Jughead sat on his laptop, his eyes glued to his screen. This was nothing new, but if anyone saw what the boy was staring at, they would be thoroughly confused.
Facebook. He had gotten the damned thing only because a certain blonde someone had practically forced him to create an account six months ago. Well, it was more Veronica than Betty. Once the new girl had searched for him and not found a trace, she had insisted he get one. If he was being honest with himself, Betty's pleading had done him in.
Now, he was about to block one of his only three – four, if he counted Kevin Keller – friends on the site. And it was all because of some stupid feelings.
He had realized his feelings for Betty Cooper only a few months ago, which just so happened to be right around the time she began dating Archie. If he had his way, he would be deleting Facebook altogether, but he didn't need the whole Scooby Gang breathing down his neck and asking questions. So he was doing the only thing he figured wouldn't raise suspicion – he was blocking the girl he had a crush on.
It was juvenile, he knew. However, he wasn't sure that he could take much more of the sweet couple photos that both Betty and Archie posted on Facebook – the two sharing a shake at Pop's; holding hands at the park; basically just the two of them being perfect together. He was sick of it; it was bad enough that he had to see it in person every day, but to see it online, too? Not cool.
However, the process was a bit complicated. He first had to figure out how to block someone, which caused him to more research than he had wanted to do for this endeavor. Once he had read that the person being blocked would not be notified, from at least five outside sources, he was ready. He clicked on Betty Cooper's profile picture, a sweet photo of Archie kissing her cheek while she giggled and looked away from the camera. Jughead's stomach flipped – he wanted to be the person making her giggle.
Are you sure you want to block Betty Cooper?
Betty Cooper will no longer be able to:
See things you post on your timeline
Tag you
Invite you to events or groups
Start a conversation with you
Add you as a friend
If you're friends, blocking Betty Cooper will also unfriend her.
If you just want to limit what you share with Betty or see less of her on Facebook, you can take a break from her instead.
Jughead clicked 'take a break' but he decided he needed something a bit more permanent. He figured he could just resend her a friend request and play dumb when she asked what happened. After all, he was unfamiliar with the concepts of social media, which played to his advantage in this scenario.
A bit of fear along with adrenaline flooded his veins as Jughead hit 'Confirm.'
You've blocked Betty Cooper. We're sorry that you've had this experience.
Jughead rubbed his temples and closed his laptop.
As fate would have it, Betty Cooper had chosen that exact day to clear out her friends list. Her life was too overwhelming, and it was bad enough that she had to satisfy the general public on a daily basis. Facebook had quickly turned into the online equivalent, and Betty was over it. She went through every single person on her friends list, evaluating each person with her own personal criterion. Did they post too much? Too little? Had they talked since school started that year? Were they relatives she wanted to keep in touch with? The list went on.
She had justgotten to the letter 'J' on her list, when someone – or, lack of someone – caught her eye. Curious, she searched 'Jughead Jones' in the search bar, but nothing came up. She picked up her phone to text Jughead, then thought better of it.
From: Betty
To: Ronnie
Hey, is Jughead on Facebook anymore? (9:01pm)
Her reply came a few seconds later.
From: Ronnie
To: Bettz
As far as I know, yeah. Why? (9:01pm)
Betty reread Veronica's words. What the hell? She thought to herself as she typed.
From: Betty
To: Ronnie
Weird. I'm going through my friends list, and he's not on here. Thoughts? (9:05pm)
From: Betty
To: Ronnie
Could you see if he's still your friend? I'm confused. (9:05pm)
From: Ronnie
To: Betty
Yeah. One sec. (9:06pm)
From: Ronnie
To: Bettz
He's still my friend. Is he not still yours? (9:10pm)
Veronica's response shocked Betty. Her shock quickly turned to anger, and she typed furiously.
From: Betty
To: Ronnie
NO! I THINK HE BLOCKED ME. (9:12pm)
From: Betty
To: Ronnie
BASTARD (9:12pm)
From: Ronnie
To: Bettz
WTF?! DO I NEED TO KICK HIM IN THE BALLS FOR YOU?! (9:14pm)
From: Betty
To: Ronnie
No. Thanks, though. I'll figure it out tomorrow. I got homework to do. Night, girl! Love you!
From: Ronnie
To: Bettz
The next day at school passed by slowly. Betty had not seen Jughead all day, and her anger built every time she thought about him blocking her.
She finally caught him after classes in the Blue and Gold offices. He sat on his laptop, typing away as if nothing was wrong. Fuming, Betty stalked over to him, her hands in fists at her sides.
He looked up at her, nodded, and continued typing.
She was the first to break the silence. "Hey."
"Hey," he replied, not looking at her.
"Is there something you wanna talk about?"
"What do you mean?"
Betty seethed internally. Surely, he couldn't be serious?!
