Lost (in Your Emerald Eyes)

N I N E

Enjoy this long chapter (((((:

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"Oof." Betty loosened her arms involuntarily as Jughead laughed, helping her climb off the bike before doing the same himself.

"You okay there?" he chuckled as the girl tugged the helmet off, getting her breathing back into rhythm. "You were squeezing me pretty hard—"

"You fucking sped up," she exhaled, gasping air right back into her lungs afterward. Jughead laughed, bucking his head a bit, and took the helmet from her gently.

"Sorry, I was pretty sure you were used to the bike already so I wanted to have some fun."

Pointing at him with her index finger slightly, she murmured, "I'll never ride with you ever again." That made the guy laugh again and Betty huffed quietly, rolling her eyes at him. "You're in a good mood."

"You're cute."

A small smile appeared on her lips as she opened her backpack. When she looked back up for a second, the boy was gazing around, more peaceful than she had ever seen him. That made her smile a bit more as she pulled out her camera bag and took the device out, hanging it around her neck.

She focused on getting the black bag back into the backpack when suddenly Jughead spoke up. "Woah, how much did that cost?"

The blonde looked up, seeing him staring at the camera, and shrugged. "It's not the best model, so it wasn't too expensive."

"How much are the expensive ones?"

She chuckled. "I don't know, too much apparently." She bit her tongue not to start complaining about her family and siblings who always seemed to be more important than she was.

Jughead nodded, understanding she didn't like the topic much, and left it there, nudging his head towards a small path. "We gotta walk for a bit."

"Okay," she smiled, already loving the thick forest they were in and not possibly imagining where he was taking her. As they climbed over a huge tree branch that had probably fallen during some storm, she asked, "You aren't trying to murder me or anything, right?"

"I mean that would leave me with more food..." Her eyes met his, giggling as she saw the smirk on his face.

"I don't eat much, don't worry about that."

"Okay," he simply said.

Betty's hands worked on turning the camera on and she stopped a few seconds after, staring at a bird sitting above them on a tree. Jughead was standing on his place, patiently waiting for her, and the blonde felt incredibly thankful for that. She quickly worked on the settings, eyes flying between checking if the bird was still present and switching to the right mode and shutter speed.

She could sense Jughead's eyes on her as she leaned her elbow against the trunk of the tree and brought the DSLR towards her face. Her left eye was gently pressed shut, the right one stared into the viewfinder, quiet noises escaping the device in her hands as she took a few photos.

She didn't look at how they came out and rather changed the mode, bending her knees a bit while focusing the lens on a completely another thing. She smiled as she stood normally again, lowering the camera, and walked to Jughead. "Sorry," she murmured and started walking down the narrow path, feeling embarrassed about him watching her.

The guy stayed quiet, not asking anything, neither of the two speaking a thing during their ten-minute trip through the woods. Betty had always felt awkward on dates, especially if neither knew what to talk, but this time it was nice. The silence was relaxing to her ears, and she didn't have to look back to know that Jughead was behind her, hearing the shuffling steps every second.