Jughead pushed the remains of his second helping of Alice Cooper's excellent brunch around on his plate, wondering if it would be a good move to go for a third. Probably not.
Across the table from him, Betty made a show of checking the time. "Oh, I almost forgot, Polly wanted me to stop by and see the twins now," she said to her parents, at opposite ends of the table. "Jughead, do you want to come with us?" She widened her eyes at him.
"No, I, ah, I wanted to talk to your parents a little more. You can pick me up later, Betts." Hal and Alice exchanged significant looks. "The car's all packed and everything, it won't take long."
Betty flashed him a smile as she gave her parents hugs goodbye. "It'll be okay," she whispered in his ear as she pecked him on the cheek.
"You're surprisingly positive," Jughead grumbled.
"That's because I get to leave," Betty grinned wickedly. "See you later," she said in a louder voice. "Bye Mom, bye Dad!"
The door closed. Jughead hunched down a little lower in his seat.
"Why don't you come into the parlor, Jug Head?" Alice asked, pronouncing his name in the way that only Alice could, halfway between parody and disgust.
Of course they want to do this in the parlor. Jughead regretfully abandoned his plate, picked up his messenger bag, and followed Hal into the parlor, a little-used room that embodied the 1950s even more than the rest of the house did.
Hal and Alice settled down on a pristine white couch. Jughead gingerly eased himself onto a flowered armchair that was even less comfortable than it looked.
There was a long, long pause. Jughead shifted position three times.
"Do you know how to get back to Boston?" Hal asked suddenly. "I could print you out directions if you want."
"Uh, no, I'm good, we have GPS," Jughead said, taken aback. "It's basically just a straight shot east on I-90, anyway."
"Hal," Alice said, a smile still affixed to her face, "Jughead has something to talk to us about. Let's let him talk."
Jughead swallowed. "So, ah. Betty and I -- we've been together for a long time now. We've both finished college, we're living together, we're..." He was taken aback by the way that Alice and Hal were hanging on his every word, paying him more attention than he'd ever received from them before. He had a fleeting urge to raise his hand and gesture, to see if their heads would follow.
"Go on, Jug Head," Alice said. Hal nodded vigorously.
The weight of the ring he'd bought two weeks before was heavy in his pocket. "We live together, we have good jobs, we love each other, and uh -- I wanted to let you know, I'm going to ask her to marry me soon." Alice and Hal sat back, tension seeping from their bodies, then coiling back inside of them. "That's all."
Another very long pause. Jughead's stomach gurgled. Too little food, or too much? That was the question.
"Don't you have anything else to ask?" Hal said finally.
Jughead thought hard. He'd covered college graduation, good jobs, love, what else? Oh, right. "Betty wanted to ask if you still had the recipe for cherries jubilee, I think? But you can email that over to her."
"Not about that," Alice said irritably. "Don't you have something you want to ask Hal?"
Jughead blinked. Hal Cooper had always been something of a nonentity, barely interfering in his and Betty's relationship -- barely seeming to be present, honestly. "Uh, if he wants to take a look at the car before we head out, he can, but I just got the oil changed a couple of weeks ago -- "
