Riverdale Ships One-Shots// ON HOLD

Heartbreak and All His Friends

Bughead.

--

Death. Heartbreak.

If those two words don't scare you off, then you've experienced them before. They're a trauma of their own and result in having to face it. Death is final; life ends. It's inevitable.

Heartbreak is different; you could be heartbroken for your entire life and still have to move on. Carousels never stop turning, and life keeps going.

Those feelings are impossible to fake well, since it's well known that you'll either just suppress everything or react in another way. It's extreme, whatever your reaction is.

Eventually, it isn't. Time passes and eventually, you can deal with it, whatever it is, less extremely.

Faking a death doesn't make sense, but neither does anything in this town. It's nearly impossible to pull off well, especially for years.

It's been five years since Jughead died, and Betty's finally moved on. Not to a new love of her life, but to a new boyfriend. Her new boyfriend is Ben, and he's great for her. Ben is a great guy, but he's not Jughead. Maybe she had the great love story of her life, and now she doesn't have one left, just a mundane version of that.

On the sixth anniversary of the day that Jughead died, Betty decides not to leave her couch. Ben goes to work, and promises to be home soon, but he isn't. He has a lot of meetings and other work events today that are holding him back.

The doorbell rings, odd because her house is far away from most others. She cautiously grabs her baseball bat and goes to answer the door, in her mess and all.

"Betty," a familiar face and voice breathes. And of course, that voice belongs to Jughead Jones, the man who broke her heart into a million pieces. He even looks like him, but he can't be.

"No. No, this isn't true. This is a sign I've got a tumor or something, but it isn't happening. You're not here, you're not real. You died six years ago," Betty starts shouting. She's so confused, she Face Times Veronica.

"Hey B," Veronica greets before the camera tilts to the man who looks like Jughead, sounds like Jughead, and acts like him. "Betty, is that Jughead?"

"Hey, Veronica," Jughead says awkwardly, still standing in the doorway.

Betty invites him in cautiously, "You died six years ago, Jughead! To the minute. You died twenty minutes from now, six years ago. Brain death, not organ failure. The car crash, remember?"

"What car crash?" Jughead asks, confused. "Betts, I was kidnapped. They let me go today, and now I'm here."

A look of confusion hits her. "No, you are NOT my husband! You're impersonating him! He's dead, and he has been for years."

The Lodge girl calms her best friend, "B, I don't think he's lying. I heard Daddy talking about that a while ago, and I thought it was just me hearing things, but what if it wasn't and it was him?"

"Jughead, if you're really alive, then what was the first murder I witnessed?" Betty asks, slowly grasping this.

"It was of your cat when you were eight," he replies easily, a smile threatening his face.

"Not whether to say fuck you or fuck you."

"What about both?"

🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱🍱

Later loves,

~Ry