ATHENA WALKED WITH a flashing smiling. Today she woke up feeling better than ever.

Walking to the break room Athena bumped into Cheryl. "Hey Thea"

"Hey Cheryl" Athena had missed Cheryl but with everything going on she didn't find the time to talk to her.

"Where are you off to?"

"I was actually going to your hobo of friends" She smiled hooking her arm with Athena's. Rolling her eyes Athena followed behind.

Inside the room was everyone of the gang was there plus Valerie. Athena glaze immediately to Betty and Jughead. Ignoring her heart Cheryl pulls her into the small chair.

Athena struggled to sit as the chair was small but nevertheless she stayed quiet. She frowned inside of herself when Jughead glanced at her. He knew she was uncomfortable yet didn't make a move to make room of the couch that him and Betty took all the room.

After sitting down Betty starts to talk.  "Polly's convinced herself that no one wants her baby."

"Besides, of course, the child-snatching Blossom monsters. No offense, Cheryl." Kevin said.

" None taken." Cheryl relied but rolling her eyes.

"So your mom and dad want Polly but not the baby, and the Blossoms want the baby and not Polly." Jughead asked as Betty nodded.

"That's a true Gordian knot." He adds jokingly making Athena giggle but quickly covers it with a cough when he looks at her.

"It's an impossible situation." Betty muttered.

"Betty, come on."  Veronica moves closer to her. "An impossible situation is being invited to both the Vanity Flair Oscar party and Elton John's Oscar party on the same night." Placing his hand on Veronica shoulder Kevin gasped.

"Which happened to me one year, I know." Veronica looks at Kevin with a smile before turning to Betty again.

"This is merely an annoying situation. But luckily, I've been percolating on an idea, hellishly simple in its conception."
What if my mom and I were to host a baby shower?" Veronica suggested.

"Count me in." Cheryl gleemed with a smile.

"You want Polly to feel loved and supported, right?"

"Yeah, but ideally by her own parents." Betty replied.

"Okay, so, baby steps, girl."

"Get Polly and your parents in the same room in a public setting where they can't fight, and, voila, let the healing begin." Laughing lightly Athena shook her head.

"Am I expected to come to this thing?" Jughead asked with a smile.

"Of course! You're Betty's boyfriend, so..." Veronica stopped mid sentence and turned to Athena while everyone stayed quiet.

A flash of pain and jealousy flew by Athena's eyes but she looked away before she would see Veronica's eyes of pity. Everyone in the room were giving her pity eyes expect for Jughead and Betty who were smiling at each other and Valerie who didn't know anything.

"Oh, my God, you guys, relax. It's just a word that starts with the letter "B." Veronica added trying to lighten the mood.

"Betty, what do you say?" Changing the subject but before Betty could reply her mom appeared.

"Elizabeth Cooper."

"Mom?"

"I need you and you. Right now." Alice said pointing to Betty and Veronica.

Leaving the room it was a bit awkward. Getting up Athena moved to sit where Veronica was rubbing behind her thighs. They were hurting from hanging off the chair uncomfortablely.

After a few minutes of talking Archie stood up with Valerie saying goodbye. Kevin left shortly after as well. As soon as Cheryl got up to leave Athena got up too. "I'll go with you." Athena said not wanting to be alone with Jughead.

She saw Jughead frown but didn't say anything. Cheryl knew what she was trying to do so she wrapped her arm around her and started walking off leaving Jughead behind with confusion.

- ♚ -

THE NEXT DAY Athena got a text from Archie asking her to bring food for 6 people. Agreeing she started to make food.

She loved cooking and Archie knew that so he knew she wouldn't mind making food for them.

Walking towards the door she carried three bags full with food, snacks and drinks. "Need help?" Anthony asked when he saw his sister.

"Sure" Athena handed him two bags before grabbing her jacket and car keys.

Opening her jeep she set down the food bags. "Thanks tony."

"Hey Thea, we're okay right?" Antony asked looking a bit off.

"Of course, you're my brother we'll always be okay." Smiling Athena pulled him for a hug. "Ugh no need for hugs." Laughing Athena patted him before entering her jeep. "See you later tony."

Arriving at the construction site Athena noticed the boys entering the tailer.

"Hey, guys, you were a life-saver today. I appreciate it. Hard hats go in the bin, and there's sodas in the fridge." She smiled hearing Fred.

"No worries I brought you guys food." Athena said surprising the guys when they heard her voice.

Jughead was the closest to her so grabbed the bags from her. "Thanks." She whispered.

"Wow Thea this is good!" Moose said taking a bite of his burrito. Kevin moaned nodding taking a bite as well. "Damn you're so good Thea."

Athena just laughed settleing her stuff down, that's when she noticed she didn't have her dinner with her. "I'll be right back guys I forgot my food."

Jughead got up "I'll get it for you" but Athena shook her head. "No its fine plus you need to eat."

Once outside she sighed but turned around when she saw Moose also following her. "I forgot my phone" He explained.
Laughing Athena walked by him. "So how's everything?" Athena asked.

"Well..hey!" Moose suddenly yelled making Athena look at what he was screaming at.

She gasped looking as a guy destroyed Fred's electricity truck. "Hey, get away from there!"

It happened so fast one of the guy charged at Moose while a other grabbed Athena. "Let me go!" She yelled.

"Thea run!" Moose screamed as the guy hit him with a bat. "No stop! Stop hitting please! Stop!" Athena sobbed trying to break free from the guy's grasp.

She bit down of the guy's hand making him yelp letting her go. She ran to the other guy and pushed him from Moose but before she could scream again she felt someone grab her hair and slap her.

