Author's Note : Aaaaaannnnnnnddddd...Chapter Eight. Thank you to anyone who reviewed. I appreciate you more than I can say. Please continue to do so. I am always excited when I get that notification. On to the story!

Chapter Eight Song : "First" by Cold War Kids

Disclaimer : Don't own the characters. Just really like them.

CHAPTER EIGHT :

When Archie laid eyes on Betty in her pale pink dress, his chest swelled up with what could only be satisfaction and pride. She was stunning...and she was his. He picked her up at the door, escorted her to Reggie's car and helped her in like the gentleman his father had raised him to be. He couldn't wait to make their entrance in front of everybody at the dance.

Betty on the other hand was a bundle of nerves. She felt jittery and anxious and excited. Her skin felt too tight and her face felt flushed. She was warm all over and couldn't seem to steady her breathing. Every second she had spent getting dressed, despite Veronica's running conversation, Betty had thought about him. Maybe she could spend a little time with him outside of the newsroom; talk to him about something other than an article or schoolwork.

Maybe he would dance with her.

He didn't seem like the dancing type.

But maybe he would.

With her.

When they pulled in the school parking lot and Archie held out his hand to help her out of the car, Betty was flooded by a wave of guilt. This wasn't right, this thing she was doing with Archie. She was leading him on. She wasn't even sure how she had ended up in this situation. She couldn't break up with him just to turn around and admit that she was into his best friend. Archie was so sweet and kind and good. It wouldn't be right to just dump him. She could see them being the truest of friends. But could she keep dating him when she was having...vibes for another guy?

She wouldn't think about it tonight. She wouldn't dwell on the complications. She felt pretty. She was at a new school with her new friends and she felt pretty. Somewhere in that gym was a beautiful boy with dark hair and green eyes and a devil's smile and she felt pretty. Those were things that she would enjoy tonight.

The foursome walked into the brightly lit and colorfully decorated gymnasium. The local band that everyone was ga-ga over, Josie and the Pussycats, was playing onstage. The dance floor was packed with kids in various stages of frivolity, dancing and twisting and jumping and laughing. It was a sight to behold. Veronica immediately dragged Reggie out to join them.

There were the obligatory wallflowers of course, lingering in groups near the bleachers, hovering in somewhat awkward conversation around the punchbowl, but for the most part the mood in the room was that of genuine enjoyment. It made Betty think perhaps she had been a little harsh in her article.

Archie peered over her shoulder at someone and excused himself. Betty watched him make his way over to Ms. Grundy, the school music teacher.

Whatever.

She scanned the room, her eyes searching for a familiar gray beanie.

"He's not here," came a voice from directly behind her. Betty spun around to come face to face with Toni.

"What?" She asked, trying to appear innocent.

"Jonesy," Toni countered, "you're gonna give yourself whiplash looking for him and he's not here."

"I wasn't..."

"Don't worry. I'm not judging."

Betty pressed her lips together and then decided on the truth, "I thought everyone came to the back to school dance."

"Does Jones strike you as everyone?" Toni asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Betty smiled at that, "Now that you mention it."

"Anyway, I just wanted to warn you before your boyfriend caught on that you were scanning the crowd for someone that wasn't him."

There was that twist of guilt again. "I think I'll just get some punch."

Once Betty learned that Jughead wasn't at the dance, nor was he going to be, the night seemed to drag on for an eternity. Archie returned to her side, vowing to be the perfect date from that moment on. During their second slow dance of the evening, he had pulled her a little tighter into his embrace and stared into her eyes.

"You know, it's funny." He said, his voice soft and sincere, "This year, I made the varsity football team and you're the cute, new girl cheerleader. It's like we're a perfect match. Riverdale's newest power couple."

"Power couple?" Betty said, the words thick and heavy on her tongue.

"Well, yeah. Don't you think?"

It was like his heart and soul were shining out at her from his caramel eyes and even though she knew she should take this moment to make things right, to tell him the truth, to end it, end this...she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Instead, she looked down at their shuffling feet and said, "I guess so."

He led her through dance after dance after dance, so happy and content to be out there with her that it just made her feel worse and worse.

Three hours later, Archie walked Betty to her front door and, while Reggie and Veronica waited in the car. Once on the porch, he pressed a sweet, lingering kiss to her lips. His eyes stayed closed as he pulled away and there was a gentle smile on his mouth, like he was still savoring the feel of her kiss. Betty had willed herself to fall into the kiss, to let it wrap around her and sweep her away. Unfortunately, while the kiss had certainly been pleasurable, she remained unswept.

