mentions of sexual assault

I belong with you, you belong with me
You're my sweetheart

It was lunch time the next day when Amethyst's first secret spilled.

The day was going fine; her and Jughead had planned on going to the event that night to interrogate Dilton Doiley. Veronica and Betty had planned a way to teach Chuck a lesson on being a dickhead to girls. And Cheryl had started being slightly nice to Amethyst. Which may not seem like a lot, but it meant more to Amie than she led on.

Jughead was typing his book with Amethyst making little inputs in when Veronica and Betty stood at the end of their table.

Amethyst looked up at the two girls and smiled lightly before biting into her sandwich. They didn't make any move to talk and just stood there. Jughead and Amie looked at each other in question.

"What do you two want?" Amethyst asked as she looked back up at the girls.

"What the hell is this?" Veronica shoved her phone into Amethyst's face.

Amie looked at the picture of which appeared to be a page from a book. She read some of the lines when she spotted her name besides James George, a jock who use to go to the school until he graduated last year. Amethyst's face visibly paled as she read over the line.

"I-"

"What? What is it?" Jughead worriedly asked, noticing that his best friends face had turned white.

"Look."

Veronica shoved her phone into Jughead's face and he read over the line.

"What does that mean?" Jug asked. "Buttercup, what does it mean?"

Amethyst was at a lost for words.

"It means that Amethyst was a toy in the Jock's little game." Veronica looked back down at her phone. "She was put down for nine points, with an extra bonus point for being an outsider." Veronica looked back up at her. "What did he do to you?"

Amethyst's mouth opened and closed like a fish.

"Amie, we're trying to help you," Betty said. "What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything," she mumbled.

"Yes he did. I know you're lying!" Veronica said. "What did he do that earned him ten points in this stupid game?"

Amethyst looked between Betty and Veronica, not being able to look at Jughead in the eyes. She mumbled something, but no one could hear it.

"What was that?" Veronica asked.

Amethyst gulped as she looked at her sandwich and began to pick at the crust.

"He asked me out on a date once last year," she mumbled. "I said yes, of course, because he was a popular, good looking senior that everybody had a crush on and I was the lonely freshmen who only had one friend. We went out to Pop's and it was going great, until he tried to get intimate with me."

"Intimate as in...?" Betty asked.

"He sexually assaulted me," she mumbled.

"He what!" Jughead exclaimed as he stood up.

Amethyst looked up in a panic. "No, don't, Juggy. Please. I'm okay."

"Amethyst, he-he violated you. That's not okay," Jughead's voice wavered.

"But I'm alright now. That was in the past," Amethyst said. "I'm alright."

"Amie, that isn't the right thing. What he did wasn't the right thing," Veronica said.

"Well you can't go changing things now, can you?" She snapped. "That was in the past. I moved on. I put it behind me, until you two dug it back up again!"

"We were just trying to help," Betty said.

"And you guys haven't," Amie said. "You can clearly see that I am fine. You don't need to worry about me." Amethyst put her head into her hands. "Ugh, school kills my vibe just as much as someone killed Jason."

Jughead sent Betty and Veronica a look and they walked off.

Jughead was silent and Amethyst sniffled up some tears that were about to spill.

"Buttercup...."

"I'm going." Amethyst stood up and grabbed her sandwich. "I'm going back to the drive in. I don't want to be in school." She threw the sandwich into a nearby bin and placed her sunnies over her eyes.

Amethyst turned around and stalked out of the school, completely disregarding her schoolbag in her locker.

•

Amethyst was looking at all of her Polaroid pictures when Jughead walked in. She ignored him as she looked at the ones of her and Jug as children, smiling lightly at how easy their lives were.

Jughead placed Amethyst's schoolbag on the floor, and then sat on the edge of the bed as softly as he possibly could.

It was silent for a few seconds, but it felt like minutes to Jughead.

"Why didn't you tell me," he asked quietly.

Amethyst licked her chapped lips as she looked at a single picture of Jughead. "I didn't want my problems to be your problems," she said.

"Your problems will always be my problems, and vis versa," Jughead said.

"Well I'm alright now. So there was no point in telling you because it's fine," she said.

"No, it's not fine. Not the way he treated you," Jughead said. Amethyst placed down the Polaroid pictures and looked at her hands instead.

"I'm alright about it. It was a once off," Amie said.

"But he violated you. That's not okay," Jug said.

"Well you can't do anything about it now because he moved to Los Angeles," Amethyst said.

"That's not the point. The point is that you should have come and told me about it so that I could-"

"What?" Amethyst looked up at him for the first time, her eyes bloodshot. "What were you going to do to him?" Jughead didn't answer and Amethyst looked back down at her hands. "There's nothing you could've done to stop it from happening. Nothing."

"But I'm suppose to look after you," Jughead said quietly.

"Well I can look after myself, thanks."

"Best friends are meant to tell each other everything. You should've told me," Jughead said.

"That's in the past. You can't change the past, so stop pestering me about it," Amie said.

"No, I won't stop talking about it until you tell me why you didn't tell me in the first place," Jughead said.

"I'm not going to tell you, Juggy," she replied.

"You need to tell someone about it! You need to get it off of your chest and I've always been the person you've done that too," Jughead said. "We use to tell each other everything! So why aren't you telling me when someone hurts you? When someone violates your body like that? When someone-"

"I felt weak, alright!" Amethyst snapped. "I felt pressured to do what he wanted because the date was going well, but as soon as he started making out with me and undoing my pants, I wanted out. I knew what was going to happen. I-I tried to make him stop but he kept saying 'You know this is what you've wanted all night. You know it is.' But I didn't want it. But on the other hand, I felt pressured to do what he wanted to I jerked him off and he enjoyed it, not knowing how much it was crushing me on the inside and how much I really didn't want to do it. I-I just...I felt like it was my duty to do what he said, and now that I realised it wasn't, it's too late and I can't take it back."

Jughead had paused and stared at Amethyst in shock, watching as her breathing began to get ragged and her hands shook. So, he grabbed onto her hands and rubbed the backs of them with his thumbs. "You are the strongest girl I have ever met, Buttercup. You have never been weak, Buttercup, and don't ever feel pressured to do something you don't want to do. Don't you ever ever feel pressured to do that again. And I'll make sure, no matter what, that'll I'll be with you every step of the way, and you will always have my back through it all. I promise."

Amethyst wrapped her arms around Jughead's body and clung onto him, her body wracking with sobs as Jughead tried to comfort her the girl as best as he could.