"I'm with you." Betty placed her hands on either side of Jughead's face as she stared into his soulful eyes, trying to ignore the burning tears building, her lips quivering.
"Just go Betty." He pulled her hands off of him, trying to ignore the sensation he always felt when they touched, the sensation he only ever felt from her. "You shouldn't be here, you shouldn't be with me. I'm trouble, you know it, your parents know it, your sister knows it. Just go."
"I can't just walk away from you Jughead." She sucked in a breath of air shakily.
"You have to" he shouted, feeling his heart in his throat, "You don't get it do you Betty? I see the way you look at him, I see the way you blush when he smiles at you. Why do you think he and Veronica broke up? Because she knows it and I know it, you are Archie are supposed to be together."
"I don't want to be with Archie. I want to be with you, I am with you, why woulf I want anything else Jughead?"
"You know what gets me Betty, is that I always knew, that it was going to be him I lost you to." Jughead wiped his eyes with his fingers, pinching the bridge of his nose. "If he hadn't rejected you when he did, you would be with him now. You were ready for him, but he wasn't ready for you. He's ready now."
Betty shook her head, her blonde ponytail flouncing from one side to the other, "You're wrong Juggie." She dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand, it had been almost two years since she had last done that, felt that need to feel, but here she was, desperate for it again. "I don't want to be with Archie, I want to be with you. Archie was some silly schoolgirl fantasy based on other people's perceptions, the same perceptions you're having right now. So what it Archie wants me, I don't want him."
He knew he had to do this, he had to set her free, if she was ever going to really truly be with him, he had to let her come back to him. "Just go Betty, I don't want to be with you. Maybe you'll come back to me, maybe you won't. But right now, you are not what I want or what I need. I need to be alone." He lied, knowing that his heart was shattering, that this was one of the most difficult things he would ever have to do.
Betty stomped her foot, sniffling, as the tears started to release. If this was what he wants this was what he was going to get. "Fine, you're getting what you want, but don't think I'll be available when you're ready. I'm not some toy you can just be done with and discard."
Jughead held his breath as he watched Betty Cooper, the quintessential girl next door walk out of his life, knowing that in a few short hours the quintessential boy next door would go over to comfort her, and he would just be a bad memory forgotten upon true loves first kiss.
It didn't matter who Betty was with, if she was with Jughead, Archie, or if she found some other fool to love, what mattered was that she was happy, that she wanted for nothing. One day, years from now she would stumble upon some random keepsake she didn't burn in a box, and she would think fondly of Jughead Jones, her first boyfriend, the one who climbed through her window giving her the Romeo and Juliet fantasy every girl dreamed of.
Jughead knew, as he watched Betty slowly drive away, knowing that no one else would ever replace her in his heart, that no one else could ever fill the void she was creating right now, that pages of text would be filled with different parts of her, parts she might not even know he knew about in the different characters he would write.
He knew one thing, Betty Cooper would always be with him in his heart.