"When I told you I was fine with you living more freely and what not, I expected you to ease into you know, missing curfew once or twice, maybe even coming home drunk. But you dove right into it didn't you? Hm, where have you been betty, I was worried sick" Alice nattered away as they sat at the breakfast table. Betty avoided eye contact whilst Alice was vigorously buttering a piece of toast which kind of looked like it had seen better days. Betty wasn't listening ofcourse, she was watching out of the kitchen window, noticing Fred Andrews in his garden, having quite a heated conversation, with a red faced Archie Andrews.
"Elizabeth, are you even listening to me? Elizabeth!" Her mother squealed.
"Yes mother" Betty rolled her eyes.
"I said where were you last night?" Her mother resumed her insufferable chatter.
"I was with Veronica" Betty said mindlessly.
"Oh really?" Alice questioned her further, squinting her eyes at her daughter, searching for the tiniest hint that she was lying.
Lying. Betty had become accustomed to it for all the wrong reasons. "No it didn't bother me that Archie woke up in midges house" "of course I trust Archie" and the biggest lie of all, "I love you Archie".
"Yeah we just had a last minute girls night, you know mani pedis, face masks, too many sugary virgin margaritas and a four am trip to pops" Betty giggled, describing every single sleep over she has ever had with Veronica, leaving out the occasional stoner session, the full details of each of the girls sex lives and the multiple times the maid has found them both in drunken states crying about something or other.
"Oh that's nice sweetie, have you spoken to Jughead recently" Alice said satisfied with Betty's lie, and she took it as the truth, and if it was good enough for her, it was good enough for Betty. So she sneakily sent Veronica a text under the table.
Me
If anyone asks, I was with you all night last night.Especially, my mom!
"Can I be excused" Betty said barely finished her pancakes and gulping down the last of her orange juice before jumping up from the table. She had noticed earlier a subtle difference in the atmosphere of the house, and just as she suspected the bra on door handle when she reached her bedroom explained it all.
"Veronica?" Betty laughed opening her door and seeing her best friend in her gym clothes sat on her bed. Her face was red and glowing and her hair was damp.
"Really classy v, the bra trick? You haven't used that one in years, how did you get in?" Betty laughed stuffing the bra back into her chest of drawers.
"Basement is always unlocked, and of course I came as soon as I got the text. Where actually were you last night? Or need I ask?" Veronica said twiddling the Polaroid of Betty and Jughead that lay on Betty's desk from last years Halloween party at Thornehill mansion.
"Yes okay, maybe I've got a thing for him, but I don't know V, I feel guilty" Betty snatched the pictures out of her hands and returned it to its rightful place on her desk, right with all her other memories and trinkets.
"Did you feel guilty when you were riding that bod?" Veronica said after thinking for a while, Betty even anticipated something wise from her best friend in this time of need. But she wasn't really surprised, although she was at a loss for words, she couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh Veronica, you are like sex on legs! We kissed once!" Betty blushed.
"And?" Veronica smirked.
"And what?" Betty creased her eyebrows.
"Fireworks? Fourth of July? Or hand held sparklers that you get at the dollar store?" Veronica pondered.
"It was good" Betty replied.
"Betty, sales at Nordstrom are good, pancakes are good, watching paint dry is good! Do you know what I'm trying to say?" Veronica huffed. Her arms were out, her head was shaking violently as she spoke and she frowned as she shot her best friend an icy glance.
"If I talk about it V, it means it real. And it's all too fucking weird, I found myself waiting for Jughead to get home last night wondering whether we were going to have sex? Come on, V, you must understand" Betty sighed, her eyes being brought back to the photo on her dresser.
"I get it betty, I do, but don't push this feeling down, come on it will be fun above everything else, god knows he will treat you better than Archie ever did" Veronica rolled her eyes, flouncing around the bedroom dramatically, trying to make light of Betty's dilemma.
"So B, when you found yourself wondering, you know about the S-E-X" Veronica spelled it out for her, "What was your first thought?"
"I thought: oh my god, I don't have matching underwear on and I should of brushed my teeth before I left the house" Betty said seriously.
