The Serpent of Love

6. All of you

August 3, 2017

"Betty, Jughead's here!" Polly yells just after she opens the door for me. I grin and she gives me a kiss on the cheek, two years older but only a little taller than Betty, still shorter than me.
"Coming!" Betty shouts back, but I can't hear the footsteps.
"You ready for the camp, kid?" Polly grins, wearing her black shorts with a pink shirt.
I smirk. "We're 15 and finally able to go, what do you think?" Every teenager in Riverdale goes there. It lasts for two weeks, out of town. We can swim, do sports, hang out, play poker, everything. Everyone says it's awesome.
"Yeah well it's my last year," she sighs with a small smile. "Next year I'll be in college," she teases, nudging me with her elbow.
"Don't tell that to Betty before the next summer," I say, pointing my finger at her warningly.
"She knows," she says, rolling her eyes. "But yeah, you're right, I won't mention it." I give her a thankful nod and we both look at Betty coming downstairs, looking extremely cute in her white floral summer dress. It almost reaches her knees and it's off her shoulders. I feel my smile grow as she comes to us with her pink sports bag thrown over her shoulder, one hand holding from it's strap so it would be securely on her shoulder.
When she gets to me, I bend my knees a little and lean down, wrapping my arms around her thighs just below her butt and lift her up to be the same height I am. She giggles at me and with the same smiles we kiss softly.
When we pull away, she rests her forehead against me. "Hi," she whispers.
"Hi," I chuckle and carefully place her back onto her feet, kissing her forehead.
"You guys are-" Polly starts, but gets stopped by my dad honking to us from the car to hurry. I take Betty's bag and she smiles at me sweetly, grabbing her keys from the counter while I also take one of Polly's since she has two.
Their parents had to work today, so my dad is taking us to Pop's where the bus should pick everyone us. Meaning the whole diner should be full of our friends and frenemies. We go outside and dad smiles when he sees I'm carrying the girls' bags. He has always taught me how to be a gentleman and every time he sees me pulling the chair out for Betty or opening a door for a girl or a woman or well, carrying their bags, he gets very happy and looks proud.
He helps me get the bags into the trunk and ruffles the beanie on my hair. I push his hand away and lean forward, taking the hat off to put it properly on again. But just as I do that, Betty appears in front of me, taking the hat away from me. I try to get it back, but she raises it even further from me, making me sigh in defeat. She's the only one I'd let do that. If anyone else did that, I'd kill them quite literally.
She looks at me adorably and mocks my pouty face while running her hands through my hair and then putting the hat back on, perfectly.
"Thank you," I say quietly with a smile. She winks at me with a smile on her face too and gets onto the back seat since Polly has to sit in front not to puke. Like always.
We all get ourselves buckled in and dad starts driving. "Polls, did you take the money?" Betty asks suddenly, making dad slow down a little, a smirk on his face, knowing they always forget everything behind.
"No, dad said he'd give it to you," Polly says, turning to look back at her. "Did he?"
"Um, no," Betty says with raised eyebrows. Polly frowns and pulls out her phone. "I'm not lying," Betty giggles and hits the back of her sister's seat with her foot.
"I believe you, but I need the money," she murmurs and their dad picks up the call. She tells him about the situation and he promises to hurry up to get to Pop's fast.
"We're late anyways," I mumble.
Betty gives me a look. "You're the one who will be eating all my food, stop complaining."
I shrug with a little smile, my dad chuckling on the front seat. "She's right, boy. Use your own money."
"She eats my food too," I protest.
"Not as much as you eat mine," Betty murmurs, fiddling nervously with the end of her dress, not even realizing it. I put my hand on her thigh, making her look up at me immediately. She keeps staring into my eyes, pressing her thighs together, making me grin and her hit my arm. I take her hand into mine with the same one that was on her thigh just a second ago and she tries to muffle her disappointed sigh, feeling it gone.
I lean over to her and give her a kiss on the cheek just before we get to overly crowded Pop's parking lot. Hal gets here a few minutes later and gives both of the girls a huge amount of money what Betty promises to me she'll keep for later as well to do things we liked or get parts for my bike. My dad promises that while we're gone, he'll keep working on my motorcycle and when we come back me and Betty can finish it off. I'm 15, the law says I can ride one now. Betty's scared to ride it, but she said she'll be trailing with me, sitting in the back. I'm pretty sure once she sees the way the bike we've worked on for almost a year now comes out, she'll want to learn how to ride too.
We get a seat in the back, next to Toni and Cheryl, Fangs and Kev in front of us, Archie and Veronica behind us and then Sweets and Joaquin next to us down the aisle.
We play cards and tell jokes and just listen to music. Betty ends up sitting most of the time on my lap, her back and head against the cold window, legs spread over her own seat. I of course let her sit this way, enjoying the way her hand keeps drawing patterns on mine.