"B, are you even listening?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Betty jerks her head towards her best friend, realizing that she hasn't heard a single word in the last couple of minutes.

Veronica lets out a dramatic sigh. "You've been glued to your phone since this morning. And I don't wanna be a hypocrite but… What's so important that you keep staring at it?"

Betty feels a pang of guilt at Veronica's words. After all, her best friend invited her to spend a few days at a penthouse getting fancy massages, spa treatments, shopping and eating the best food in the city. The least she could do is to pay attention to her. But while she's trying to enjoy everything that Veronica is offering, she also misses her boyfriend. It's the first time since they started dating that they haven't seen each other in over twenty-four hours and the constant stream of texts between them is making her feel a bit better.

"I'm really sorry, Ronnie." Betty blushes, embarrassed that she let herself be so invested in her phone that even Veronica found it too much. "It's just… Polly took a trip with the kids and she's been telling me all about it and I've been waiting for her to post some photos. But it can wait."

She immediately feels bad for lying to her friend, but tries to console herself because it's not that far from the truth. Polly did take the twins on a trip and was telling her all about it. But that was two days ago. She quickly locks her phone and puts it into the pocket of her fluffy white robe. "I'm all yours now." Betty flashes an apologetic smile and Veronica beams back at her.

"So as I was saying," Veronica leans back in her chair as her personal beautician starts applying a clay facemask to her face and continues, "I think we need to end our summer break with a bang and organize a huge party."

"Ronnie, we're in college. With the new semester starting there will be at least three parties going on every week. In our building alone. Can't we enjoy at least one quiet weekend before it all starts again?" Betty asks, even though she already knows the answer.

"Yeah, but those are frat parties. With warm disgusting beer and people throwing up in potted plants. Our party would have class. With expensive wine and canapés."

Betty's not sure that expensive alcohol or a fancier name for finger food can make people behave like adults, but she doesn't tell Veronica that. Once her best friend starts planning something, it's already too late to stop her. As Veronica continues talking about all the ideas she has for the party, Betty is glad for the facemask drying on her face and the slices of cucumber on her eyes allowing her to get away with some well-timed nods and vague sounds of approval as opposed to full responses.

"You should wear that dress you got yesterday. I can guarantee that when Jughead sees you in it, he won't be able to keep his dick in his pants much longer," Veronica says all of a sudden, not bothering to create a seamless transition between the party decorations and her best friend's sex life.

"Veronica!" Betty exclaims, the facemask pulling painfully at her skin as her jaw drops, the cucumber slices falling into her lap.

"I'm sorry." Veronica raises her hands in apology, but the smirk on her face says she's not sorry at all. "What I meant to say is, that he will no longer be able to resist your beauty and declare his courtship."

"We're not talking about this again." Betty shakes her head in refusal, knowing that if she lets Veronica pry, she won't be able to lie to her much longer.

"Okay, okay. I'm just saying that if you're finally ready to make a move on hipster James Dean, I'm your woman. The boy won't know what hit him."

Betty hums in agreement, popping the cucumber into her mouth and leaning back in her seat as Veronica starts talking about how her therapist tells her she gets too invested in other people's lives.

"Says the guy I pay three hundreds an hour to tell me what to do," she scoffs.

And with that, the discussion about Jughead is forgotten.

"Jug, are you even paying attention to…" Archie trails off because it's already too late as Jughead's character takes a hit, losing the last of his health points and crumbling to the ground.

"What?" Jughead looks up at the screen only as the vibrating game controller in his lap notifies him of his character's death. Shit, he thinks as he realizes that he completely forgot they were in the middle of a battle when he got a text message from Betty that stole all his attention. "Sorry, I was…"

"Distracted. Yeah. I noticed." Archie chuckles, never fully capable of being upset with his best friend. Ever since childhood Jughead has been predisposed to getting lost in his own mind and ignoring his surroundings. And despite all the other changes in both of their lives, this hasn't changed. "What's on your phone that you keep looking at?" he asks as he notices Jughead still clutching his phone instead of the game controller.

