Betty is done with Veronica. How can she remain friends with someone who so blatantly has no regard for anyone's feelings but her own? Who has lied time and time again straight to Betty's face, to protect her family, who want to uproot this town and destroy part of its history and culture?
Which means she also has to be done with Archie. That part is much harder to come to terms with. She remembers not long ago declaring to her mother that she'd never stop being friends with him. Back then, she hadn't thought he'd ever do something that could make her want to stop being friends with him. And the truth is, she doesn't want to stop, but she feels she has no choice. The battle lines are drawn and he's picked his side, and it's Veronica and the Lodges. His recent treatment of Jughead has made that very clear. That doesn't make it any easier.
She lies awake at night, sick to her stomach at the thought of losing her oldest friend. Her best friend.
"Go to sleep, Betty," Jughead murmurs beside her. She doesn't know how he can just switch it off like that. Doesn't it haunt him, knowing that his best friend is losing himself to the enemy?
"There has to be something we can do," Betty says.
"We'll come up with a plan of attack in the morning," Jughead assures her wearily.
"No, not about the Southside," Betty says, a little exasperated. "About Archie."
"He made his choice, Betty," Jughead groans.
"I refuse to believe it," Betty says. "This isn't who he is. He's a good person."
"You're wrong, Betty. He's proven to me that he's not, and I don't need a friend like that in my life, okay? Now can we stop talking about it and get some sleep?" Jughead rolls over, and Betty swears he falls asleep instantly. She, however, continues to lie awake, staring at the ceiling.
She knows she won't be able to sleep until she tries to fix this. She gently shakes Jughead, and when he makes no response, she gingerly slips out of bed and gets dressed, quietly as possible. She grabs her phone and opens her messages with Archie.
Meet me at Pop's in ten?
His response is almost instantaneous.
C u then
He's already waiting for her when she arrives, sitting alone in a booth. She watches him through the window for a moment, searching for some kind of clue to how they got here. On opposing sides of a war that isn't really either of theirs to fight. She sees him everyday, and yet she feels like she barely sees him at all. They're in different orbits, when they used to always be the same. And yet, he'll still come and meet her in the middle of the night, at the drop of the hat. She knows her Archie is still in there somewhere.
Archie looks up and catches her eye through the window. He gives her a half smile, tired, ingenuine. Betty doesn't smile back. She pulls the door to Pop's open, the bell tinkling as she enters. The place is deserted, save for Archie and Pop himself.
"Hey," Archie says when she draws close. She slides into the booth opposite him.
"Hey," Betty returns.
"Are you alright?" Archie asks. Betty shrugs.
"Did I wake you?"
Archie shakes his head. "I couldn't sleep."
"Me either."
They fall into a deafening silence. It's unbearable.
"Arch…" Betty starts. She wishes she'd rehearsed something in her head on the way here. "I can't stand this," she says. "It's eating me alive, not being friends with you."
"We don't have to stop being friends," Archie says.
"We do if you keep going down this path," Betty says. "The way you've been treating Jughead… the things you've been doing lately. The lies you and Veronica have been telling. It's not you."
"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do."
"I do. I know you."
Archie swallows. He looks down at his hands on the table. Betty notices the bandage across his palm for the first time.
"What happened?" she asks, reaching for him. He jerks his hand away, hiding it under the table.
"It's nothing," he mutters. Betty stares at him. "Look, I'm sorry for what happened with Jughead. I know he's just doing what he thinks is right, but Mr. Lodge—"
"Is a criminal, Archie!" Betty cuts in. "He doesn't want what's best for this town, he just wants what's best for himself!"
"You sound just like my mom."
Betty huffs out a small laugh. Archie meets her eyes across the table, a small smile playing on the corners of his mouth. It quickly falls again, and he sighs.
"I don't know what you want me to do, Betty," he says.
"I want you to be on my side."
"I can't do that. That would mean betraying my girlfriend and my girlfriend's family."
"But what about your best friend?"
"What do you want me to say, Betty?" Archie snaps. "You want me to break up with Veronica? Sever all ties with the Lodges? I can't. It's too late for that." He slams his hand back onto the table and rips off the bandage, revealing an ugly scar across his palm, not yet completely healed. It's as if someone dragged a sharp knife across it, carefully, deliberately.
Betty realises then. It wouldn't matter even if he wanted to side with her and Jughead. He's in too deep. Hiram Lodge would never let him leave.
"He made you do this?" Betty whispers.
"I chose to do it," he says. Betty knows that's not true. Maybe Archie thinks he chose it. Maybe he thinks he's in control, that every choice he's made is his own, but she knows better. Hiram is manipulating him. Veronica is manipulating him. It makes her blood boil. She's sick of people using him, taking his trusting, kind heart, and taking advantage of it for their own agenda.
She's going to take down Hiram Lodge. Right after she takes down Chic. After all, it's what she does.
She doesn't say this to Archie. Instead she takes his hand in hers and presses her lips to his palm, kissing the wound softly, like she possesses some kind of healing power. Then she opens up her palms and shows him her own scars, little crescents the size of her fingernails.
"We all have scars, Archie," she tells him. "Don't let them turn you into someone you're not."
"Betty…" he says. He hesitates. He takes her hands in his. He presses a gentle kiss on each of her palms in return. He puts them back to the table but doesn't let go. "I hope that when all this is over, you don't think less of me. I'm just doing what I think is right."
"I wish I could change your mind."
He doesn't respond. "I've got to go," he says instead. He drops her hands and slides out of the booth, standing and walking away.
"I'll miss you," Betty calls out after him. He glances back, and gives her a small nod before walking out of the diner.