Episode 1x02: Post Reggie Archie fight

It's not every day you watch your best friend/the boy who rejected you stand between one of his buddies on the football team and the guy he used to refer to as his best friend.

Betty has just witnessed Reggie, a guy who even Betty couldn't think of a nice thing to say about him, try to attack Jughead, one of her oldest friends. But Archie stood in the way and took the beating. Betty, despite herself, couldn't stop thinking about how brave Archie was for doing that. And Betty also couldn't stop herself from worrying about him.

She rushed to the nurse's after none of them showed up in class following the fight.

"Mrs. Leonard, is Archie still here?" Betty asked the nurse receptionist

"I'm afraid he already left dear." the receptionist replied.

"That's ok." Betty replied. She wasn't quite sure what she was expecting to happen when she showed up, but she found herself almost relieved that Archie was already gone.

She was just about to leave when it also occurred to her. "What about Jughead?"

"Jughead?" the receptionist questioned, not looking up from her desk.

"Forsythe." Betty told her, forgetting that Jughead wasn't his official name. Had he ever gone by anything else? "Forsythe Jones, how is he?"

"He is fine." Betty heard a voice from behind one of the doors say. "Just wounded pride."

Betty smiled and walked over to the door.

"Can I come in?" she asked, not wanting to interrupt him

"Sure." he replied quickly.

Betty opened the door to find Jughead sitting on the bed, wincing and clutching his stomach.

The smile quickly faded from her face. "I thought you said just your pride was wounded?"

"Who knew that I kept my pride in my stomach?" Jughead joked.

Betty smiled at him

"Well you keep everything else there." Betty joked back.

Jughead laughed, then winced again.

Betty walked over to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. Despite what he said, Betty could tell Jughead was in a lot of pain.

"How did you get hurt? I thought Archie…." Betty started, then stopped herself

"Took the beating? Oh, he did. Moose got in one good punch as he was pulling me off Reggie. Principal Weatherbee and Coach Clayton showed up before anyone got too injured." Jughead explained, sounding very annoyed by this turn of events.

"Gosh, Jug." Betty said, touching his arm and trying hard not to be too worried about him. It is not the first time they have been in the nurse's office because Jughead had been beaten up.

She could hear Jughead sigh at her obvious concern.

"Don't worry about me, I will be alright. The nurse said I will be back to eating cheeseburgers within the hour." Jughead reassured her

Betty gave him a patronizing look.

"Is cheeseburgers your real concern right now?" she asked. He said he was fine, but Betty couldn't stop noticing how much he was grimacing.

"You have your priorities, I have mine." Jughead told her.

They waited in silence for a few moments before Betty took a deep breath, finally saying the words that had been swirling in her head the past couple minutes.

"So he still cares about you." Betty stated, not sure how to feel about that.

"So it would seem." Jughead replied, his tone agreeing with hers.

There was another moment of silence before Jughead hopped off the bed and began to leave the room.

"We should probably get going. Wouldn't want a newly minted River Vixen missing the first big pep rally." Jughead said with as much sarcasm as Betty was sure he could muster.

"So, you're coming to the pep rally?" Betty asked, hopeful that he might

Jughead scoffed. "Yeah right. I think I have enough pep. It doesn't need to be rallied."

"Oh come on, you have to come. You can see our routine. And you will get to see Archie play…" her voice wondered off. She forgot for a moment that they were both supposed to be mad at him.

Jughead smiled at her.

"I'll consider it. If I have nothing better to do. I have been meaning to clean out my backpack and those plans would definitely take precedence." Jughead informed her

Betty smiled, walking towards the lockers with Jughead. Her brain was swirling with questions to ask him.

She settled on the most obvious one.

"So, do you think this counts? Does Archie sticking up for you make up for being a crappy friend this summer?" Betty asked.

"I don't know." Jughead admitted to her. "It doesn't hurt his chances at the very least."

She felt herself nod again. She wanted to focus on Jughead but she couldn't help herself from thinking about her possible future with Archie.

"I wonder what it would take to make things better between us again." Betty wondered out loud.

Jughead sighed and stopped walking.

"I don't recommend this." he said, wincing again. "Although I really doubt you could ever tick off Mantle the Moronic enough to want to kick your ass."

Betty laughed. "You never know. I can be quite irritating. Maybe I could challenge him to spell the word 'irritating'."

Jughead smiled. "Or you know, just wait until things go back to normal on their own."

"How will I know when things are back to normal between us?" Betty asked, genuinely having no idea how that would happen.

"When you are around him and your first thought isn't how he hurt you. When that time comes, then you guys can be friends again."

Betty turned to look at him, amazement apparent on her face.

"Wow, that was actually really great advice." she remarked, impressed.

"Yeah it was. No one is more surprised than I am." Jughead admitted.

Betty smiled. "Thanks Juggie."

"Anytime Betts." Jughead said, walking away from her. "Anytime."