Hi, I'm sick hehehe
————
  I take another bite of the tender steak the Lodge's personal chef had prepared. It was a great dinner, but I wasn't paying attention to the flavor. Honestly, I just wanted to leave the dinner table. Let's just say I don't quite fit in with the fanciness.

I'm always spilling something or eating with the wrong fork that sends Hiram cringing. His expression tells it all.

  Usually it's all fine and dandy with Hiram and I, but lately he hasn't been impressed with me.

At least Hermione and Ronnie try to distract him with stupid small talk. "Hiram, was that a Spiffany's bag I saw coming through the lobby earlier today? It looked about the right size for a Glamerge egg." Ronnie looks at the couple suspiciously.

The man turns to his wife, "That depends, mi amore." His lips turn into a smirk, "Have you been naughty or nice this year?"

They both giggle as I mentally gag. Veronica and I exchange grossed out looks. "Don't worry, mi hija. Santa has your list too." Hiram says, "And please, don't go snooping for the gifts this year. He hates that."

"Santa can rip up my list for all I care."

"Ditto," He gives me a look for my 'disturbing slang words' as he calls them. I grit my teeth together, "I mean, I agree Veronica."

Veronica gives her father a bothered glance, "Look at us! Throwing away money on bejeweled eggs like we're a family of Russian oligarchs when there are people in this town who can't even pay their own medical bills."

I can't let others know about this, I know how Fred feels about charity. It would make him feel worse than he does now. "Ronnie." I warn.

Hermione peeks at me for a second then moves back to her daughter, "Since when are you a communist?"

"Since Archie told me that he, Y/N, and their dad are drowning in Fred's medical bills." Veronica announces to her parents.

Archie must have told her, but I know he would have asked to not say anything. It boiled my blood that she didn't even try to listen to our wishes.

"Veronica!" I yell.

She doesn't stop, "To the tune of $86,000. Which is why I was thinking-"

"Absolutely not," "Sweetheart, that's a lot of money," and a very displeased yell from me are heard around the table.

Hiram directs our attention to him, "The Lodge Charitable Trust has made its donations for the fiscal year. Fred Andrew's will have to tighten his belt."

"Said Ebenezer Scrooge!" His daughter rebounds with, "Y/N's family is selling Christmas trees for extra cash, Dad! I mean that's the kind of man," she corrects herself, "the kind of father he is!"

That sent the man's small temper off. Hiram stands from the table, "You know, I believe I've some work to finish in my study." He sets down his fork on his plate with a clatter.

I shake my head angrily, "Veronica, I can't believe you! You know Fred doesn't accept charity, don't try to help. We can handle the bill." I immediately get up from my chair, "I'll be in my room...or somewhere else."

  My angry steps follow me to my room. I grab my phone and coat then make my way out into the living room.

  Ronnie grabs onto my arm, "Y/N, I'm sorry. I swear I was just trying to help and-"

  "Like I said, we don't need help. I'm leaving tonight, and I'll be back tomorrow at some point. I'm staying at Fred's."

  I walk out the door briskly leaving her sighing in the living room. It'll be nice staying at the Andrew's house.

  The driver brings me to the Andrew's house hold. I walk up to the porch. When I try to open the door, it's locked. The one time I need it, it's locked. I look for my keys in my pockets, but I come up with nothing.

It then dawned on me. I left my keys on the kitchen counter inside the Andrew's house the last time I was here.

  Archie keeps every window and door locked along with every other house in Riverdale. Nobody wants to come home to a hooded man.

  I run back to the limo, "I can't get it." I tell the driver.

  "Do you want me to return you to the Lodge residence or take you elsewhere?"

  I bite my lip, "Let me make a quick call." I whip out my phone and find myself dialing Betty's number.

  After many rings, her voice mail begins to play, "Hello this is Betty Cooper, I am busy right now. Leave a message at the beep." I don't bother to leave a message, she's probably out Blackhood hunting.

  Where am I supposed to go now?

  A very dumb idea pops into my head, stay at the trailer..as in the Jones' trailer. As long as FP is there, it can't be the worst night ever, right?

  It's my last chance, and the worst option. I mean I could go stay at Sweet Pea's house but let's me honest, he's a player. He is probably going down on a girl right now. I'm not interrupting that.

  I shake my head then sigh, "Take me to FP Jone's trailer."

  "Yes ma'am."

  It doesn't take us long for us to get there. I wish I had more time to prepare what I'm going to say in my head. We talked at least and gave each other presents. Jughead and I are friends, I think.

  The driver opens the car door for me and I walk up to the porch. It takes me a second, but I finally knock.

  Jughead opens the door. Why can't FP just be home for once?

"Y/N? What are you uh..w-what are you doing here."

  "Listen, I don't expect to to let me stay here or even talk to me, but I just need a place to stay for one night. I can sleep on the floor or hell, even in the bath tub, but I should be away from the Lodges right now." I tell him.

  He leans on the door frame, "But what about Archie and Fred's house?"

  "Locked and I don't have keys right now."

  "Betty's house?"

  "She didn't answer."

