Chapter Text
“I’m sorry, you want to what?!” Betty exclaims, staring over at Cheryl who was walking around the Blue and Gold. She’s been doing that ever since she got here, instead of sitting down on the chair Betty had offered her.
“It’s not a hard concept to understand, Betty, really.” Cheryl sighs, like Betty was making this harder on purpose.
Betty crosses her arms, giving Cheryl a pointed look. “In what world is ‘be my fake girlfriend’ an easy concept to understand?”
“In this one.” Cheryl claims with ease. “A simple yes or no will suffice.”
“Why me? You hate me.”
Cheryl takes a deep breath before walking to the chair Betty offered her and sitting down. “Fine, I’ll be frank, but this stays between us.” Cheryl warns, and only continues when Betty nods. “Ever since Jason was found everyone keeps looking at me like I’m going to break.”
Betty’s expression softens as she takes Cheryl’s words in. “Everyone’s just worried about you, Cheryl.”
“Maybe, but I like to deal with my personal business alone, away from everyone’s scrutiny. Unfortunately with everything being both so delicate and public, I can’t just expect everyone to mind their own business, and dating seems like the best solution.”
“Again, why me? You hate me.”
Cheryl glares at her, proving her point exactly then and there. “If you just let me finish, Betty, I was just getting to that.” She crosses her legs before answering. “People are also under the impression that I hate you.”
“And you’re saying you don’t?” Betty asks in disbelief.
“If I hated you, Betty, I wouldn’t waste my breath talking to you.” Cheryl explains, “Dating you would not only help me with people not focusing on how I’m dealing with…everything, but it would stop everyone from assuming I hate you. The line between love and hate, their own fabricated drama, it’ll be perfect. Two birds with one stone.” Cheryl even looks proud by the time she finished explaining her malevolent plan, and Betty had to admit in a way, the logic made sense, but at the end of the day:
“You can’t predict that it will all work out.”
“It will. I planned it all out.” Then Cheryl hands Betty one page filled front and back with bullet points of date ideas. It would have been impressive had Betty not caught something troubling,
“Two to three months! I can’t date you that long!”
Cheryl stands up, “But you’ll date me?”
“No! I haven’t agreed to anything, but two months is too long. I wouldn’t be able to do this for three.”
“Fine, two months.” Betty looks from Cheryl to the list and back again surprised that she had compromised with Betty at all.
“Really? Just like that, you cut it down to two months.”
“The relationship may be fake, but we have to act it out as if it were real and compromises are part of a relationship.” Cheryl tells her, but then adds, “But nothing less than two months.”
“I-well-I-”
“It’s an easy yes or no.”
“I….” Betty looks at the paper detailing relationship ideas and knows she shouldn’t say yes.
“One condition.” Cheryl adds and Betty knew there was going to be a catch somewhere in there. Their fake relationship had not started and Cheryl was already making demands. “No one except us will know about our arrangement.”
“I can’t even tell my friends?”
“No, it needs to be believable. They need to believe it, too.”
“Cheryl, you’re asking me to lie to my friends.”
“Once the two months are up we’ll tell them everything, does that make it better?”
There were a lot more cons than pros here.
Almost like Cheryl was sensing that Betty wasn’t even closed to being convinced, she adds, “To sweeten the deal, I’ll be nicer to you and…when we break up, it’ll be because of me.”
“And if I say no?”
“I’ll just date someone else.”
“Fake date.” Betty corrects.
“No one else will know my plan.”
Betty doesn’t know what to say to that, so she only looks at the paper in her hands her mind going a mile a minute. If she dated Cheryl for two months she’d have to lie to her friends or if she didn’t date Cheryl some poor sucker would end up dating her, only to be dropped in two or three months without warning.
Betty didn’t owe anyone anything, but she didn’t want the other person or people to just be used like that. At least Betty knew what she was getting into. No one would be heartbroken if she had a say in it.
“Okay.” Betty nods. “I’ll be your fake girlfriend.”
