Blossoming | Bughead AU

the boss

Thornhill was large, Jughead thought to himself, but not as large as Cheryl Blossom's ego. Him, Betty, and Kevin all hopped out of Jughead's truck and made their dreadful walk to the front door. Thankfully for them, Cheryl answered the door with a bright smile on her face.

"Welcome," the red-head beamed, then spoke in a quieter tone, "and tonight, Veronica is not my girlfriend. She's just a very close friend."

"Who you make out with from time to time, we get it," sighed Kevin. "Where is Veronica, anyway?"

"Already here!" Veronica stood behind Cheryl, and as the trio walked in she commented, "Seriously, you guys are like, ten minutes late."

"In my world, that's a million years too early," Jughead mumbled, earning himself a nudge in the side from Betty.

"My parents are in the dining, so let's proceed," Cheryl spoke, turning around swiftly to allow the others to follow.

"Betty, I've got a bad feeling about this," Jughead whispered.

"It's going to be fine, Jug," she assured him. "It's just one night, one dinner. What's the worse that could happen?"

"We all get murdered and processed into maple syrup."

Betty rolled her eyes but giggled, which made Jughead smile with amusement. As soon as they entered the dining room, the hushed voices from the two Blossoms diminished. Clifford Blossom was sitting at the head of the table while Penelope Blossom was sitting at the other. The teenagers awkwardly took their seats and held in their breaths as a servant filled their glasses with iced water.

"Mom, dad," Cheryl spoke up, interrupting the silence. "These are my friends."

"I'm Veronica," Veronica smiled, though you could tell she was quite nervous.

"We know who you are, dear. Veronica Lodge," Penelope said, nodding her head in acknowledgment. "We went to school with your mother."

Veronica looked somewhat surprised, but didn't think much of it. Then Clifford Blossom spoke, "Elizabeth, long time no see."

Betty chuckled out, "Nice to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Blossom."

Penelope said, "Aren't you going to introduce us to your boyfriend, Elizabeth?"

Before Betty could speak, Jughead announced, "I'm Forsythe."

Betty was utterly shocked that he willingly referred to himself as his actual name. Jughead explained to her in a soft tone, "They don't look like people who take kindly to weird nicknames, or nicknames in general."

Betty nodded, and Penelope and Blossom exchanged a glance. "Oh, that's right. Your father is FP Jones."

Jughead found it strange when Clifford winked at him at the mention of his father, but he shrugged it off. "Yes... Yes he is."

Penelope laughed. "You know, him and Elizabeth's mother used to date. Alice just couldn't get enough of him."

The awkward silence came again. Veronica and Cheryl looked at each other, and underneath the table where much was concealed, they intertwined their hands together. Jughead was praying that some sort of incident would happen which would entail him to be dismissed, such as Jason Blossom walking through those doors and causing a diversion.

Kevin finally spoke up, "Hi, I'm Kevin."

Later into the evening, as they were finishing up dessert, Clifford announced, "You know, Forsythe, I've got a few hunting rifles in the back if you want to take a look."