"Nothing just… There is an AMA on reddit with the inventor of autocorrect so I've been trying to follow that." Jughead is surprised how easily the lie comes to him. But best lies are always rooted in truth, and there was an AMA like that going on that he closely followed just a day ago.

Archie narrows his eyes, wondering what Jughead means, but then he just shakes his head. He has long since given up on trying to understand his best friend's hobbies and learned to appreciate the differences between them instead. "Well now that the game is over," he motions to the writing on the screen, "how about some beer?"

"Sounds great. Let me grab it." Jughead tosses his phone on the couch and hurries to the fridge, a small way to apologize to Archie for ignoring him earlier and ruining their game.

"I don't understand why Veronica insisted on keeping it women only. We're not five. I don't have cooties anymore. And she herself claimed I need a pedicure," Archie says, propping his feet on the coffee table and wiggling his toes.

"I don't even know which of those sentences to tackle first." Jughead chuckles as he returns to the couch with two beers and a bag of chips. "But I thought you'd be glad to not have to meet up with her mom."

"Yeah, meeting her family still scares me a little, but I need to face my fears, you know? And it's only scary because it matters to me. Which is a good thing."

"Yeah, I guess," Jughead mumbles as he shoves a fistful of chips to his mouth while wondering when Archie's thoughts got so profound. Jughead's hand is deep the chip bag when his phone buzzes again and Archie's eyes dart to the screen before he can snatch it away.

"Betty?" Archie raises his eyebrow in question when he sees her name on the screen. "What are you and Betty texting about?

"Nothing... Just this book we've both read recently," he says, knowing that Archie won't show any further interest in that particular topic of conversation. Jughead assumes he may not have read a book since The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Do music students even have textbooks?

"You guys are such nerds." Archie rolls his eyes and Jughead just shrugs, hoping that means Archie is won't ask any further questions. Still, he shoves a few more chips into his mouth so that in case Archie does decide to probe, he can pretend to choke.

"You'd be really good for each other," Archie says matter-of-factly. Jughead doesn't need to pretend as the tiny piece of crisp potato goes down the wrong pipe, resulting in a few second of violent coughing. "Geez, man, it's not that crazy." Archie laughs as he slaps Jughead on the back in an attempt to help him.

"It kinda is," Jughead mutters, taking a swig of beer and giving himself a moment to think about his next reply. While he and Betty have been together for a while now, it still definitely feels crazy. The best kind of crazy.

"Okay, maybe it's a little crazy." Archie admits with a shrug. "But think about it. You're both smart and like the same nerdy books and nerdy movies. She's funny and seems to understand your humor, which you gotta admit, is quite rare. She likes to cook and bake and you like to eat. And while I'll always see her as my sister, she is objectively really pretty and…"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, I get it." Jughead raises his hands, trying to stop Archie, who seems to have a whole list of reasons why he and Betty are soulmates memorized. Which is frankly a little concerning.

"Do you? Does that mean you're gonna ask her out?" Archie's eyes light up with hope, adding to Jughead's list of concerns about his best friend.

"With each passing day you're beginning to sound more and more like Veronica," Jughead tries to deflect. "I much preferred when you weren't invested in my love life."

"You have no love life!" Archie exclaims, throwing his hand in the air, a gesture he most definitely learned from his girlfriend. "Which is what we're trying to change."

"We?"

"I," Archie corrects himself quickly, but Jughead cocks his eyebrow in disbelief. He's pretty sure Archie didn't get the idea of him and Betty dating on his own, not after years of knowing them both and not saying a word. But he lets it slide because watching Archie trying to list the reasons why he and Betty are the perfect match is quite entertaining and only makes him a little nervous that he may let the truth slip out.

"I don't know, Arch. I think Betty may be too good for me," Jughead muses out loud.

"Dude, it's Betty. She's too good for everyone. But out of all the losers Veronica has tried to set her up with, you're the best."

"Gee, thanks for the pep talk." Jughead rolls his eyes and throws one of the chips at Archie, who tries to catch it in his mouth but fails, almost falling off the couch in the process.

"You're welcome." Archie grins at him as he recovers and pops the chip in his mouth.

