By the time mid week rolled around, things were largely back to normal.

Betty had returned to full health, and, in the wake of indirectly workshopping the incidents of Saturday night with Reggie, she felt rather less awkward about being around Jughead. True to their word, neither of them had brought up the matter again. Pretending, as it turned out, was actually very easy.

Academic life went on. The new week brought forth new deadlines and new social commitments. Betty's schedule at this point in the semester was fairly relaxed, allowing her to rise at a reasonable hour on Wednesday morning, and prepare and eat her breakfast at a leisurely pace. The same could not be said for Jughead, however, who had an important in-class assessment taking place mid-morning, and seemed to have been up since some ungodly hour in a desperate attempt to do some last minute cramming. Accordingly, he was very flustered.

Betty sat primly at the kitchen counter as she finished the last of her blueberry porridge. She watched as Jughead rushed from one side of the room to the other, gathering stray belongings and assembling everything he needed for the day ahead. It was uncharacteristic of him to be in such a state of disorganisation. Then again, their week hadn't gotten off to very characteristic start.

She'd lived with Jughead for long enough, by now, to know that this was the kind of mildly panicked mode that didn't really welcome input. Typically, he did not take well to being told to calm down. And so all she could really do was observe as he first misplaced his keys, then couldn't find his preferred sweater, and later paused to rifle hastily through a textbook in search of some crucial piece of information he'd forgotten. Finally, he spent a good five minutes searching for his beanie, which turned out to have been in his room all along. Probably right where he'd left it.

Eventually, looking a little weary but slightly less frazzled, Jughead came over and dropped his bag on the kitchen counter. Betty looked up from the culinary magazine she had been perusing.

He exhaled dramatically. "I hate these assessments."

"I know," Betty sympathised. "I feel stressed on your behalf."

"Thanks." Jughead checked his phone. "I have ten minutes before I have to leave."

Betty didn't like to point out that this might have been avoided by approaching his morning more calmly.

"I can't go over my notes again," he added, more to himself than for Betty's benefit. "I'll go crazy."

Betty shrugged, trying not to be annoyed by the way he was now drumming his fingers on the kitchen counter. "Just sit for a minute," she suggested. "Breathe."

"Nope. Can't do that either. I need you to distract me," he said desperately. "Tell me what's new in life."

Betty quirked an eyebrow. "I'm actually busy here too," she pointed out, gesturing at her magazine. "Besides, nothing's new."

"Oh come on," Jughead pressed. "What about the all consuming, hopelessly inappropriate crush on Archie?"

"Hey!" Betty warned, indignant that he'd cross this unspoken boundary. "That's not up for discussion. You're not even supposed to know about that."

"Well," Jughead smirked, "I do now. So let's talk about it."

Betty closed her magazine, uncertain why she was letting herself bedragged into this discussion, but tired of dealing with the morning's dramatics. "If you must know," she said, pausing to take a sip of her tea, "I saw him yesterday while I was at work."

"At the library?"

"Yes."

"Did you talk to him?"

"No."

Jughead gave her an amused sort of look she didn't appreciate very much.

"He was with Valerie," Betty went on. "And they were studying. At the same table."

"That is outrageous."

Betty disregarded this sarcasm. "Veronica saw them there on Monday evening too."

"Maybe they're just friends," Jughead suggested reasonably. "Archie hasn't even mentioned Valerie to me."

"Okay," Betty said, disregarding this very plausible explanation, "but Veronica also saw them having lunch together at Frankly Sandwiches in the Link yesterday." She another sip of her tea.

Jughead shook his head at Betty's reluctance to let this slide. "Okay," he mimicked, "then maybe Archie's trying to make you jealous. I don't know what you want me to say."

Betty spluttered on her tea. "I didn't want you to say anything! You were the one who brought this up."

There was a short pause while Betty finished choking on her tea.

"Though you do raise an interesting point," Betty added when she'd finally recovered. "Because if he is, I suppose it's kind of working." She sipped her tea again. "Maybe I should try and make him jealous too."

Jughead laughed. "How?"

"I don't know," Betty shrugged. "I haven't thought through the logistics. But I'm sure I can find someone to study and eat Frankly sandwiches with."