Groaning Athena fell to the ground but the guy grabbed her again this time away from her mouth.

The other guy resumed hitting Moose. "No stop" She whimpered but he didn't stop.

"Help!" She screamed loudly which caused Jughead to get up and running to the door. "What the..?" Kevin said but when the lightly went out everyone ran outside to see what was happening.

Once Jughead saw what was happening he started running faster but the guys noticed and ran off.

The guy holding Athena threw her to the ground before getting on his truck. Athena crawled over to Moose but before she could reach him she felt arms wrap around her pulling her up.

"Nia.." She looked up to see Jughead holding. He pulled her closely to him breathing in her neck and hair.

"Moose are you alright?" Fred was already on the ground helping him.

"Stay down. We'll get you some help." He added when he tried to get up.

"Who did this to you, Moose?"

"No clue." Moose then turned to Athena. "Thea you're okay? They hit you pretty hard" Moose tried to get up again but Fred kept him down.

"Those son of bitches hit you?" Jughead growled looking around her to see any injuries but only saw her cheek red and her lip bleeding.

"I'm fine" she shook her head but Archie was with her right away. "Athena are you sure you're okay?" Fred asked again concerned for her. Athena nodded not moving from Jughead's arms. She felt safe in his arms.

"But they said, as long as we keep working, they're gonna keep coming back." Moose finally said looking at Fred.

As he finished his sentence Fred got up angrily and walked off with Archie following him. Jughead turned Athena towards him touching her face. "Look what those bastards did to you." Jughead muttered looking at her. "Its okay Jug, I'm okay now." Athena whispered.

"Still whoever did this wi..."

"Hey" Athena placed her hands on his face pulling him close. "Its okay. I'm here with you now." She saw Jughead look at her lips before looking back up.

Feeling hot out of the sudden she pulled away biting her lip. She turned and went to Moose who was now sitting on a rock. "Hey how are you?" Holding a ice pack on his head he smiled. "Good thanks to you."

"Thank you, you risked your well being for me. You could've ran but you stayed to help me" Athena touched his hand smiling. "Of course, I would never leave anyone behind. Besides I didn't do anything." She blushed.

"Didn't do anything? Girl you threw off the two guys off you and me. I couldn't even do that." Athena laughed softly. "Yeah but you're forgetting the part where I got slapped and that was enough to put me down"

Moose looked guilty and opened his mouth but
Sheriff Keller drove in getting out of his car. "What the hell happened?"

"Moose, over there, he caught a couple of guys working over my equipment with a crowbar and then they got the drop on him." Fred replied getting up walking towards Keller.

"Who were they, vandals?"

"Cliff Blossom has made it abundantly clear he would love nothing more than to see this whole project go belly-up."

"I doubt that Blossom's gonna hire some thugs to bust up your site and beat up some teenagers." Keller tried to defend the Blossom.

"Maybe it wasn't him.I mean, this is Serpent territory, right?" Archie said causing Athena to look at Jughead. She knew about his dad being the serpent king. She was the only one from their friends who knew.

"Maybe it was them. Pissed that they had to leave 'cause of this project."

"Serpents?"

"Yeah."

"When I worked at the drive-in, the Serpents never bugged me." Jughead walked over to Sheriff dragging Athena with him. He didn't want to let her go.

"Did you see any snake tattoos, anything on their jackets?" Keller asked Moose but he just shook his head. "It happened pretty fast."

"All right, I'll talk to Blossom, but I mean I don't think we'll get anywhere unless we can ID these guys."

"That is such bull." Archie was getting mad so Athena touched his forearm but he continued.

"If this was Clifford Blossom asking for help, you would say yes."

"Archie." Fred warned.

"What, Dad? It's true."

"It's also not helping."

Keller looked away but told Kevin to get in the car.

Jughead turned to Athena once they left. "Come on I'll take you home." Before she could say no Jughead began dragging her to her jeep only to see her tire was popped. Those guys had also gotten her jeep but she didn't care. She was thankful no one was truly hurt badly.

Sighing Jughead grabbed Athena's waist and pulled her to walk. The walk home was silent, Athena didn't know what to say. Stopping outside her sidewalk Athena turned to Jughead.

"Jug.."

"I'm sorry." The apology caught her off guard.

"For what?" She was confused about the apology.

"For everything. For fucking up everything between us. For dating Betty. For not being able to protect you. For causing you and Betty problems." He took a deep breath making her feel guilty.

How could she be so selfish this whole time? None of this was Jughead's fault and here she was making him feel like it was.

"Jug, none of this is your fault." She closed the distance between them lightly touching his hand. "It's all my fault. I've been selfish only thinking about feeling and not yours or Betty's."

Jughead opened his mouth but Athena hushed him. "I want to clear everything between us." Taking a deep breath Athena looked into Jughead's eyes. "I fell in love with you Jughead. And when I found out that you and Betty were beginning to get closer I just wanted to protect my heart by pushing you guys away." A flash of emotion flew by in his eyes hearing the part where she was in love with him.

"But now I understand. I wasn't protecting myself by pushing you guys away. I was just hurting myself even more. Because you and Betty mean everything to me and I won't let my feeling ruin that. So don't worry about me Jug, starting today everything is going back to normal. My feelings will go away one day and now that you'll dating Betty it will help." Jughead frowned hearing the last part. He didn't like the idea of her not loving him. 

"Best friends?" Athena stuck her pinky out with a smile. Jughead broke into a smile wrapping his pinky around hers. "Best friends."

And with that Athena shut off any last emotions she felt for Jughead. She swore she would get over him because she didn't want to lose him, it was clear that he didn't love her that way so the only way she could have him is by being best friends.

Outfits of chapter