  "What about Sweet-"

  I stop him, "It's okay Jughead, you obviously don't want me to stay here and I'm alright with it." Our eyes are locked for many seconds, "I'm gonna go now."

  "No!" He is almost shocked with his tone, "I mean, it's fine, its fine. You can stay here."

  I nod slowly, "Okay, thanks."

  He lets me in the door and brings me to his living room. The awkwardness between us is very evident. I take a seat on the sofa.

  Neither of us know what to say to the other. I can feel his eyes on me but I refuse to meet them.

  "So..." I whisper awkwardly.

  "So..," he repeats, "What uh, happened at the Lodges."

  I sigh, "Its a long story."

  "Well," he sits on the comfy chair across from me, "I've got time."

  I chuckle softly. My face turns more serious and dramatic as I start the story, "It all started on the day I was born," his eyebrows furrow, "I'm just joking, it started yesterday."

  I tell him everything, from the bill to the fight. It didn't take me as long as I thought but still some time.

  "That sucks." He says.

  I groan, "Tell me about it."

  He seems to be struggling to find what to say, "Do you want to talk about it?" I knew he didn't want to make this weird, but what else does a friend say?

  "Umm" I shake my head with a smile, "If I'm being honestly, if I kept talking about it I would have a mental break down. That's probably something I couldn't handle having, while being in the same room as you..as friends."

  He nods, "I get it, Y/N, I do."

  The once comforting feeling I felt talking to him lifted. The weirdness returned so I turned to the clock, "It's getting late."

  "Yeah, it really is." He gets up, "You can have the bed. Dad sleeps on the couch right now. I'll sleep on the floor out here."

  "No, Jughead, I'll take the floor. I'm not stealing the bed from you." I force.

  His head shakes with a smile, "What kind of boyfriend-" he immediately stops.

  I turn away from him so he doesn't see my expression. This is hard, being here with him in the same room as friends. It's even worse telling him the biggest problem you have..Jug made this a lot worse.

  "I'm sorry," he whispers.

  I let out a big breathe, "It's okay. I get it, force if habit."

  "No, it's not okay, that was uncalled for." He frowns as I look at him again, "I opened old wounds. I really thought we could be friends a month after our break up. I just fucked that up." He groans.

  There's one thing I can try to make him feel better, "It's fine...baby" I cringe, "..okay see now we are even. We both called each other something of their than our names."

  He shakes his head and walks to the bedroom where I follow him to, "Mine was on accident, yours was on purpose. There's a different!"

He's making a bigger deal out of it than he should. Jughead is right though, why should we even be friends? He left me in a parking lot. I hate that I love him.

"Oh my god Jughead, I said..," my phone begins to ring and I quickly pick it up after looking at the caller ID. It's Betty, "Hello, not a good time."

  Betty begins to talk, "Y/N please come down to Pops." I can tell she was shaken up.

  It makes me concerned, "What's going on?"

  "I'll explain later, just meet at Pops. I gotta call Jughead now."

  I sigh, "He's with me..we'll be there in a second."

  "Okay, bye." She hangs up.

  Jughead grabs his jacket, "Where are we going and why?"

  "Pops and no idea why." We walk out of the trailer together, "It was Betty, she didn't seem okay in the slightest."

  His face darkens, "Blackhood?"

  I shrug, "You never know with her." The Jones' driveway, or whatever you call it, was empty besides a motorcycle. Only, one motorcycle. I groan as I get on it.

We are going to have to be so close.

  "We can always have Archie pick us up, Y/N."

  "It's fine, just get on." I scoot to the back and try to find a way to hold on thats not Jughead.

  There's nothing to keep me on but him. Hesitantly I wrap my arms around the familiar boy. Jughead begins to drive away from the trailer to the neon lights of Pops.

  Our stiff bodies against each other don't relax until we get to the diner. I jump off the bike, quickly, to relieve the discomfort. That wasn't the ideal situation for me to be in especially with my up and down moods.

  We walk towards the entrance, staying a reasonable distance apart. I open the door to find Fred talking with the police.

The police again? Why is it always something illegal?

  I look around the diner, scanning the booths to find the others. Betty, Archie, and Veronica are sitting in a booth in the corner. We make our way over to them.

  "Hey, what's going on?" I ask.

  Betty sets down her coffee cup, "Archie and I," she takes a pause to almost reassure herself, "caught the Blackhood."

  My jaw drops.

  The Blackhood finally caught, but dead or alive? How did they manage that? And who?

  The two of us sit down on the empty side of the booth. There were already milkshakes waiting for us but I'm not so sure I can eat anything.

  "Who?" Jughead demands.

  Archie glimpses at Betty then to us, "Svenson."

  I take a deep breathe, "Svenson as in our janitor?"

  "Yeah."

  The booth falls silent. It takes a bit for me to process it.

Svenson is the Blackhood. It makes sense, he was always there at the school, snooping around. He could have heard everything.

It seems like the perfect cover and the best way to lurk without seeming suspicious. Something doesn't seem right though. It's almost too perfect.

  I am the first to speak, "How did it happen, catching him?"

  "We went to the Devil's Hand tree, you know the one in the park? We found a grave, Svenson's grave." Betty explains.

