Weirdo - Jughead Jones

25: The Forest

"Two chocolate shakes, a burger, and extra fries." A waiter pulled me from my thoughts.

I thanked him and took a sip of my milkshake. Jughead paused his typing to take a fry, flashing me a smile. I grinned back. Our date had been mostly silent, but it was the most comfortable silence I'd ever shared.

"How'd it go with your dad?" I asked him.

He looked away. "He's still a mess. But if he's anything like who he used to be, he'll go down there and take up Fred's offer."

I reached my hand across the table and caught his in it. "Jug, what made you start living away from him?"

"Once Fred fired him, he started drinking. And he went into this downward spiral that made my mom and my sister move away. And I left him, too. He just wasn't himself."

I nodded knowing exactly what he was talking about. I felt the same about my mom ever since my dad went missing. I squeezed Jughead's hand. He looked at me and gave me a soft smile, raising my hand to his lips and lightly pressing it against them.

When Jughead was walking me home, my phone started buzzing in my back pocket. I brought it out and saw that Betty was calling me. "Hello?"

"Maddie." Betty said. "Can you come over?"

"Okay? Why?"

"I... you'll see. Just... Come over, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second." I hung up and looked at Jughead. "Betty wants me to go over to her house."

"What for?" He asked.

"I don't know."

"Huh. Well, I guess I have to walk you to Betty's now."

"You don't have to."

"I think I do have to." He raised his eyebrows and smiled.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

"Well, if you say so."

Jughead walked me to Betty's and didn't leave until I was inside. Betty looked nervous. She looked around the house before leading me upstairs.

"Betty, why are we going to the attic?"

"Shh. You'll see. Just be as quiet as possible." She led me up the ladder and crawled into the attic, where the light was already on. Curled up in blankets on the attic floor was Polly Cooper.

****

I pulled my phone out of my back pocket as soon as I left Betty's. My thumb hit Jughead's name in the phone app and I raised my phone to my ear.

"Mads?"

"Jug. Polly's in Betty's attic right now."

"W—?"

"We were right. My dad was helping Jason that day in the forest. Polly said that my dad thought it wasn't safe, so he would be their escort." I started to think more about it. My heart skipped a beat when I realized something. "Jughead, what if he lied to them? What if he.... what if he shot Jason?"

"Maddie?"

"I need to go back to the forest."

"Okay, but don't go there alone," Jughead said quickly. "Do you want to go after school tomorrow?"

"Y.....yeah."

He chuckled. "What, before school?"

"Okay...."

"You want to go now, huh?"

"Yeah."

He laughed. "Okay. Stay where you are, I'll be there in a second."

****

Jughead arrived in his dad's truck shortly after he hung up. I could tell that he was tired.

"I'm sorry to make you do this so late at night," I told him when I got into the passenger seat.

"Don't be." He smiled at my worried face. Jug then grabbed my hand, which had been resting on the seat between us. "I love you."

"I love you too."

He squeezed my hand before he drove in the direction of the forest.

I hopped down from the truck as soon as he parked it, grabbing one of the flashlights from the last time we were here. Jug joined me and held my hand again as we began to walk through the trees. The beam of light from my hand only lit up leaves and tree roots. I looked for any other articles of clothing, dropped items, maybe even blood, but nothing was there.

Until I heard something.

"Jug, did you hear that?"

"I think so."

We both stopped to listen. It happened again. There was a faint groan from somewhere a few yards away.

I took a deep breath as Jughead tightened his grip on my hand. We slowly moved toward the sound until the flashlight stopped on the source of it.

"D-Dad?"