Author's Note : So, this is the aftermath of the kiss. Fair warning; there is a little bit of smut. Self smut, really. But this is where it begins.

Disclaimer : Don't own em. Like em a lot.

Chapter Eight Song Choice : "Bad Things" by Milky Chance ft. Izzy Bizu

Chapter Eight:

"My God, cousin, you look like hell."

Betty's eyes narrowed into brilliant green slivers as she stared across the counter at Cheryl.

"Cher!" Veronica scolded from her seat beside the redhead.

"What?" Cheryl asked, a picture of innocence, "Am I supposed to pretend that I don't see the huge black bags under her eyes? I mean, really Betty, you look like you haven't slept in a year."

"I didn't sleep well last night, okay?" Betty hissed at her friends, "Now, are you two gonna order something or are you just trying to take up my valuable counter space?"

Veronica grinned, "Double Chocolate shake?"

"Strawberry for me!" Cheryl added.

"Okay, one strawberry and one chocolate chocolate," Betty said as she scribbled the order down on her notepad.

"Say," Cheryl went on and quirked a single perfectly groomed eyebrow, "this wouldn't have anything to do with the tall, dark and brooding drive-in crasher, would it?"

Betty glared at Veronica, who choked on a laugh.

"Funny story, true story-" Veronica began just as Betty their order from her notepad with probably a touch more violence than was necessary. However, once Betty turned away to put in the order for their shakes, she heard V continue talking, "I swear to God, Cher, you should have seen. The way that boy was looking at her, woo, I think I got a contact buzz from it."

"I do love you, my sweet V, but this information is neither surprising nor unusual. You've seen Betty! She's-"

"No! I know! But believe me, this was different. He looked at her like it was a privilege to do so."

"Oooh…"

"Exactly."

With a thunk, Betty sat their milkshakes in front of them. They were in two Styrofoam cups rather than the usual decorative malt glasses. Cherly and Veronica looked from the shakes to Betty.

"I take this to mean we're leaving?" Cheryl commented.

Betty's reply to the question was a smile that was sickeningly saccharine.

Cheryl rolled her eyes, pushed herself up on the counter and hit Betty with smacking kiss right on her right cheek bone, leaving behind a bright red lip print.

"Love you, Betty Boop," she said and snatched her shake and headed for the door.

Veronica kissed her own fingertips and waggled them in Betty's direction before following Cheryl out the door.

Out of habit, Betty grabbed a damp rag and wiped down the counter where they had been sitting, despite that they didn't eat and the counter was clean. It was mindless, automatic. She regretted kicking V and Cher out. She hadn't wanted their prying, but at least they had served as a decent distraction. Without their presence, her mind returned to the previous night.

She hadn't lied to Cheryl. She hadn't slept well; but not for the reasons the reasons that she had originally expected to sleep poorly.

When Jughead had kissed her, his lips warm and just a little rough, like he had a tendency to chew on them, the feeling that had rushed through her body at the feel of his lips had been unlike anything she had ever experienced. He had tasted of cigarettes and alcohol and mint and honey. The combination shouldn't have worked, but it did. It had been so easy, so natural to fall into that kiss. It had felt…right.

And then had come the guilt. Archie. She had a boyfriend. She was not the girl who went around kissing other guys when she was committed to someone. But she had never felt as at ease with Archie in a physical sense as she had felt in that singular moment spent in Jughead's arms.

That was why she had pushed him away and…fled.

That night, after the Uber that Jug had paid for had dropped her home, she had expected to continue roiling in those feelings of guilt and shame.

But that was not what had befallen her mind that night.

Instead, her fevered brain had returned time and again to that kiss.

She had lain in bed, touched her fingertips to her lips and felt Jughead's mouth on hers. She had remembered his tongue as it had danced against her own. As she had let the recollections of his arms and eyes and tongue race through her mind, she had also begun to feel the stirring of her own blood low in her body. She had tossed and turned beneath her sheets and pressed her thighs tight together in the hopes of some relief. She thought back as well to when she had first met Jug, when he had pulled her hips tight against his own. It had been less than five seconds of contact, but she still remembered every one of them. Her breast felt heavy and swollen…achy.

She touched them. She slid her hands over them and gave gentle squeeze before sliding her fingers lower, over her abdomen and then further down. She pressed her palm against her center over her cotton pajama shorts. The pressure felt splendid. Her hips bucked against her own hand instinctually.

It wasn't enough.

She slipped her hand beneath her shorts, beneath her panties.

She was wet. It almost embarrassed her as she had never been that wet before. She slid two fingers along her folds. The feeling was fantastic, like nothing she had ever experienced. Then, her fingertips brushed against her clit, that tiny, wonderful, little bundle of nerves and she gasped audibly.

