Betty smiled, waving in Jughead's direction as he peeled away from the curb. His jacket was still wrapped around her, a subtle sign of Jughead's chivalry. She drew her hands into the sleeves, the smell of leather and the owner making her practically giddy. Hiding the coat - and her reaction to having it - would be necessary. It had no mark of gang affiliation, but her mother would find such a thing suspect and would go in search answers. Betty couldn't chance Alice knowing who Jughead was if she wanted to be his friend.
And maybe more… she thought as she climbed the stairs to her room and dropped onto her bed. Was it truly softer than it had been, she wondered. Or did the glow of something new make everything feel like a trip?
Their morning at the swimming hole had turned into burgers at a small stand on the far end of the south side. And all the conversation had turned comfortable and easy with the change of venue. Betty teased Jughead, almost mercilessly, about cheating on Pop as he devoured two burgers only to discover that he hated mustard… but liked her taunts. That's how it seemed to her when his ketchup smudged lips turned into a gesture so completely boyish.
Jughead made the ease of opening up convincing, Betty revealing her own likes - crunchy french fries and Toni Morrison novels - without much provocation. But then, she'd laid out a whole side of herself to Jughead when they'd first met without even knowing it. A side that, for anyone else, would have required an extensive road map of nuanced behavior. Jughead navigated her effortlessly, a novelty that made her let go of worry. With him, she was just a girl whose troubles weren't the whole of her.
Her eyes had just slipped closed when a buzz jolted her phone. She dug around underneath her hip for it, a jagged sharpness hollowing her out when she read the new text.
Just getting back from bailing on me and Veronica? Must've been fun.
Betty sat up and found Achie framed by their bedroom windows. Why was such a familiar sight suddenly chilling?
It was what I needed. Just some time to myself.
She tapped 'send' and watched for any change in his expression. All she could see was him furiously tap at his phone. Anger? More likely, she thought, she was reading misunderstanding bled through by hurt.
You weren't by yourself. You were with that kid from Pop's.
Betty sighed as she told him to come over so they could talk. His agreement forced her out of bed to find a place to stow the jacket so it would not be a focal point in Archie's questioning. She moved over to her desk chair from the closet and waited for Archie to come up since they were years passed knocking.
Up close, Betty could clearly see the accusation in his gaze - at least the distance from his bedroom to hers had blurred his true feelings. He leaned against her door frame, his arms folded defensively in front of him. "Are you going to tell me why you left me and Veronica sitting at Pop's, wondering what the hell was going on?"
Betty clasped her hands together, squeezing until her knuckles turned white. "Like I said, I needed a break."
"We've barely seen you for weeks and every time we do, you're running away from us. Now, you're with this new kid who we don't even know."
"I made a new friend who I like spending time with." A hot rush of anger snapped her spine straight and her muscles taut. "And I know him." She had to cross her arms and clutch her ribs in a hug so her nails wouldn't jab at her palms. "I know he works two jobs, one of them at Pop's. He graduated last year…" She could see Archie's lips form a question about Jughead's alma mater. "...from a different school than ours. I know about his family, his friends." All South Side Serpents from what he had said, with the exception of his mom and sister who lived out of state. He hadn't wanted to say much about that, but Betty still counted it as information she had. "Jughead isn't some mystery to me, Arch. And he could say the same about me. We don't have secrets."
The lie felt heavy in her chest, especially when she could have brushed the corner of her laptop with her fingers. Would there be unanswered chat requests when she opened it? The truth of the answer made the tips of her ears tingle and she felt worse about keeping her other identity from Jughead than about how badly she wished Archie would just accept everything that was happening and go home.
"It's good to be Jughead, then. Because you seem to have them with everyone else."
Archie had never acted so petulant about Betty having a new friend - maybe because she hadn't had many outside of him over the years, and of those, none ever seemed to challenge his place in Betty's life.
"Archie, you and Veronica have been busy with each other." She raised her hand to stop him when he looked ready to object. "Everyone has their own lives. Josie has The Pussycats, Kevin has theater, Cheryl has The Vixens." Not that Betty considered Cheryl Blossom to be a part of her friend group, despite their newly minted status of 'cousins.' But if she could be useful in Betty's defense, Betty would include her in the fold. "I don't understand why me having something of my own is such a terrible thing. It's not like Jughead is replacing anyone." Standing, she reached for both of Archie's wrists. "You'll always be one of my best friends, Arch. No one is going to change that. So please, accept that I have a little more joy in my life now.
Archie was slow to pull away from her, Betty tracking a certain dilemma in his actions. Did he want to trust her, but couldn't move past her evasive behavior nor Jughead's involvement in it? The idea would have choked her with laughter were she not in complete control of her emotions. Archie Andrews, angry at her because she wasn't totally honest about her relationships? She cleared the thought, knowing it wasn't helpful. Instead, she stayed focused on him.
"I think I'm going to go home and just… take all this in."
Betty nodded, Archie's rebuke turning her stomach sour. Maybe time was what he needed, much like she had when he started dating Veronica. It still hurt, she thought as he exited the room without even a good-bye. Maybe that's how he'd felt when he saw her with Jughead. And maybe she needed to understand that to hold onto their friendship, she had to let Archie find his own way.