  "You found him dead?" The boy sitting next to me asks.

  She shakes her head, "We dug the grave up, but it was an empty coffin. Then, he came up behind us with a gun. Svenson did, with the hood on. He made me bury Archie in the grave. I had to bury him." I could tell this was genuinely hard for her to explain.

  Archie saw this too, he helped her tell the story, "I was in the coffin when we first heard the police sirens. Betty knocked Svenson out when he wasn't looking, and then she unburied me. By the time I was out, he had ran."

  I felt very uneasy in that moment. My brother was almost buried alive. He could have died.

  "We chased him to the bridge," he continues, "and that's where Keller shot him."

  "That's heavy." Veronica comments.

  Arch nods, "Your instinct about Svenson was right, Ronnie. You thought he was the Blackhood, and we could have ended it right there at school." He sighs, "I didn't see it. I didn't see it in eyes."

  "Forget his eyes, Arch." Betty tells him.

I never saw his eyes but like Archie said, I don't see it. Svenson had a foolproof plan and it was neat. He had a cover, an alibi of being sick, and reasons for everything. Crimes aren't neat in Riverdale, they are messy.

  "I cant believe he cut off his own finger." Ronnie shakes her head in disbelief, "It's insanity."

  I stir the straw around in the milkshake, "That insanity is always Riverdale."

  "The finger of accusation." Betty moved her eyes from the table.

  Jughead finally speaks up, "So we know whodunit. Why did he do it?"

"Mr.Svenson accused an innocent man of murdering his family and got the man killed. So maybe, in some backwards way, he thought that targeting sinners would balance the scales somehow. I don't know."

  We take a second to soaks in that idea. This doesn't sit right with me, but it can't be anybody else. It was backwards, but it kind of made sense.

  V agreed, "No, no, it makes sense. I mean, Svenson was always around, lurking in the hallways."

  "He could have seen me and Ms.Grundy in the music room!"

  "Yeah, he could have seen Moose and Midge buying jingle-jangle. And-"

  Jughead stops Betty, "This is starting to feel like that weird last scene in Psycho." He cringes, "The truth is...I have nothing actually. Except that he's in a body bag and we aren't. I think that's enough for tonight."

  I nod looking at Betty, "I'm sorry I didn't help. I should have been there to help you two somehow."

  "It's fine," both of them tell me, "You had other things to worry about, with..Jughead." Betty sighs, regretting that last bit, "You guys are friends right?"

  Friends. The thing we all are..only friends.

————

  The rest of the Christmas season passed nicely. Gifts were given, feasts were eaten, and bills were taken care of. An 'Angel downer' payed off Fred's hospital bill in full.

  I think we all know who that was. I told her we didn't need help, but I knew she did it for the better. I was angry, but I got over it.

  Remember when I said everything went nicely? That wasn't the case for every second of Christmas break.

  Jughead gave me a book, well, a signed first addition copy of my favorite book of all time. It was such a nice present and I only gave him a picture of us.

He even written a note in the back.

    'A signed first copy for my beloved. Thanks for staying by my side. I'll always be by yours.
       I love you.                                                                                               -Jughead'

  I know this was written before our break up. He really is stupid, leaving the note in there anyway. Or maybe I was the stupid one?

  Jughead must have opened my gift by now. We didn't exchange any thank you's. No calls or texts, or even visits.

  It sucked, I'm not gonna lie. There was one part of Christmas that turned out to be future drama in the making.

It was Christmas Eve. I was decorating some cookies for Fred and Archie for later tonight. They were out selling trees again, and I thought they would enjoy it.

The doorbell rang, and I thought it was Betty. She usually made a cake with her mom on Christmas Eve, and there was always extra.

I took off my apron and went to the door. I opened it to find Sweet Pea.

It kind of shocked me, we haven't talked in a while. Things have been weird since that day in the art room. Him and Betty seem to be getting along very well, like dating well. I don't want to ruin that for either of them.

"Sweet Pea? What's up?" I lean on the door.

He rubs the back of his neck, "Oh I was just in the neighborhood, and I wanted to give you this." He holds out a neatly wrapped box.

"Thanks!" I grab it with a smile.

There was something when I looked in his eyes, a feeling of security. A feeling I've only felt with Jughead.

We stood there for a bit staring into each other's eyes. I could sense him moving forward, towards me.

I should have stopped him there, but I didn't. In fact, I moved with him until our faces were inches apart. Then he finally did it.

Sweet Pea kissed me.

————
Tehehehe I'm back! So cheer seasons over and I wanted to pick this up again.

The reason I stopped writing was because of stress and I'm not gonna lie I sorta didn't like Jughead anymore.

A boy in my class asked me to hang out and I sort of ended up with feelings for him after that.
It didn't feel right to continue to write about Jughead when I was interested in another guy.

I am just gonna write this book or I'm gonna forget about it again.

PS-Sorry not sorry for the plot twist/uncalled drama/cliffhanger at the end

Tell me how y'all are doing!

What did you think of this chapter and the ending of it?
(PLS PLS PLS TELL ME!!)

Anyways..bye ig lol