anything else.  Once she started thinking she couldn't stop.  She would be thinking about what she was going to have for dinner tonight and all of a sudden she was dragged into a part of her mind that only thought about the bad.  She was spiralling in an endless vortex of hateful words and endless insults towards herself.  The words that creeped in her mind were some of her classmates carelessly used words that got to her for no reason, but most of the words were her own.  She wasn't perfect, she wasn't flawless.  Words like slut and perfect swirled in the emptiness that was her own mind, she tried so hard to repress them, but the words stayed and just got louder.

She was startled out of her state of mind by a sudden run in with the steps of her house.

"Ow, shit." She said aloud.

She already knew it was going to be a bruise, she could feel it forming already.  She walked into the door rubbing her knee, which she had just fallen on.

"Mom, FP?"  She shouted.

No answer.

Great, just what she needed.  More silence.  She walked up the stairs to her room and tried to not think about anything bad.  She threw her bag down and desperately tried to think of something happy.  Jughead was coming back today.  She would be able to see him for a few days and then he would go back to his prep school.

She searched for something in her head to think of happily, but her brain kept twisting and turning thing around, making them seem bad.  Finally she gave up and just tried to think of something.  She began to think back to Jughead.  She hadn't seen him in a few weeks, as he was taking in everything the campus had to offer.  It had killed her not being able to see him for that long.  And when he went away all of the names had started to get worse, yeah, she was already dealing with the name calling while Jughead was at Riverdale high, but they just got worse.  The way the guys saw it, Betty's protector had left.  She had no means of protection and no one to help her.  She did hang out with Archie, but the guys only called her names when he wasn't around.  And they knew that Betty wasn't going to tell him what they were saying.  

She heard the door open and stopped looking at herself in the mirror.  She took a deep breath and turned around to leave her room.  Just as she turned around though, she was blessed with seeing Jughead.  He put his arm on the door frame and smiled.

"Hey Betts."  He said, the childhood nickname rolling off his tongue.

She smiled, "Hey Jug." She said.

He walked over to her and kissed her with such a passion that she almost forgot about Chuck and his hooligans, she almost forgot about all of the names they would call her and she even almost forgot about the darkness in her mind.  Almost.  

They pulled apart and he looked her in the eyes.

Smiling, he said, "I missed you so much Betty."  

She smiled at him too and for a moment nothing was wrong, it was the two of them and that was all they needed in the world.  They didn't need anyone else, nothing else mattered as long as they were together.

Betty wished they could stay in that moment forever, but of course, the moment was ruined when Jughead reached for her hands. He was halfway to them when Betty realised her mistake, she had spent so much time thinking about everything else that she had forgotten about the stupid tape wrapped around her hands. He grabbed them and in an instant so many emotions flashed on his face. His face went from confusion, then concern, another look of confusion and finally realisation. He knew why there was tape wrapped around her hands, he didn't even have to ask.

Without saying anything he pulled her in for a hug. She started crying a bit. Not because of what she had done to herself, but because it hurt her so much seeing this look of pain on his face. Especially knowing that she was the reason why. They pulled apart and he held her hands, and she didn't want him to let go.  

He looked her in the eyes and spoke, "You know you can talk to me about anything right?  I am always here when you need me to be."

He said it in a soothing tone, the one he only let Betty hear.  Betty nodded but this just made her feel worse.  He was telling her she could tell him anything and she was sitting there nodding along while the voices in her head got louder.  He hugged her again and she started crying even more.  She hadn't cried in so long so she let it out.  At one point she was sobbing so hard and all that Jughead could do was hold her and let her cry into his shoulder.  Eventually, the crying slowed down and she was breathing normally again.  She let go of him, took the tape off of her hands, and threw it in the trash.   

She went back to her bead and layed down facing Jughead.  He wiped the tears from her cheeks and let his hand rest on her cheek.  She held his hand there and looked into his green eyes.  They helped calm Betty down when stuff like this happened.  They had a sense of calmness.  It was something she could never explain, they just calmed her down.

"Getting lost in my eyes again?"  Jughead joked.

She smiled, "Thanks Juggie."  She said.

He was trying to help her.  It meant so much that he was at least trying to help her even if she had a broken mind and cut palms.

"No problem Betts,"  he said, "If you ever feel like this, just tell me.  Call me or text me, any time of the day and I will help you to the best of my ability."

He smiled at her and she couldn't resist.  

"I love you Jug."  She said, burying her head into his chest.

"I love you too."  He said.

He wrapped his arm around her and held her.  Everything, at least for now, was great.

A/N 1367 words, not including this.  It is currently 2 in the morning and here I am writing because I feel like it.  I know this is drastically different from the first draft, but I didn't feel like making this into a full story.  Suggestions for one shots are open. PLEASE give constructive criticism.  This took forever to write.  Hope you enjoy! :)