photo is cole sprouse as jughead jones

***

"Are you okay?"

Luna heard the voice moments before her eyes finally opened.

She didn't know where she was, and she was immediately freaked out.

What if they took her?

Just like they took her brother?

"Woah, calm down, calm down," the voice said when her chest started to rise and fall quickly.

How was she supposed to calm down?

Her eyes still weren't open, in fact, she never wanted them to open. What if she saw something she didn't want to see, what if-

"It's Jughead."

Her eyes flew open, it was actually quite surprising to her.

She looked around quickly after sitting herself up on her elbows, she was in a room with decorated wallpaper.

Her vision was a bit blurry, she could tell there was a face above her, she could see a few faces scattered around.

Soon her eyes came into focus, and she saw who was around her.

To her right was Betty and Veronica, to her left was Archie, and right above her was Jughead.

"Hi," was all she said to him, and he sort of smiled.

"I kind of saw you fall," Jughead shrugged, "you weren't that far away."

Archie nodded and Betty stared at him, Veronica nudging her.

"You okay?" Archie spoke up, shifting and smiling lopsidedly.

"I don't know, probably," she scooted up the flowery sheets of the bed, all of them sitting on the sides of the mattress.

"So," Luna dragged the word, feeling awkward suddenly. "when does school start?"

"Really?" Jughead scoffed in a joking way, "do you really want to talk about school right now?"

Luna shrugged, "I'll talk about anything."

"Can we talk about that red headed she devil then," Veronica rolled her eyes.

"Who?" Luna furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"You haven't met Cheryl yet?" Archie tilted his head to the side slightly.

Luna shook her head and Betty snorted, "Lucky."

"Why? What's so bad about her?"

"You'll find out," Jughead laughed.

"I hope to God you don't," Betty commented, smiling.

"By the way, school starts in 2 days."

Everyone groaned, excluding Luna and Betty, but Betty smiled widely.

"But, two days!" Luna groaned. "July 5th? That's so early, in my old school we got back in September."

"Well, I should be going-"

When Luna started to get up, Jughead pushed a hand down on her abdomen, forcing her back to the mattress again.

"Oh no you don't," Veronica brought Jughead's thoughts to life.

"You still need to get better," Archie finished Veronica's sentence.

"My mom agreed to let you stay here, which kind of isn't normal," Betty laughed. "so she must like you."

"I don't think she likes me," Veronica frowned somewhat comically.

"She does," Betty reassured her. "I think."

They laughed, and Luna fell back on the bed, hitting her head on the headboard by accident.

"Ow," Luna rubbed the back of her head and felt something wet.

She pulled her fingers to her eyes and what she saw made her gag, and her scream was choked by the sound of that.

There was blood.

Her fingers were coated in it.

"Oh, that, we should change the bandage..." Archie trailed off.

Jughead stifled a laugh and Luna kicked him in his side.

"Why am I not in the hospital!?" Luna started to feel her heart start beating faster again.

"Well, it didn't seem, that bad," Veronica shrugged, smiling tightly.

"How did this even happen?! I fell into your chest, right Archie?" Luna looked at the red haired boy for confirmation.

"Well I might have gotten a bit startled and dropped you to the concrete," Archie smiled apologetically. "But hey, you're still alive!"

Luna's eyes widened as she stared at her fingers before Betty wiped them with a tissue.

"Betty! What the hell, you aren't even saying anything?" Luna was shocked.

"Well," Betty trailed off. "it isn't that bad, even then, you didn't have the symptoms of a concussion-"

"But what if I do have a concussion?" Luna furrowed her eyebrows and Jughead laughed.

"You'll be fine, and if you aren't, I shall gladly take the blame," Jughead shrugged.

Luna squinted her eyes before gladly flipping up her middle finger at Jughead.

"I hate you."

"Aw, thanks," Jughead smiled.

"Well, I uh-" Archie cleared his throat, smiling at Luna. "I have to go, but uh, bye guys!"

Archie waved goodbye and told Luna to get better, and try to avoid physically hurting him any further than she already had, which caused her to laugh.

Jughead and Veronica left eventually too, leaving Luna alone with Betty in her very floral room.

"Hey, Betty," Luna smiled, crossing her legs.

Betty smiled and looked down, waving.

There was a knock at the door and the person, not bothering to wait for an answer, opened the door immediately after.

