the town with darkness | bughead

ch. 20 | total recall

"Juggie, please tell me you're okay?" Betty pressed, her hand on his shoulder, gently rubbing, bringing him back to reality.

"Y-yeah, I'm alright Betty," Jughead replied with a shaky exhale. "He just...wanted to say happy birthday I guess, in his own special fucking way." He wiped his chin, frowning at the sticky red blood on his fingers. Betty pulled out a tissue from her pocket and dabbed at his split lip, quickly wiping away the rest of the viscous crimson liquid.

"Goddamnit, I knew we shouldn't have left you alone with him, Jug," Archie growled, uncharacteristically angry.

"Relax Arch, it's not the first time I've been alone with my father when he's drunk," Jughead replied with a grin.

"But it's the first time we could've prevented it," Archie said, growing solemn.

"It's fine, Archie. Please don't blame yourselves over this," Jughead insisted to the two of them, pushing himself up and into the armchair he'd fallen against with a sharp exhale. "I can't deal with you two feeling guilty about this. It's so far from being your fault."

Suddenly they heard a crash coming from the house - breaking glass. Archie rolled his eyes. "I better go check out what's broken now," he said. "You guys will be okay here?"

"Yeah, he's not gonna come back anytime soon," Jughead replied. "He's said what he wanted to say."

Archie nodded and got up, stumbling a little, before heading for the garage door and the house where the party was still in full swing.

"You sure you're alright?" Betty said, getting to her feet and pulling the other armchair closer so they were sitting right next to each other.

"I'm sure, Betts, please I'm fine, all he did was rough me up a little," Jughead said, trying to placate her. Inside his stomach was twisting itself in knots, going over and over what FP had said to him about going after Betty. Where the fuck did FP get off threatening Betty like that? Jughead thought angrily.

"What's going on with you, you're not okay," Betty asked and Jughead sighed. She was way too good at reading him.

"Just...I just hate knowing I'm putting you in danger, having him around," Jughead replied finally.

"I can take care of myself, Jug," Betty said firmly.

"Betty, I'm a reasonably fit 16 year old and I can't take care of myself when it comes to FP," Jughead said.

"17 year old," Betty corrected.

Jughead laughed softly. "17 year old," he said nodding.

"When did all of this start with your Dad? When did it really start?" Betty asked him.

Jughead sighed. He pulled his beanie off for a moment and raked his fingers through his unruly fringe. "I guess it was before Mom left with Jellybean. I was only just fourteen I think?"

"What happened?"

"It was when he and Archie's Dad parted ways over the construction company. I still don't really know what went down with that. Dad said a lot of things about it and it made being friends with Archie a bit difficult for me for a while. I think that was the first time he hit me. I'd come home from school early and I mentioned something about staying over at Archie's place and he just lost it. He only hit me once but I think he was more shocked than I was, to be honest. He apologised, said he'd never do it again, all of that crap you know. Of course that all went out the window when Mom and Jellybean left for Toledo."

"Tell me about it," Betty said.

"Ah you don't wanna know about this stuff Betty," Jughead said weakly.