Shocked and somewhat mortified at the lack of control of her own body, she slapped her free hand over her own mouth to stifle any future sounds. Then she focused her touch, rubbed tight little circles around that little nub of pleasure. She thought of green eyes, rough lips, large warm hands, that biting smirk. She thought of those things and she wanted. She wanted so deeply.

Her body responded the images her mind conjured. She felt a pressure as it built at the base of her spine, as it pulled at the tightened muscles of her stomach, every muscle in her body tensed. Then it all became too much, too sensitive. Her hips seemed to have a mind of their own as they thrust back away from her own hand and she jerked her fingers free. Tears of frustration filled her eyes and she turned to release a groan into her pillow. She felt as though there was something grand and life-changing hanging out there in the ether just beyond her reach. Her body was still tense and wanting with no sign of relief in sight. And it pained her.

So, she had slept poorly.

That frustration, that horrible gut clenching need from something not only unknown, but seemingly intangible had caused what sleep Betty was able to get to be restless and plagued with dreams of snakes, hands and green eyes. She had woken sweaty and aching and irritable.

Then, Archie had joined her and her parents for breakfast. He didn't seem to notice her bad mood, or it he did he made no comment on it.

He had kept trying to touch her. Her hair, her arms, her neck...and she had still felt raw from her sleepless night that the contact caused uncomfortable buzzing all across her skin. She had spent the entire breakfast playing defense; not the most relaxing start to her Sunday morning. And then after they had finished eating, he had followed her back up the stairs to her bedroom.

He left her door open a few inches to satisfy her mother's "open door" rule, but then he was all over Betty. He pressed a warm somewhat moist kiss to her mouth then began to trail kisses down her jawline, her neck and clavicle. She pushed her palms against his biceps to force him to back off.

"Archie…" she tried to twist away despite his continued advances, "...Arch, my parents-"

"Are all the way downstairs," he cut her off and slid a hand down from her waist to squeeze the rounded flesh of her rear end. Hard. Bruising. He dragged his lips back up her jawline, "They'll never know a thing."

The breathy whisper was damp and too hot against the shell of her ear. She squirmed in his arms.

"Arch, you know I'm not okay with...with fooling around with my parents in the house."

He pulled her hips tight against his own so she could feel that he was aroused and Betty felt an unwelcome rush of bile rise in the back of her throat. She twisted her body and pushed against his biceps in an attempt to put some physical distance between their bodies. "Please, Archie, please stop. My parents..."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry."

He didn't sound sorry.

He took a step back away from her, but he didn't release his hold on her waist. "Maybe you could come over to mine tonight and watch a movie. My dad is gonna be out."

Betty could tell from the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes that he was hoping for a repeat of the other night when she had more or less thrown herself at him. He was hoping for that and more. She felt the flush rise to her cheeks and looked away from the desperate look in his eyes.

"I, uh, I can't. I have to work. Ethel needed to switch a shift so I'll be at Pop's tonight."

She did what she could to mask the relief she felt at the serendipitous change to her schedule. It meant that she wouldn't have to spend the night fending off Archie's advances.

Which brought her back to the present where she was bent over to wipe down a counter that didn't need it. Even as she felt the aching in the balls of her feet and the tension in her muscles as she performed the menial task, she couldn't help but be grateful to Ethel for needing the night off. As she ran her rag over the now spotless countertop, it occurred just how much of a hot mess she really was. She dropped the damp cloth and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as she braced her elbows on the counter.

She was. She was a complete and utter mess, a walking disaster. Everything in her life seemed to have gone topsy-turvy and she had no idea how she was going to pull herself back together; get herself back to that quasi happy existence that had been her life before she had been introduced to Jughead Jones.

It felt like her shift ended all too soon because it seemed like no time at all that she was pulling her gray peacoat on over her yellow uniform as she walked out the front door.

She was halfway across the parking lot before she spotted him and stopped in her tracks.

There, perched on the trunk of her car with his forearms braced on his knees, his hands loosely clasped together, and his head hanging forward, was Jughead. He wasn't wearing his beaning and his thick, darks hair hung forward is beautiful disarray. Betty took a deep steadying breath and closed the distance to him. He looked up at her approach and as his face came into view, she fought back the immediate memory of his lips against hers. He looked nervous. She didn't think she had ever seen him nervous before. The effect was...disconcerting.

"Hey, Jug," she said as she came to stop in front of him.

Jughead slid off of the trunk of her car and leaned back against it, "Hi, Betty."

He shook a cigarette out of his pack and lit it, took a deep drag and blew it out before he finally met her eyes. "I wanted to say sorry."

