Act II
"What the hell's wrong with you, Forsythe?" Mr. Dixon shouted at Jughead. "Don't you know how to shave?"
"Uh, no," Jughead replied sarcastically. They had only just started rehearsing Act II and he was getting very frustrated with Mr. Dixon. "I'm only thirteen years old."
"Well, what you're doing here –" Mr. Dixon grabbed the prop razor out of his hands roughly. "– is all wrong. Unrealistic. Ask your dad about it."
Jughead just gave him a very dark look. Betty shuddered.
"Hey, Arch," Jughead said and nodded at his friend, who let him into his house. "Your dad around?"
"Sure, why do you want to talk to my dad?"
"I just do, Archie. Can you let it drop?"
"Sure, Jug. Lemme get 'em." Archie bounded up the stairs in search of his father. He knew better than to ask too many questions of Jug sometimes. And this seemed like one of those times.
Fred came down the stairs after a minute. "Jug?"
"Uh, hello Mr. Andrews . . . I uh, I was wondering if you could teach me how to shave?"
"Sure, son," Fred said without missing a beat. "C'mon."
Then came the day they had to rehearse THE SCENE. Betty had been dreading it all day.
She and Jughead didn't have what she considered to be any real lines for that part. It was mainly just the rest of the cast giving their thoughts on weddings, and marriage and such. And then . . .
The ring.
The kiss.
Yikes!
They hadn't even rehearsed it on their own yet because they really didn't have any lines and they weren't expected to have anything memorized on Act II yet for another week anyway. But Betty wondered if perhaps Jughead had been nervous too, because as they went over an incredibly long scene prior to it, he kept messing up in the same place.
Jughead (as George): "I . . . I'm glad you said it, Emily. I never thought that such a thing was happening to me. I guess it's hard for a fella not to have faults creep into his character."
They took a couple of steps downstage and paused, silently building the tension between them.
Betty (as Emily): "I always expect a man to be perfect and I think he should be."
Jughead (as George): "Oh . . . I don't think it's possible to be perfect, Emily."
Betty (as Emily): "Well, my father is, and as far as I can see your father is –"
Jughead interrupted yet once again with a snort and then partially delivered his next line with a bitter laugh. "– Men aren't naturally good."
"Forsythe! Mr. Jones. Please." Mr. Dixon looked like he was going to pull his hair out. "Focus. Let's get through this scene, okay? You have the script in your hand for Christ's sake!"
"Sure," Jughead replied, sounding like he didn't have a care in the world.
"Juggie," Betty pleaded with him softly, anxiously. He looked at her carefully.
"Okay, Betts, for you," he whispered back and they got through the scene.
Jughead (as George): "I do."
And then before Betty knew it Ginger had finished delivering her lines as Mrs. Soames and it was time. Jughead held her shaking hands to steady them for a bit.
"It's okay, Betts," he whispered incredibly softly as he put the stage ring onto her finger.
She did the same for him, but was shaking so hard she almost dropped his ring in the process. Once it was on, he held her hands steady again. She knew what was coming next. She was so scared she wanted to cry. A nervous beat passed between them.
"What are you two waiting for?" Mr. Dixon said impatiently. "Kiss already."
"Give us a moment," Jughead said, turning back towards him.
Then back to Betty.
"You ready?" he asked her in that insanely quiet voice again. She just looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
Mr. Dixon came up to both of them, grabbing them by the back of their heads. "Look guys, it's simple. Mr. Jones, you lean down and kiss Miss Cooper . . . Put. Your. Lips. On. Hers. Simple. Choreography. Don't go Method on me here, guys."
He released them and Betty ran from the stage and out the door.
"I'll go get her," Jughead said to Mr. Dixon urgently, already starting out, in a hurry to find her before she got too far.
"Yeah, you do that. And you two better be prepared for this scene when we regroup next week. I don't need any more of these childish antics on my stage."
Then don't teach middle schoolers, Jughead thought to himself, but held his tongue.
He found her crying in the grass in a corner of one of the school's baseball fields. That particular corner was slightly secluded due to the trees that hung over the fence there.