“Good, we start tomorrow.”
“Start what?” Betty asks confused.
Cheryl gives her a secret smile. “You’ll see.” And then she leaves almost as quickly as she came in.
Boy did Betty find out. She gets flowers the following day, balloons after that, and by Thursday there’s all these boxes of her favorite chocolate in her locker. Veronica and Kevin can’t get enough of this 'secret admirer’, and honestly Betty should have read the 'courtship’ part of the relationship.
Betty almost wants to just blurt out to her friends one lunch that it’s Cheryl and it’s all fake, just to get them to stop talking about it for one day, but that was the whole point.
This whole thing is supposed to be public, which is why on Friday’s practice, while they’re all scheduled to practice outside with how good the weather has been lately, with the football team practicing on the field, and the band practicing on the other side of the baseball field, Cheryl takes center place.
“Good hustle, ladies, we’re right on our way to be the pride and joy of Riverdale High.” Cheryl nods at them all, “See you all on Monday.”
As everyone is going to the bleachers to get their bags, Cheryl calls out to Betty.
Okay, show time.
A small bubble of guilt forms in the pit of her stomach, but she reminds herself this is the best she could do for everyone.
“You’ve been getting a lot of goodies the last few days.”
“Yes, I have.” She glances behind her, seeing everyone glancing over to look.
“Did you like them?”
“What are you doing, Cheryl?” Veronica asks, walking over to stand by Betty’s side.
“I’m asking Betty if she liked my gifts?”
“What?!” Veronica asks, Betty joining in just a second too late. Her cheeks get so hot she knows she’s blushing. Veronica looks over at Betty, eyes wide and mouth agape.
The other cheerleaders are gasping and murmuring quietly to themselves.
“You sent them? You’re my secret admirer?” Betty hasn’t had to act since the second grade, so to say that she feels a bit rusty is an understatement. There was a small script, but obviously things are being improvised here.
“Yes.” She walks over to Betty’s other side. “And as a big finish, will you go on a date with me?”
If it was possible, Betty’s cheeks get even hotter.
“A date?” Cheryl nods. “Okay.”
“Perfect. I’ll pick you up at 7.” And then she walks away, leaving everyone in shock. Tia and Ginger look at Betty quizzically before following after Cheryl, and Veronica walks over to her.
“What just happened?”
“I found my secret admirer.” Betty actually laughs, not believing she got through this.
“Come on, B, we’ve got to change and talk about this.” Just as Veronica says this, Kevin who had been on the top of the bleachers, runs down holding his phone and asks, “Did Cheryl just ask you out?” He stares at Betty eyes wide, and Betty only nods.
“This is huge!” Kevin says, looking around with a huge smile.
“It’s only a date.” Betty objects softly. “She took me by surprise, I had to say yes.”
“Do you want to go out with her?” Veronica asks softly, “It’s okay if you do, but if you don’t you don’t have to.”
“No, it’s alright. It’s only a date. It’s not like we’re going to go out.” Betty jokes softly. She was a horrible friend.
“Betty, this could be the relationship of your lifetime. Cheryl could fall in love with you, and you with her, and you’ll get married and when you have kids you’ll have the greatest story to tell them!” Kevin tells her excitedly.
“Calm down, girl, they haven’t even gone out on a date yet.” Veronica admonishes softly.
“Yes, it’s just a date.” Betty laughs, because she loved Kevin, but he was a little dramatic sometimes.
“Do you think she liked you all along.” Kevin comments to himself. “I knew there had to be a reason she picked more on you than anyone else.”
“Because she liked me?” Betty asks dryly. “I don’t think so. I don’t even know why I said yes.”
“Cheryl always goes to Pop’s on all her first dates, Veronica and I will sit on another booth and if things go downhill we’ll be there for you.” Veronica nods to this.
“Thank you, guys. I really appreciate you guys being there.”
“Even if it’s only one date,” Kevin says as he wraps one of his hands on her shoulders and walking her to the bleachers, “you’ll have quite the story to tell.”