Jughead groans and shakes his head. "Veronica is rubbing off on you in all the worst ways."

"It's what being in love does to you. You'll find out when you and Betty get your shit together." With another groan and roll of his eyes Jughead decides to put an end to the conversation. His best friend doesn't protest, feeling like his job for the day is done. "Now give me those chips and focus on the game this time. I want to finally beat this level."

It's just past 2 a.m., and despite the silk sheets and the most comfortable mattress Betty has ever laid on, sleep eludes her. She thinks that maybe she shouldn't have refused that last jalapeño margarita after all, but once the alcohol started working and Veronica and her mother began what seemed to be an emotional debate in Spanish, Betty decided it was time for her to retreat to her room and give them some space.

The main reason Veronica invited her to come and spend a few days with her and her mother at the Lodge's penthouse was to serve as some sort of buffer between her and Hermione. Betty's still confused about what her best friend expected her to do, but after two days of tension between the mother and daughter, everything seemed to shift suddenly. Maybe it wasn't Betty they needed, but the large amount of alcohol they decided to consume in one night.

Betty turns around on her side, hoping that changing her position for the tenth time in the past hour will magically get her to fall asleep, when her phone buzzes twice from the nightstand. She squints at the bright light and before her vision is able to clear enough to read anything, the phone buzzes one more time.

Jughead: Are you up?

Jughead: I'm outside. Can you come down?

Jughead: This is probably stupid. Sorry if I woke you up.

A wide grin spreads across her face as she types, Be there in five. and jumps out of the bed, no longer annoyed with the insomnia keeping her up late.

She doesn't bother changing from her sleep clothes – yoga pants and an old t-shirt – and quickly puts on her shoes. She exits her room as quietly as possible, sneaking down the hallway in near-silence. It reminds her of high school, except she's not escaping her childhood bedroom through the window to meet a boy to make out with him in his car while her parents sleep soundly. She's in her early twenties, sneaking out of her best friend's penthouse to meet up with the man she's been secretly dating for two months to… Well, she doesn't know why he came all the way to Manhattan in the middle of the night, but she hopes the make out part of her teenage experience still holds true.

When she comes downstairs the doorman is sleeping in his chair. After a second of worry about the building not being secure enough and a quick thought to waking him up, she assumes it's for the best if nobody sees her leaving. Except there are security cameras, of course, but she strongly doubts Veronica will be looking through those.

All her thoughts about security and secrets quickly dissolve the moment she steps outside and sees Jughead waiting for her, hands in his pockets and hair surprisingly uncovered, tracing patterns on the sidewalk with his foot. As if sensing her presence he looks up the moment she gets closer and before he can say a word, Betty's arms are wrapped around his neck, her lips on his in a bruising kiss.

"God, I've missed you," Jughead mumbles, pulling apart only enough for them to be able to look at each other, his arms wrapped around her waist.

"It's been two days." Betty giggles. Even under the faint light she sees his face turn pink. With her fingers lightly brushing his warm cheek she admits, "I've missed you too."

"Your hair… it's different," he says as he examines her face.

"Yeah, Ronnie had a hairstylist come over."

She touches her hair self-consciously. She had let it grow a few inches since starting college, but other than that she hasn't made any bigger changes to it in years. No point in doing that when she still wears a ponytail on a daily basis, even though it's no longer as tight as it used to be. Now, however, after the visit from Veronica's stylist, her blonde locks are falling across her shoulders in soft layers, and according to her best friend, it's "accentuating her face shape and bringing out her cheekbones." Betty herself is not convinced a haircut has such power, but she doesn't dare question Veronica's words.

"It looks really nice," Jughead says simply, brushing a tendril of her hair behind her ear with a smile.

This time, it's her turn to blush. "Thank you," she whispers and as Jughead takes her hand into his and they start walking away from the Pembrooke. She's not sure if he has a destination in mind, but she doesn't particularly care either way. "Veronica is making sure all three of us are being pampered and relaxing all the time."

"How is spending time with the Lodge women? It doesn't sound relaxing to me at all," Jughead says sincerely, squeezing Betty's hand for emphasis.

