The lost twin

Chapter 8

"Hey," Betty heard Jug's smiley voice saying.

"Hi," she said back, but didn't stop her kicking exercise on the punching bag.

"You alright?" the boy chuckled.

"Fine," she said with a harsh voice when giving the bag the last kick and then stopped it from moving and turned around. Her breath got taken away, seeing his bare muscular torso, only there in his sneakers and grey sweatpants. She worked with everything she got to pull her eyes away and met his eyes.

Jughead was grinning at her and she narrowed her eyes with a smirk. "You did it on purpose," she accused with a pouty voice. Jug pressed his lower lip over the upper one. Betty had been here in Riverdale for a week now; she came last Wednesday and now it was Thursday. Their match was in two days and she was waiting for it to be fun.

"Look at your shorts and then come and accuse me," Jughead said, looking down at the black shorts, this time tight and close-fitting. "How can you even kick the bag in those without it rolling up your ass."

Betty giggled. "They're so short they can't do that," she teased and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the empty ring, two already occupied, but the third one in the back still free.

"I still need to warm myself up y'know," Jug smirked, but let her drag him there, the white boxing glove holding onto his wrist gently.

"I can help you with that," the blonde said, pulling her gloves off and throwing them into the ring to pull herself up there and not to bother go on the other side from the small stairs.

"You can help me?" Jughead grinned, brain dirty and stupid, only making Betty roll her eyes while drinking some water. Jug sat down next to her. "Actually, Betts, I have some information for you," he said in a hushed tone.

"Ooh, I'm intrigued," Betty said excitedly, knowing it's about their match.

The boy sighed, pulling his beanie off; something Betty had seen him never done before, even not in the gym. He ran his hand nervously through his hair and she admired the dark locks. She had promised him on Monday at the skate park that she was going to show him her natural hair but she still hadn't done that just yet.

"I heard my dad yelling at someone in his office..." he started quietly, sitting very close to her in order to protect her somehow. "The men have seen how good you are... You've won me a few times and I was supposed to be the third and the hardest to beat... But they don't want the initiation to be easy for anyone, so they're planning on taking Pea out of the match, so you have Archie, me, and then the guy telling all of this to my dad."

Betty frowned, not understanding. "But... Why? Is the guy like short or skinny or something?"

"No," Jughead said. "He's the tallest guy in the Serpents and he's strong as fuck."

"Why would your dad allow that? Isn't it really unfair?" Betty asked, eyes big and scared.

"Betts," Jug sighed. "The guy is a jerk. He hates me and he hates my dad, he wants to be the leader. And since he hates my dad, he hates-"

"My mom," Betty finished, already understanding.

"Exactly," Jughead sighed. "My dad was yelling at him about how you're just a young girl and how you're not gonna beat him, so Tall Guy, that's what his name is, told him some stupid shit about how he's seen you beat me and how girls should strip and stuff... Also somehow he had found out that you're categorically against the stripping, so he wants for you to fail and still have to do that."

"Why won't you throw him out or anything?"

"Because my dad's dad and Tall Boy's dad were the ones creating Serpents. I remember the old guy pretty well, he was one of the greatest people, but his son..." Jughead sighed and met the girl's emerald green eyes. "Sweets got a call today telling him to sit this one out. So he manipulated my dad somehow. He's going to try and hurt you."