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Betty had been looking forward to this date with Veronica all week, embarrassingly so. It was the only night they were both freed up from studying and other responsibilities and she was not going to let anything get in the way of it. Especially not a certain redhead and his boyfriend.
“Are you guys seriously crashing our date?” Betty asked, arms crossed. The cinema was as busy as was expected on a Friday night, and it wasn’t hard to spot Jughead’s tall frame being followed by Archie with a dorky smile on his face.
“Are we crashing? Maybe we're just here to watch the same movie as you,” Jughead replied. Archie was still smiling at him.
Veronica scoffed at that. “You hate romcoms, Jug.”
“Maybe so,” he sniffed. “But Archie doesn’t.”
“You both knew we were going to be here tonight!”
Looking over at Veronica, Betty could see that her girlfriend was just about ready to chew one or both of the boys out right in the middle of the lobby. Betty reached over to take one of her hands and squeezed.
“Let’s just go buy the tickets, Ronnie.” Betty began walking to the counter, Veronica following behind. “The cinema’s big enough for the four of us.”
Veronica didn’t speak except to ask the cashier for a bottle of water, wordlessly tapping her card to pay before finding the cinema number on the tickets.
“Don’t let them ruin our date tonight,” Betty said. She took Veronica’s hand again and grinned. “We’ve been looking forward to this all week!”
It was hard to be annoyed when Betty was looking at her like that, so Veronica sighed and looked at her girlfriend’s radiant face. “Alright, Betts. Just for you,” and kissed her lightly on the cheek.
“You really are such a sap, Veronica Lodge.” Betty scrunched up her nose as her smiled widened.
“Tell anyone that I am and you’re a dead woman, Betty Cooper,” Veronica said, prompting a laugh from Betty.
“I’ll take it to my grave,” Betty said with mock seriousness before returning Veronica’s cheek kiss with one on the lips. Her girlfriend’s lip gloss tasted weird but she couldn't have cared less.
She pulled away with a smile and immediately saw Reggie over Veronica’s shoulder, movie ticket in his hand.
“Are you kidding me?” Betty said as Reggie wandered over with a wave and a grin. Veronica turned around to see what she was looking at and groaned.
“Fancy seeing you two here,” Reggie said. His grin reminded Betty of a shark’s.
“You as well Mantle, seriously?” Veronica asked in lieu of a reply and Reggie shrugged.
Betty could see that Reggie was trying to conspicuously look around at the other movie-goers, clearly looking for someone specifically. She nearly snorted with laughter when she came to a realisation.
“Reggie, are you here to ruin Archie and Jughead’s date?” Betty asked.
“Yep,” he admitted bluntly. “Archie’s been more annoying to be around this week than ever.” Reggie pretended to shudder. “Those puppy dog eyes he keeps making at his boyfriend are gonna haunt my nightmares. So, this is my revenge.”
Usually, Betty would have lectured Reggie for trying yet again to ruin Archie’s day but she was still mad at him for turning their date into a double date without even asking. Archie and Jughead needed a taste of their medicine, Betty thought, and Reggie was offering.
“Alright,” Betty said. Reggie did a double-take at that.
“Seriously?” he asked. “No telling me off or asking me to get lost?”
“They crashed our date so go ahead and crash theirs,” Veronica said without a hint of humor. Reggie laughed at that.
“Man, you must be annoyed huh?” Reggie was still laughing, Veronica glared.
“Okay, shoo now,” Betty said. “Go do your thing, Reggie.”
Reggie saluted her. “Yes, ma’am.” He rolled his eyes as he left, no doubt looking for the couple he was about to torment.
“Another minute talking to Reggie and I’d have stress wrinkles,” Veronica whined, touching her cheek delicately with a hand.
“C’mon, Ronnie.” Betty inclined her head towards the opening cinema door. “Let’s go sit down.”
Veronica picked the seats and they sat down, hands entwined. Betty breathed a sigh of relief to finally be left alone.
“Oh, lord,” Veronica mumbled and Betty looked up to see Archie and Jughead making their way towards them. Veronica squeezed Betty’s hand and Betty couldn’t blame her for it.
“Hey, guys!” Archie said while they walked up to the row, Jughead lagging behind him. Betty wondered if she could make them trip and fall just by thinking about it hard enough.
“Yoink!”
Reggie was a blur as he ran up the aisle and past Archie and Jughead before jumping into the second seat across from Betty. He leaned back with a smug grin and put his feet up on the chair in front of him.
Archie looked forlorn to be separated from his friends and Betty could only shrug helplessly. He and Jughead sat down at the other end of the row.
“Thank god,” Veronica whispered and rested her head on Betty’s shoulder. She kissed her girlfriend’s head before turning to Reggie.
“I thought you were here to annoy the boys,” Betty asked.
Reggie shrugged. “I was.”
“Softie,” Betty said.
“Loser,” he replied without much bite.
Betty shifted her attention as she felt the warmth of her girlfriend who had snuggled up to her side and sighed contently. Veronica was definitely going to fall asleep on her and Betty would let her, she could explain the movie at dinner anyway. She leaned into her girlfriend and let herself relax.
She couldn’t concentrate on the movie at all. Not with Veronica’s all-encompassing and lovely presence by her side. Betty didn’t mind one bit.