What was the point in knocking if you were going to walk in anyways?

"Hi, Betty, hi, Luna?" Betty's mother said questioningly.

Luna nodded, signaling that she was right and had said the correct name.

"Good, good," she looked over to Betty. "how's Archie? And Kevin, and Veronica."

"Oh, good," Betty smiled warily and gave Luna a look that only she could see.

Her mom obviously had a problem with one of the three people she had named, or maybe it was two, or maybe it was all.

Betty's mom kept that smile on her face and there was an uncomfortable silence for a while, Betty was suddenly taken by the shoulders.

Her mom whispered something incoherent in her ear and Betty just closed her eyes, taking deep breaths and nodding.

"Night," Betty's mom said after pulling away from her and leaving.

Betty smiled slightly at me, "My mom is special."

I nodded, scooting over on the bed.

"No, no, I can sleep on the couch or some-"

"Are you homophobic Betty?"

"What, no! Of course not! I have a gay friend! Wait, that doesn't mean I'm not homophobic or I mean I'm not — I'm not homophobic, I just happen to have a homosexual friend," Betty blurted out.

Luna laughed at Betty's neuroticism, "You have no reason to not get in this bed and sleep with me."

"Well that kind of sounds like," Betty trailed off, eyes widening as hers locked with Luna's. "never mind."

Betty got into her night clothes, after much coaxing from Luna that is.

She climbed into the bed and sat very tense.

"Calm down," Luna smiled, turning to face Betty and closing her eyes.

She couldn't see Betty's face, but she was kind of smiling.

She timidly put her arm around Luna, Luna nodding as if to give her permission.

Luna moved closer to Betty until it was physically impossible for them to move any closer to each other.

"Night, Betty," Luna told her.

"Night, Luna," Betty breathed shakily, nuzzling her face into Luna's neck.

***

The next day Luna was finally allowed to leave Betty's house, permission courtesy of Betty.

She made thousands of excuses and it was kind of funny.

Luna just went out in her same gray sweatshirt, gray leggings, and black sneakers.

She was looking down, eyes fixated on her sneakers as she walked, when she suddenly remebered the text that caused all of this.

"Holy shit," Luna said out loud, turning around only to come face to face with a pale-ish red head.

"Oh, hello," Luna had to admit that she was startled, the girl seemed to just appear.

"I'm trying to walk here," she looked Luna up and down. "But I haven't seen you here before."

"I'm new to town, whoops," Luna did not appreciate the tone in her voice, and she wasn't one to take crap from anybody.

"I didn't mean to offend you, however I do mean to tell you that you dress like a homeless person," the girl shook her head, curled fiery orange-red hair bouncing around.

"Sorry I don't dress like the queen," Luna rolled her eyes, referring to the girl's white attire. "or like I'm getting married."

"Well I'm sorry I take pride in my dress, Mrs. I'm-So-Boring-I-Have-To-Dye-My-Hair-So-People-Will-Notice-Me, at least my hair is naturally interesting," the girl clapped back.

"I dye my hair for me and only me, the only thing that's interesting about you is your face, I can't help but wonder, 'what accident was she in?' or 'how much surgery did she have?'"

The girl scoffed, "Hate to break it to you, wannabe Barney, but this is all natural. Oh wait, I would love to break it to you."

She walked off and Luna couldn't just stop there, "Actually purple is quite a beautiful color, and my name is Luna you wannabe orangutan!"

The girl turned around, "My name is actually Cheryl, not Ken Allen, and I'm on my way to Sweetwater River, not San Diego Zoo."

"Cheryl is there a problem?" there was suddenly a hand on Luna's shoulder and she felt someone pass her.

And suddenly, there before her, was two red-haired teens with white attire who looked as if they were going to a wedding at the San Diego Zoo.

"No, I was just leaving, Barney, here actually," Cheryl narrowed her eyes at Luna and scoffed, spinning around.

The guy, who she didn't know was the one and only Jason Blossom at the time, looked her up and down before following after Cheryl.

What Luna also didn't know is that she, besides Cheryl, would supposedly be the last person to see Jason Blossom alive.

So that's who the red headed demon is, Luna thought.

And then she remembered Anthony, and the text, and it all came flooding back to her.

But it all washed away when a familiar car came up right behind her, honking it's horn.

Luna turned around, suddenly facing the smirk of the great Anthony Martinez.

"Need a ride?"