Jughead, on the other hand, froze. How had she figured it out so quickly? Had Facebook lied and notified her anyway? He looked up at his blonde friend, and he was positive she could read the panic on his face.
Seconds passed in silence. "So, you mean to tell me that you just accidentally happened to block me from Facebook?!" She wasn't shouting, but her voice was low and quiet with rage. Jughead quickly realized that he wished she were yelling at him.
"Uh…not particularly."
Betty rolled her eyes. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Just that I didn't do it accidentally."
"So you did it on purpose, then?"
"Not by choice."
Betty laughed mirthlessly. "So. You mean to tell me that someone held a gun to your head and made you block me? Who, might I ask, was this horrible person?"
It was in that moment that Jughead decided to come clean. He couldn't walk around feeling this unrequited like/love/lust/whatever-it-was anymore. "You." He said the word so softly that Betty wasn't sure that she had heard him correctly. She paused, taking in his demeanor. He had stopped typing, and he refused to make eye contact with her.
Betty felt like she had been stabbed in the chest with one word. Her anger melted away, and concern took its place. She pulled up a chair and sat across from him. He set his laptop on the chair next to him and gave the girl across from him his full attention.
"Juggie," she began, her voice practically a whisper. "I'm sorry." She grabbed his hand, and Jughead almost lost the ability to speak.
"For what?" His voice caught in his throat as he replied.
"Whatever I did to make you angry." Jughead sighed internally – at least he now knew that she didn't know about his true feelings for her. Knowing this turned out to be both a relief and agony at the same time.
He turned his wrist so that he caught his hand in hers. He let out a wry chuckle as he stared at their intertwined hands. "Betty." His eyes met hers. "You didn't do anything wrong."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "But…why did you block me, then?"
Jughead sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought. "I just got tired of seeing your posts." Surprise grew on her face, but she said nothing. Jughead took it as his cue to continue. "I mean, you and Archie are a cute couple, but I see you guys being cute in real life. I didn't see why I needed to see it on the internet, too."
The two were silent, unable to look at each other. Their only contact was their hands. Jughead thought that he had said the wrong thing, and was about to take his words back when Betty spoke up.
"Juggie, when was the last time you actually spent time with me and Archie together?"
"Every day at lunch."
Betty sighed, frustrated, "Outside of school."
At that, Jughead had to think. Sure, he had hung out with Betty and Archie, but together? It had been a while. He had been so preoccupied with his novel and his feelings for Betty that he realized that he had practically abandoned his friends for the past few weeks.
"Shit. Three weeks?" He blushed, ashamed at his complete disregard for his friends. Since admitting his feelings for Betty to himself, he had inadvertently distanced himself from the Scooby Gang.
"Yeah. What you see at school isn't the whole picture. Archie and I haven't been right for weeks. Everyone expects us to be perfect, so we've been keeping the façade up for a little over a month. Juggie, Archie and I broke up six weeks ago."
At that, his eyes met hers again. "What?"
Betty smiled slightly. "Archie and I haven't been together for six weeks."
As happy as he felt, Jughead felt that this wasn't the time to celebrate. "I'm sorry you two broke up. You guys always seemed so perfect for each other."
Betty rolled her eyes. "That's what we thought, too. Turns out, we're too imperfect for each other." Jughead's concern must have registered on his face, because Betty then said, "Oh, don't worry about me. I'm fine."
He looked at her, a bit disbelieving. "Are you sure, Betts? I'm here if you need to talk."
"Thanks, Juggie. V and I already talked about it over many pints of ice cream. Besides, I've got someone I've got my eye on." She blushed, and lowered her gaze.
It was Jughead's turn to feel as though a knife had just sliced through him. He smiled, and settled on the classic, "I'm happy you're happy, Betts," response.
"I can always count on you, Juggie. Thanks for being such a good friend." She removed her hand from his, noting how much larger his hands were than hers. Ignoring the sudden loss of heat, she stood up. Jughead followed suit, and the two hugged. Betty couldn't help but notice just how safe she felt in Jughead's arms.
She thought back to the day she and Archie officially broke up. Archie had suspected that Betty had feelings for Jughead. When he asked her about it, she had brushed it off, because even she hadn't been all that sure of her feelings at the time. That was six weeks ago; this was now. And now, she wanted to do something about it.
As their hug ended, Betty paused and brought her hands to Jughead's face. She closed her eyes, mentally bracing herself for what she was about to say, and the impending rejection she was sure she would face.
Jughead waited patiently as his friend seemed to steel herself for something emotional. He wanted to kiss her, but he needed to hear what she had to say. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. When she spoke, her voice was barely a whisper. "Juggie. It's you. I like you."
His smile was so big, she thought that he was going to burst. Her words were like a catalyst; he kissed her and everything felt right with the world.
When they came up for air, Jughead confessed.
"You do know I only blocked you because I like you, right?"
Betty laughed. "I guess it's time you fix that, and we update our relationship status."
Fin.