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The last pebble hit Betty's window with a sudden sense of urgency, if pebbles could convey such an emotion. The blonde girl bolted up from her bed, hair tied in a loose braid. She stepped towards the window when another pebble hit it. Archie Andrews standing beneath her window at an unknown hour of the night was not a sight Betty would have ever expected to see, but there he was, red hair and all.
"Archie?"
"Hey," he whispered loudly enough for her to hear him, but softly enough for Alice Cooper's sleep to remain unperturbed.
"What on Earth are you doing?"
"Come outside," he bit his lip while looking up at her and Betty felt a sudden rush of embarrassment as she grew aware of the silky, skimpy nightgown she was wearing.
"Meet me in the front," she closed the window, drawing the blinds.
In the darkness of her room, Betty searched for her shorts and a t-shirt with the help of her phone's flashlight. The shorts she found in the drawer of her dresser. She pulled them on, grabbed a random shirt off her chair, and walked downstairs, making sure to leave her slippers behind in the bedroom. Everyone knew the best tiptoeing through the house was done barefoot. In the hallway, she simply grabbed the nearest pair of sneakers, the blue ones, before stepping outside. Archie stood before her, gym shorts and a white shirt, as boyish and handsome as ever.
"Hi," Archie smiled at her dishevelled, half-asleep form.
Betty took a moment to rub away the sleepiness in her eyes, "Explain." Her voice was still slightly hoarse.
"There's supposed to be a meteor shower in about half an hour," he snuck his arm around her shoulder and softly guided her down the street, "I figured we could go watch."
"Oh," she sighed, leaning into his body in search of warmth. The summer had been warm, but the nights still got chilly.
"I also stole a pack of beer from the fridge," he looked down at his best friend, waiting for her reaction.
Betty smiled and rolled her eyes, "You just had to."
"Thought it would be a bit of fun."
"Is this about your," she paused searching for a way to ask the question gently. In the end, she thought, being direct was the best approach. "About your mum?"
Betty felt the moment Archie stiffened a bit next to her; how could she not with the two of them pressed so close to each other. He relaxed quickly, though, and sighed once.
"I don't know," the boy hesitated, giving himself a moment to think about his own motives. "Not entirely, I think."
"Okay," her small hand reached for his larger one, the one that he swung so carelessly around her shoulders. "I won't judge, you know?"
"I do, I know," Archie's fingers wrapped around Betty's hand, as he felt her body go into shock, same as every time he touched her in that strange, testing-the-boundaries, non-platonic way. "I just want to relax, not think about things."
"We can do that," Betty replied, her thumb tracing small circles on the inside of Archie's palm. "Where are we going?"
Archie steered them to the left in that moment, smiling softly. "It's a surprise."
He walked them to the nearby park, the one they used to go to when they were kids. The slides, and the swing-sets all seemed miniature compared to their childhood playtimes. The park was located on the edge of the small hill that descended a bit, making the small span of grass at the end of it perfect for stargazing. Archie plopped himself down on the ground, sitting on the warm grass. Betty joined him, regretting having grabbed her pale pink shorts, and knowing there would be green stains on them once they left.
"We're early," for the first time since Betty had stepped outside Archie was not whispering, "I'd say we have five more minutes to waste."
"We could still look up at the stars," the girl replied, but reached for a can of beer from the six-pack sitting between Archie's legs. "Or we could share a drink."
"Betty Cooper," the red haired boy looked at his best friend, a wide grin on his face, "you always surprise me."
"When will you learn, Archie Andrews?"
The can let out an unfamiliar fizzy sound as Betty opened it. Archie watched her as she brought it up to her lips, and instead of taking a drink hesitated.
"Do you want me to go first?"
Betty looked away from the beer can at Archie's outstretched hand, "It doesn't smell nice."
"I'm sure it's not," he chuckled, "let me go first, come on. If I die, don't drink."
The girl laughed, nearly handing him the can. She changed her mind last minute, an unlikely decision on her part. "No, I'm going to go first."
"Very well," an amused smirk graced Archie's lips as he watched Betty bring the can closer to her face, stopping—once again, if only for a moment—half an inch from her lips. His small laugh was all it took for the girl sitting next to him to bring the cold aluminium up to her soft lips. With her eyes tightly shut Betty Cooper took her first gulp of an all American beer, as her best friend watched on with an amused look on his face. She did not like it, she may have even hated it, but she took a second one because Archie's soft chuckling grew into laughter and Betty wanted to prove a point to him, whatever the point was. Perhaps she just wanted to come out victorious in this experience they had decided to share.
She grimaced, holding the can at an arm's length, "Awful."
"Your face suggests that much," Archie grabbed the can from her hands, and—with the bravery of any other barely teenage boy—took three gulps. He paused afterwards, trying his best not to mimic Betty's disgusted reaction. Of course, he failed miserably, "Okay, no. This is awful."
"Oh, look," Betty exclaimed, blue eyes glued to the night sky.
"A shooting star?"
"A meteor."
The red haired boy rolled his eyes at that, swinging his arm around the blonde's shoulders for the second time that night, and pulling her closer to him before lying on the ground completely, back flat against the soft grass. Betty's body went rigid for a split second, and Archie felt it, before she allowed herself to slowly melt into his side.
"What are you wishing for, Arch?" her voice was soft, eyes looking up at the stars as Archie studied her face.
