Broadway Love

Chapter 7 - Age 15

Betty was nervous. She could swear on her life that she was going to die this instant. And Jughead was right there next to her, standing like everything was okay. He wasn't affected and she felt so fucking stupid that her body couldn't stop shaking now. And all these eyes on the six of them were horrible.

They had just been told they needed to kiss. Of course, everybody had seen 'Sound of Music' and everyone knew that Rolf and Liesl shared a brief kiss after the 'Sixteen going on Seventeen' song, but she hadn't thought they needed to do that at the audition. She was paired up with Jughead which was good for their dancing and the trust and playfulness in the number, but it was just stupid that she was now forced to kiss him.

"Alright, Mason and Lisette, you two are the first ones."

Betty turned around and kept her eyes on the ground as she walked to sit down in the corner of the room. There were three pairs auditioning for the roles and all of their parents plus some siblings. She felt restless, feeling Jughead's eyes burning into her skin as she kept hers on the ground. Until the music started.

Her emerald eyes flickered up to look at how the first pair did their number. And how they kissed. The two looked incredibly awkward while doing that, but it was a short one and after that, when they separated, everyone clapped. They even managed to smile at each other.

"Forsythe and Elizabeth."

Betty clenched her jaw, feeling like she was going to throw up. She slowly got up from the ground, her eyes avoiding FP's and her Alice's who were obviously holding their laughs back. It hadn't gone unnoticed to anybody how affected the two kids had been from their early teenage years. Now that Betty was 15 and Jughead 17, about to finish high school in some months, it was funny for the two parents to look at how the two teenagers really tried to avoid each other's touch, even though they were best friends.

"It's okay," Jughead whispered to her when they took the starting positions on the bench in the middle of the room. Betty's eyes moved up to look into his and even though he said it, both of them knew it was a lie, "It's just acting."

When the music was put on, Betty messed up some moves and cursed herself for it, trying to go back to the playfulness they had previously shown in the dance number. Only that then it was too late already. She had told herself while sitting in the corner that she needed to kiss him and be a professional to get the part, but when Jughead messed up yet another dance move and she saw the judges shaking their head from the corner of her eye, she said fuck it. The parts weren't going to be theirs anyway.

When Jughead's lips collapsed into hers, her hands moved into his hair so naturally, as if she had been doing this for years, and neither of them made a move to pull away. Their lips felt so right against each other's and the pressure was just amazing as his tongue slid into her mouth.

Betty's whole body was buzzing, and she had been pulled flush against his body, thanking the god that her braces had been removed a month ago. She had had it easy apparently, with only 13 months.

Neither of them acknowledged the coughs they got from the people around them but did break apart when one of the boys who was auditioning blew a whistle. While Jughead was still frozen on the spot, Betty's eyes flickered open as she breathed out sharply. "Fuck," she cursed, lowering herself back onto the balls of her feet, and ran out of the room.

Jughead's eyes opened just in time to see her sliding out of the door, into the hallway. The blue globes moved their journey to his dad's and Alice's faces—one amused, the other one shocked—and then onto the casting crew. They were not impressed.

He gulped, holding the eye contact with the man behind the table, but couldn't bring himself to apologize because there was no way he was going to apologize for kissing Betty. So, without saying anything, he turned around and went after the girl, hoping she hadn't gone far. It was clearer to him than anybody else that they didn't get the parts. And right now, he didn't think about it, his lips missing hers on their place and his body still warm inside.

Jughead found Betty in the girls' bathroom. There obviously weren't anybody else, just the blonde, gripping the edges of a sink and looking down, face dripping of the cold water she had been splashing onto her face just a minute ago. Her face was so red that it was adorable.

The boy gave a few soft knocks onto the door, making Betty's head fly up, their eyes interlocking involuntarily. Jughead's eyes were soft while Betty's were red already. "How did you manage to cry with two minutes?" he murmured in astonishment.

The girl's eyes rolled themselves a little as she turned her head away. Her hands that had just previously been in his hair, filled with water as she washed her face some more before grabbing paper towels and drying them up. By the time she had tossed the wet papers in the trash, Jughead had crossed the bathroom. So, when the blonde turned around, she jerked, and awkwardly moved her hands up a little, clasping them together, before understanding it was a wrong and unnatural move, and burying them deep into her pockets instead.

Jughead chuckled, bringing his hand to her chin and tilting it up carefully. Betty got goosebumps from the touch but met his eyes anyway. "Are you going to be that awkward with me from now on?" Jughead asked.

The girl swallowed and pulled her chin away from his hand, looking at their feet, only an inch apart. Her forehead moved to rest against his chest, and the beanie-wearing boy moved his arms to rest around her, kissing the top of her head.

"You're going to college," she stated quietly. Jughead had said he'll take a gap year if they got the parts, but since they obviously didn't, it wasn't going to happen. "You'll be in California," she continued in a whisper. "And you'll turn 18."

Jughead nodded even though he wasn't sure if she could feel that. "You're gonna get 16 and you're going to make out with every single boy at your school," he said in a hushed tone.

"You're gonna hook up with many girls in college, and then you'll find a long-run girlfriend from your course. You will break up and find another one and you'll move in together."

Jughead gulped at that, not liking the way she was seeing his future.

"You'll get a job. You'll have a family."

"Maybe," he said softly. "Maybe not."

"You will stop texting and calling me..."

"Stop it," Jughead said now, wanting to pull away, but also knowing she was crying and didn't want for him to see. "Betts, you're still my best friend. You always will be." Her shoulders shook a little, her breathing shaky, so he leaned down again and pressed a kiss on the crown of her head.

"I've had a crush on you since forever," Betty whispered, voice sounding choked up. She sighed, "Why can't I just be older?"

Jughead pulled away at that, letting go of her gently. His hands cupped her warm face, thumbs brushing the hot tears away as their eyes met again. "I've been crushing on you since you were 7. I had a crush on you all these nights you slept with me on the tour, remember? I was 13 and I had just discovered through some older boys on Broadway that porn existed."

Betty chuckled at that, looking at him a bit pitifully. "Sorry," she said with a sniffle, the smile still lingering on her face.

Jughead sighed with a small smile himself and kept holding her beautiful face in his hands. "Betts, we don't know what will happen in four years. I love Broadway, I love theater. I don't think I'd be able to live in California. Even if I do the computer animation degree, I might never get a job and it'd be more like a hobby, I think. Maybe I'll get back to performing. I'm pretty sure I'll come back home, to New York. Maybe when you're still here and it's actually legal, something could happen between us... Maybe not. Who knows?"

Betty sighed at that, but nodded a little, her hands falling out of her pockets, one of them coming up to her face to wipe away the remaining tears in the corners of her eyes. When she was done with that, it moved to touch his jaw. He tilted his head downwards and Betty leaned up onto her toes as they kissed briefly, both hoping it wasn't the last one to come.

"Friends forever?" Jug asked quietly once they pulled away, taking her hand into his.

Betty interlocked their fingers. "Friends forever," she repeated and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.