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While Jughead doesn’t feel utterly changed, he does wake up with an awful hangover, because he’s no longer allowed to climb to Betty’s window at night, to lay in her bed, to kiss her, and he is more like his father than he cares to admit. He could, of course, blame Archie, who decided he was sick of watching foreign films (French, mostly) and wanted to get drunk at the going-away party Cheryl Blossom was throwing from her brother. But Jughead doesn’t believe in chain-reactions, on the basis that they simplify life, and life is definitely not simple. If it were, he wouldn’t be naked, with Archie Andrews gaping in the doorway in complete horror. If it were, the sound of the door opening would not have woken him up, and if it were, he wouldn’t have have Cheryl Blossom, naked, her head pillowed on his chest, her obscenely long hair in his mouth.
Jughead feels like he woke up in the Twilight Zone-the old version. He spits Cheryl’s red strands out of his mouth, and looks at Archie with what is most likely the same look he himself is receiving from his best friend.
Archie moves to close the door, step backwards slowly, until Jughead shakes his head franticly. Archie looks at him wildly, mouths, “What do you want me to do?!” When Jughead is at a loss for words (even silent ones), Archie mouths again, “Downstairs,” he points a finger to the floor, “I’ll be downstairs!”
“No!” Jughead hisses, “No—Archie—“
And as if summoned, Cheryl wakes up, lifting her head to stare at him, completely alert, as if she hadn’t been sleeping moments before. Jughead can’t help but frown, because it’s a bit disturbing.
Then she yawns, then pauses, and fixes Jughead with a look that is both annoyed and amused.
He rolls his eyes, “We’re bed together, naked, and it’s the morning.”
“Right,” she drawls, sugar-sweet smile spreading on her full lips. Jughead instantly remembers what those lips did, not so long ago. Like a predatory cat, she takes a condom from her drawer, and moves to straddle him, and he can see her, all pale skin turning rosy and flame-colored hair, and he sees the appeal, especially because she’s rocking down, naked on his—
“We probably shouldn’t—“ Jughead starts, eyes closed and head thrown back (where’s his hat?).
“One last time, and we never speak of this again,” Cheryl finishes, warns, breathless “If you do, I’ll kill you.” It should worry him that she seems completely serious when she tells him she will kill him, but all he can really think about is how she thinks she has the upper hand, even though she was loud and moaned his name last night. So, she really doesn’t.
Archie is outside in his car when Jughead comes down. He almost gets lost in the sea of sleeping people and the expanse of the mansion, passing by Reggie, who is crawled up on the couch. Josie, who walking around with coffee, in a bathrobe like the place is her own home, and in the kitchen is Jason Blossom himself, laughing intimately with Polly Cooper, whose stomach is swelling and whose diamond ring is twinkling. The red-haired boy turns, almost in slow motion, and his carefree smile turns into a mischievous smirk, the light in his pretty eyes dancing. Jughead frowns at him and walks away, Eventually, he makes it to the car, opens the door, and slides in. He and Archie are are silent next to each other.
Jughead starts, “Uhm. Did you see my—“ Archie clears his throat and hands Jughead his hat, “Thanks.”
“I won’t—“
“You can’t—“
Archie actually laughs, the fucker, “I’m not!”
Jughead groans, burying his head in his hands, and Archie keeps laughing, his handsome face lighting up with that perfect smile Jughead both loves and hates.
“How did this happen? How did you let this happen?”
Archie throws his head back and barks out a laugh, louder than the rest, “How did I let this happen? What, you think I encouraged you to bang Cheryl Blossom? I’m not that guy!”
“…you’re right, you’re not that guy.”
“Thank you!”
Jughead sighs, “Reggie?”
With a shake of his head, Archie protests, “No way. I’m pretty sure he was playing pool the whole time.”
“…Kevin?”
“Okay, more likely to play Devil’s Advocate, but he disappeared into one of the rooms upstairs. You got pretty drunk, man. You kept making metaphors about drowning and whiskey. Actually…when you weren’t with me, I saw you hanging out with Jason.”
Instantly, Jughead’s head snaps toward his friend, blood cold, “What.”
“Yeah, but,” Archie squirms in his seat, “You don’t think Jason would go out of his way to get his sister laid, do you? I mean, that’s sort of wrong on a…certain level. He wouldn’t do that. Right?”
Jughead and Archie look at each other, than look away, their face furrowed in reluctant contemplation, siting in uncomfortable silence for quite a time before the car starts.
When they reach home, they sit in silence once more, and Archie looks antsy, jostling his leg, until Jughead sighs and says, “I know you want to ask, so go ahead.”
Archie grins, turns his whole body toward him, back to the door and arm resting on the steering wheel, “How was it?”
“Don’t remember.”
“Bullshit, c’mon.”
Jughead give a long-suffering sigh and admits, “It was good.”
His best friend must love seeing him suffer, because he grins wider and asked, “How good?”
He groans without irony, “It was good, okay? Obviously, she’s gorgeous—“
“—Gorgeous?“
“Oh, my God, stop! Do you want to know or not?”
Archie raises his hands in defeat.
“Right. So she’s like. Really flexible.”
Archie bursts into laughter.
“And…kind of demanding, and her hair was everywhere, but,” and the memory of her flashes through his mind, he is remembering the taste of the sweat between her breasts, the flesh of her thighs, the way she pushed her long red nails into her skin, and bit his lip—
“But it was good.”
—
approximately 7 hours ago…
“Would you mind going to check on my sister?” Jason asks. He’s there is all white, matching both Polly and Cheryl. He full-lipped smile is distracting, especially because Jughead is now too drunk to know that he shouldn’t be admitting to himself that he finds the boy attractive. He’s extremely coherent, and Jughead doesn’t know if he can hold his liquor extremely well or if he hasn’t been drinking. Somehow, both are unsettling, because Jason Blossom is both a good and bad person, all people are. However, Jason hides his bad very well, so when it sneaks to the surface, veiled expertly, it comes off as super fucking creepy. “Someone slipped red wine on her dress. She went upstairs to change and I haven’t seen her in a while. I don’t want anyone taking advantage of her. I’d go myself, but I want to keep Polly and the baby company. You understand.”
Jughead want to point out that Polly has not had the baby yet, and that Cheryl could probably kill a man with just her high-heels, but he simply blinks, and says, “Uhm, yeah. Sure,” tentatively, a little suspicious.
Upstairs, Jughead calls Cheryl’s name. He has forgotten the directions Jason gave him, and has taken to knocking on every door. He’s given up—the Blossoms have such a huge fucking house—when his final knock opens the door, and there is Cheryl, halfway through zipping up the long, gold, front zipper on her black dress, leaning against the door frame drunkenly, “Yes?” There’s a little bit of darkness in her eyes, and he’s too drunk to put two and two together.
He really doesn’t find Cheryl attractive, not normally. He knows that she’s beautiful, that her long hair is so bright in the sun it make his eyes hurt, but there’s never been desire there. There’s never been desire, until now. She’s half-naked, okay? He only stares for a second, but she sees it anyway, and laughs in that taunting way that he hates, “Oh, sweetie. You couldn’t handle me.”
It sends a shock of lust so powerful it’s euphoric and his head sort of spins, and that’s why he cocks his head in mock-contemplation and replies, “You like being handled?”
It makes her raise an eyebrow, and quirk a smile, “Only if you can do it right.” Her language makes the challenge more direct, and Jughead doesn’t know if she’s bullshitting, or just trying to get a rise out of him, but…Cheryl Blossom is an expert at getting a rise out of him, in any case.
He pushes her into the room and closes the door behind him.