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Jughead Jones had been in love with Betty Cooper for as long as he could remember. He can’t pinpoint the exact moment that he realized it was love, all he can recall is that for the majority of his emotionally traumatizing, fucked up life there was a bounding light of pink pastels and hair that smelled like strawberries that anchored him--preventing him from ever going off the edge of existence.
He was more than content to stuff his feelings down and never look them quite in the eye. He knew he had to repress whatever it was that he felt, because Betty Cooper would never love him back. She was head over heels for the one and only Archie Andrews. Captain of the football team up and coming vocal artist-Jughead didn’t blame her. He was happy for her, he prayed Archie would give her the time of day and love her the way she deserved to be loved.
Archie never seemed to reciprocate but, Jughead rationed, it was just because he was too dumb to notice.
Either way, Jughead could live a life of silently being in love with the girl who was in love with his best friend. He figured eventually he’d get over the intoxicating, bubbly blonde once he met his soulmate. he knew he didn’t have a chance with betty, but he still had a glimmer of hope for his future-one where he’d have a soulmate who could love him back.
That was all shot to hell when, after being the last of his friends to turn seventeen, he realized who his soulmate is. Everyone learns at different times, no one quite knowing for sure who their soulmate is until they lay side by side at night for the first time.
The fateful night he was crashing at Archie’s when the latter invited Betty over for some ‘studying’. It was really a lame excuse for the three of them to hang out together, an idea that Archie ambushed Jughead with last minute. Truthfully, Jughead had been actively avoiding being in the same room as the two of them ever since he realized how deep he was in it for Betty. He couldn’t torture himself by forcing himself to watch Betty fawn all over Archie, but to his closest pals, it just seemed like he was being distant for no plausible reason.
Everything was going fine until Archie got a message on his phone, a rather secretive one, that caused him to jump up and dart out of the room like a bat out of hell. He muttered something about being back in twenty minutes, but neither Betty nor Jughead quite believed him. Betty watched him go with sad eyes before getting off Archie’s bed and plopping down next to Jughead on his air mattress.
“Satan’s mistress beckons,” Jughead joked, hoping to ease some of the sadness in her eyes. In explicably, he began to feel a bit drowsy.
“Why does he have to lie to us,” Betty huffed, leaning back against the army of pillows Jughead lined up against the wall. “If he’s going to see Veronica, why doesn’t he just say so?”
Jughead wanted to point out that Archie keeps it a secret, or at least tries to, so he won’t break Betty’s heart. But he doesn’t, because he knows it’d only upset her further.
“Archie’s not exactly the brightest bulb in the box.” He was reclining comfortably against the wall of pillows, perhaps too comfortably because he felt if he blinked for too long, he wouldn’t open his eyes for another eight hours.
He swore he could feel his heart stop when Betty leans his head on his shoulder, bodies inches away to the point where they’re borderline cuddling. He urged himself to keep it cool and bring his pulse back to a normal rate when Betty asked, “Do you think they’re soulmates, Jug?”
Jughead knows his odds. He knows his own luck. He knows that Betty and Archie are picture perfect, a classic boy meets girl love story. He knows with every fiber of his being that it’s Betty and Archie who are soulmates. He thought he should comfort her by telling her that, but he can’t bring himself to admit it. Because a part of him still selfishly holds out hope for himself, and if he were to say that Betty and Archie were soulmates out loud, it’d make it all too real.
Instead, he lightened the mood with a joke. “Well, there’s only one way to know for sure,” he looked at her very seriously, “And that’s not the kind of sleeping together that Archie and Veronica are interested in at this given moment-ow!”
She pinched him playfully and they both laughed a bit before she exhaled, “I’m serious Jughead.”
Before he could really stop himself or think better of it, he turned to face her. Their eyes met one another as he said, “I think…I think Archie’s too blind to see what’s right in front of him.”
In the many days to come where he’d rake over every detail of this night, he might deny the way her eyes flickered between his eyes and his lips. He’d swear he was just fooling himself, but Betty shifted a bit closer with her gaze fixed on him.
He couldn’t bear to let this continue, just to have it abruptly end and ultimately crush him. So he awkwardly cleared his throat, “I mean, seriously, remember when he tried to drink Elmer’s glue thinking it was milk?”
