Say My Name

Chapter Four

Betty took a slight pause before shaking her head, and her face scrunched. "Nobody" was the only word she managed to get out, hoping he wouldn't continue being curious about him.

Luckily, he just nodded at her brief answer, and Betty took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. She desperately wanted to find something else to talk about and quickly remembered the game. "You did great tonight. I loved watching you play."

"Yeah?" He smiled, showing his teeth and had his eyebrows raised. "I thought I did a pretty sucky job, but I appreciate you lying to me." He laughed.

Betty blushed from slight embarrassment because the truth is, she didn't really understand football all that well, so she figured as long as he didn't get tackled a bunch, then he did an okay job.

She shrugged. "I didn't notice your mistakes, so I guess you did alright." She smiled, and Archie laughed again. 

Silence slowly built up between them, and Archie scratched his head, working up the nerve to talk. "Listen... there's something I wanted to ask you..." He swung his arms back and forth, and Betty's mind drifted back to when Veronica was telling her about Archie asking her to the dance after the game. She rubbed her bare arm, hoping to get rid of the goosebumps that appeared on her skin. Archie clicked his tongue and scratched his head again.

"Would you maybe wanna go to the homecoming dance with me next weekend?" Archie looked nervous, and Betty gulped at his question. She knew it was coming, but hearing the words flow out of his mouth; she knew their friendship would never be the same again. After years of them being friends, Betty was finally out of that zone, and she couldn't make sense of how she felt about it. 

She looked down at the ground as if the answer to his question was displayed in big letters on the cold, hard cement. The star quarterback of the football team just asked her to the dance, and she was hesitant.

No, it will be good. This is good.

Betty finally nodded her head and spoke softly. "Yes."

Before Archie had time to react, she heard a faint scoff behind her, and Betty turned her head in the direction of the noise, and he was still standing there, eyes on the ground and not on her as usual. Only this time, he had a smirk on his face, and Betty could've sworn she saw him shake his head as if he was mocking their conversation. She decided to brush it off, then turned back to Archie, who luckily wasn't paying any attention to the guy behind Betty.

"Great. I'll text you more details about it," Archie said, and Betty nodded her head and smiled. She watched him walk away and was immediately yanked by Veronica, who was probably aware of the conversation Betty and Archie just had. "He asked you!" Veronica shrieked, and Betty giggled at how excited Veronica was for her. It eased her mind knowing her best friend was happy for her. Maybe saying yes to Archie was the right choice and the best thing for her.

"A few of the girls are going to Pop's now." Veronica grabbed both of Betty's hands and interlocked their fingers together. "We're celebrating."

A few minutes later, they walked to Veronica's car, and Betty nervously watched Veronica's face as they approached it. Veronica went to open up her driver's side door, and her mouth dropped when she saw the long white scratch on her door. "What the hell? What asshole did this?" She raised her voice, and Betty was afraid to speak up. "Did I do this? I didn't do this. I couldn't have done this," Veronica groaned in frustration and looked up at Betty.

Her guilty expression gave it away, and Veronica crossed her arms, waiting for Betty to start talking. "I... um..." Betty swallowed her words and walked over to where Veronica was standing. "When I went to get your megaphone, there were a few gang members hanging out in front of your car, and when I said I needed to get in it, one of them took their pocket knife and... well..."