Jerk of Hearts, Queen of Spades

________________________________Chapter 8

It was with a light heart that Reggie went to sleep that evening. The world was as it should be; he'd found the one. She came wrapped up with an extra bow he hadn't quite been expecting, but that didn't mean he was going to snub such a gift. He snuggled in the sheets she had washed for him and drifted away.

The next morning, however, he felt a panic attack set in. Memories of all the things they had done together and what he'd seen and touched flooded through him. The reality of the situation was, biologically and for all intents and purposes, he had just had anal sex with a man while jerking him off. That the man called himself a girl, and looked like one in every other way, didn't erase the fact. Vile... or was it? The real struggle came when he realized it didn't bother him as much as he'd expected it to, which, itself, bothered him. Was he really so accepting and loose that he'd bang anything that had a pulse? What was he turning into?

By the time he went down to breakfast, he was in a better mood - not quite tripping the light fantastic, but better. He wasn't willing to hook up with just anybody. It was Midge. She wasn't a typical girl, true, but his heart was determined to clear that hurdle and to take his brain along for the ride, kicking and screaming. In all of Riverdale, she was the one girl he knew he would stay true to, come what may. And he was going to make it happen.

But nobody answered when he called Midge's house. In fact, the machine didn't even pick up. What was going on? He debated heading over there, but then he thought back to how she'd talked about her mother nailing her to the wall for running out. Maybe he should just give them space to duke it out and try back later.

Reggie ventured out onto the beach. It was a beautiful day. He swam in the chilly surf, ate mediocre-but-satisfying vendor food, tanned his toned body. It was rejuvenating, a nice way to escape his own head and be calm for a while. He was still lying back on his towel and basking when a familiar voice invaded his aura of solitude.

"Hey there, handsome."

"Hey, Ronnie," he grunted, sitting up and staring at her. The voluptuous stone fox was decked out in a yellow-and-violet little bikini today - though everything still held that bluish hue one perceives after staring at the sun through your eyelids. "Enjoying your fun in the sun?"

"Sure," she said with a shrug, pushing her sunglasses up and onto her head so she could wink at him properly. "Want to enjoy it with me?"

A peculiar thing happened then. Reggie was all set to say he did, preparing to stand up, but he automatically said, "No thanks. Maybe later."

Veronica's eyebrow went up. "What do you mean? You're not doing anything special, are you?"

"Relaxing, that's all."

"You're not waiting here for, oh, say... Midge, are you?"

He could feel the smile slipping from his face, so he pushed it back where it belonged. "Why would you say that?"

"Because Ethel tells me you two were seeing an awful lot of each other on Friday," she went on, lips pursing between sentences. "When the Moose is away, the rat fink will play?"

"Perish the thought, baby," he said smoothly. "But yeah, I think Midge can use her friends in such difficult times. Isn't that the honorable thing to do?"

"You're so dashing," she cooed, sliding down next to him on the blanket. This was Veronica Lodge at her full charms; sultry voice, eyelashes fluttering, shoulder rubbing against his bicep. "Like Sir Gallahad. Take me away on your white horse - or yellow convertible. Whichever you rode in on."

"Uhh... like I said, I'm kind of in a meditative state today," he half-laughed. "But I think I saw Jason Blossom heading for the snow cone stand."

Veronica stared evenly at him for a very long moment, and Reggie began to feel out of place. Maybe he could just leave, let her keep his blanket. He was no longer enjoying his day at the beach. Eventually, she said, "You're up to something, Mr. Mantle. I'll figure out what it is, or pay someone to figure it out."

"Give me a break," he told her, laying down again. "You're off your rocker."

"Oh, there's Archie," she said, standing. "And Betty's all over him; can't have that, now, can I? Tootles!"

That was all it seemed to take; Archie showing up. As always, he was instantly forgotten when in range of the red-haired menace. But it bothered him less now. And he knew why.

________________________________

Dusk was nearly upon him when he opened his eyes again. Had he fallen asleep? For how long? All he could hear now was the sound of waves and gulls. He sat up, blinking stupidly. A quick finger to his skin showed him he had a very slight burn; if he hadn't put any sunscreen on, he'd probably have been little more than a cinder with a really noble jawline. Time had really gotten away from him. He should head for home before it got too dark to find his car.

As he stood, packing up his few belongings, he spotted a figure near the water, plodding sullenly. Save for the two of them, the beach was completely deserted. Curiosity got the better of him, and he hopped over the dunes, only recognizing him as he drew close enough to shout to him.

