"Betty, I love you."
Betty dropped the book she was holding and looked with widened baby blue eyes at her best friend.
"It took me a lot of time to realise Betts. When I think back now, I find it kind of ridiculous that I turned you down in the first place. It took me the fling with Grundy and breaking up with Valerie to receive my awakening."
"Archie, I.." Betty was lost for words. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest. But not out of excitement but out of anxiety.
"You don't have to give me an answer now, Betts. You can think long and hard about it. I'll be waiting." Archie said pressing his hand into hers and locking his eyes with her.
And with that he was gone. Her room smelt like him and the odour choked her. She needed to talk to someone.
(*)
It was a short walk for her place to Pop's. For Betty, it was a long walk. She wondered what he would think. Her hands were clammy with sweat and she was looking around nervously.
He was there with his laptop in front of him and a malt glass in his hand. He didn't noticed her walking in and her sliding into his booth.
"Hey, Juggie.." she said hesitating.
He looked up from his screen. A smile covered his face on seeing her but she could see cold anticipation in his eyes.
"Listen, about last week."
Oh, about how he had screwed up last week. Betty had invited him for dinner and he blew it off by confessing to her. Who does that Jughead, he thought to himself. She had come to reject him. Of course, no one dates boys like him, not even kind souls like Betty. Girls like Betty should stay a foot's distance away from him at all time.
"The oddest thing happened today. Arch confessed to me." she let it out like it was causing her great pressure to keep it in her system.
Jughead could picture it all like a black and white film in front of his eyes. Betty running into Archie's arms. Hugging him and kissing him. Them going to dinner and sharing that Sunday movie which was their thing. Archie proposing to Betty. Betty saying yes. Them getting married. Without him as best man. Them having kids with perfect blonde hair and Archie's freckles. Them getting old together.
"Listen, Betts. It's okay. I know how you feel about Arch." Of course he did. Archie was the perfect American boy and Betty the perfect American girl. He did not fit into the equation. The school outcast that he was would never fit into any equation.
"But you don't." Betty protested. "And it took me him confessing to me to realise that I'd been wrong about my feelings about Arch."
"You see with Arch it was more like a child- like crush. I would even call it an obsession if you want to. You know that pink house with the mother and father doll I had? Arch was always the father and me mother? But I was so foolish Jug. Just a little girl pretending she knew what love was."
"You're not foolish Betts. You're one of the smartest kids I know." Jughead whispered.
"I love you Juggie. And not the kind of obsession with Arch. You may me happy in ways Arch has never. I feel like I can be myself around you and I don't have to be the perfect daughter, sister or friend for that matter."
Jughead was truly taken aback. It was very rare that Jughead would be shocked in his life but this was one of those moments where his tongue was tied due to Betty goddamn Cooper.
"I don't know Betty, loving has become a lot easier ever since I met you."
"I love you, Juggie, I really mean it."
They were just two teenagers who were a bit lost in the forest. She without a loving family roaming around barefoot glowing like the forest nymph she was. He was the roots of the tree. Hidden but always there to support those he cared for. And one day the root got tangled into the forest nymph's foot and she fell down. But the root helped her up and carefully guided her until she was no longer lost. She didn't need the glaring sun, she decided, the roots felt much more like home.