"Reggie would love that," Jughead chuckled. "And seeing as you already love Reggie," he added, gesturing at the fridge, "the whole ploy would actually be really believable."

This time it was Betty's time to laugh, though admittedly in a half-hearted, dejected kind of way. She'd been doing quite well at not dwelling on this so far today. And yet somehow she'd managed to get sucked into overthinking everything again - by Jughead, of all people.

"Look, I'm sure Reggie would be more than willing to help out with that," Jughead said, now sounding a little more serious. "But how about I just ask Archie what the story is with Valerie?"

Betty stared at him suspiciously.

Jughead rolled his eyes. "I won't give away any of the details," he intoned. "Obviously."

"Well," Betty said, deciding to instill a little faith in him. "That would be very helpful. Thank you." She picked up her magazine and opened it at random under the guise of renewed concentration.

Jughead chuckled. "Have a good day, Betts," he said, picking up his bag and making to leave.

"Good luck," she called as the door closed behind him.

Betty walked back from university later that afternoon in heavy rain. Having finished class for the day, and being fully up to date with all of her readings, she'd found herself at something of a loose end. She supposed she should have been grateful for the slight lull in her academic commitments, especially given Jughead's busy day. Instead, she found herself wondering how she was going to occupy her afternoon.

It was always difficult to fully appreciate free time until you didn't have any.

Arriving home, Betty hung up her raincoat and dried off a little. She'd reached the decision she would spend the afternoon curled up on the couch reading her book, but paused briefly to survey the state of the apartment, and wondered if it might be in her best interests to put some things away before she settled down.

Betty wasn't messy, per se, but she hardly adhered to Jughead's level of obsessive cleaning and tidying. In light of his 24 hours of academic stress, the apartment wasn't looking quite as orderly is it might usually. For the most part, Betty tried not to leave her belongings lying around for too long. The was because Jughead inevitably tidied them away somewhere she couldn't find them. And as good as he was at finding homes for things, he was quite as good at remembering where those homes might be.

Keeping this in mind, Betty opted to put a few of her belongings away. She also cleared some stray dishes, set a load of laundry to go, and threw out some overripe fruit. And then, feeling reasonably accomplished, she retrieved her book and curled up in one of the stray blankets on the couch. It was always nice to be snuggled up, cosy and warm, listening to the faint patter of rain outside. As interesting as her book was, Betty found herself so warm and comfortable that she thought it couldn't possibly hurt if she was to just rest her eyes. She drifted in and out of consciousness for a while, even though she'd only been meaning to close her eyes for just a moment, and then-

The apartment door burst open and collided with the wall behind it, causing a loud bang. Betty sat up abruptly, startled, her heart beating rapidly. Veronica was standing in the doorway, shaking the rain off her umbrella.

"Oh," Betty said, registering the large puddle of water pooling at Veronica's feet, and feeling slightly annoyed. "It's just you." She watched as Veronica then proceeded to double over, and suddenly realised she was quite clearly very out of breath.

"Is everything okay?" Betty asked tentatively.

Veronica stood back up, gasping for breath, and shook her head.

"Okay," Betty said slowly, wondering if she was perhaps expected to guess what the problem might be.

"Betty," Veronica gasped, "I need you to help me."

Veronica's tone was uncharacteristically panicked. Now slightly worried, Betty scrambled to get up off the couch. "What is it? Also...did you run from class?"

"My parents are here."

Betty stared at her blankly. "That's… a nice surprise?

"No!" Veronica replied, now slightly frantic, and still breathing heavily. "It's not a nice surprise. It's a huge problem. I never told them I moved out, and now they want to come and have a look at the apartment!"

Realisation dawned on Betty. "Oh," she said unhelpfully, suddenly feeling a little sick. "Oh no."

"Exactly." Veronica seemed now to have recovered somewhat, and her manner was now more brisk. "So we have to make it look like I never left."

Betty glanced around the room, taking in Jughead's bookcase, the clothes rack drying his laundry, and various neat piles of his belongings. "When are they coming?" she asked.

"In ten minutes time."

"What?"

Betty, now registering panic herself, watched as Veronica jogged over to the drying rack and picked the whole thing up, clothes and all.

"Yes!" Veronica emphasised, now doing her best to carry the awkwardly shaped drying rack towards Jughead's room. "So we have to hide all traces of Jughead..." Veronica trailed off as she disappeared into his room.

