midnight calls | jarchie

awkward silence

it's a new day, with new thoughts, new feelings, and a new party that jughead doesn't wanna be at, but he is. 

archie was the one who wanted to go to the party, so he convinced jughead to go too, but they had set up a list of rules;

1. don't show up together, it has to be at least half an hour between their entrances.

2. don't talk to each other too much when others are around.

3. don't start a fight.

it seemed silly to have rules about how to behave at a party that is made for having fun, but they did what they had to.

jughead didn't care that much about keeping it all a secret and having rules, but he did it anyway, because archie cared, and he cared a lot.

jughead had been at the party for about an hour and he hadn't noticed archie showing up, but he forgot about it quickly, when he heard betty's voice yelling his name. he turns around and looks at her, she looks excited and has a big smile on her face. "i never thought i'd see you at a party," she yells and hugs jughead. "especially not a party that i no one forced you to go to," she says as she lets go of him

jughead scratches his neck "yeah no, i thought i'd get out of my comfort zone and do something else than just be in my room all day," he says loudly for betty to hear him, and betty nods. betty then says something, but jughead can't hear it, the music and the people at the party are too loud. "i can't hear you," he says. 

"what?"

"i said, i can't hear you!" he yells this time.

betty says something, then she looks around for a few seconds and grabs jugheads arm and drags him out of the cluster of people, and walks up the stairs. a few people are sitting and standing in the middle of the stairs, so it's hard to get upstairs, but when they do, it's still way too loud for them to be able to have a normal conversation.

betty opens a door, and looks in. it was a bathroom with two girls, in it, one is puking, and the other talks to someone over the phone. "sorry!" betty yells and closes the door.

she opens another one, and on the other side, there's an empty bedroom. she takes jughead with her inside and closes the door. they can still hear music and inaudible screaming, but it's not as loud anymore.

"so, what were you saying?" jughead says and sits down on the bed. 

"just that i'm happy to see you," she says, and looks at jughead. he doesn't know what to say, so he stays quiet. betty walks up to him, then sits down beside him. "i'm really... happy to see you," she leans in and kisses jughead, but she gets pushed away quickly.

jughead looks at her, he's confused. "the fuck, betty?" her face gets red, and she stands up and starts walking around in the room. "you- you thought i liked you?" he asks confused, and betty stops up for a second, and nods. "why would i like you, that's stupid," he says as he looks down.

betty looks at him, she's waiting for him to look up at her, but he won't. "i just-"

"just because you're used to getting everything you want, and any guy you want, doesn't mean everyone is fucking in love with you!" jughead yells, then he looks up at her and realizes her eyes are watering up.

jughead calms himself down, and walks up to her and puts his hand on her shoulder. she quickly pushes him away. "what the fuck is your problem? huh? we've been friends for fucking years, and then when summer break started you just stopped talking to me, and now you're like this?" she screams loudly to him, and he backs off. "what did i do? why won't you fucking like me?" she starts crying. 

jughead never knows what to do in a situation where someone cries, but at least he knows that hugs tend to work, so he hugs betty. "i didn't mean to be a dick," he says in a calm voice while betty sobs. 

betty holds jughead tight, and she struggles to get her words out while she's crying. "just- am i not- is it because i'm not pretty enough you don't like me?" she says, and jughead lifts her head and looks at her.

"no, you're beautiful betty it's just-" he gets cut off.

"then what is it? am i not funny? not kind enough? just please-" this time she gets cut off instead.

"betty, i'm gay,"

silence.