Archie reached a hand up and touched the tips of his fingers to her cheek, "Goodnight, Betty. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Betty couldn't speak around the lump in her throat, so she forced and smile and nodded. She stood on her porch, holding the pale pink shawl that matched her dress to perfection around her shoulders and watched Reggie's car pull away and off down the street. Once her friends were out of sight, she looked over her shoulder at the red front door to her house. She wasn't ready to go inside and face her mother's inquiries or Alan's inevitable leering. So, she pulled her shawl a little tighter around herself and walked down the front porch steps.

She didn't have a destination in mind as she meandered along the rambling sidewalks that seemed to wind and twist throughout the entire town like veins. That was one of the beautiful things about Riverdale that Betty had discovered a love for; you could walk anywhere. It wasn't a half an hour before she found herself in the parking lot of Pop's.

It was there that she came to a complete and abrupt halt in her wandering.

Jughead.

He was sitting by himself in a booth working on his laptop.

She didn't hesitate a second longer.

Jughead's fingers flew across the keys as though of independent thought. The words were just pouring out of him. Jason Blossom's autopsy was scheduled for the morning and he couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before the results were made public. He'd love to get his hands on the results. What secrets had been absorbed in his former schoolmate's body along with the water and decay?

The sound of the bell over the doorway of the diner broke into his reverie and he glanced up for less than a second before his eyes went back to his laptop screen. Then, his fingers stilled. And his eyes returned to the door. Logically, he knew that if his heart had actually stopped, he would have been dead on the ground, but in all honesty, he would have sworn that for just a second it had done just that.

Betty looked back at him, a vision in pink silk, her hair a golden wave around her shoulders. Archie may have been right after all.

She was perfect.

She stepped over to the counter and said something to the attendant there before crossing the distance to where Jughead sat. They stared at each other for a silent heartbeat, him sitting, her standing, blue eyes locked together with green.

"Hi, Jughead," she said, her voice soft and just this side of breathy.

"Betty."

"So, I have something that I have been wanting to ask you and it's been eating away at me a little." She said.

Jughead had to remind himself to breathe, to actively not hold his breath, "What's that?"

"What did you write about Pickens that got you suspended?"

That was not what he had been expecting. She smiled and he laughed and just like that, the tension dissolved away into nothingness as though it had never been there.

"Well," Jughead said on an exhale, "that he was a mass murdering psychopath for hire."

Betty slid into the seat across from him, "That'll do it."

"It certainly did." Jug nodded, "Facts are facts and my sense of social injustice kicked in and the next thing I knew, I was suspended. Worth it."

"I'd like to read it."

"Don't know if an intact copy survived to be totally honest. They couldn't burn me at the stake, so they burned my paper instead."

"How very third reich of them."

They fell into another silence, more comfortable, just enjoying one another's presence. Then, Betty looked down at her hands on the table. Her nails were painted pink like her dress. He never would have imagined liking the color so much but on her...

"You didn't come to the dance." She said.

"No."

"I looked for you."

His throat felt tight again, "Not really my scene."

"So I hear."

She seemed...disappointed. And that kind of thinking was all kinds of dangerous. "Betty..."

"Don't," she said simply, "I know. Whatever it is you're about to say, I already know."

The night waiter appeared and sat a fizzy soft drink and a plate of French fries down in front of Betty then left them. Betty took a long sip through her straw, then blessed him with another radiant smile. She slid the plate of fries to the center of the table to within his reach.

"So," she beamed, "what are you working on?"

It took Jughead just a moment to adjust to the sudden change in attitude. The tense, unbearable physical awareness melting into a level of friendly comfort snapping back to tension and now shifting again to the comfortable plateau.

Oh, what the hell?

He snagged a fry and spun his laptop around so she could see his article, "My article on the Blossom murder."

He grabbed the red ketchup bottle to squeeze a generous puddle on the plate as Betty started scrolling through his words, taking note of everything he had written. She asked questions. He answered them. He threw out theories. She countered them. She made suggestions. He listened to them. They both nibbled at the fries and just enjoyed this moment, however brief, of uncomplicated camaraderie.

Neither of them could have known that in just over forty-eight hours, everything they thought they knew about Jason Blossom and his murder would be turned on its head.

Author's Note: Well...that's it for now. I feel like I ended this chapter on a nice little Bughead moment. Hopefully you think so too! Let me know. Also, I'm curious as to what you think the biggest obstacle for our dynamic will be forthcoming? Lemme know your thoughts! Byeeee!