She reemerged moments later. "We'll just move everything into his room and hope for the best," Veronica proposed anxiously, gathering everything in sight. "His laptop...those notes...that sweater...come on, Betty, his sweater!"

Betty stood up, springing into action. She rounded up Jughead's text books, several folders of documents, two sweaters, and tossed everything in an untidy heap on his bed. They unplugged his laptop and sound system, and relocated both items to his bedroom. Betty glanced back at the untidy tangle of cords and felt supremely guilty, but also supremely relieved he wasn't home. At least they didn't have to hide him.

"What are we going to do about that bookcase?" Veronica despaired, pausing to check the time on her phone.

"We'll just tell them you like reading now."

"They'll never believe that!"

"Well we'll tell them I like reading," Betty said flatly, staring at Reggie's artwork on the fridge, and thinking the bookcase was the least of their worries. She made a beeline for the first loose piece of paper she could see, and then darted back to the fridge. She arranged it over Reggie's scrawl, and made use of several of their less conspicuous fridge magnets to hold it in place. She stepped back to consider the effect, and hoped Veronica's parents wouldn't inspect it closely enough to realise it was a stray page of Jughead's course outline.

Veronica finished mopping up the puddle of water by the entrance that she'd left upon arrival. Betty was outraged as she saw Veronica toss the damp towel in the washing machine with her clean laundry, but there wasn't time to have an argument about it.

"Oh god, they're here," Veronica said anxiously.

Betty went over to join her at the window. They peered down five stories to where a black car was pulling up outside the apartment block.

"Is that a limo?" Betty asked, mildly intrigued.

"Yup."

"That's awfully fancy-"

Veronica grabbed Betty by the arm, and looked at her very seriously. "We need more time."

Betty glanced around the apartment. Bookcase aside, there was very evidence left of Jughead's residency, but it was true the apartment now just looked a little dishevelled.

"Okay," Betty agreed. "I'll go...push all the buttons in the elevator so it takes ages to get to the ground floor."

"Good idea," Veronica said triumphantly, endorsing Reggie's most irritating habit for the first time ever.

Childish though Betty may have felt, the few extra minutes gained by delaying the elevator turned out to be fairly crucial. She came back to discover Veronica had done something of a final clean-sweep, and hidden several more items she'd deemed superfluous to their feigned roommate act.

Betty did register a reasonable amount of concern about this. It was all very well for Veronica, but Betty was the one who was going to have to deal with the fallout of all of this when Jughead returned home and discovered his room now most closely resembled a storage cupboard.

"Am I allowed to ask why you didn't mention you'd moved out of the apartment?" Betty asked tentatively, as together they rearranged and then fluffed the couch cushions.

"Ahh," Veronica said arily, draping a blanket elegantly over the L-shaped couch as a final touch. "It just didn't come up."

"Right," Betty said, rathering wishing it had, but feeling it best not to mention that right now. "I see."

"I didn't really think it would be a problem. They hardly ever visit."

There was truth to that. In the several years that Betty had known Veronica, she'd only met her parents twice, and only once had she known them to come and have a look at the apartment. Of all people, Betty knew that parental relationships could be complicated, so she was hardly one to judge. But given what little she had gathered about Veronica's upbringing - an only child who seemed, out of necessity, to have been on the cusp of adulthood since a remarkably young age - Betty had always felt a little for her. For all Veronica's pretence of indifference, Betty had long suspected she harboured a deeply ingrained need to live up to expectations. And if ever there was to be proof of that, it was conceivable that this might be it.

Veronica checked her phone yet again, and, as if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Betty watched Veronica steel herself. "Just follow my lead, okay?" she said, glancing back at Betty as she walked over to the doorway.

Betty nodded.

The door opened, and Betty watched on as Veronica greeted Hermione and Hiram Lodge. They swept inside, all hugs, indignation about the rain, and apologies about the short notice.

"Hello Betty, dear," Hermione said warmly, turning to acknowledge Betty's presence.

Betty smiled and offered hugs, even though she wasn't sure if that was what was expected of her. She never quite knew what was expected of her in the presence of the Lodges, even when she wasn't pretending she still lived with their daughter.

