The new girl

To sweet? No

You can't avoid him for forever, you know?"

Betty sighed into the speaker of her cellphone. She knew her friend was right, as much as she would love to avoid Archie for forever, she couldn't. It was one thing him breaking up with her, but it was an entire new story when she found it was because of their mutual friend. Well, no longer mutual. She looked at her reflection in her vanity mirror and played with her ponytail, the thick lock curling around her finger.

Kevin was right.

"No matter how hard you try," he added once he heard her silence. "Just come to school, Betts. If you show him he didn't affect you, that'll hurt him more than you staying home." She hated when he made sense. She nodded her head, mentally giving herself a pep talk. "You're right."

"I know."

She let out a breath, "I'll come. I might be a little late though, I have something to do." She heard the sarcasm dripping from his voice when he said, "Don't go keying his car now, B." She just laughed and said her goodbyes. Promising she would be at school today.

Betty sat at her vanity, staring at her reflection. She couldn't recognize herself anymore, she didn't remember who she used to be. Before Polly met Jason, before her parents decided to dictate her life to ensure she didn't turn out like Polly.

She didn't resent her sister. Though, many thought she should. She couldn't, she loved her sister dearly and knew it wasn't her fault as to why her parents were controlling freaks, especially when their own lives were falling apart. She figured it was the only control her mother had left in her life, and a part of her felt bad for getting annoyed at it. She kind of understood her mother, she needed to feel some control, some normalcy.

Betty picked up the 'blush' lipstick and stared at the tube. This one lipstick had defined her life for the past three and a half years, she would wake up every morning, do her morning hygiene routine and put this lipstick on without a second thought. It was her, it was normal. Her mother always told her red wasn't her colour, the only females who wore red lipstick were prostitutes and females in desperate need of attention.

Betty frowned deeply, she shot the tube across the room. It fell with a light thud after hitting the wall. She stood to her feet and walked to her closet, her initial thought was to trash her entire wardrobe. She was tired of being the girl her mother wanted her to be, the girl everyone expected her to be. She wanted to go back to who she truly was, the girl she knew. Before the Polly and Jason drama, before her mother became the vindictive woman she was today.

The overwhelmed woman pulled all her pastel clothing to the side and came to face a few select clothing she managed to save when her mother purged her wardrobe. She was going to go back to being Elizabeth, the girl she was and the girl she loved. Not the girl Archie, her mother, and everyone else wanted. And the first thing she had to start with was her hair.

"Archie...we can't continue like this."

The ginger-haired male was confused. This entire time, Veronica begged and pleaded with him to make their relationship public. Now, that they were public, she wanted to go back against her words because she suddenly felt guilty?

The school was a sea of mixed emotions. When the start football player, and Riverdale's richest walked hand-in-hand to the school that morning. There was gasps and whispers. Some were glad and congratulatory and some were judging. Veronica usually never cared about other opinions, the only one that mattered was hers. Though, she couldn't deny the gut-wrenching feeling she had in her gut, and the guilt that consumed her the previous night.

"Betty is my best friend, Archie."

Archie chuckled, almost tauntingly, "Was." He corrected, "Was. Your best friend. Sorry to break it to you, babe...Betty will more than likely never be your friend again." He told her, feigning sadness. Veronica scowled, "I liked you better in the janitor's closet."

He spread his arms out, "Hey, you get what you pay for."

"We should probably get going to second period. The bell is going to ring soon," Veronica changed the topic. "Besides, there's Vixen practice today and I have to prepare what I'm going to say to B." She stated almost begrudgingly. Life seemed so much simpler a month ago.

About to speak, the hallway fell silent. The only thing being heard was the click clacking of high heels. Archie narrowed his eyes and looked over to what everyone was staring at. He assumed it was a teacher because no one else would get such a reaction from the students.

Walking down the hall, almost like a ninety's teen movie, was the notorious Serpent from the Southside, leather jacket arm wrapped around the small shoulders of his lovely ex-girlfriend. However, he couldn't even be sure if it was his ex-girlfriend, Betty was sweet, Betty was innocent. Betty wore pastel pink, and baby blue t-shirts, and vests that looked like it came out of the most suburban housewife home, with ponytails so tight her eyebrows barely moved. His Betty wasn't like this.

This Betty wore black, a lot of it. This betty had on a large black shirt that was worn as a dress, the cut of the shirt a deep V that went below her breast. A string holding the deep V-cut together. She wore long suede thigh high boots that had a sizeable heel on the bottom. Archie narrowed his eyes at the female in front of him, almost in complete awe but also feeling his blood run hot, what was her game here?

The final straw for him was when he noticed her face. Long gone was her timid make up and ponytail. Instead, she adorned a lipstick so red the Blossoms would be envious, and her eyes so smoky her sea blue eyes popped dramatically. Her hair no longer pin straight and pulled back in a ponytail, but let loose in large waves running down to her mid back. Messy and wild, Betty looked amazing. And everyone noticed.

"Wow, Betty." Archie started, completely hell-bent on not giving her the reaction she wanted. He walked up to her, meeting them half way down the hall. The rest of the students watching in amusement, "You lose the best thing that ever happened to you and decided you have to dress like a slut to make a statement?" Archie half expected a slap for his comment but instead was met with a smirk. Something he never knew Betty was capable of. She had only ever smiled and frowned since they dated.

"Oh, Archikins," she mocked. Her voice sounding as sweet as honey. She placed a soft hand on his cheek, "Unfortunately for you, you've become irrelevant. You're nothing without me, Archibald, and you'll soon realize this," she smiled sweetly. She withdrew her hand and took her rightful place under Jughead's arm. Archie looked between the two, disgust written all over his face.

"This is a game you don't want to play, Betty. You're too sweet for this."

Betty scowled at him, frightening him in the process as he took a sudden step back. "Don't you ever tell me what I want to or don't want to do, you don't know anything about me." She spat. She wasn't done though, she waited far too long for this. "The two brain cells you possess cannot begin to tell you how I feel," she looked at Veronica, "About either of you. You're both the same snake you chastise Jughead for being," she told them. She grabbed Jughead's arm, "And he will always be more man than you ever will be, or hope to be," she said with finality.

Veronica watched on, her eyes sad. She knew from that speech the chances of Betty ever coming back to her, ever being her friend again were slim. Though, she knew if she wanted Betty back, if Betty was going to come back, she had to have the innocent Betty. She couldn't have this Betty. This Betty posed as a threat, this Betty gained attention, the attention she herself craved. She needed Betty as a crutch, as a fallback. She knew she couldn't make Betty wipe the make-up off and return to her innocent self.

But she knew who could.