Moving On

C h a p t e r 3

Where do I even begin with this? How am I supposed to continue to move on with this hanging over my head? What am I supposed to tell Julie? I don't want to get her hopes up. I already feel like I don't talk about Betty enough with her. I feel bad about it, but, even if I try, I almost break down every time. I try to get by. But, I had to focus. What do I have that somebody wants? Is this all a hoax? Should I tell somebody? I didn't know. I called Julie back in the house. We had dinner in front of the tv that night. Then, I put her to bed. I kissed her goodnight. I laid in bed next to hot dog. I rolled over and looked at Betty's picture. I wondered what secrets she could have been keeping from me. Every time I thought about her I couldn't help but think- what was she hiding? Could she be alive? I didn't want to think about it. I woke up around 3 am. Juliet was nagging at me.
"Daddy!" Juliet yelped.
"What is it, baby?" I said tiredly.
"I had a dream about mommy." I laid there for a second just lost in thought. Then, I came back to reality.
"Come lay here, Bug." I said.
"Okay." She whispered. She climbed into bed.
"I miss mommy."
"I miss her too, bug." I said as I kissed her on the head.
"Can you tell me a story?"
"Sure, baby."
"About mommy." Honestly, I don't blame her. I would want to know too. And, I need to talk about her more. Especially, if she were alive, I'd want my daughter to know her like I knew her. So, I tried my best.
"Okay, let me think of one."
"Okay.." Julie said excitedly.
"Let me tell you about how I proposed to your mommy."
"Ok!"
"Your mom and I were 18 years old. Fresh out of high school. We were walking by sweet water river. I had a path of candles lit. She walked through the path of candles and we had our favorite dinner."
"Was it from pop's?!"
"Well, of course, baby."
"Anyways, I chuckled. I put on our favorite song and we slow danced together. We had dinner. And then, I got down on one knee."
"Aww."
"Then, I asked her to marry me."
"And what did she say?!" Julie said with such urgency and excitement.
"She said yes, baby."
"Aww."
"Then what?"
"Then we kissed."
"And then?"
"We went home."
"Then what?"
"I can't tell you what happened after that, baby." I chuckled.
"I love you, Julie."
"I love you too, daddy." Julie then fell asleep in my arms. She was so precious. She had a slight smile on her face. That's how I knew she was dreaming. She was so cute. I saw more of Betty in her everyday. The resemblance was crazy. Except for the fact that she had blue eyes like me instead of Betty's gorgeous green eyes. I could look into her eyes for days. She was so beautiful. And I missed her so much. I eventually fell asleep around 4:30. Not an ideal sleep schedule, I might add. My alarm buzzed at 6:45 am.
"Daddy, how do you make it stop?" Julie said with urgency.
"Uhh." I mumbled.
"Click the snooze button."
"Okay."
"Wait, where's that?"
"Honey, just unplug it." Julie unplugged it and after that, she was up. The sun was barely up.
"Baby, go back to sleep please."
"Daddy, come on. Time to get up."
"No, baby it's early." I mumbled. I was super tired. Julie kept jumping on the bed so I called Veronica. Considering she had two babies trying to get on a sleep schedule, maybe she would be up.
"Jughead?" She said surprisingly on the phone considering it was pretty early in the morning.
"Hi, V."
"Umm. Why are you calling me at 6:50 in the morning?"
"Sorry to bother you. Are you awake?"
"Yeah. That's kind of why I answered the phone."
"Can you watch Julie until like 7:30?"
"Isn't she past this? She can sleep at night now."
"Yes, but, last night she had a dream about.."
"A dream about.." I stuttered.
"A dream about?" Veronica said confused.
"Betty, Veronica. It was a dream about Betty." My voice nearly broke.
"Oh."
"Yeah. She woke me up at 3 in the morning."
"Well, what did you do?"
"She asked me to tell her a story."
"You mean like a bedtime story?"
"A story about her mother."
"Ohh."
"So, what did you do?"
"I told her one."
"Which one?"
"God, you and your details."
"Spill, Jug."
"Okay, okay."
"I told her about when I proposed to Betty."
"How much of it?"
"The pg parts."
"Ahahahahaha."
"She kept asking what happened after that and I said I can't tell you."
"It was funny."
"I bet."
"Okay. Well, I'm happy to watch her. You mind if she comes over to our house?"
"No, not a problem."
"Okay, I'll be over in 5 minutes."
"Okay, thank you, Veronica."
"No problem. Bye."
"Bye." We hung up the phone and I told Julie to wait by the door." She did and V came into my room to tell me she's picking her up.
"You can drop her off at 7:30."
"Alright."
"Julie, let's go!"
"Okay!" Julie said in excitement. I laid back down and set an alarm for 7:30. I was so exhausted. Everything seemed like it was falling apart. The walls were closing in around me. I kind of passed out in thought on my bed after a while. I woke up to the alarm at 7:30. I went next door to go get Julie but, Veronica offered to get her ready and take her to school. I then went back to my room. I picked up the ring. I just stared at it for a while. The engraving was still there. "Be mine forever, Betty. Jug." I just kept reading it over and over again. I had so much regret and despair. That's when I started to remember that morning. That special day. The calm before the storm. If only I could relive that day one last time. The last normal day we had as a family.