❝Do you understand how hard it is, Kevin? Do you have any idea what it's like to watch her pine after that idiot who doesn't even see her half the time? To see her slowly wither away at every remark Cheryl makes. I-I thought this was just a crush bu...
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There was a time where Ben and Andrew Johnson were two of the most popular guys in school. Andy was dating Cheryl, and part of the football team, he had a few genuine reasons as to why he was popular. Ben, they would say, was popular by association. He would get the 'Oh, you're Andy's brother?' line a lot more than he liked. So, he began to drift away from the group of people he really couldn't call his friends, and they didn't even notice he was gone. For awhile, he didn't have permanent friends. Yes, people wanted to be his friends, but it was only to get to the other popular people. Eventually he came into contact with Archie Andrews and his crew.
He remembers it perfectly, mostly because Betty was the one to catch his attention. Lunch had began and he was about to begin the struggle of finding a seat which usually ended in him sitting on his own. All he had done was pass their table, and it was enough for the blonde to invite him to their table. At the time, it was just Archie, Betty, Kevin and their friend Jughead and at the time, Ben didn't realise how those four would affect his life. He remembered Betty's glittering blue eyes, her perfect smile. It was hard not to fall instantly in love with her, but it falling for her was a long ordeal, mostly because while he was slowly becoming addicted to her, she was overdosing on Archie Andrews.
The year went on, summer came around the corner, and then Jason went missing. After the news broke, summer sort of stopped. Doing something fun wasn't fun anymore, because Jason always came to his head and suddenly Ben wanted to go home. He regretted ever saying he hated him, because truthfully, he didn't hate him, he just hated him in that immature teen way where a kid will say something and not mean it. He only said it to hurt his feelings, which Ben thinks may not have affected him all that much.
Now, on the last day of summer vacation, Ben sat at his laptop, typing up the ending of his music essay before his text alert came through his earphones. It was Kevin, and something seemed to be wrong.
FROM: KEV 😇
SOS, emergency on the Cooper/Johnson ship!!
Ben rolled his eyes at Kevin's dramatics. Kevin had "shipped" himself and Betty ever since Ben had disclosed his crush on her. Since then, he had made a significant effort to try and divert the girl's attention away from Archie and somewhere in the direction of Ben. So far, no matter how hard he tried, Betty wanted to look nowhere near him. He had to commend Kevin, even though it was apparent she didn't feel anything, he still tried.
FROM: BENJI
what's wrong this time?
Maybe he shouldn't have asked that question, because a few seconds after he sent that text, a photo was sent to him. Enlarging it revealed a very familiar redheaded boy's window, with a very familiar boy on the other side of the window. It was Archie, of course it was Archie, who else was out to unknowingly ruin his love life. His abs could withstand a concrete wall, and it looked like he had gotten taller. Ben closed his laptop, suddenly very interested in the conversation being had.
