betty
He was everything to me. But I was nothing to him. I would always just be the best friend, never anything more. I couldn't help but think this. Every week he had a new girl as his arm candy. He would go on and on to me about them every Wednesday, after school, at out booth at pops, and I listen. Sometimes, I zone out, fantasize about our future together. We would live in a 4 bedroom house, in Riverdale of course. Our two kids, Grayson and Emma, would have a playhouse in our backyard, just like Archie does. They would have dirty blonde hair, just like me, and deep brown eyes, just like him. But sadly, it would never happen. The next week he'll have a new girl on his arm, always skinnier and always prettier than me.
archie
I'm so sick and tired of dating so many girls. None of them care about me. All they care about is my abs, which are pretty nice if I say so myself, but that's besides the point. I just want one girl out of the countless I've had to care about me. Why doesn't anyone feel this way about me?
and so the two head off to school, side by side, oblivious to one another's feelings
betty
I walk in to school. The first day of junior year, Archie by my side, as always, but as my best friend, not what I wanted him to be. Will he ever love me? My thought was interrupted by a boy, walking straight into me. Jones.
"Watch out Jughead, god."
"Oh so you think I meant to bump in to you?"
"Just watch where you're going for once, how hard is it to look forward. Maybe it's that stupid beanie of yours, blocking your vision."
jughead
All I do is walk away. God, I hate that girl. She's always in my way, and always pining after Archie, like another one of his brainless companions. He's just about the only person who can't see how in love with him she is. The bell rings for 1st period, AP english for me. Betty, gets seated right next to me.
"This is gonna be a long year." I say
"Tell me about it"
As the day passes, I come to find out, I have all the same classes as Betty, even our free period. She sits next to me in three out of seven of them. To be honest, I tend to forget why we hate each other sometimes. But when I remember, it's like the same rage i felt on that day resurfaces once again...
We were both 12, and couldn't have been better friends. All four of us, Archie, Betty, Veronica, and I were supposed to hang out that windy fall day. I had a lot to fill them in on, my mother had left town and took jellybean with her just the night before. It became apparent to me they weren't showing up after my second hour of sitting in our booth at Pop's all alone. "Maybe something had happened and they couldn't make it," I had thought at the time. On my way home, I took the usual route past Twighlight Drive In, and saw them there, all three of them, in the back of Archie's dad's truck. They were watching Rebel Without a Cause, my favorite. I tried not to cry but the tears welled up in my eyes. I sprinted home, back to my trailer, back to my home, to find my father drunken on the couch. I needed them that day, and when I avoided them the next day at school, none of them asked me why, or even looked hurt for that matter. It was then, that exact moment I made eye contact with Betty, and she looked away, running to catch up with Archie and Veronica, I realized, I wasn't enough, and I never would be.
Just thinking about that day made my blood boil. Archie and I had made up since then. He apologized to me the following week, explaining it was Ronnie's idea, and he was reluctant to go along with it, until Veronica told him she would give him a kiss, his first, if she agreed to go with him, so naturally, the 12 year old boy filled with hormones, agreed.
Oh, Ronnie. Archie's famous on-again off-again romance. They would still be going at it if she hadn't have moved back to New York for the summer and brought back with her a brand new boyfriend, Nick St Clair.
Betty has still never apologized for that day. I don't know her reasoning for ditching me that day, if there even was one. I'm over it now, anyways. I could care less what her blackmail was now that it's been 4 years. Her time slot of apologizing to me is long gone by now.
I'm supposed to hang out with Archie tonight, even though it's Wednesday, his precious day with his best gal Betty. He told me he would cancel with her tonight. I didn't really believe he would so when I got the text to just meet him at his house at 9, I wasn't surprised.
archie
I just couldn't cancel with Betty tonight, it would break her heart. But, as I was looking though my window, that faces Betty's, after school, and watching her get ready for our milkshakes at Pop's, I realized just how beautiful she was. I don't know how I've been missing this all along. I've had so many girls, dying to just go on a single date with me, and every Wednesday, Betty was there for me and listened to me go on and on about them, when in reality, what if she was the girl I needed to be going on dates with. I picked up my phone, and texted her:
arch<3 : hey b, want to skip pop's and just come over to my house
b :))) : why not, be right over
betty
I was walking over to Archie's when i realized just how weird this was. When has he ever invited me over to his house instead of Pop's? My heart sped up, what if...? No. It was stupid. I'm just his best friend. He doesn't feel like that about me.