Betty giggled, pulling back a bit as she laughed and the moment was gone. “That was in kindergarten, Jug!”
“Pft,” he snorted, “Just the other week he told me he thought artichokes were a type of fish!”
She leaned back on him once again, providing a warmth he didn’t realize he was missing. His thoughts were getting hazier, and wow he didn’t remember feeling this tired before…
They stayed like that for quite some time, swapping stories that primarily poked fun at Archie. It was all in good fun, and while Jughead knew he couldn’t ever be enough for Betty, at least he could put a smile on her face…and was good enough for him.
He didn’t even remember falling asleep. It just happened, the best sleep he had ever gotten. It overcame him like a wave, engulfing him in a sleepy, warm haze. He couldn’t recall what he dreamt about either, too wrapped up in his feelings of pure content.
What he does remember is waking up the next morning with sunlight filtering through the window, illuminating soft lazy specks of dusk. His position had changed, he was laying flat on the air mattress and, wow was there a blanket tucked around him? Betty must’ve done that-
Shit. Betty. He sat up abruptly, or at least tried to, but Betty had tucked the blanket around him with apparent superhuman strength and he flailed a bit awkwardly at first. He blinked, looking around the room with fervor, but only found Archie judging him curiously from the bed.
“Bad dream, Jug?” he asked with a sleepy yawn.
“Where’s Betty?” Jughead’s voice was still thick with sleep.
Fred Andrews walked by the doorway just then, “Morning boys,” he shot Archie a knowing look to which the boy responded by looking at the ground sheepishly. “To answer your question Jug, after I realized Archie snuck out last night, I came up here to find you and Betty passed out on the air mattress.”
Jughead’s eyes widened and he felt his face heat up. “I woke her up and sent her home before I had Alice Cooper at my front door waving a shot gun in my face…but you were conked out pretty hard kid.”
Dumbstruck, all Jughead could say was, “Oh.”
Fred chuckled to himself, “I mean, you must’ve been exhausted Jughead. I’ve never seen anyone passed out like that ‘til they meet their soulmate.”
It was just a joke. One that both Archie and Fred passed by pretty quickly as Archie asked what was for breakfast. Neither of them focused on what was said-both knowing how it was too absurd to be true. Both of them knowing how obvious it was that Betty and Archie were soulmates, not Betty and Jughead. They breezed past the topic quickly, not thinking much of it.
Jughead, however, was a different story. He felt the world stop around him. He’d heard stories of people finding their soulmates or realizing their partner was their soulmate. He knew the tales, the most common question he had as a child was, “How do you know? What makes sleeping next to your soulmate different than…any other sleep?”
The response to his question was always the same. “You just know.”
As Jughead glanced behind his shoulder, looking out Archie’s window and at Betty’s across the way, god dammit he just knew.
Not only was he in love with Betty, but she was his soulmate. A part of him scoffed because, wasn’t it typical? He’d always have the worst luck in the world.
It was confirmed when he tried to fall asleep that night and found himself tossing and turning for hours. Insomnia wasn’t something new to him, but soulmate induced insomnia…that was a different story entirely. He was frustrated, mad at himself, mad at the world, mad at fate. He felt lonely too, like he was missing something. Knowing what that something was pissed him off too.
So he did his research, and Jughead Jones was nothing if not thorough. He calculated his odds of having a non-reciprocal soulmate. Google was his new best friend (but if he was being honest, when wasn’t google his best friend?) and he discovered that the whole system of soulmates was…pretty much bullshit.
So many people had soulmates that had other people as soulmates, some people never had soulmates in the first place. Some people never felt soulmate insomnia, so they’d never know who their soulmate was. Some people staved off their whole soulmate insomnia with chamomile tea and melatonin…. the system was pretty flawed. Jughead, playing the role of a true pessimist, wound up concluding that he was one of those. Someone who’s soulmate didn’t reciprocate. In his mind, he was better off having no soulmate at all.
Couldn’t this one thing just work out for him? It was bad enough he was in love with Betty, but he always relied on the fact that he’d at least get over her and be with his soulmate someday…another dream crushed. If he was lucky, he’d get stuck in some loveless marriage with someone else who was in the same boat as him.
