Betty got out of the car, she was a 17 year old girl again, and found herself standing in front of the Pop's, where Cheryl's twin brother from a previous life, Jason, stood at the door. The girl went up the steps and the guy standing there opened it for her.
Betty walked inside Pop's, noticing her friends and classmates everywhere, all the same age they were when they were in high school. Walking through the place and hugging all her friends, Betty reached a table where three of her friends were sitting.
She sat down at the table and hugged Veronica and turned to face Archie, who was looking at her with the sweetest look he could make with a strawberry smoothie in his hands.
"Here you go, Betty, it's your favorite," Archie said, holding out, to the girl, the smoothie. She couldn't remember when her taste had changed.
"Thank you, Archie," Betty thanked him.
She smiled sweetly as she put her hands into Archie and Jughead's palms and pulled her hands back out, taking the cocktail and lifting it up to clink with the other three glasses.
"I think this is where we'll leave them," Jughead said, standing outside and looking inside the Pop's windows. "In a place where they're always seventeen and discussing, school stuff and parties."
The guy retreated deeper into the street, inhaling, the street air.
"That's the end of it?" Betty wondered, stopping to read the version of the book that Jughead had given her and Archie when the gang had gathered at the White Worm at Jughead's own request.
"Well, yeah. What's the big deal?" Jughead was perplexed.
"So you turned me into a lustful and sex-obsessed feminist girl, and on top of that, had, between the four of us, a gangbang?" Betty circled her finger around, Archie, herself and Veronica, stopping at Jughead. "You had no ideas at all?"
"You saw that I wrote it so you'd end up with a daughter as well as a granddaughter. Didn't you?" Jughead asked.
"Oh, thank you on that," replied Betty sarcastically, leaning, shoulder to shoulder with Archie.
"You're not the one who made a similar ending as in Titanic," spoke Archie, lightly, chuckling. "It's not like you've never watched it. Or should I mention LOST? I'm surprised Tabitha wasn't outraged by what you wrote."
"Well, to be fair, Tabitha and I did watch it, about five months ago. Right before a comet was supposed to hit our town. And yes, I didn't get all the way through LOST. Oh, and believe me at the beginning, Tabitha was as surprised as Tabitha was."
"That's true. By the way, I literally insisted he watch Titanic with me, so it's no wonder he was inspired by the ending," Tabitha explained. "He wrote the book while we were in Chicago about developing the Pops franchise."
"I don't know about you, but I liked how it ended, well except for the part where you made Archibald and I a couple and almost married us," Cheryl interjected.
"You have to understand, Cheryl, what times were like back then, that's why I had to do it." Jughead tried to make it as brief as possible for Cheryl.
"Oh, right, I forgot what times you were writing about," Cheryl replied to the guy. "I will note that, I especially like the part where Toni and I end up having a baby. By the way, where is she?"
"Fangs called and said he and Toni had some court business," replied Archie succinctly.
"Has she really decided to get a divorce?"ran through Cheryl's mind.
"Back to what you wrote, Jughead," Veronica spoke up. "Despite, all the weirdness, thanks for coming up with the part about me winning two Oscars."
"You're welcome. At least someone's happy," replied Jughead.
"Okay, Archie, we still had to stop by Pop's for dinner," Betty said getting up, out of her chair and walking, toward the upstairs exit.
"Yeah, sure," agreed the guy. "See you guys." Archie followed Betty out the door.
"I gotta go too," Cheryl declared. "Nana Rose needed my I'll even call Toni."
"Okay," nodded Jughead.
"Well, I guess that leaves the three of us here," Veronica said, looking at Tabitha and Jughead. "Why don't we have another drink and the two of you tell me how things are going with Pops' development? I'm just interested in hearing how business is going for my friends, especially after I gave the casino to Reggie to own."
"Then listen," Tabitha replied with a sparkling smile as she began, recounting their adventures with Jughead as they traveled.
"Hey, Betty," shouted Archie to Betty, who was walking briskly ahead of him toward their car and was silent. "Hey, baby talk to me." All of Archie's attempts to reach his girlfriend had failed.
The whole time they drove home, Betty stared out the window and clutched the bag of dinner from Pop's. Some song was faintly playing in the background, which relaxed the girl in the passenger seat a little.
The couple arrived home. At the moment, they were living at Archie's house, since Betty's own home, Polly lived next door with Juniper and Alice. After the comet, which Cheryl had been able to melt by using a great deal of energy, Dagwood and Uncle Frank had lost their lives, for Cheryl had warned them shortly before that someone might die. After all that had happened, Polly decided to go away to divorce with her daughter for a while.
"Betty," called Archie, but with more insistence than before.
"Yes, what?" Betty turned at the call.
"What happened in the white worm? Why did we leave so quickly?"
"Jughead happened," Betty answered nervously. "Did you see? He wrote a book about us, all of us."
"I was there. Have you forgotten?" Archie reminded her. "And by the way, why don't you put that bag of Pop's with our dinner on the table already? Because with the force you're squeezing it with, it might tear."
"Oh, right." Betty got distracted to put the bag on the table. "Is that what I'm saying?"
"You were saying how bad it was that Jughead wrote about us."
"Yes. And it wouldn't be the first time, by the way," Betty said with growing anger.
"Wait a minute, Betts, calm down. What do you mean when you say it's not the first time?"
"Don't you know about that book he was writing when we weren't all in Riverdale?"
"He said something sort of about it while he was still my roommate when we first moved back to town after seven years, but it's not like I was listening," Archie admitted. "Is there something bad in there?"
"Suppose he wrote about a guy getting cheated on by his girlfriend with his best friend. Doesn't that ring a bell, Archie?"
"Wait, aren't you saying it's about the time we kissed at rehearsal?" Archie's voice was full of surprise.
"It is," Archie said.
"But then why didn't you ever tell me about it? I should have known about it."
"Everyone had their own problems in those days, including you and me," Betty remembered.
"But you should have told me at the time because you were my best friend. I mean, you're still my best friend, but now you're also my wife and..."
"Calm down, Archie," Betty stroked the boy's arm, calming down, herself and now, trying, to calm Archie down. "It's in the past, and he and I have already worked it out. It's just, I didn't like the light he made me look in there, as well as the fact that it's a little infuriating."
"Yeah, it wasn't very nice," Archie agreed. "You know, it's good that our life isn't like a book written, by Jughead. Our wedding, was a light after what happened to our whole family."
"I remember Polly being in mourning after she found out Dagwood had died, but thanks to Juniper, she realized there was still light and it was in her daughter, Betty said. It's been five months since that day and two months since you and I got married."
"And I'm glad it wasn't so loud, but among our friends and family."
"Indeed," nodded Betty, hugging, Archie around the waist and laying, her head on the guy's chest, inhaling, the scent of his light sweater. "Arch."
"What, Betts?"
"Promise me our lives won't end up like in Jughead's book, and you won't die in some strange family."
"Oh, you clearly underestimate me, Mrs. Andrews," replied Archie lightly, chuckling, looking up into the girl's deep green eyes. "I'm certainly not going to die before you in a strange place, and certainly, if you agree to it then, we'll leave on the same day. Together."
"Sounds sweet, but I like it," smiled Betty. "Now, how about we eat dinner before it gets cold?"
"I like that idea, babe."