"Ronnie and her mom keep fighting but in some sort of strange way where they're overly nice to each other and keep buying each other expensive gifts."

"Ugh, rich people." He grunts and rolls his eyes, making Betty giggle.

"Honestly, it's so weird." She laughs. "But tonight they got drunk on jalapeño margaritas and I think they solved whatever problem they had. Their conversation turned very Spanish very quickly, but they spent at least half an hour singing before they went to bed, so I think they're good."

"First of all, jalapeño margaritas? That sounds gross. Especially for someone who judges my food choices constantly." He scoffs and shakes his head, but tries to remember this detail for the next time Veronica tries to criticize his meal or snack.

"It is pretty gross." Betty nods, scrunching her nose in disgust.

"Secondly, does that mean you get to come home now that mommy and daughter Lodge made up?" he asks, trying to pass it off as a joke and not like he feels like he can't go another day without seeing Betty. Which is only partially true. He can, but doesn't want to.

"They're not holding me hostage, you know?" Betty laughs, but knows exactly what he means. It was Veronica's idea that they'd be spending the nights at the penthouse instead of in their own apartment, and while it was definitely more luxurious and comfortable, Betty felt strangely removed from reality, wondering if that's how people feel when they allow themselves to go on vacations.

"I just… I don't wanna be all clingy or codependent, but there is only so much uninterrupted Archie time I can handle," he says, rubbing the back of his neck while Betty gives his other hand a reassuring squeeze.

"How was it? Did you catch up on a whole summer's worth of bro time?" she asks with a giggle. Right before they left Archie wouldn't stop talking about all the stuff he wanted to do with Jughead after three months of not seeing each other.

"Actually, yes. Archie is attempting to have some very intense bro time with me."

Betty smirks at his words. "What does that involve?" She's always wondered how Archie and Jughead managed to be so close despite all the obvious differences between them. But somehow they just click, and she's genuinely happy for both of them.

"Oh, just the typical. Beer, videogames, girl talk." Jughead shrugs, trying to recollect everything that happened in the past two days. "He also tried to convince me to go to some football game with him, but I was able to shut that down."

"Girl talk?" Betty raises her eyebrows in surprise. While during their teenage years girls seemed to be Archie's biggest interest, ever since meeting Veronica the only "girl talk" he took part in was talking about all the things he loves about her.

"Yeah, he was... pretty weird about it, but he was trying to talk you up to me," Jughead says with a scoff. As if he needed Archie to see how amazing Betty is.

"Was he? Because he tried to do the same to me just last week. And actually, so has Veronica."

"Do you think they're..."

"Trying to get us together? I wouldn't put it past Veronica. She's let up on the online dating thing fairly easily."

Sure, it's only been a little over a week, but aside from the day Veronica came back from Paris and wouldn't keep bugging Betty about online dating, she hasn't mentioned it again. Instead, she seemed to take up the assumption that Betty has a crush on Jughead and has been not-too-subtly trying to get her to admit it.

"They're in for quite a surprise then." Jughead says, pulling Betty closer and dropping a kiss to the top of her head. "Are you cold?" he asks when he notices the tiny goosebumps on Betty's arms, cursing himself for not realizing sooner that she's wearing nothing but a t-shirt.

"Just a..." she doesn't even get to finish her sentence before he's taking off his flannel and holding it out to her. She slips her arms into the sleeves with ease. Only as she wraps the warm fabric around her body does she realize just how cold she was before. "Thank you," she whispers. He replies with a soft smile, interlacing their fingers once again.

The sight of her in his flannel makes his heart speed up and he feels a little silly for it. She's worn his shirts countless times. She's worn nothing but his shirt. Yet it's making him just as speechless as he was the first time he took her clothes off. There is no need for words, though, when he pulls her closer, his lips finding hers with ease, a well practice motion by now. When they pull apart again, it's with a gasp and a glimmer in Betty's eyes as she grasps his hand tighter, dragging him to the nearest alleyway.

