Riverdale Ships One-Shots// ON HOLD

Lavender

She didn't ask his mother's maiden name, so he didn't tell her what it was. She ordered a cheesecake and didn't offer to share it with him, so he didn't ask. She didn't want to fight him over the bill, he just payed like it was expected that he would; that not doing that would be the worst thing to happen in the history of the world. But somehow, the thing that bothers him the most is that she doesn't smell like lavender. She smells nice, of course, but she doesn't smell like lavender.

Joyce is a nice girl, a cute, shy brunette scrub nurse whom he had just learned the name of three days ago when she spoke up in an OR. He only learned her name because Archie told him to, saying that it'd help him get over Betty. "A new girl to fuck is always a good idea to move on." His best friend was a terrible human being, a major fuckboy. Thank God that Veronica had shown up and he'd gotten feelings for her, getting that out of him. It was getting tiring having to deal with nurses judging him for being friends with him.

But Joyce isn't her. She's not blonde, sarcastic, and outgoing. She doesn't smell like lavender. She isn't going to give him a hard time about everything, banter with him. She gets weirded out by some of the more odd things he says, instead of just humoring him. She wasn't a girl in a bar, and he wasn't wearing his red shirt. Joyce is kind, patient, and very shy, go with the flow. It was pretty sure she wouldn't fight for everything she needed to and put him in his place when he was an asshole. Just from her voice, he isn't ready to get down on one knee and propose.

Only one girl has ever made him feel like that, Betty. She, however, dumped him at Cheryl's not wedding two months ago. Everyone, including them, knew that they weren't over each other. Still, he'd decided to try to move on. Part of the decision was to make Betty jealous, for sure. A bigger part of it was so Archie would just let him be and stop telling him the name of girls that he should go out with, all of whom worked for the hospital too.

So, he agreed to a second date, trying to put Betty out of his mind. It didn't work, and they were still awkward. She wasn't close to Betty, at all. For a rebound, however, she was an excellent choice.

--

She starts sneaking kisses in the scrub room before surgeries and in the OR when it's safe to. Joyce is a great girl, but she's also a terrible girlfriend for him. One time, just to see how she'd react, he was a douche. A massive douche. He got tips from Topaz and Archie on how to do that, both offended but giving him the advice he needed. All Joyce did was sigh and let him work it out. Betty, on the other hand, called him on his bullshit and put him in his place.

Even though he was in love with Betty, Joyce wanted the things he wanted. Settling wasn't a terrible idea, but he realized that that's why his last marriage had failed. He was in love with the idea of Joyce, not Joyce herself. The whole time, he was still comparing her to Betty. She never really changed any of the things he had noticed on their first date.

When he realized what had happened, his ex wife, Angelica, conveniently had a surgery in Seattle on that day. Since they were on good terms, he confided in her what had happened.

"Jughead, she's the reason you and I divorced! Well, my cheating had a part in it, but our marriage truly fell apart when you fell in love with her and tried to convince yourself you were in love with me. Joyce is a great girl, for someone who is actually in love with her. You still look at Betty the way that you did when you were dating, the way that I knew you two were meant to be. I knew that because you never looked at me like that, and you sure as hell don't look at Joyce like that," Angelica reprimanded her ex husband.

That's what it took for him to realize that she wasn't the one, and that he had to break up with her. "Thank you, Angelica. I've got to go find Joyce. And then Betty." With that, he ran out of the room.

Joyce was at the nurse's station, as per usual. She was always there at this time and he always visited her. "Hey, babe," she smiled at him, walking over to give him a peck on the lips.

"Can we go somewhere private?" Jughead nervously asked her. He didn't know how well she would take this, which makes sense, considering she loves him and he doesn't.

She leads him to a miraculously empty on-call room. "Here we are, a private space."

Jughead couldn't help but chuckle at that, she was funny. That made this so much worse. "I have to tell you something you're not going to like, and I hate that I'm going to break you, but you have to promise me you won't punch me."

"I won't punch you. What terrible thing did you do this time?" Joyce asks, chuckling. She has no clue what he's about to tell her, and this makes this that much worse.

He takes a deep breath, "I'm breaking up with you." Short and sweet, ripping the bandage right off.

It's very obvious that she was not expecting him to say that, at all. The brunette's eyes are full of tears, "Why? Jughead, I thought we were doing good. What did I do?"

This is not a scenario he recommends for anyone, as it's painful, even if you're the one doing the breaking up and in love with someone else. 0/10 on Yelp. "You don't smell like lavender," he responds. She smells nice, but it's not lavender.

"I can change my perfume. Jughead, you can't just break up with me because I don't smell like lavender," Joyce is sobbing by this point. He briefly considers not breaking up with her, but that'd do more harm than good.

He whispers, "I'm sorry, Joyce, but it's over," before she runs out of the room. Great, now he's going to have a hard time getting a scrub nurse.

As he moves to close the door and actually sleep, a familiar voice says, "Well, that was a dumb reason to dump her."

Betty. That voice belongs to Betty. "This makes finding you that much easier."

"You just dumped a girl, in an on-call room, two hours before she was supposed to be in one of your surgeries. Good luck finding a new scrub nurse, they all hate you now. They do, however, love me," Betty replies from the top bunk. She's right, absolutely right. Of course she is, it's Betty. Even if Jughead doesn't always agree with her, she's always right in the end.

He chuckles, "Well, I may need an assist from my favorite resident."

"You just say that because I had sex with you and the others didn't," she teases him.

He smiles, forgetting how much she can make him do that. "You may be right there, but there's something serious I need to say to you."

"Well, I smell like lavender," she smiles. "Was that your way of saying you weren't over me?"

She always knows what he's thinking. "Yep."

"You know what goes on in here, why bother pretending we're classier than that?" Betty evilly smirks.

♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️♀️

This is a great one.

Later loves,

~Ry