He remained sleepless for a few days, every day dismaying as Betty walked into school as pink and perky as ever before, a telltale sign that she was having a good night’s rest. More confirmation that he couldn’t be her soulmate, if he was then she certainly wouldn’t be so well rested. She hadn’t even mentioned that night, at all. If she was his soulmate, wouldn’t she have felt the same even if Fred woke her up?
He even decided to put it to the test one day. As she strolled into school with the usual pep in her step and ponytail bouncing behind her he baited, “How many cups of coffee did you have today?”
Betty smiled brightly at him, “My mom still won’t let me drink coffee Jug, you know that! I just slept really well, that’s all.”
He nodded slowly, “Of course, Betts, gotta get that REM cycle and all.” She laughed before Archie and Veronica walked over.
He excused himself hurriedly, walking away too quickly. He was a fool for even hoping. Betty probably slept so well because Archie was what, 20 feet away from her in the house next door? He wasn’t sure what the exact radius (if there even was one) for being close next to your soulmate while you slept but maybe Archie being so nearby is what helped her sleep. Or maybe they discovered they were soulmates and crept into each other’s rooms…
Either way, Jughead quadrupled his efforts in avoiding both Betty and Archie. If he was ever going to get over the fact that he couldn’t be to Betty what Betty was to him…he needed to lay low. He just needed to survive the rest of the year graduate, get the hell out of town, go to some college far away from the both of them and maybe if he was lucky, one day they wouldn’t be more than a ghost of a thought in the back of his brain.
So Jughead slowly began to pull himself out of their lives. He sat in the back of the classroom during the classes they shared far away from where they were sitting, ate his lunch in the corner of the library, and never responded to their texts. He kept his headphones on at all times in the hallway and pretended he didn’t hear them when they walked up to talk to him. They got the message within a few days.
And it hurt like hell. Archie was his best friend, after all. And maybe Jughead was being a douchebag, he should be happy for Archie, relieved that his best friend had such an awesome soulmate…but he couldn’t stifle his own feelings of jealousy. He was being selfish, and watching the hurt look in Betty’s eyes whenever he walked past her only wound up breaking his own heart.
It didn’t help that he wasn’t sleeping for more than half an hour every night. His body would more or less collapse from exhaustion, his mind shutting off for just thirty minutes. He missed Betty, missed the way she’d be the only one laughing at his jokes when the gang shared a booth at Pops, how she organized her pens on her desk in color order, the way her eyebrows drew together when she was really focused on something…
He spent the hours he couldn’t sleep thinking about her and he hated himself for it, knowing he was only making matters worse for himself. But he just couldn’t get her out of his head. The lack of sleep made him extra irritable. Dark circles, bags, they all made themselves a permanent home under his eyes. He was having trouble paying attention in class too, a few teachers even called him out on it. He was tired all the time and had no energy to do anything outside of dragging himself to and from school.
With a heavy sigh, he walked through the doors of Riverdale High. The lights were disorienting and while he heard his fellow peers chatting in the hallway, all of their voice seemed to blur and mesh together. He felt like was going to be sick.
Everything came into focus and he became suddenly hyper-aware of everything when Betty, the source of all of his current problems, stepped directly in front of him. She blocked his path and looked rather upset with him. In a ballsy move, she reached up and tugged his headphones down to lay on his neck.
“Betty? What are you doing?” He was confused, and after his vision cleared, he felt himself feeling more tired than he had in the past week. He tried to focus on her, but found it increasingly difficult.
“What’s been going on with you Jug?” She tried to look him in the eyes but he looked at the ground. She reached her hand up and gently touched his face, fingertips grazing the soft surface of his skin. “You don’t look like yourself.”
To her surprise he recoiled back from her touch, it was just…too much. “I’m fine Betty, I have to go,” Jughead turned to walk away but Betty narrowed her eyes and grabbed his hand.
She mumbled something under her breath but he didn’t quite catch it. Instead she tugged him down the hallway impatiently, heading towards The Blue and Gold office. He could’ve pulled away or walked in the other direction but he felt the fight leaving his body. This was the closest he’d been to Betty in days and, coincidentally, it was also the best he felt in days.
