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Tabitha was mopping the floor inside the empty diner as she watched a truck pull up to her gas pump. There was no one in the diner right now, but at least since having the gas station put in she had a constant stream of customers. She was nodding along to the beat of the oldies music playing on the radio, as she heard the bell chime as the door opened.
"Hey there," Tabitha said, not fully turning around. “Counter or boo-” she cut herself off as she saw who had just entered the diner.
Jughead.
Jughead!
She dropped the mop handle and ran up to him, practically jumping to hug him. “Oh my God, Jughead! I was so worried about you!”
He hugged her back. “I know, I’m so sorry. That's why this was the first place I came to.”
She pulled back to look at him, still holding on to his shoulders. “You literally just got back to Riverdale? How’d you get here?”
“Hitch hiked,” he said. “That trucker just dropped me off.”
She looked out the window to see the big rig pulling out of the Pop’s parking lot. “Jughead, that is so unsafe!”
He chuckled. “That’s the least of it.”
She smacked him playfully in the arm, but decided not to press for more details. “Okay, well I’m so glad you’re back. And you’re safe.” She hugged him again. She just wanted to be close to him and felt like she couldn't get close enough. The truth was, ever since they had kissed that night, she hadn't been able to get him out of her mind. Then he went missing, which only made it worse. She pulled back again and looked up at him. “I did get your voicemail.”
“Oh, good,” said Jughead. “Yeah, I went back to New York. After that mushroom trip, I realized I had to confront some things.”
“Did you? Confront… the things?”
“That’s a loaded question… but I think I started to, at least.” He motioned toward their usual booth. “Do you want to sit?”
“Yeah, sure,” said Tabitha, “let me put this mop away and– oh! I’ll go grab your phone.”
“Oh, thank God,” said Jughead, exaggeratedly wiping his forehead.
Tabitha raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that the real reason you came here first? Because you figured I’d have your phone?”
He laughed. “I thought the probability was high,” he replied, “but the honest truth is that you’re the only one I wanted to see.”
Swoon. Uh oh. She grinned at him. “Here, sit! I’ll be right back.”
“I’m just going to grab a glass of water,” he said, walking behind the counter. “Want one?”
“No, I’m good - grab whatever you want.” She picked up the mop and bucket and brought it to the back room. She’d been keeping his phone in her purse, so she went to grab that as well. She smiled to herself as she felt a sense of relief wash over her. She had been less worried about him since she got his voicemail saying that he was going to New York, but still, not knowing exactly where he was, not being able to contact him– that had all been really stressful. That feeling was compounded by the guilt she felt for handcuffing him and leaving him alone while he was tripping - he had asked her to do one job and she'd failed at doing it.
She walked back out into the diner to see Jughead still sitting in the booth, head rolled back and eyes closed. She slid into the booth across from him.
“Hi,” he said, moving his eyes back down to look at her. He looked tired. He looked like a mess, to be honest. He was wearing a ripped green overcoat she hadn’t seen him wear before, a grey t-shirt with a ripped collar underneath, and some jeans that he'd probably been wearing every day and definitely hadn't washed. His patchy mustache and beard had already grown longer than she personally would have preferred even before he left, and he clearly hadn't shaved during the days he'd been gone.
“Hey,” she said, smiling. She was annoyed at herself for how gone she was for him. Even looking like a mess as he was. "Here's your phone." She pushed it across the table to him.
"Thank you," he said, as their hands touched as he reached over to take it from her. “Oh, nice, it’s not even dead.” He typed in his passcode to unlock it. Her mind flashed back to Betty typing it in with the same ease, still knowing exactly what his passcode would be after all these years.
“Yeah, I charged it,” she said. “I didn’t– I didn’t snoop or anything, don’t worry. It stayed locked.”
His mouth turned up. “It’s all good. So…”
“Before you say anything else,” she interrupted, “I just– I want to apologize.”
He furrowed his eyebrows.
She continued. “I promised to keep an eye on you while you were tripping, and the moment things got weird, I just…”
Jughead smirked, clearly remembering the moment she was referring to. When he was dancing around shirtless in the bunker, tripping on psychedelic mushrooms, called her his muse and tried to kiss her.
“-I abandoned you,” she finished.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Jughead said. “I never should have even put you in that position. And I’m sorry.”
Tabitha was surprised by this counter-apology, but she nodded.
“I’m even more sorry that I dropped off the face of the earth, and that I made you worry. I’m sorry for everything, really.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I forgive you.” She had already forgiven him before he showed up, really.
“Thanks, Tabitha.”
“Of course. I’m just happy you’re back.” While he'd been gone, she hadn’t been able to get the idea out of her head that he may decide to stay in New York and not return to Riverdale.
That idea made her feel sick.
Their eyes locked and lingered on each other for a few moments.
Tabitha spoke first, breaking the tension. “So. Do you want to talk about what happened in New York?”
He rubbed his eyes with his hands. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Anywhere you want.”