"Moose! Hey, wait up!"

The towering boy slowed, turning. He had a football jersey and shorts on, and his eyes looked sunken. "What do YOU want, Mantle?"

"What are you doing out here, wandering around all by yourself? Got amnesia?"

"Naw," he grunted. "It ain't cold enough for that."

Reggie knew the hulk was thinking of "pneumonia", but just this once he let it slide. "So... how's things?"

"Awful." The guy didn't beat around the bush, that was certain. "Nothin's fun anymore without my Midge."

"Come on," he urged. "Forget her. Find another girl. You're a star athlete, I'm sure half the girls at Riverdale High would give you a-"

"I don't care," he growled. "Midge is the one for me. Even if... she don't like me no more."

That cut him to the quick; this was the first time since their breakup that Reggie had truly given real thought to Moose's feelings on the matter. Now he felt like a heel, even though he was so personally invested in the outcome of this. Should he try to get them back together? Of course not; he had so much to lose that way, and no force on earth could make him risk that. But it was hard to see his friend and teammate so out of sorts. "Maybe Midge isn't who you thought she was. What if you two weren't all that compatible?"

"Watch what you say," he said, an edge creeping into his tone. "Whatever a 'coppatabule' is, Midge ain't one of 'em! She's the best, most sweetest girl there ever was! I... guess I just wasn't the guy she wanted."

"Okay, listen." Reggie had to do something that didn't involve blabbing things he wasn't allowed to blab. "You gotta move on, Sunny Jim. Then, if Midge does change her mind and come back to you, you'll be extra thrilled because you weren't expecting it. Like winning the lottery! On the other hand, what if she doesn't? You should start planning for your future. Buckle down and study - shoot for Notre Dame! Are you really going to spend your whole life pining for a girl who dumped you?"

"D-uh, yeah. I'd spend five lifetimes, if I had 'em."

A part of Reggie - the one that wasn't feeling fiercely competitive, or protective of his newfound relationship with the girl of his dreams - admired Moose's single-minded determination and devotion. "Then... well, just don't forget to eat or anything."

"I do got ears, you know." Even in the waning light, Reggie could tell the look on the jock's face was deadly serious, if depressed. "People been saying you took Midge out on some dates."

Reggie braced for it. Any moment, now, he was going to endure severe damage to his kidneys. "Just to cheer her up. She's sad you're not together anymore, too."

The attack never came - just a bitter sigh. "Then why won't she come back if she's sad?"

A few seconds passed as Reggie dialed back his adrenaline when he realized he wouldn't be eating sand. "Uhh... yeah. Well, it's complicated, right? Sometimes you have to end a relationship because it's not working out... but you still like the person, so you feel bad for hurting them. Y'know, like in football; you don't want to knock the other team on their cans, they might be okay guys. But if you don't, the QB gets sacked and you keep giving away yards until finally, they're scoring safeties on you and you lose the game."

"D-uh, okay," Moose said thoughtfully. "I guess I can see that - but I didn't think dames was like football."

"You know what Coach Kleats says."

"Yeah - everything's like football," he laughed, rubbing his blond head. "Eh. I guess I'll be allright, but... what if she never comes back? I don't wanna find a new girl. Just her."

Now Reggie was kind of out of things to say. If Moose was so determined to be with one person and one person only, no amount of "wash her out of your hair" or "there's plenty of fish in the sea" would ever budge him. His uncanny resemblance to an immovable mountain only deepened. Shrugging, he at last patted him on the shoulder and found his way up the beach, trying not to think about how complicated everything had become in one short week.

________________________________

Midge was waiting right in front of the doors on Monday morning. Reggie's heart instantly began drumming out a beat that Jughead would have been proud to emulate. The beautiful, floaty dress she was wearing, light tan with thin white flowers stretching upward, white heels... she was a vision. How could he have found himself someone like this - somebody who actually shared his feelings? As he drew closer to the front, she hooked her hand around his bicep, and he grinned stupidly - life was going to be good from now on.

"Follow me," she whispered, dragging him down a side hallway.

This was only getting better. Off to a broom closet to make out, maybe? But then he noticed she was pulling him to the door outside near the end of the hallway. His brow furrowed, and he let out a yelp of surprise when they passed right through it. "Hey, what gives?"

"We're skipping."

"WHAT?! No, no way," he laughed nervously. "I've got a presentation in Debate!"

"Just first period," she pleaded - and for the first time, he noticed she had such a deep melancholy etched into her features that he almost cringed away from her. "Please?"

