Work Text:
Blonde hair spewed on the carpeted floor and all, Betty Cooper was anxious. She was tapping a pencil lightly against her glossed lips as she watched Jughead complete his math paper. She was laying off the edge of his bed, hanging upside down. Her mother would not approve of this arrangement, hanging around at Sunnyside with what she called, ‘a beanie wearing delinquent’. Nonetheless, she was there and she didn’t mind.
They were in almost complete silence; the only noises to be heard we’re the scratching of Jughead’s pencil against paper and the radio quietly playing some Pink Floyd song. It didn’t bother them, it was a comfortable silence that in which allowed Jughead to work on his homework whilst Betty got to watch her boyfriend. She noticed how when he got to a difficult problem, instead of asking for help, he scrunched his eyebrows together and stopped working. It usually took him a few moments and a click of a calculator, but he eventually moved on to the next problem.
She had told her mother she was at Veronica’s and funny enough, Veronica had texted Betty to tell her that she had lied to her mother too, by saying she was at Betty’s and if Hermione was to call her, to go along with Veronica’s story. Betty knew Veronica was with Archie somewhere, and that used to bother her. As her relationship with Jughead strengthened, she cared less and less about Archie and Veronica’s relationship. She realized she wanted Archie for the story it would tell; childhood best friends turn into high school sweethearts that end married with a perfect life. It was platonic. It would never happen.
She was glad that Archie ended up falling for the new girl. She has always had the ‘what ifs’ when she thought about it. ‘What if Archie dated me?’ or ‘What if Veronica never moved to Riverdale?’. If any of those would have happened, she never would’ve dated Jughead. And if she never dated Jughead, she never would’ve joined the Serpents and became the Serpent Queen and–
“Hey Betts?” Jughead’s voice brought her back to reality. She glanced quickly at him; he wasn’t wearing his beanie, he never did when they were alone, late at night in his room working. He had a small smile on his lips, looking her in the eyes.
“Yeah?” She asked, clearly a bit out of it.
“I finished, can you check?”
“Of course, Jug.”
She spent a few moments checking his work on the problems and writing corrections on the ones that were wrong so he knew what to fix. When she got to the last problem on the page, she about laughed out loud. The correct answer was 4, but he had drawn a smiley face with a question mark. He was usually so serious when it came to getting his work done so he could get it done so he could spend time with Betty before she had to be home for her curfew, but this was something else. He gave her a questioning look, before he fell out of his desk chair, a loud thump echoed. Instead of laughing at she grinned.
“You’re the stupidest person I’ve ever met, did you know that?”
“I get that a lot. It’s a good thing that you’re helping me with my homework! But you love it, don’t you?” He teased, pulling her lightly off of the bed and into his lap, taking a strand of her blonde locks and twirling it around his finger.
“I don’t know, do I?” She laughed.
“I sure hope so, because god, I’m so in love with you. You’re probably the only smart decision I’ve ever made. And if it’s that way forever, I’ll be the happiest man alive.”