“Basically, I had this really bad night a couple years ago. The night of my book launch.”
Tabitha nodded, remembering the voicemail that Betty played for Jessica and her. He must be talking about the night he left that.
Jughead continued, “I got way too drunk. I did other drugs, too. I was out of my mind. I never even made it to the book launch.”
Tabitha raised her eyebrows. “You didn’t?”
“No. What actually happened, was I fell into this sinkhole.”
“What?!” gasped Tabitha. This was not where she expected this story to go.
“Yeah, I was stuck in there for - I don’t even know - a few days? I ended up being rescued by– by a sewer maintenance guy,” he cringed and brought his hand up to the bridge of his nose.
“Oh, Jughead,” she reached out and put a hand on his arm.
“But I don’t even remember it. I was taken to the hospital, and that’s where I woke up. But the whole thing was just– I lost so much time. And you’d think that would have been rock bottom for me, but no, it wasn’t. I kept drinking, I kept doing drugs, and Jess took care of me - well, enabled me, I guess. But my real rock bottom didn’t happen until back here, in Riverdale.”
“What do you mean? When? Cheryl’s key party? Because-”
Jughead snorted. “Unfortunately, no, that apparently wasn’t rock bottom, either. No, after I pulled out of your handcuffs, I ended up in Sketch Alley.”
“Wait, Riverdale’s Sketch Alley? You were a couple blocks away the whole time we were looking for you?”
“Yeah, I guess” he said, rubbing his chin, “while I was tripping, I felt like I needed to be ‘one with the streets’.” He used air quotes and chuckled at himself. “But I got myself beaten up by some pompous assholes.”
Tabitha cringed. “Oh no, Jug.”
“It was pretty bad, but the craziest thing happened - this homeless man helped me, and it turned out I had actually met him, as a kid. Long story short, he made me realize I needed to go back to New York to piece together what happened. You know, face my demons. Because it's been eating at me for two years."
"Okay, so what happened in New York?" asked Tabitha, propping her chin up with a fist.
"I started by going to St. Vincent's - the hospital. I got my medical records from that day and it turns out I was treated for rabies, of all things."
"Uh, what? Rabies has, like, a 100% fatality rate."
"Well, I'm here!" he put up his hands in an exaggerated shrug. "It's not really clear if I really had it or if it was just suspected and they treated me for it anyway? But I had, like, a hundred rat bites."
Tabitha recoiled. "Ew!"
"Like I said– it was a really bad night."
"I'll say," said Tabitha, shaking her head.
"So, then I went to see Jess."
"Oh?" Tabitha said, raising her eyebrows. "She came here, you know. When we were looking for you."
Jughead sighed. "I know, she told me. She said she came up to help my – how did she put it? Oh yes, my traitor ex and hopeless diner girlfriend."
Tabitha scoffed. "Hopeless? I was actually trying to be productive. She spent the entire time taking us on some wild goose chase and the night ended when she drugged us against our will." She didn’t mention the heart palpitation she got when Jughead referred to her as his girlfriend without correcting it.
"Yeah, she told me that, too. I'm sorry about that. She… doesn't make the best decisions."
Tabitha crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I was not impressed.”
“Did you have a good trip, though?” asked Jughead, with a smirk.
Tabitha rolled her eyes. “It was… actually pretty fun. Betty and I were one with the bunker for a while.”
“The idea of you two hanging out is kind of weird to me,” Jughead chuckled.
“Well, that’s too bad, because we bonded over 70’s tunes and a plasma ball lamp while tripping balls on maple mushrooms, so we’re pretty much best friends now.”
Jughead nodded his head as he considered this. “I guess it could be worse.”
“So, what did Jessica say?”
“Oh, well basically that when I got to the hospital, I was ranting and raving like a lunatic about some ‘Rat King’? Which I guess is related to all the rats that were around in the sewers. It all started to make sense– because when I was still in the bunker, handcuffed to the table, I had this hallucination that the bunker was full of rats, too. My brain started to make sense of it all.”
Tabitha raised an eyebrow. “Did it?”
“I know, it sounds crazy. But I’ve never felt more clear. And you know what? I decided I’m going to go to a meeting. An AA meeting.”
Tabitha gasped and brought her hands to her face. “Really? You are?”
“Yeah,” he said, smiling. “I already looked into it. There’s actually a group that meets Thursday evenings at Riverdale High. So I’m going to go. Tomorrow night.”
“Oh, Jug, I’m so happy for you!” She reached over and grabbed his hand.
“Like I said, Tab, I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.” He rubbed his thumb along her fingers as he held her hand in his.
“Do you want me to go with you? To the meeting?”
“No, thank you, but I think I need to do it alone. I need to do this. For myself. And maybe– also, for us?”
She met his gaze as he continued to run his thumb up and down her hand. She realized in that moment that she was holding on to a full fledged crush on Jughead Jones. “Yeah, maybe,” she said, lips turning up. “For us.”