"Hey, baby doll," he said soberly, putting both hands on her shoulders and staring into her eyes. "What happened?"

A deep breath. "My mother wants us to move again."

Just like that, all the air rushed out of his lungs and stayed out. "That's... no, shut up."

"You don't understand," she choked out, trying to hang on even as she showed every outward sign of hyperventilating or going into shock. "Mom is deadly serious, Reg. She knows I went to see you last night, she found the- a you-know-what wrapper in my purse, I missed one of them when I threw the evidence away. She wants to skin me alive, but... for now, she wants to get me away from you so I- before we get too close. And she'll probably get her way."

His skin crawled. The dual threat of being seperated from the most important person to him and being outed to the entire community was heavy, enough to force him to sit down on the steps. "No... but she can't, sh-she... what the crap?"

"S-so you have to hold me for a little while," she hiccuped, crawling into his lap.

And hold her he did. There were lots of things he wanted to do, some of them violent and punishable by law, but he forced his attentions to consoling her, absorbing the warmth of her nearness, running a finger along her exposed shoulder. But the looming possibility of that being taken away from him sucked a good deal of the joy out. What were they going to do?

"We'll run away," he whispered. "There's a bunch of nifty stuff in my bedroom I can hock. It should be enough to get us gas and first and last in... maybe out west! Yeah, Oregon or somewhere nobody would ever think to look for-"

"Are you drunk?" she laughed wetly, clinging still tighter to his shirt. "They would still hunt us down and rip us to shreds. And I don't care how many wordly possessions you have, it can't be enough for an apartment, not even a roach motel."

"My bass is worth a couple hundred," he countered. "Yeah, it's that freaking sweet - and my amp, maybe fifty. Then there's my music collection, and my video games, and old football trophies, and-"

"I get the picture, but... come on, we need a realistic plan."

Reggie sighed; she was right. A nice dream, but in practice it would never work in a million years. "Well... I guess I'm just going to have to talk to your mother."

Midge sucked at her teeth. "You don't wanna do that."

"Well, there aren't really any other alternatives, are there? Either I confront this unreasonable woman, or... or I lose."

"Lose?"

"Everything."

Midge drew back and looked into his eyes, almost as if worried about his sanity. "Reggie... are you sure you mean all this? It was just one night together, it... maybe we rushed into things and now it just kinda feels like-"

"No," he cut her off immediately. "Reginald Mantle III does not make mistakes. I've never been more sure of anything - and that's saying a lot, since I'm always so friggin' sure of myself."

"This is true," she snickered. Then she was all over him, and Reggie didn't have the will to fight it. They were outside, school was in session, anybody could walk by... but Midge wanted to kiss him, and he could not turn her away. For her sake, he did reopen everything from Saturday night, compared it to the moment, stood outside it and tried to rationalize that none of it was real - that it was just the sensations and the newness carrying them away, filling their heads with fluffy clouds of cotton candy. But it didn't work. He knew it was more, much more. The past was all about Midge, and so was the present. Adding those up, that meant the future had to be about her, as well. Even if he turned out to be wrong, he knew he'd hate himself ten times as much if he never took a chance on it.

"She's too late," he breathed at last when they broke apart. "We're already together. I told you."

"You did."

"And I see you're wearing it, so you have to agree."

Her fingers went to the gold chain around her neck. "You have been... so amazing. I'm just afraid you're wasting your time on me, I... look what I did to Moose! Who would want to be with somebody who can do that to a person?"

"Moose is a nice guy," he admitted grudgingly. "I'm gonna stay away from any 'finish last' comments, but... I dunno, what did you have in common?"

"Reggie," she half-sighed, "I will never expect anyone to understand Moose and I... because I didn't, either. He made me feel safe, and he's sweet to a fault. Sure, we didn't have many common interests, but he's a very warm, accepting person."

Reggie nodded. "And when you say 'accepting'... you mean he would probably have understood once you told him?"

"Probably would have." A quick shake of her head as she settled against him. "We'll probably never know, since we broke up. But I honestly think he'd be okay with it. I've never heard him say a bad word against any person or faith or group - unless they were trying to pick me up."

"Yeah," Reggie laughed. "The one collective of people on the earth he would euthanize: Midge admirers."

"Damn it," she spat. "Why couldn't I have just stayed with him in the happy courtship bubble, instead of- of wrapping us both up in this nightmare tornado of drama? If we try to hang onto each other, we... I'm afraid it'll make our lives hell."