Once inside the office, she left the lights off and locked the door behind them. She ushered him to sit in one of the rolling chairs and sat on the desk in front of him. The lack of sleep was catching up to him, and he leaned on the desk with his head rest in his hand. It was taking all of his strength to not fall asleep right now.
“I’m not letting you out of here until you tell me what’s wrong,” She crossed her arms and looked down at him, waiting. He could tell she was frustrated.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he lied breezily.
Betty narrowed her eyes at him in disapproval, “Nothing’s wrong? So you’ve just decided to start ignoring Archie and I for no reason then?”
Archie and I he winced, “Yup.”
“I don’t buy it Jughead!” Her voice was animated and louder and definitely shouldn’t be as soothing as it was to him. She was one decibel away from actually yelling at him, but if anything it was bringing him closer to sleep. Pitiful, is what he was. “You don’t talk to us for weeks, you don’t even sit with us at lunch! You avoid me in the halls, you ignore me, refuse to answer my texts and-! Now, look at you! You’re falling asleep as I’m talking to you!” she gestured to him wildly as he felt his eyelids droop down.
“Mmfph…just haven’t been sleeping,” he mumbled.
“You’ve been avoiding us because you can’t sleep?” She questioned doubtfully, “All of the sudden, out of nowhere, you can’t sleep and that’s our fault? I mean that’s…that’s ridiculous.” Her words were blurring together in his mind but he heard some form of realization in her voice. Betty was a smart girl and, with all of the puzzle pieces in front of her, he reckoned it wouldn’t take long for her to figure out. “Jughead, did you…”
Sleepily, he swayed forward and fell asleep before his head even hit her lap.
Sometime later, he awoke feeling the same way he did all of those weeks ago at Archie’s house. Warm, content…. complete. He could vaguely recognize fingers laced through his hair and smell warm vanilla, leaving him to linger for just a moment more. He savored the feeling before his brain caught up with him and he opened his eyes.
His head was much much clearer now. The clearest it’d been in weeks. He sat up in his chair abruptly, pulling away from the warmth he so desperately desired. He glanced at the clock on the wall, he’d only been asleep for about an hour and a half but…damn that was three times longer than he was used to.
He could feel Betty looking at him. She was practically staring holes into the side of his face and when he turned to look at her…she just had this look. Like she knew everything. All of the secrets he’d been trying so hard to keep, all the cards he played so close to the vest were exposed and laying open for her to see. She knew she was his soulmate.
Since he was thinking so clearly once again, it didn’t take long for him to remember that he wasn’t her soulmate. Was that sympathy in her eyes? He couldn’t bear to look at it. The last thing he ever wanted was for her to find out that she was his soulmate.
Because he knew Betty-her kindness knew no bounds. She’d taking being his soulmate as a responsibility, she’d try to take care of him and be there for him-she’d put her own life with Archie on hold just to make him feel better. He could foresee Archie getting jealous, a conversation about how Betty was too nice to let Jughead down where she’d refute she feels bad for Jughead because he has a soulmate who could never love him back like that. Her sympathy… being her pity project was the last thing he ever wanted.
Panicked at his secret being exposed, he quickly got up and grabbed his stuff.
She was staring at him with a baffled look on her face, “Jughead…where are you going?”
He shouldn’t have answered her. He should’ve just ignored her as he had been doing for the past while. But he retorted, “Uh, class? It’s the middle of a school day, Betty.”
He started to walk out the door when Betty asked, “Can’t we at least…talk first?”
Another opportunity to walk away that he blatantly refused. But, dammit, the world was unfair and he was angry about it. His anger was just a bit misdirected. “Talk about what Betty?”
Her green eyes looked confused, a little hurt at his tone and her eyebrows were raised as if to say, “the obvious?”
“What?” He snapped, “You want a pat on the back? You want a ‘congratulations!’ for figuring it out?” She looked confused when he continued on to say, “The world, the universe hates Jughead Jones, okay? I get it. I get the message, loud and clear, Betty. So there’s nothing to talk about.”
“I’m sorry, the world hates you?” She questioned, eyeing him suspiciously. “You’re not making any sense.”