"And how's the apartment?" Hiram asked after brief pleasantries had been made, surveying it with the air of someone who actually wasn't that interested in the answer.

"It's great," Veronica said easily. "Warm, quiet, free of distractions. We're very lucky."

"Plenty of time to focus on your studies I imagine?" he enquired.

"Absolutely," Betty affirmed.

"It looks well kept," Hermione noted. "If a bit empty."

"It's something new we're trying," Veronica gushed. "Betty's very into minimalism."

Hermione and Hiram looked slightly confused, but nodded politely and didn't enquire further. Minimalism? Betty waited until they were looking the other way before frowning at Veronica, who in turn poked her tongue out.

The two of them watched nervously as Hermione went over and read the page of Jughead's course outline Betty had put on the fridge. Hiram stood at the window, hands in his pockets.

"Well," Hiram said, eventually turning around. "We just wanted to see how everything was going. You know, seeing as it's been a few years and all."

"I'm so glad you're here," Veronica replied, genuinely beaming - though likely only, Betty thought, because somehow they seemed to be pulling this off. Neither Hiram or Hermione seemed interesting in seeing anything beyond the common area. Maybe it was all going to be okay.

"I don't suppose you girls are free this evening?" Hiram asked. "I'd like to take you out for dinner."

"I would love to," Veronica said. "But I know Betty has a presentation due tomorrow, right B?"

All three of them turned to Betty expectantly. Betty cleared her throat. "Yeah, I do," she lied, feeling immensely grateful to Veronica. "So maybe not tonight. But thank you so much, I would have loved to come."

"That's a terrible shame," Hermione said. "Perhaps later on this week?"

Betty caught Veronica's eye, and knew in that moment that news of the Lodges' extended visit was brand new information to her as well. "Maybe," she smiled. "I have quite a busy-"

The apartment door burst open, yet again, and Betty and Veronica watched in horror as Jughead traipsed in, dripping water everywhere.

"Urghh," he grumbled, completely unaware of the presence of Veronica's parents. "Fucking elevator's broken again-"

He stopped abruptly as he looked up, a look of confusion spreading over his face. "Hi," he said awkwardly.

Betty gulped, and then starred very hard at Jughead in the vague hope that he would somehow understand the complexities of this situation. Veronica, however, seemed not to miss a beat.

"Mum, Dad, this is Jughead. Jughead, these are my parents, Hermione and Hiram."

Hermione smiled warmly at him, and Hiram stepped forward to shake his hand. "Nice to meet you," he said

"Same to you, sir," Jughead replied, looking mildly terrified.

"And who is Jughead?" Hiram asked, turning to his daughter,

Jughead, to his credit, seemed to realise this was not a question he was allowed to answer. He glanced at Veronica, eyebrows raised. For the first time, Betty saw Veronica look mildly panicked. They had beenso close to pulling this off.

"Ahhh," Veronica stalled. "Jughead is…our friend. I mean…he's Betty's friend, really."

Betty winced. For Veronica, an apt liar, this was not particularly convincing.

"He's actually Betty's boyfriend," Veronica said finally, suddenly sounding much more certain.

It was lucky that both Hermione and Hiram were looking at Jughead, because there was nothing Betty could have done at this point to hide her absolute astonishment. There was a moment's opportunity to cast Veronica a particularly appalled look, and then Betty had no choice but to say, "Yes. That's right."

Jughead, to his credit, had managed not to react at all. He was now nodding along convincingly while Veronica improvised wildly, informing her parents he was here to assist Betty with preparing her presentation. And before Betty had fully processed what had just happened, Hermione and Hiram had arranged for Veronica to go to dinner with them that evening, and for Veronica's pretend roommate Betty and her pretend boyfriend Jughead to join them later on in the week. After they had finished working on their pretend presentation.

Veronica, seemingly relieved that she'd avoided a major crisis, and with what Betty felt was a distinct lack of regard for how Betty might deal with the fallout of all this, bid them farewell and hurried her parents out of the apartment.

The door closed, and Jughead turned to Betty with a particularly unimpressed look.

"So. Where's all my stuff?"

Thanks so much for reading! Will upload the next few chapters soon. In the meantime, there is more available over on archive of our own (AO3) under findingbetty is you're interested! x