"Not sure, yet," he muttered, running his fingers across her collarbone. "Maybe nothing."
The blonde chuckled, "A waste of shooting stars, really."
"Oh, haven't you heard? They're meteors, Betty."
"Shut up," was the last thing she told him before the shower really started.
They lied there, beneath the clear night sky, a boy and a girl on the cusp of an adventure, unsure of what was really happening. If either of them had wished for the other upon one of the shooting stars, it would remain a secret for a long time after that night had passed.
The beer was left untouched.
Betty had never gotten a Valentine's Day gift.
Not a card, no flowers, certainly not a gift. Nothing save for the drawings her sister made her for the day. In return, Betty would write her a short story about the two of them and their adventures, none of which had been real, of course, but rather a result of her beautiful, childish imagination.
That year though, Archie thought, something ought to happen. The boy was yet to grow into a song-writing romantic, but if he had learned a few things from the cheesy movies his mother adored, all beautiful girls deserved a gift on that day. Betty was, in his eyes, very beautiful, if not the most beautiful girl in the whole town. She had told him he could not marry her, not yet, but she never said he could not surprise her on occasion, even if he knew that Betty was not big on surprises. She preferred things planned out and orderly. She liked to prepare for situations to come, even at a very young age. Thus, young Archie set out on a quest. A quest to find a perfect gift that his small budget of five dollars allowed.
Buying her a box of chocolates—no matter how exquisite—was too obvious and stereotypical, his father told him once the man got the idea of what his son had been up to. Fred Andrews suggested a more creative solution, something more personal, though—for the sake of it still being an adventure—he did not explicitly tell his son what he had been thinking of. The boy solved the riddle a week after he had set out to find a perfect gift, and only a day before Valentine's.
In a small stationery store, near the mayor's office, Archie found his perfect gift: a small notebook with blue covers, and an intricate pattern that reminded him instantly of Betty.
"That's it?" Fred Andrews accompanied his son to the store.
The boy nodded, "Yes."
"Alright, let's go pay for it then."
At the register, Archie emptied all of his pockets, the sound of coins colliding with one another and the surface echoing through the empty store. The woman at the register, whom he heard his dad address as Meg, collected every single coin leaving Archie a figuratively bankrupt little boy. At home, he filled the pages of the notebook with the photos of the two of them. Fred, once again, helped with this task, having gone and developed extra photos of the two. It turned out a bit messy in the end; Archie was never quite great with glue, or creative do-it-yourself art assignments. His fingers were sticky and there was some glue left on his shirt, but the photos had all found their place inside the notebook, with plenty of blank pages for the adventures to come. He went to bed that night content and proud of himself, ignoring the excitement that coursed through his entire nine-year-old body.
Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday that year, and Archie was at the Coopers' front door early in the morning, though not early enough to interrupt their breakfast. He knew well enough that Betty's mother would not appreciate him imposing on their family time.
He knocked once, twice, and the third time, then counted to five until Alice Cooper opened the door. The woman smiled knowingly at the boy, even if she disapproved slightly. No harm would be done if a boy gave a Valentine's gift to her daughter, not at such a young age.
"Betty," she faced the dining room, which meant Archie had barely missed interrupting their brunch. "Archie's here."
Betty's hair was somehow even more blonde in the morning sun than it had been the day before, her eyes a wide and a vibrant blue as she stared at her best friend in confusion.
"Hi," she whispered stepping outside as Alice retreated to the kitchen. Archie heard her tell Polly to finish her eggs before Betty closed the front door. "Polly is refusing to eat, it's a bit chaotic inside," she shrugged apologetically.
"That's fine," Archie nodded both hands behind his back.
"So?"
"What?"
"What's going on?"
"Oh," the boy paused, "nothing."
Betty looked at him, eyebrows arched, "But is everything okay?"
"Yeah."
"Do you need something? Do you need help with school, you know I can help you," she rambled, "I just have to tell my mum and we can go work on it."
"No, no," Archie bit his lip, frowning slightly. Betty's mum would have told him not to do that, she would have warned him how it would cause wrinkles later on in his life. She often warned Betty about it. "It's just…"
The two stared at each other for about ten seconds. For the first time in her life Betty was left perplexed—thought at that age she would not have understood the word—by her friend's behaviour.
"Here," the boy offered her a messily wrapped gift, but kept the other hand hidden behind his back, "happy Valentine's?"
"Oh, Archie," Betty's face lit up, "you didn't have to… I didn't get you anything." She frowned slightly.
"Just… wanted to?"
The girl looked down at the gift, then back at her friend. With narrowed eyes she stepped closer to him, "What's behind your back?"
Archie rolled his eyes before handing her a bouquet of colourful tulips, "I hope you're not allergic or anything."
Betty chuckled, "I'm not… I hope?"
"Good," the boy replied. "Because I stole them from mayor McCoy's garden."
At that, Betty let out a loud laugh.
Later on, through the years to come, the two of them filled out the notebook with various snapshots of their shared moments. When she ran out empty pages, Archie made sure to buy her a new one, though no occasion called for a gift.
"It's what friends do, isn't it?" He would say, though unsure if it truly was what simple friends would do for one another.
A/N: Thank you to the person who reviewed ( hid your review and I am super upset about it). Anyway, hope you like this and that it helps you through the Barchie drought we've been experiencing.