This really will be quite a story two months from now.
When she gets home she takes a shower and quickly changes into a soft blue dress that she knows always makes her eyes pop. Kevin always tells her to wear it, and what better occasion than the first fake date.
Her parents are still at the Riverdale Register and usually get home by 8 with take out. So she doesn’t worry about having to explain anything to them.
Cheryl arrives exactly at 7, she’s wearing a dark purple dress, a matching purse, some black heels with bows at the bottom and the only splash of color is her red lipstick that goes with her hair.
“Wow, you look really…well dressed.” Betty says holding the door open for her.
“Cute.” Cheryl says in response after looking Betty over. “So, you’re ready for this?”
“Yes.”
“Remember, keep to the topics I listed and everything will be perfect.” Betty nods to her.
They get to Pop’s and find it a bit more full than usual, Betty recognizes a lot of them. They order their food at the front and get to a corner booth thankfully.
“You face the wall.” Cheryl quietly orders and Betty slides down with a relieved sigh when she can only see Cheryl in her line of sight. Betty’s not sure if Cheryl knew or if she just guessed, but either was she’s glad, because her nerves were getting to her.
“Just act natural.” Cheryl whispers to her.
“I am.”
“You look nervous.”
“It’s a first date.”
“Relax.”
“Fine.” Betty breaths in a softly, before leaning forward and trying to act natural, she whispers, “You really didn’t need to buy me such expensive things, Cheryl.”
“It was for a good cause.”
“They were expensive and unnecessary.”
“Yes, they were, Betty. A good way to any girl’s heart is flowers, chocolates and balloons.”
“Love notes work just the same.”
“You lack poetry, Betty.” Cheryl retorts.
“Excuse me for being practical and wanting someone to win me over with words that come from their heart.”
“I’ll remember that for later.” Cheryl adds quietly.
A waiter arrives with their food, causing them to pause for a moment, but when they leave, Cheryl leans forward again.
“It’s working, everyone is looking over at us.”
“You made this into a show, Cheryl, of course they’re looking over.”
“The point is, they’re focusing on us dating and not on anything else.” Cheryl says with an 'I told you’ tone of voice, and Betty has to bite down her quip, because this is why this whole thing started.
“Okay, date talk now.” Cheryl instructs and Betty nods.
Their first date was a success.
By Monday morning, when Betty arrives to school everyone looks over at her, whispering and she ignores it in favor of telling herself that this was all a show, it was nothing.
At lunch, she sat with her friends, and they all question her about her date.
“You both looked really cozy.” Kevin comments, smirking when Betty smiles slightly.
“It was fun. We had good conversation, she listened to everything I said. It wasn’t what I expected.” She texted Cheryl all weekend to come up with the perfect response to any questions her friends had.
“Did she kiss you goodnight?” Reggie asks, leaning from behind the couch Betty’s sitting in, and Betty gives him a look.
“If she had, I don’t kiss and tell.” Betty declares, Reggie shrugs.
“I’m only asking because Cheryl only kisses on the first date when she’s not interested.”
“How do you know?” Betty asks, confused.
“I have my ways.” Reggie waits a moment before asking again. “So did she?”
Betty looks at the others, hesitating, before shaking her head. Reggie smirks at her.
“Betty and Cheryl sitting in a tree.” He starts to sings, and Betty glares at him shoving him back.
“Stop it, Reggie, don’t tease me!”
“I only speak the truth.” Reggie announces before Cheryl appears beside him.
“Can I speak with you, Betty?”
“Uh, yes.” Betty gets up and follows her to the hallway. “Is everything okay? Are you breaking up with me already?” Betty jokes, giggling.
“We’re not breaking up, everything’s perfect. Just remember we’re going on another date this Friday, alright? And keep to the notes. Just act oblivious and as soon as we start dating it’ll be over.”
“Alright.”
“River Vixen practice today, be on time!” She reminds Betty as she walks away, winking and Betty returns to her friends, thinking this isn’t as bad as she thought it would be.