He rolled his eyes, frustrated for having to explain, “The world, universe, fate-call it what you want, Betty. I don’t believe in any of it-whatever made you my soulmate is bullshit, okay? So just forget about it!”
With that he darted out of the room, leaving behind one confused and very broken hearted blonde.
He retreated into the trailer at Sunnyside, laying face up on the springy, uncomfortable couch. Lazily he tossed a tennis ball up and down trying hard not to think about what just happened.
He was failing miserably, but he figured now Betty wouldn’t want anything to do with him. Which would make avoiding her easier. He scoffed at himself, dumbass.
Bang bang bang. He furrowed his brow at the sound of someone knocking on the trailer door. Bang bang bang. Okay whoever it was, was awfully impatient. Bang bang bang, followed by a muffled open up asshole!
He couldn’t get to the door quick enough, even heard the person on the other side trying the handle. Annoyed, he whipped the door open to see a rather pristine Veronica Lodge waiting for him on the other side. She was wearing her typical hounds tooth attire, looking less than pleased with him.
Veronica was an outlier in the puzzle, just like him. They both didn’t fit into the Betty and Archie equation, and so her persistent presence at Archie’s side was a source of confusion for Jughead. He just supposed Veronica wasn’t as good at picking up on signals as he was.
She invited herself inside, pushing past him aggressively. “What gives asshole?”
He played dumb, “What are you talking about?”
“What am I talking about? Gee, Jughead, that’s a good question,” she bit back sarcastically, tapping a finger to her chin in mock thought, “I’m talking about the fact that my best friend is crying because her soulmate just rejected her.”
Betty’s crying? Jughead felt a consuming wave of guilt wash over him. “I’m not her soulmate Veronica.”
Veronica just snorted out a bitter laugh, “Really Romeo? That’s why you just passed out on her lap in the middle of a school day?”
“I…” He wasn’t expecting Veronica to call him out like that, “Listen, it-it’s complicated.”
“You two are soulmates, not a Facebook status,” She narrowed her eyes at him, “So no, Jones, it’s not complicated.”
He shook his head at her, irritated, “We’re not soulmates.”
This evoked a long and sharp laugh from Veronica, Jughead could equate it only to cackling like a hyena. Once she realized he wasn’t laughing with her, she paused, “Oh. You were serious?”
“She’s my soulmate,” Jughead explained as Veronica nodded along, “But I’m…I’m not hers.”
“Wait, pause,” She commanded, “How the hell do you figure that?”
He gulped awkwardly, he shouldn’t be the one explaining this to her, “Come on Veronica. It’s Betty and Archie. Always has been.”
Veronica blinked at him, “You think…Betty and Archie…are soulmates?”
Jughead affirmed, “It’s obvious Veronica.”
She started to laugh again, subtler and to herself this time, but Jughead was getting pretty fed up. “Oh Jughead…what are we doing to with you?” She was quite amused, much to his annoyance. “Archie and I have known we’re soulmates since his seventeenth birthday.”
“What?” Jughead’s mouth was hanging open in surprise. Archie turned seventeen a few weeks after Veronica, months ago. His best friend found his soulmate and didn’t say anything? But that means…
Bang bang bang. Veronica raised her eyebrows in interest as someone else knocks on his door. “Expecting someone?” she drawled.
He shrugged her off before opening the door to find Archie on the other side, shoving his way in. Once inside the doorframe, a pretty angry Archie pushed Jughead back. “What the hell man! You made Betty cry!”
“Archie?” Veronica called out from the shadows of the trailer.
“Veronica?” He called back, surprised to see her here of all places. “Betty told you not to go after Jughead!”
“Betty also told you not to go after Jughead!” Veronica argued, more amused now.
The boy in question coughed awkwardly, prompting him to earn another push from Archie, “What? You think you’re too good for your own soulmate dude?”
Jughead looked bewildered because that certainly was not the case here. “You’ve been ignoring us for weeks! And this is why? Were you ever gonna tell her? Or just keep her in the dark?”
“Oh no Archie,” Veronica stepped in between the two boys and Jughead was grateful for just two seconds, “He thinks he’s not Betty’s soulmate.”