"Betty?" he said carefully, when he was close enough to hear her sobs.
"Oh, Juggie, I'm so embarrassed," she said, standing up and wiping at her eyes.
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about, Betty. You were nervous. It was your first kiss."
"Yeah." She flopped her hands around, frustrated. "And I didn't want it to be you –"
Once again, that actually hurt.
"– and not in public, and not like that –"
"Betty, hey," he reached out and touched her shoulder.
"There were so many people watching us, Jug. So many!"
He grinned wryly. "That's kinda the point of being onstage."
That made her laugh.
"Yeah, you're right, I guess. But the first time I kiss someone . . ."
"Yeah?"
"I really want it to be a private moment."
"A private moment with Archie."
"Ideally, yeah. But –"
"But, what?"
"I think it's going to be with you."
"Mr. Dixon said 'don't go Method on me.' Do you even know what that means, Jug?" Betty asked him.
"Uh yeah, sure," Jughead said. "He's talking about Method acting. Where you FEEL the emotions of your character in the moment, so as to portray them authentically. So, it's not just 'choreography' as he said."
"Like when you told me I did well because I could tap into my feelings for Archie in that 'am I pretty?' scene?"
He smiled. "Yup. Exactly."
She wondered if he had 'gone Method' that day he had broken down and cried real tears onstage. She was willing to bet he had.
"Okay, let's practice," she said. "Let's get this over with."
"Okay, but I think we should work out the blocking first."
"But Mr. Dixon already did that for us. You put my ring on. I put you –"
"I meant the blocking of the kiss. The choreography if you will."
"Oh," she said and blushed.
"Okay, let's try –" he put a finger under her chin to tilt her head up, drawing her to him. That was awkward. "No wait. That won't work. Let's try –"
He placed his hand on her cheek and stroked it a bit with his thumb while their eyes locked. She started to feel . . . something . . . and then got really nervous as he started to tip his lips down towards hers, and his eyes started to close. She let out a nervous giggle and he stopped.
"Okay, that won't work either," he said and nervously chuckled himself.
Once they got all their laughter out, and shook it all off, he said, "Okay, in all seriousness. Let's try this."
His hand was on her face again, but this time it slid into her hair. And this time, it all happened so fast. He drew her to him so easily . . .
When their lips met, it wasn't at all like she expected, what she dreamed her first kiss might be like. She could feel all the little ridges of his lips, just pressing into hers. And it wasn't moist or weird at all, like she had been told to expect. It was just soft . . . and tender.
She started to feel . . .
Betty pulled away with a nervous laugh.
"Was that okay?" Jughead asked.
"Yes," Betty answered softly.
"For your first kiss? Did I do okay?"
She nodded.
"Oh good," he sounded relieved. "If you must know, it was mine too."
A blush crept up his cheeks.
Betty couldn't recall a time she had ever seen Jughead blush.
And she had no idea that it was his birthday either.
Reggie, Betty, and Jughead were sitting in the back of the auditorium together at the start of rehearsal. Jughead's shaving scene was about to come up. Of course, Reggie, playing his father, would be narrating his actions. They sure had a lot of scenes together.
"What a dick, huh?" Reggie asked them.
"Who? Dixon?"
"Yeah. I can't believe what he did to you guys last week." Reggie looked around to make sure he wasn't overheard. "Hey, do you guys think that's why he left NYC?"
"Unfortunately, no one gets fired for treating actors like crap, Reggie," Jughead sad sarcastically. "No one."
"Reginald. Forsythe. You're up!" Mr. Dixon called from right behind them, startling them.
Jughead (as George): "I do."
Once Ginger had finished off her lines, and Jughead had placed his ring on her finger, Betty confidently put her ring on his. Then it was time.
She looked up into his blue eyes.
"It's just you and me, Betts," he said in that almost inaudible voice.
She nodded ever so slightly in reply. She was ready.
His hand found its way into her hair and –
"Stop stop stop!" Mr. Dixon called out. "Don't use your hand like that."
"What?" Jughead said, turning away from Betty and putting his hands on his hips, staring down Mr. Dixon in challenge.