Betty crossed her arms over her chest and bit her lips to suppress the smile that was trying to come through, "Sorry for what?"

Now he looked uncomfortable, like he had never apologized before in his life and Betty found herself overcome with the desire to wrap her arms around him, nuzzle her face into the crook his neck and tell him how wonderful and adorable he was. However, she didn't think he would appreciate that in real life the way he appreciated it in her imagination.

Then, with his face still angled down, he smirked and looked up at her through his unfairly long lashes, "Well…I think I'm supposed to say sorry for kissing you but…that would be a lie. I am, however, sorry that I made you uncomfortable."

God, he was appealing. Betty crossed to leaned against the trunk with him and bumped his hip with her own, "That was a pretty weak apology, Jones."

"Hey, I worked hard on that," he grinned.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah," he said. He took another pull on his cigarette and they fell into momentary silence. Then, Jughead spoke again. "In all seriousness, you know I'm attracted to you. I had you all to myself and I took advantage of the situation. I know you're in a relationship…but I don't want to lose… I don't… I don't want you to feel like we can't hang out."

Betty's stomach did at least five somersaults at his words. She didn't want to stop hanging out with him either but she wasn't sure how they could continue; not when he was so effortlessly sexy and she had no real notion as to the extent to which her self-control could last. She opened her mouth to respond.

But was immediately interrupted by a quick siren burst and the flashing of red and blue lights. She and Jughead both squinted in the direction of the lights as Sheriff Tom Keller stepped out of his police cruiser.

"Good evening," he said, his hands rested on his gun-belt as he made his way over to them.

Betty smiled, "Hi, Sheriff Keller."

"Hi there, Betty," he greeted, "you're out a little late, aren't you?"

"Oh, I just finished up a shift."

"Right. Of course." Keller's eyes locked on Jughead, "Jones. What are you doing on this side of town?"

"It's a free country," Jughead quipped.

"Little late."

"Just having a conversation."

Keller nodded with a humorless grin. Then he reached out, grabbed Jughead by the shoulder to spin him around and shoved him against the side of Betty's car. "You're familiar with the position, aren't you, Jones?"

"I haven't done anything?" Jughead spat.

"Sheriff Keller, we were just talking!" Betty exclaimed as she took a step back, "He wasn't doing anything wrong!"

"You have no reason to search me!" Jughead growled.

"You're a known gang member, Jones. That's probable cause."

Jughead clenched his jaw so tight he was surprised when he didn't crack a tooth. He was used to getting harassed by the cops, but it pissed him all the way off that Keller was doing it in front of Betty.

"This is bullshit!" he snarled.

"Watch your mouth, son."

"Hey don't call me son," Jughead said over his shoulder, only to be shoved forward again by Keller.

He closed his eyes when he felt Keller reach his waistband. It was less than a second later that Keller discovered the glock tucked into the inside holster at the small of his back.

"What do we have here?" He said and as he sat the gun on the roof of the car.

Jughead watched Betty's eyes widen at the sight of the firearm but he didn't let her distract him at that moment.

"I have a concealed carry permit. My wallet's in my back pocket. You can even cop a feel while you're back there."

Keller moved on and patted his way down Jughead's legs. That was when he found the switchblade tucked into Jughead's boot. "You have a permit for this?"

"Fuck," Jughead said under his breath. His eyes again went to Betty. She looked confused as to why he was more concerned about the knife that he had been about an automatic weapon.

"You do know switchblades or automatic knives are banned within city limits, right?" Keller smiled like a great white shark scenting blood and pulled his cuffs from his belt, "Jughead Jones, you are under arrest for possession of contraband-"

"You've gotta be kidding me! This is a misdemeanor at best!" Jughead snapped as Keller pulled his hands behind his back, "My lawyer will be out in less than an hour!"

"Well, that's an hour of peace of mind for me. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say-"

"Sheriff Keller-" Betty started.

"You should go on home, Betty," Keller said, jerking Jughead by the elbow towards the police cruiser, "you be careful with who you spend your time with."

Betty watched helpless while Keller put a hand on the top of Jughead's skull and shoved him, not gently, into the back of the police car while spouting of the rest of his Miranda Rights.

Author's Note : So, I want to throw this out there. I did not write Betty this way to make her extremely naïve and innocent. While this variation of her character is both of those things, the idea behind her never having touched herself before stems from the idea that she has never been in a position where she has had sexual feelings…until she met Jughead. My Betty in this universe is basically demi-sexual so when she met Jughead, it awakened these feelings that she has never had before which also tacks onto why she feels so confused and messed up inside.

Anyway! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!