Alone Together | Bughead Oneshots

Everything I Feared

Timeset: 4x18

Song Credit: "Jealous" by Labrinth

{TW: Cheating, Suggestion of suicide}

"Jug, I have...I have to tell you something."

He could tell by the way her voice wavered and eyes watered that whatever news she had to break was not going to be good.

"O-Okay."

They sat beside each other on the couch, a small sigh preceding Betty's words as her hand fell on top of his. Her eyes closed as if she could already see him pulling away after each syllable of her confession hit his ears and she was desperate to savor whatever right she had to love and hold him.

"I, um--" She paused, bringing her hand to her face and wiping away a tear from her red and puffy eyes. "Baby, it's okay. You can tell me. You can tell me anything," Jughead said softly, on hand on her back and the other still under the blonde's palm.

"I, uh, I was with...I was with Archie the night before the, uh...the variety show at Pop's," she paused, her expression completely dropping, now displaying melancholy disappointment in herself. "The night we had our fight."

It was almost as if Jughead already knew what to expect, and he was using every ounce of energy in him to deny, deny, deny. "Okay--" "And we were rehearsing with just the two of us because he got into a fight with Veronica and," her voice raised with more shame coating it with every word she spoke.

"But I was just so...so angry and confused and we...we kissed." Betty had already hated herself for what she'd done and what she had continued to do after that rehearsal, but it took the look on Jughead's face for her to want to walk herself to the guillotine and pull the rope.

"And then he...came up to me in the Blue & Gold after the show and," Betty paused again, feeling the slow pull of his hands from her body, a chill running up her spine without the warmth of his hand on her back. "And he asked me to meet him in the bunker--"

"Betty," Jughead sighed, his eyes locked on the ground before his head slowly rose to meet hers. "Please. I don't want details, but I need to know. Did you...did you sleep with him?" "No!" Betty answered, her hands reaching out for him as she cried out, "I never did and never would do that to you. Or myself."

He pulled away from her hands as he stood up, his hand coming to his lips as she tried to explain. "I really didn't want to, but I did, I met him and...we just...we talked and sat around but I kept thinking about you. I just wanted to know what I was feeling--"

"Do you love him?" Jughead asked, his stance solidifying as closed his eyes, wishing to hear-- "No. No, not...not like that." "Then how, Betty?" He asked, his voice raising as tears started streaming from his eyes. "In the way that lets you cheat on me with him? In the way that brings you into his arms the second we disagree about something? How?"

"Jug, I've known him forever, he was my first crush, I--" "But I loved you first!" He yelled, causing silence to fall over the two before the blonde stood up, murmuring his name as he collected his thoughts. "Ever since I first saw you, I knew. I was in love with you before I even knew your name."

"But you know what else? I was a poor kid, living on the Southside with a drunk dad and a trailer for a home while you slept in a cozy bed on Elm Street. I knew you could never love me, but every day that doubt and that mentality I had started to fade. And the second," Jughead paused, his voice cracking and heart slowly dying.

"The second I let myself believe you loved me as much as I loved you, I'm back in that kindergarten classroom knowing that Princess Betty would never choose me over that ginger prince." "No," Betty cried, her voice deep and begging for forgiveness. "No, that's not true."

"So everything you just told me was a lie? You two didn't kiss? You didn't go to the bunker with him?" "No, that was...that was all true, but believe me, Jug. I love you so, so much and I never meant to hurt or lose you."

"Well, Betty, you failed," Jughead said, walking towards the door and putting his hand on the doorknob before turning around. "You just did both," were his last words before walking out. That was the only night since unenrolling from Stonewall Prep that he didn't come home.