Less than ten minutes later Betty is pressed against a brick wall as they exchange slow, unhurried kisses, enjoying their limited time together. They know they probably won't get the same opportunity in the following few days. Their summer break is coming to an end, classes starting up again the following week, but they haven't yet figured out how and when they're going to break the news of their relationship to their friends. Right now though, it's the furthest thing on their minds as Betty's hand slips into Jughead's hair, relishing the silky feeling under her fingertips, glad he left his beanie at home in the hasty decision to come and meet her in the middle of the night.

While they're hidden in an alley at almost 3 a.m., it's still New York City and people are milling around, robbing them of privacy. It's a fact Betty finds highly exciting as his hips push against hers, making them both gasp. His fingers dig into her sides almost painfully as he presses her between the wall and his own body, wanting to feel as much of her as possible. Not knowing how long it will take before he gets to touch her like this again, he tries to memorize how it feels, store it in his brain for those lonely nights when he can't sleep.

"Jug…" she whispers when his lips leave hers. He shifts his focus to placing kisses along the column of her throat, the feeling almost making her lose track of her thoughts. However, she knows she can't get distracted now. Not when she has something she's dying to tell him, the words desperate to escape with each kiss they share.

"What is it, baby?" he mutters between the kisses, the term of endearment still slightly foreign on his tongue.

"I…" Her words dissolve to moans when his lips reach the spot behind her ear that always makes her knees buckle and she pushes him away ever so slightly, trying to gather her thoughts.

"What's wrong?" He looks up at her with a mix of confusion and concern, trying to figure out what's going on.

"I love you."

The words leave her throat in a hurry, since she's worried that if she waits a second longer, she'll lose the courage to say them.

"I love you, Jughead," she repeats, this time more slowly, making sure that he knows she means it. That her declaration is not just a byproduct of her arousal.

He stares at her dumbfounded for a few seconds before letting out a relieved laugh. Until then, he hadn't realized the weight he had been carrying with him since he recognized how deep his feelings for Betty were. The fear that he was rushing, the worries that she didn't feel the same, all evaporated with the three simple words leaving her lips.

Jughead quickly realizes he hasn't said a word in response and has been staring at her with an idiotic grin instead.

"I love you too, Betty," he says quickly, and his smile widens even more. The words have never felt truer. "I've been trying to tell you for a few days now but the opportunity never felt right and..."

"And now I sprang it on you in an alley that smells like pee and next to a puddle that's probably blood since it hasn't rained in days?" Betty finishes for him, suddenly realizing just how imperfect the timing of her confession was.

"Yeah, but…" Jughead chuckles before taking Betty's hands in his and pressing a light kiss to her knuckles. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

She beams up at him, and just as he leans over to kiss her, she stops him again. "We should probably still move away from the blood puddle," she whispers, and he groans in frustration but nods anyway, wrapping his arm around her and setting off back in the direction of Pembrooke.

The walk back seems to pass much quicker, both of them feeling like they're walking on clouds, huddled as closely as possible, exchanging small kisses and dreamy smiles. Once they reach their destination, Betty reluctantly sheds Jughead's shirt. With a long hug and a few more soft kisses, they bid each other goodbye. They know it's silly to act like they're going to be thousands of miles apart when in fact it's just a short subway ride that separates them, but when in love, any distance seems greater than it actually is. And they're very much in love.

This time, when Betty returns to her bed at Pembrooke, she feels lighter even though her mind is still reeling and replaying the moments of her impromptu rendezvous with Jughead. The way he held her hand, the feeling of his lips on hers making time slow down around them, how his face lit up when she told him she loved him and how good it felt when he said it back. She hugs her pillow close to her chest and buries her face in it to muffle her giddy squeal. She feels a little silly for acting like this. She's not a thirteen-year-old girl who just had her first kiss in the schoolyard and she and Jughead have been dating for over two months now, even if they only labelled it recently. Still, Betty feels butterflies in her stomach every time she thinks about him.

She basks in her happiness for a while longer until she feels her phone buzz beside her like she knew it would.

Jughead: Got back safe. Goodnight. Love you.

She quickly sends him a heart emoji and with a wide smile on her face finally drifts off to sleep.

In a very different neighborhood and a very different bed, Jughead falls asleep with the same kind of smile on his face, his own butterflies keeping him company.