"It doesn't look right - whatever you're doing." He waved dismissively. "Just try something else."
"You mind telling us what WOULD look right?"
"I have confidence you can figure it out," Mr. Dixon said with an evil smile.
Jughead groaned and turned back to Betty. "Ready to try something different?"
"Ready if you are," she replied.
And then someone pulled the fire alarm.
"Well, I guess this means we might have more time to practice now - more time to figure out some new choreography for this kiss of ours," Jughead said to Betty and shrugged as everyone assembled, waiting for the all clear to go back inside.
"Will you help me run lines, too? I'm having a devil of a time memorizing everything I need to in Act II. And Act III is seriously going to kill me."
"Not a problem."
As Jughead had suspected, they ended up having to wait so long that rehearsal was cancelled. So they decided to go back to that little corner of the baseball field to rehearse by themselves.
"So how do you want to do this?" Jughead asked her.
"Well, Mr. Dixon doesn't like your hand where it was so maybe we could go back . . . ?"
"Go back?"
"Yeah, go back to something you tried earlier. You know, where your thumb did this?"
Betty reached up and cupped his cheek. As she traced a tiny circle on it and locked eyes with him he gulped. His heart raced a little. This was just Betty. What was going on here? He told himself to calm down. It must just be a little second kiss jitters.
But then, without thinking, he grabbed on to both sides of her face, bent down, and kissed her. And it felt as good as before . . .
Betty pulled away from him, laughing a little. "Silly, I don't think that will work."
"What? Why not?"
"Mr. Dixon didn't like one of your hands on my face. I doubt he'd like two."
"Oh yeah. That. Sorry."
They both shuffled their feet a little awkwardly.
"Try it again," Betty said. "You know, with your thumb . . . you know."
"Uh, yeah. Okay."
He placed his hand on her soft cheek and took in her blue-green eyes. As he moved his thumb in a little circle he felt . . .
Something. He couldn't put it into words.
He bent down and touched his lips to hers.
"Guys!" they heard a cheerful voice boom out.
"Oh my God, Archie!" Betty screeched, rapidly pulling away from Jughead's kiss.
"Wathca doin'?" Archie asked them.
A blush burned on Jughead's cheeks. But why should he feel ashamed? They were only rehearsing. And it's not like his best friend had shown any interest in Betty. He felt bad for her though. Looking over at Betty, he saw her cringing and took in her mortified face, her hand covering her mouth.
"We were just rehearsing that play. You know, Our Town," Jughead said.
"Oh, yeah. And you guys are smoochin' cause you're the romantic leads, right?"
"Uh huh," Betty said and nodded weakly.
"That's right," Jughead said in a strong voice. "If you want to Archie, you can hang out with us while we run some lines. Betty's got some pretty heavy stuff in Act III."
"No, I gotta go. Just noticed you guys and wanted to say hi was all. Catch you later."
They both waved to Archie as he cheerfully went on his way.
"Well that was embarrassing," Betty said.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Jughead answered. "But hey, there is one bright side."
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
"Now you don't have to be embarrassed about Archie seeing us kiss onstage," Jughead said. "He already has."
Betty smiled and almost laughed, breaking the tension, "You make a good point there, Jones."
"That I do."
And Jughead was right. She had no more fear of kissing him onstage anymore. Although as opening night grew near, she wondered if that would change once she knew Archie was in the audience and would see them again.
And she was getting confused . . . in those moments when she and Jughead would kiss as George and Emily . . . she felt like she was 'going Method,' which thanks to Mr. Dixon's initial criticism, held a great stigma for her. In those moments, she felt like she WAS Emily, a girl deeply in love with Jughead . . . ahem, George. She wondered if he felt it too, yet hoped and prayed that he didn't.
But she liked Archie, she kept telling herself. Jughead wasn't her type. He was a nice guy and all, they'd been friends for years, but still. She was probably just getting her feelings for Archie all confused when she was caught up in Jughead's kiss. And it was not good that they had to hold it so long as the stage was caught up in that 'silent tableau.' It only gave her more time to be in that moment with him, his lips pressed up against hers ever so softly. . .