Work Text:
.
It started on a rainy day in the middle of summer over burgers and fries and Friends reruns because Jughead couldn’t think of any other way to make her feel better except with food and he could make a mean diner style hamburger, a skill he taught himself with a Diners, Drive-ins & Dives tutorial on Youtube.
“He’ll always choose somebody else, won’t he?” Betty asked, looking at him with her big sad eyes. “First Miss Grundy and now Veronica. But I guess I can understand Veronica, even after two years she’s still intriguing and mysterious. I’d choose her over me too.”
Jughead shook his head and put her plate down in front of her. “Don’t be ridiculous, Betty.”
“I’m just being honest,” Betty said.
“Not everyone’s going to choose Veronica, you know.” Jughead sat down next to her and squirted a copious amount of ketchup onto his plate. “One day, there’s going to be somebody who’ll see you and none of the Grundys or Veronicas is going to matter. It’ll just be you.”
“Do you really think so?”
Jughead cleared his throat uncomfortably and concentrated on his burger. “Yeah. Yeah, I really do!” he answered sincerely. “I love Archie, I really do but sometimes he can be a real idiot.”
“But Veronica is great!!!” Betty protested.
“Sure,” Jughead agreed. “But if I were going to date any girl in Riverdale, it would be you.”
Betty blushed and stabbed a French fry with her fork. She wasn’t quite sure how to reply to his comment or what to make of it. All she knew was that since it was coming from Jughead Jones, it was a compliment.
On a rainy day in the middle of summer, they were both thrown into something they’d have trouble getting out of.
.
“Say something pretty, Jughead,” Betty said, rubbing her swollen eyes, her cheeks were stiff with salty tears. She’d gotten into another argument with her mother because she’d signed Penny out of her group home so they could get ice cream to celebrate her birthday. “Please.”
“I’m with you. No matter what else you have in your head I’m with you and I love you,” Jughead rattled off.
Betty sniffed as another tear slid down her cheek and held her phone closer to her ear. “Ernest Hemingway?” she guessed.
“Is there anyone else?” Jughead replied, smiling in spite of himself. He sobered quickly. “Hey Betty, what happened? You sound upset. It isn’t Archie and Veronica again, is it?”
Betty blew out a deep breath and pinched her nose. “It’s just my mother. . . I did something she didn’t like and she made sure I knew how unhappy she was about it. She’s so. . . she’s always so harsh and I’m never going to be good enough for her or be the good daughter she expects me to be.
Betty sounded even more broken than usual, a little more lost.
“I’m coming over,” Jughead told her. “She’s not still there, is she?”
“No. She had something she had to do at work,” Betty answered. “She always has something she has to do at work after we have one of our ‘arguments’.”
“I’ll be there soon,” Jughead said.
When he got to her house, he found the spare key and let himself inside. He took the stairs to her room two at a time and knocked on the door.
“It’s open!” she called.
He went in she was curled up in a ball on her bed. She rolled over and looked at him a little desperately. Jughead took the last few steps towards her and laid down next to her, their knees bumped. He brushed her hair away from her face, stroked her cheek. She closed her eyes and rested her hand against his.
“Hold me,” she requested. “Just as friends.”
Jughead obliged, wrapping his arms around her and holding her as close as he possible could. Pressed up against his chest, Betty fell apart again.
Much later when her stomach growled, Jughead got up abruptly.
“Where are you going!?” Betty protested.
“We’re going to Pop’s because you are clearly very hungry,” Jughead replied, holding out his hand for her and helping her up off of the bed. “My treat.”
.
She tasted like vanilla milkshakes and bubblegum, her lips were a little slick from the French fries she’d eaten. Jughead decided he could write a novel solely based on kissing Betty Cooper.
Yes, he wondered what they were doing, if it would ruin their friendship, if she was even over Archie yet. But at the same time, his mouth on her mouth was a revelation.
It was Betty, it had always been Betty.
And he was almost one hundred percent certain that they were going to mess everything up.
.