It was Archie’s turn to look confused so Veronica elaborated, “He thought the two of you were soulmates. Probably thought I was disillusioned and blind to your love.”
Unlike Veronica, Archie didn’t laugh. “That’s impossible Jughead, she’s like a sister to me. And obviously Ronnie and I are soulmates,” he seemed genuinely confused at Jughead’s confusion on the matter.
“Obviously?” Jughead scoffed, “You two didn’t tell anyone!”
“We thought everyone knew! We thought you knew!” They said in unison, a manner that was more unsettling than cute.
“Betty didn’t know,” he pointed out, “When I slept over a few weeks ago she asked me if you guys were soulmates.”
“My dad and I told her when he woke her up to go,” Archie rolled his eyes, “she wasn’t that surprised.”
And, oh god, was Jughead really feeling like an idiot now. “I mean,” Jughead scrambled to justify, “That still…doesn’t mean…that I’m Betty’s soulmate.”
Veronica pinched the bridge of her nose ready to bite out a rude comment when Archie intervened with a comforting hand on her shoulder, “Why? Why do you think that?”
“Because!” He exclaimed wildly, “I haven’t slept in weeks! Not since that night at your house Archie. I can’t focus in school, I can’t eat, I can’t stop thinking about her! And this whole time it’s been killing me because I thought…you two were soulmates. This entire time, I’ve been tossing and turning all night, looking like hell the next day-and she’s been fine! She’s even told me herself how well she’s been sleeping!”
And…that was pretty sound logic. It was hard to refute. Because even if Archie and Betty weren’t soulmates, there was that giant hole in the Betty and Jughead soulmate theory. He could see it in the way their faces fell. They couldn’t deny it.
“Oh,” Archie said, “Well, she’s pretty crazy about you, dude. The past few weeks she’s been going out of her mind trying to figure out what’s wrong with you. Ronnie and I have had to physically hold her back a few times.”
“She’s been crazy about you. I could tell that much since I first met you guys two years ago when I blessed this dismal town with my presence,” Veronica confirmed, “You’re all she’d talk about. From your dumb taste in movies, to wow Veronica! I can’t believe this article he wrote its so good blah blah blah to laughing at your unfunny jokes half an hour after you already left.”
Even…even if he wasn’t her soulmate, she still clearly loved him. And that was something, right?
Knock-knock. Someone else was at his door. Jughead sighed, exasperated but opened the door nonetheless to find Betty on the other side with a brown paper bag and a nervous look on her face.
“Betty-” He began to say but she interjected.
“Jughead, I know you’re…hurt and tired, but can I just come in? Can we please talk about us? I think I get why you’re upset-you don’t think we’re soulmates-wait, Archie?” She looked past Jughead’s shoulder to see the ginger standing awkwardly behind him.
“Betty?” Archie responded.
“Betty?” Veronica peeked over his shoulder.
“Veronica?” Betty was even more confused, stepping into the trailer.
Half-heartedly, Jughead raised his arm and lamely said, “Jughead, too.”
Archie snickered but Betty sent him an apprehensive stare, he wouldn’t be off the hook that easily.
Betty looked past him and stared at Archie and Veronica, “You two both promised me you wouldn’t say anything to him.”
Veronica had a light and airy tone, “And we had our fingers crossed the whole time, B.”
Betty put a hand on her hip, staring them both down, “Can we, uh, have a moment alone?”
“Of course!” Veronica chirped, taking Archie’s hand and pulling him into the living room, really only a few feet away from the doorway. Not nearly far enough for a private conversation.
“Veronica,” Betty’s said lowly, impatiently.
“Fine!” She huffed indignantly, moving to the door, “But I’m only a phone call away-don’t forget it Jones!”
“Goodbye Veronica, bye Archie!” Betty ushered them out the door quickly. As soon as the metal hinge of the door clicked shut, it became too quiet.
The silence was stifling, neither quite knowing what to say.
Eventually, Betty cleared her throat. “I…I don’t know what they told you, I hope it just didn’t make me look too embarrassing.”
“What do you mean?” He looked at the brown paper bag curiously.
“I just…remember when I was upset about how secretive Archie was about being with Veronica?” She waited for him to nod before continuing, “That night…when we fell asleep…it just felt different. I’ve never felt like that before. I assume you felt it too.”