"Too bad. I'm in it for the long haul, now."

"How can you be this certain of our relationship?" she asked meekly, earnestly. "It's... Reggie, you have always been such a hound, out for a quick laugh. And now this one-eighty. I... we still barely know each other."

"That's a load of horse hockey," he volleyed. "We know each other. Maybe, just maybe I know my parents better than I know you, but that's only because of the blood kinship thing."

"Stupid."

"So we haven't had much time to actually go out and do the second and third dates. We will - and the time we have spent together? Like something out of a Walt Disney flick. I... I don't even have as much fun with my other friends as I do with you, and they're supposed to be my friends, right?"

"And you're trying to go out on a limb for me," she whispered. "Why? I'm not so great."

"Watch what you say about my girl," he joked, with only a slight edge of seriousness - but one she heard and blinked at. "Sorry. I don't even wanna hear you trash-talking yourself, let alone other people. I... think I get now why I got clobbered by Moose so often."

"Here we go again," she sighed. "I thought you said you were too 'chill' to beat up any would-be suitors?"

The bell rang inside, and they both stood up to mingle with the crowd and find their way to second period. "Well, I can probably at least give 'em a wicked wedgie."

________________________________

"Oh, would you stop watching me eat? It's irksome."

"Sorry," Reggie shrugged, staring down at his tray of tacos. "Just... it's cute."

"It is not cute," Midge hissed ashamedly. "And don't say things like that while we're in school!"

"You have a river of grease running down your chin," he chuckled. "If that's not the textbook definition of 'adorable', what tops it? The 'Care Bears Meet Hello Kitty' movie?"

He glanced up just in time to see her wiping the drip away - and when she caught him watching, she threw the napkin at his head. This missed and bounced off Principal Weatherbee, who had been walking past at the moment. Of course, the man changed direction and politely asked them, "This belong to one of you?"

"Not I," Reggie said, trying his level best not to snort with laughter. For once, he was telling the truth.

"I apologize, sir," Midge said in a low voice. "I was... aiming for Reggie. Not that it sounds much better."

"Well," he grumbled, pushing his specatcles farther up his nose, "one could perhaps understand the desire to lob paper products at a certain young man's head. Next time, however, I will have to hand out a detention. Allright?"

"Thank you very much," she said with a shy smile.

As the man waddled off, Reggie grinned at her. "Holy man, I can't believe you just totally got away with that!"

"It was your fault, dimwit," she fired up. "You made me throw it at you!"

"Oh, sure, blame me! Because I stuck my hand up your skirt and worked you like a ventriloquist's dummy, forcing you to attack the Bee!"

Midge put the straw sticking out of her milk carton between her teeth suggestively. "Bet you'd like to try that."

Before he knew it, Reggie was laughing stupidly. It was all he could do with her being so coy-yet-risque. Midge laughed, as well. It was just enough mirth to attract the attention of Jughead as he walked past. "What'd I miss?"

"She hit the Bee with a napkin," Reggie answered before anybody could stop him. Midge's outraged noise made him elaborate. "And she apologized in a, uh, very dignified fashion. But man, was it a riot!"

Midge did snicker again, and Jughead gave the sort of half-laugh you give when you know you're being lied to. "Look out, David Letterman. So, you two really are going out?"

"What?!" Midge gasped. "What gave you that idea?"

"The fact that you're always together all the time," he sighed tiredly as he moved off, struggling with the toppling tower of food on his tray. "More challenging queries from now on, thanks."

For a few seconds, neither of them spoke as they concentrated on their tacos. Reggie drained his can of soda and crumpled it thoughtfully. At last, Midge whispered, "I thought we might be too conspicuous, running around like we are. Should we back off?"

"My instincts say we should, but... ahh, would it look weirder to back off all of a sudden? Maybe if we just aren't seen together outside of school..."

"Such a carefree life I see ahead of us," she grumbled. "Okay, though... today, let's leave each other alone for a while. Should make my mom happy, too. Everybody's happy but us."

Reggie leaned in on the pretense of grabbing something from her backpack, and said in a low voice only she could hear, "Hey, I'm still happy. They're going to have to try a lot harder than that to ruin this for me."

When he leaned back, ballpoint pen in hand, he saw she was looking at him in wonder, a tiny hint of pink creeping into her cheeks. He couldn't take it, her thinking it was so heroic for him to feel as selfish as he felt about her - so he threw the pen at her. Luckily, no teacher was walking behind her.

________________________________To Be Continued...
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