Bugheads Baby

The Blond or the Bar?

Bettys pov
Jughead leaves the room. A million scary possibilities fly through my head. What if he gets hurt? What if he gets killed? How can I help him? Despite his very authoritative instructions to remain complacent in my room, I slightly open the door to see anything at all. Luckily his office door when opened looked out over the whole right-side of the bar. But just my luck that only meant the stipper poles, stage and the chairs and tables. And no Jughead. I leave the room and peek around the wall that serves as one side of the stairs, I can see another blond lady who is older than jughead, and is surrounded by buff looking Ghoulies. I think that's what large boy called them. No, tallboy that's it, I make a mental note.

Jugheads pov
"Go away penny!" I snarl at her. She knows that she can't start a fight in here, she's out-numbered 10 to 50. "Oh, calm down Jonesy! Lighten up, just here for a drink." Fangs throws a knife right towards the liquor at the bar. "Oops, guess there's nothing left to drink." He says.

"Oh well, I guess we can stay for the hospitality..." she trails off and her eyes dart to the top of the stairs, and her lips turn into a snarl. "Hey blondie, come here!" Penny yells. My heart skips a beat and I am beyond angry at her for leaving my office. Betty makes her way down the stairs and looks at me apologetically. The serpents part for her, creating an aisle for her to walk down. Penny starts "That's Alice coopers kid, that bitch Alice is always trashing us in her Northside paper. What a prize for the rest of the Ghoulies." She says. Betty looks terrified, just as she is about to walk past me and into the claws of the devil, I grab her by the waist and pull her tight to me. Betty slightly fumbles on her feet, but then I place her behind me in a protective hold. Why am I doing this?

Pennys pov
"Jonesy, giver up," I say with a forced smile. "No" he snarls back. She's terrified and it's hilarious. "Ohhh Jones, you just gave up your weakness... Her... that's much better than any prize. The Ghoulies are going to keep pushing and pushing that weakness until you give up the bar. "Over my dead body," he replies. "Or hers" I come back. "Fine fine fine, this is my last deal. 1. You give her to me and we leave your gang alone. 2. You keep her and we slowly keep targeting your weakness until there are no serpents left to fill the bar." He doesn't answer, which agitates me.

Jugheads pov
"Get. Out. Of MY bar." I yell at her. The serpents all cheer me on. Pride... is really the only word that could describe this moment. Penny leaves, visually pissed off and the serpents all get back to what they were doing, while also not so subtly watching my next move with Betty. I focus my attention back to her and she releases the strong hold she has on my arm. I turn around and ask "Are you ok?". "Mmhm," she replies. "I think I'm just going to go home". I tentatively ask "Do you want me to take you." She nods.

Betty pov
We leave the bar and I see many eyes on us. Jughead has become much less affectionate and instead is extremely distant. We walk over to the multiple bikes parked out the front. I pause in my tracks and he looks at me confused. "What?" He asks. "I will NOT get on that thing." "He looks over at his bike and says, "It's fine, you'll have a helmet on, and I have never crashed before." I do a pro-con list in my head and eventually say, "Ok. Just, go slow." He just reply's "Oh no. It's actually much more dangerous if we go slow, your going to need to hold on princess."

I get him to pull over a street before mine. I get off and thank him. As I begin to walk he follows slowly next to me on his bike. After 2 minutes I finally stop and say "What are you doing?" "Are you ashamed of me. Is that why you wanted me to park far away from your house?" he asks. I reply with emphasis "Gosh no. If I went home on a bike, my mum would come out with a shot-gun. And I would prefer if you weren't dead." He chuckles at that. I go up to him and he kills the engine. I pull him into a hug, which he clearly is tentative to embrace, so I say "I promise I won't tell anyone." He then hugs me back. I say at an almost incomprehensible sound, "bye Juggy." Just like last time I said that he seems taken aback by it. But ends up saying a volume that matched mine, "Bye Betts."

I walk inside my house and there is my mother sitting on the sofa reading my journal. I run over to her and snatch it out of her hands. "What the hell do you think you're doing mother." "Where have you been Elizabeth? And don't say with Archie and Veronica, because they arrived at Archie's house over 4 hours ago." "What. So now your spying on my friends. That still doesn't explain why you were reading my journal." "I wanted to see if you were out with a boy. Boys are catalysts for a destructive future." She continues. "MOM. I wasn't out with a boy." I lied through my teeth. "Then where were you Elizabeth?!" Most parents would then add, 'I was worried sick', but no, not my mother. "If you must know, I was at a job interview." Her mood changes instantly, I dodged a lecture, but just dug my self deeper into lies. "Ohh Elizabeth, Why didn't you tell me?!" "Mabey because you were lecturing me?" "Nonsense... So.... Where is it?" "The register? The mayoral office? Oh, Elizabeth is it the law firm?" Think Betty think, I'm trying to think of something, something that my mum wouldn't what to check out. "Actually, I'm an English Admin teacher at Riverdale high." "Ohh Elizabeth, I'm so proud of you." I internally beg for her to just leave it there... "How much do you make?" She follows up. Of course, she goes there. "Um, I'm not sure yet, principal honey didn't say, but he did say he's glad to have his model student back." I'm digging much deeper into a pit of lies. "Hey mum I'm quite tired, I think I'm going to sleep." I walk up the stairs to avoid the question that she was bound to ask. Like, 'Why was my interview so late?'

All I know is that I have to find a job tomorrow or she'll notice that I'm not making any money. But I need to choose somewhere where she can't find me. Arrrr. I lay on my bed, and the second my head hits the pillow I'm asleep.