“I did,” his voice was barely above a whisper.
“After Fred woke me up, I was so confused-I felt so disoriented, I felt like I was pulled from the best sleep of my life- I had no idea what was going on. And after I went home I couldn’t sleep. I thought, I don’t know, maybe we were soulmates. I mean those are all the tell-tale signs!”
“I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming on here,” Jughead lamented, eyes guarded.
She nodded, “But the next day, I slept fine. I slept fine, every night after that. Ever since I turned seventeen, I’ve been sleeping fine-better than I used to!”
He looked down at his shoes, this was seemed to be their roadblock. How can she sleep content without him, if he was truly her soulmate?
“So I thought…I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy? And then I was…upset. Maybe dozing off together didn’t count but…I wanted it to be you,” Betty confessed, looking up at him from underneath her lashes, “I wanted my soulmate to be you, so badly. I was so frustrated at myself, and then you kept pulling away. You didn’t want to talk to me or-or Archie, I was worried you were being secretive-I thought that maybe you found your soulmate. And that’s why you weren’t around as much, just like Archie.”
“That…couldn’t be further from the truth-the reality is-” Jughead was astonished, this entire time he’d been fretting over the fact he wasn’t Betty’s soul mate while she was worried she wasn’t his.
“That we’re soulmates,” she finished with a smile that could soothe his soul, “But I didn’t know that-not until today when you, um, fell asleep on me? That’s when I realized-and I was so happy and excited. I had a soulmate and it was you, of all people. But then you-you woke up,” he could see tears forming in her eyes and he cursed himself for his harsh words before.
“I didn’t mean it-I swear,” he jumped in to explain, paranoia coating his voice, “I was-I was an idiot. I thought you were my soulmate but I wasn’t yours- I thought you and Archie were and I was trying to avoid you guys to make it hurt less but it was just stupid and-”
This time when she cupped his face with her hand, he didn’t pull away. He leaned into her touch, finding comfort in it as she nodded, “I know-it was your wording that gave you away. At first I thought you were upset because we were soulmates. I thought my own soulmate didn’t want me but-you said something about me being your soulmate and not us…and that’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?”
She rolled her eyes, “I knew exactly what happened that night. You freaked out the next morning, waited to see if I joined you in the crusade of sleepless nights, did a ton of research online and convinced yourself we were one of those non-reciprocal soulmate deals.”
He stared at her, stunned with a blush rising on his cheeks, “I, uh-well, basically?”
“I know you, Jughead Jones,” she smirked victoriously, bringing their foreheads to touch.
He could feel her grin against him, contagious enough to make him smile too. “I love you, Betty Cooper.”
And it was true. Whether or not she had insomnia without him-they were soulmates. Maybe she was just an anomaly that way.
“I love you too,” she whispered before pressing their lips together softly.
If sleeping next to each other wasn’t enough to tell if they were soulmates, the fireworks and instant connection behind the kiss were enough to do the trick.
“Oh!” Betty said excitedly before pulling back, “I forgot about this!” She brought the brown paper bag up.
“What’s in the bag?” He looked at her, wondering what was important enough to interrupt their moment.
Betty pulled out an orange bottle with a white cap, a pill bottle. Tiny, beige capsules lined the inside of the bottle, it looked like it was halfway through.
He looked at her confused and she handed him the bottle. He read the label AMBIEN-TAKE 1X A DAY, HALF HR BEFORE INTENDED SLEEP.
Shocked, he looked up at her and she exclaimed loudly, “Sleeping pills, Jug! My mom was slipping them into my tea every night! That’s why she always wanted me home.”
“She didn’t want you to know when you found your soulmate,” Jughead realized.
“After Polly and Jason…she didn’t want me to have a soulmate,” She shook her head, disappointed in herself for not suspecting her mother sooner.
“Are you…Are you sure this is it? The reason you’ve actually been sleeping?” He eyed her cautiously, “Because with or without the insomnia-I know. We’re soulmates.”
“Well,” she took the bottle out of his hand before chucking it into the garbage with a sly smile on her face, “There’s only one way to know for sure. And you look like you could use a nap.”