I knocked on his door, it opened quickly after. I could smell popcorn, slightly burnt, wafting through the house.
"Movie night?" Archie asked
"Of course!" I replied
There it was, that cute smirk. My heart melts every time I see it. I walk inside and take off my coat, sitting down on the couch in his living room.
"Where's your dad?" I ask
"Working late," Archie answers from the kitchen, "he just got awarded that SoDale contract, remember?"
"Oh yeah." I reply, slipping my shoes off.
Archie walks into the living room with a bowl of popcorn and a two liter of Cherry Coke, my favorite. We start the movie, It Follows. Every time there is a jump scare he grabs my hand, and squeezes it. It feels like it's meant to be there. I slowly start to drift off, leaning my head on his shoulder, our fingers intertwined. When the movie ends, he wakes me up an ask if I want to go up to his room.
"Arch," I start, as I sit down on his bed, "when we were holding hands, what did that mean to you?" I ask
"It means this," he says, then gently brings his lips to mine. I want to pinch myself to see if this is really happening, but instead I pull away.
"What's wrong?" he asks, frantically.
"Nothing, its just," I struggle to find the words, "Do you know how long I'v been waiting for this to happen?" I chuckle.
"Really?" He asks, "Then why'd you pull away?"
"I don't know, Arch, I'm just nervous, this is never how I imagined it to go." I answer. "I don't want to be just another piece of arm candy to you." I say. It might sound harsh, but I want him to know that before I invest in this, for real.
"You're nothing like that to me, Betty," he says, looking a little hurt, "you're so much more."
"I just don't know how to feel, Arch."
He grasps my hands, holding them tight, then looks at me in the eyes. Letting go of my hands, he bring his to my cheek, and pulls my head to his, kissing me.
"Did that clear it up?" He asks pulling away.
Instead of answering, I move closer to him and kiss him again, this time, passionately. We sit in that moment, that kiss, for a few seconds, then more kissing follows. I can't believe this is happening. I, Betty Cooper, am making out with Archie Andrews in his room, when we should be at Pop's and he should be going on about another girl, but instead, here we are.
jughead
It's 9:05 and I've been standing outside Archie's door for 7 minutes. I knocked twice, and still no answer. The tv is on, I can hear it. I peer through the window and see a bowl of popcorn with just the kernels left sitting on the table, and a blanket sprawled messily over the couch. A two liter of Cherry Coke is sitting on the table too. Wow. Wonder who he has over today.
I walk around the side of his house to try and peer in his window, and see Betty's empty. A feeling of uneasiness suddenly overcomes me. Now I have to know in his room. I peer into his window to see the one and only Betty Cooper making out with the Archie Andrews on his bed. I wonder how long she's been waiting for this.
I start to walk away, not wanting to disturb them when I get the sudden feeling to look back. I look at them once again, the dirty blonde girl with the boy next door, her mother, no doubt wondering where she is. The feeling of uneasiness becomes stronger. My face turns hot and my stomach is in knots.
Could this be jealousy?
betty
I lay in bed, replaying this night over and over in my head. My face turns hot and red every time I think about our fingers interlaced and his tender lips against mine. I can't get to sleep for the life of me, and I know my mom heard me sneak back in at 10:30. I'm never going to hear the end of that in the morning. Nothing happened. Except for making out of course, but nothing else. Like I said, I'm not going to be one of the girls he rants about on Wednesdays with me. I get a text on my phone :
arch <3 : go to bed, beautiful
b <3 : you're the sweetest <3 goodnight
and with that betty and archie go to bed with smiles on their faces, and jughead lays awake, trying to make sense of his feelings. there's absolutely no way jughead jones could like betty cooper, but it seems like that's what had happened.