Lost (in Your Emerald Eyes)

N I N E

He stood and simply watched her or whatever she was suitably taking photos of, and by the time they reached the field Jughead had wanted to show her, they were both calmly smiling, lungs feeling lighter than usual.

"Wow," Betty exhaled, eyes gazing over the landscape in front of her. They were standing on a small hill, right at the top, and below them was a seemingly endless meadow full of yellow flowers: dandelions, wildflowers, sunflowers—you name it. The sun was shining right above them in the cloudless blue sky that showed no signs of the crazy weather they had suffered from for almost the whole week.

As Betty turned her head, she was amazed by the fact that the forest just suddenly stopped; it seemed to her as if there were some kind of magical transparent wall cutting it off. Though the flowers did grow inside the border of the woods, so that theory flew out of her head just as fast as it had gotten there.

Looking back at the meadow in front of her, she smiled at the mountains on the horizon, right behind the lonely trees. This had to be the most beautiful place she had ever seen.

Her head was full of new visions of different things, and Betty was quick to start taking photos, taking much more time than before, inside the woods, but at that moment, she didn't realize and no part of her wanted to stop to think about it.

Only about fifteen minutes later, after having walked down the hill, now surrounded by the flowers, she remembered how she had gotten there in the first place. Of course, Jughead's eyes had been on her the whole time she was using her camera—she had felt it—but now that she looked at him, he was squatting, still on top of the hill. There was a puffy dandelion in between his fingers, and, as he blew the white flower, the wind caught the seeds, carrying them into the distance.

The girl smiled, bringing her camera back to her face, and took pictures of him picking up the next flower. His mouth formed a small o as he blew on the flower again, only that this time, he looked back towards Betty, the wind changing its direction towards her, carrying the small seeds down the hill. A small smirk appeared on his lips, understanding she was photographing him now.

"Did I say you could do that?" he asked.

Betty smiled behind her camera, taking one last one and then lowering it. "No, but you looked handsome."

His eyebrows raised and the blonde could make out the surprised expression from the distance. "Oh, so you're being straight-forward now," he said, loud enough for her to hear.

"What do you mean?" He grabbed the black backpack that had the food inside it, and something else from what Betty could make out, but then, it could've just been a bottle of water like she had brought.

"Just that y'know..." he murmured as he reached her after walking down the hill, "you always seem kinda shy and quiet."

"I tend to overthink things," she spoke quietly, staring right back into his eyes. "And as you can tell, my parents aren't the best, so I've learned to keep my opinions to myself."

Nodding, Jughead mumbled, "Yeah."

This was the first time Betty had seen Jughead standing in the direction of the sun. His eyes that usually confused her were so clearly readable in this bright light. Sometimes they looked green, others blue, but staring into them right now, she finally saw them clearly. The darker green was spreading from around the pupil, ending about one-third of the way out and replaced by an even lighter green that occasionally had blue spots in it and was carried all the way to the border. And then replaced by gray before the iris ended and the white took over.

Clearing his throat, Jughead looked to the side, having lost himself in the bright green of the girl's eyes. "So, basically, we could sit down somewhere?"