Their first time together was clumsy and awkward and it didn’t last very long. They were some of the last of the Riverdale Virgins and Jughead knew that he was probably the last person in the world that Betty expected to be having sex with for her first time. He never thought he’d be doing it with her, he’d never even imagined her in his wildest dreams or his most private moments.
He wasn’t sure how they’d landed in bed together. It had just happened, progressed naturally between them and it had been her idea. In the back of his mind, he wondered if maybe she was just using him to actually get over Archie even though she was gasping his name.
“Tell me something pretty,” Betty whispered afterwards when she had curled up into him, her hair tickled his chest, he could smell her sweet pea perfume wafting up around him.
“We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright,” Jughead said, quoting more Hemingway because he couldn’t bring himself to whisper his own words or those three little ones to her, not when he was so uncertain of her feelings for him.
.
“I know what you and Betty are doing,” Veronica told him one day when he was waiting for a pickup from Pop’s.
“We’re just friends,” Jughead replied, shifting from one foot to the other.
Veronica lifted one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows. “Friends with benefits maybe.”
“I thought girls didn’t kiss and tell,” Jughead complained.
“She’s not running around telling the whole school,” Veronica said. “You better not hurt her or you’re going to have to deal with me!”
“I’m not going to hurt Betty,” Jughead assured her.
Realization dawned on Veronica’s face. “Jug, are you in love with her!?” she asked.
Jughead scoffed. “The only thing I love in life is food,” he lied.
Veronica didn’t look convinced. “Does Betty know? Oh my gosh! You haven’t told her yet! You better get around to that, Jug. After years of being rejected, don’t you think she deserves to know how you feel?”
“I think she’s still in love with Archie.”
Veronica patted him on the arm sympathetically but she was looking at him with her brand of disgust. “You never know unless you say something. You don’t want to miss out, do you?”
“I—”
“No, no! Don’t ever argue with me, Jughead Jones! I happen to know what I’m talking about! And I always get my way!” Veronica said, crossing her arms and looking at him with an air of bossiness.
Jughead had a feeling Veronica wasn’t going to let it rest until he had spoken his piece to Betty.
.
“I think I love Betty,” Jughead told Archie one day almost a year after the day it had started. He said it just to try saying it aloud.
Archie frowned. “Yeah, Ronnie mentioned something to that effect.”
Jughead groaned. “Listen, Arch, I didn’t say anything to her. She guessed and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Archie blew out a breath. “Do you really love her?”
“I do.”
Archie looked relieved. “Um. Good. God knows she deserves somebody who can love her the way she wants to be loved. Just treat her right, will you? I would hate for her to have her heartbroken again.”
“I won’t break her heart,” Jughead promised.
He wasn’t so sure she wouldn’t break his though.
.
“Betts, could we talk?” Jughead asked.
She smiled at him. “Of course! What’s going on, Juggie?”
“I have something to tell you,” Jughead answered.
Betty suddenly looked very interested in the Pinterest recipe she had been reading. “Oh? What about?”
“Well. Us.”
“I thought so,” Betty said. “I suppose you’re going to want to break up with me.”
“Wait. What? How can we break up if we’re not even together?”
Betty frowned. “This is literally the definition of being together even if we never said it aloud.”
“But I thought you loved Archie,” Jughead said awkwardly.
“Of course I love Archie!” Betty answered. “I’ll always love him but. . . it doesn’t matter. You said you wanted to talk to me about something.”
“No. I’m interested in what you have to say,” Jughead replied, crossing his arms. “Ladies before gentleman.”
Betty looked absolutely terrified. “You go first, please. If you do then maybe what I have to say won’t matter.”
Jughead frowned. “Why are you being so difficult!?”
“Because. . . I don’t want to be rejected again!” Betty blurted out. “I always seem to pick the people who don’t want me the way I want them.”
Jughead laughed and came over to her, framing her face with his hands. “You think I’m going to reject you? I could never, I love you Betty. I have ever since the first time I kissed you and maybe even before that.”
Betty almost looked like she was going to cry in relief. “You love me?”
“Yes,” Jughead answered.
“Good because I love you too,” Betty said.
Jughead smiled and pulled her in closer for a kiss. On a rainy day in the middle of summer, something spectacular started.
The End
.