"There you go B, Archie didn't even enter your mind, so are you sure you actually feel guilty? Or, are you just a little bit scared to give yourself to jughead after you have yourself to Archie and it all crash and burned like hell fire" Veronica stayed matter of factly.
"Speaking of..." Veronica's smile widened as she looked out the window.
"Your chivalrous biker dude awaits over yonder Betty Cooper" she said dramatically.
"What?" Betty gasped, practically pouncing off the bed over to the window.
"I'll just slip out the way I came in" Veronica said picking up her gum back from under the bed and giving Betty one last weary smile.
"V?"
"It's okay B, he's just boy, and your just girl, and when a boy likes a girl these things happen" Veronica smiled.
"Texted me when he's defiled you properly cooper" Veronica almost sang walking down the hallway, greeting Betty's mother and then opening the door to see jughead about to knock.
"So she really was with you all night last night?" Betty heard her mom say to Veronica as she left. Meanwhile in the five minutes it took for Alice to grill Jughead, Betty had managed to brush her teeth, her hair and kick any thing that was on her floor under her bed.
And again she opened the door, just as Jughead was about to knock, and seeing him didn't fill her with all the dread she anticipated, it was somewhat calming, like nothing was different, except the tiniest urge she had to kiss him every time he remotely smiled.
"Are you just gonna stand there or can I come in?" Jughead laughed.
"Of course, I wasn't expecting a guest" Betty blushed picking up the textbooks scattered everywhere.
"So..."
"So"
"You bailed this morning?" Jughead said making himself comfortable on the bed.
"I'm sorry" Betty said staring at her feet, pulling her pull over over her fists and just being incredibly awkward.
"It's cool Betts, I get it" Jughead laughed.
"You do?" Betty sighed with relief as she took a step closer to him.
"I mean yeah, this is a weird time, you and me, like not just you and me but you and me!" He laughed.
"Yeah you and me huh?" Betty giggled.
"How are you feeling about it all?" Jughead asked her.
"Well to be honest I think it's the most absurd thing I have ever experienced, thinking of you in a uhm, different way" Betty sighed sitting next to him.
"Uh huh" Jughead smiled amused.
"But I'm excited to see what happens next" Betty said finally.
"Me too, however, maybe now the timing isn't right. and I'm kicking myself for even saying these words Betty, maybe we are too late, maybe in five years, but right now, with college looming over us, the rest of our lives, it would be such a waste to start something that could be finished so soon" Jughead sighed, clearly convicted.
"So lets just fool around. No strings, as long as we're agreeing that its just fun, because right now Jug, its unfair but reasonable, and I want you, and you want me so lets just go crazy, y'know, because we are young and dumb." Betty said this rather courageously, but her knees were weak and she couldn't hear anything in the room, only the sound of her thumping heart beat in her ears.
"That will make things so complicated and confuse the situation" Jughead said weighing out the pros and cons in his head. Pros: Betty. Cons: falling in love, having his heart broken, letting one more person into his life that will inevitably leave. And as he did this, he kept his eyes on her the entire time, not paying attention to the conflict in his head, but, he was paying attention to the way she it her lip, and her hair that had fallen out from behind her ear. He simply stepped closer to her, and in that moment all of the pros, or the pro, had out weighed the con, because she had been unknowingly breaking his heart for years, what harm can one summer do. So he tucked the hair behind her ear and said "I'm all in Betts"
Of course, that night lay in her bed, tossing and turning. Her mind was fogged with the suddenness of it all. She had always dreamed of her happily ever after, with a boy who loved her for the girl she was, for all of her quirks, her insecurities, her in general. And she knew Jughead loved her, and since she found out, she often lingered over the thought, the question: "do I love him back", and she failed to see the line between love and lust. She was confusing the two. They were like the angel and the devil sat on her shoulder. The angel routed for fantasy, fairy tale, flowers, and the devil routed for carnal temptation and desire. For the first time in Bettys whole life she wanted to live freely, she listened to the devil, and maybe, just maybe, it was the best decision of her entire life.
