Panic Room || Jughead Jones

In Treatment // Part Two

Since my conversation with Mrs. Burble, I had been doing my best to keep to myself and try to figure things out without constantly informing Jughead. Said boy was in town today through the weekend since he was grabbing his transcript and asking for a few letters of recommendation to help with his applications

I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of an acceptance from Stanford or University of Pennsylvania and it was driving me insane. My sister had gone with the executive decision of declining Harvard once she found out Daddy had influenced her acceptance and she wasn't up for his control over her life continuing any further.

A knock on my front door pulled me from my Netflix show as I got to my feet to answer. Jughead stood on the other side of the door with his bag across his shoulder as he waited for me to open up. I let out a small breath before pulling the door towards me to let him in.

"Hey," He began as he walked inside. "What have you been up to? I feel like we haven't talked much since earlier this week."

I closed the door and let him kiss me on the cheek before responding. "Just been worrying about acceptance letters that I've gotten distracted. 'M sorry," I apologized as I returned to my spot on the couch. "How's Stonewall been?"

"Same old, creepy and testing my patience," He complained as he sat next to me and tossed his bag aside. "So, are you gonna tell me?"

"Tell you what?" I asked as I pressed play on my show again.

Jughead was busy greeting my dog but continued to interrogate me. "What's wrong. Veronica told me you had a session with Mrs. Burble and she hadn't heard from you since."

"That bitch," I mumbled before shoving a piece of popcorn in my mouth. "It was fine. You know how I am about therapy though."

"You're lying, but okay," Jughead mused as he reached into his bag to grab out a packet of papers. "I finished my Baxter Brothers sample. Will you-"

"Am I holding you back?" I blurted in a moment of weakness.

He dropped the papers to the couch as he looked at me in surprise. "Is that why you've been ignoring me?"

I rolled my eyes and curled back into the cushions. "Not ignoring, just selective response."

"Babe." Jughead reached forward to grab my arms and pull me into his lap as I whined in defiance. This is exactly what Mrs. Burble said not to do. I huffed when he held me tightly despite my attempted escape. "Did she tell you that?"

"She had a point," I defended, "She said we're too dependent... and maybe she's right."

"Dependent?" Jughead repeated as he grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch to wrap us in. "You do realize we're two emotionally unstable puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly right? Of course we're dependent on each other, but that doesn't mean we aren't independent in our own functions. You can go to a restaurant and get food without my approval or help. I can go to school half an hour away without constantly questioning the strength of our relationship."

I sighed and placed my hands on my face. "It's stupid, I know, but just-"

"It's not stupid," Jughead reassured. "We're about to graduate high school, Sav. There's a lot of what-ifs and unknowns that we haven't encountered yet, but I can promise you that you are not holding me back or weighing me down in any way."

"Okay," I agreed although I knew the anxious thoughts weren't leaving my head anytime soon. "Sorry, I just had a moment."

Jughead chuckled and kissed my forehead. "Princess, you can have as many moments as you want so long as you don't give up on me, you understand? I told you, we're in this for the long haul."

I nodded in agreement before letting out a deep breath. "Okay, what did you want to show me?"

Jughead's Baxter Brothers draft was practically perfect with his own touch of course, and I was even more thrilled when he revealed he had caught up on all of his college applications which lifted an invisible weight from my shoulders, not that he knew.

"Check this out," He said once we had finished talking about his piece. He set his laptop on my knees since I was still lounging against him with my back against his chest. "It's an article I found from 2002."

"Novelist Theodore Weisel drowns in a yachting accident," I read from the screen. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"He was in the Quill and Skull literary society with my grandfather. I tracked down all of the original members," Jughead explained.

I nodded in agreement as I continued scanning the page. "Yeah, of course. They could tell you something about what your grandad and DuPont were like back then."

My boyfriend didn't agree. "Not exactly. Theodore's not the only one who suffers an accident. This one is from 1978. Drove off a bridge. This one's from 1994. Mechanical failure. In fact, DuPont and my MIA grandfather are the only ones of the society who are not dead. Which begs the question, are these all horrible, suspicious accidents-"

"Or planned murders..." I finished. My throat tightened at the idea of what horrible events and secrets occurred at Stonewall. "Jug, if you're right, you seriously need to transfer. And I'm not saying that as a dependent, clingy girlfriend, I'm saying that as someone who is seriously concerned for your life."

"I can't!" Jughead argued as he closed out of the articles. "We're so close to this. I can feel it."

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of."

--

Spring Semester

The cold wall sent a chill through me as I rested against the cement blocks in the dim room. I wasn't sure how I ever ended up in this position, but there were too many times to guess where everything went wrong. All I knew was I never planned on standing in the police station with my sister, Betty, and Archie amongst the wall of a line-up. Bret and Donna stood in front of me with faux sadness on their faces as three of the people I had trusted my life with aligned themselves into position against the height markers.

FP's hand landed on my shoulder as he pulled me into his side. "Are you sure these are the three suspects you saw that night?" He asked the duo.

"It's definitely them," Bret responded without hesitation.

"Those are the kids we saw kill Jughead."