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"I think this is gonna be a pretty great article. We make a good team." Betty said with confidence as they left the school grounds.
"We're like Bonnie and Clyde." Jughead remarked.
"Or Tom and Jerry."
"Or Batman and Robin. Just so you know, I'd be Batman." Betty looked at Jughead. Her expression screamed 'are you kidding me'.
"I swear to god if you expect me to wear neon green tights-" She started but was interrupted by Jughead's laughter, which she soon joined in on.
Around the half way point of their walk, Betty realized she had left something behind.
"Oh crap!" She exclaimed.
"Betts? What's wrong?" He looked at her with a concerned expression.
"I forgot my jacket at the blue and gold." She sighed and rubbed her arms. Jughead mentally face palmed. He was observant, he should have noticed this! Not only that, but it was now fall, and the nights had gotten cooler.
At this point the building was sure to be locked. He'd decided he'd be okay for one night without his flannel, he had one or two other shirts in his bag. After a few moments of silence, Jughead stopped walking and dropped his bag on the ground.
Betty looked at him in confusion but it quickly turned to realization when he took his blue-grey plaid flannel off and placed it on her shoulders.
"Oh no, Juggie, I'll be fine!" Betty insisted and started to take it off. Jughead put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a stern look. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Betty gave in and put the flannel back on.
"I'm giving this back when we get to my house." She said to him.
Jughead shrugged.
"Do what you want." He replied, although he secretly liked seeing her in it. The oversized flannel fit well with her. Rather than the pink blouses (which he did like, don't get him wrong), it worked better with her personality. Her blonde hair and pale skin stood out against the darker colors that reflected Jughead's style. It balanced out, just like their relationship. It was Betty Cooper with the volume turned up.
But then Betty snapped her fingers, pulling Jughead out of his blonde beauty trance.
"Jug? We're here." He looked up at her as she opened the door, walking inside the house. It smelled like sage and lilies, both very strong. Betty always reminded him of a flower, but also vanilla, and honey, and the dark, damp bark on a tree after a storm.
He followed her up the stairs, into her room. It hadn't changed much since the last time he'd been in it, which was right before she had left for her internship.
Betty laid on her bed and propped her head up with her arms after plopping her backpack on the floor. Jughead did the same with his bag, but choose to sit on the edge of the bed rather than lay.
"So your mom's okay with this?" Jughead motioned around the room, sounding unconvinced.
"She hasn't said anything about you. Yet. Unlike Archie, Veronica, Cheryl, or anyone else in existence." She looked out her window and sighed.
'If only she knew how similar we are, but yet so different.' Jughead thought to himself. He took a deep breath.
"Y'know Betty, we're not that different." He said quietly. Now Betty's attention was back on him.
"Your mom tries to control every aspect of your life, but my dad doesn't really care about me or what I do at all. We both have parents that tend to hurt us with the way they treat us." He explained to her and Betty leaned forward.
"You never talk about your family...I wanna hear more." She had closed her eyes, ready to listen.
"Well, you know my sister Jellybean." he started. About ten minutes later, Betty had fallen asleep to his calming story telling. In her eyes, he was a true author.
Jughead smiled at the sleeping blonde. Not wanting to wake her up, he left the flannel on her. He grabbed his backpack off the floor and took a mental snapshot of the her before walking down the stairs, out into the night.
* *
The first thing Betty felt when she woke up was panic. It was oddly light outside, more so than how it typically was when she's supposed to wake up. The clock on her phone read 6:55. Betty immediately sat up and went into auto pilot, considering her normal wake up time was 6:25. At the speed she was moving at now, it would be 7:05 by the time she was ready to leave.
She cleaned herself up in the bathroom, grabbed a cereal bar, and rushed out the door with her backpack.
With ten minutes left to get to school and be on time, she did the natural Betty thing to do and ran.
It was 7:10 by the time she arrived and had 5 minutes to spare before the bell rang. It only took her a few seconds to scan the courtyard and find her friends. Looking at them from afar, she noticed for the first time how odd they look together.
Veronica noticed it before anyone else. The change in style and darker colors only meant one thing to her. A smirk grew on her face. The oversized, blue-grey flannel could belong to anyone, but she already knew who's it was.
The raven haired fashion extraordinaire had approached her just as Archie and Kevin noticed. Archie's expression changed into one of shock and Kevin smiled at her, happy that his best friend finally got some. Little did they know that their thoughts were far from the truth.
Instead of questioning Betty about what happened, Veronica held up her hand to give Betty a high five. Betty gave her a confused look, wondering why Veronica was trying to high five her but returned the motion without asking.
By now, Kevin and Archie had joined Veronica to circle around Betty.
"So, who was it." Kevin asked her. They all stared at her expectedly, but even though she was the center of attention, she felt like she was in the dark.
"Who was what..?" She arched her brow and her friends sighed.
"He means who's flannel is it? Who did you...well, you know." Archie blushed, unable to finish the sentence. The thought of Betty, his friend since he was little doing anything remotely explicit was too much for him.
However, Betty still hadn't gotten the message that they were all hinting at.
"Oh! It's Jughead's, I borrowed it from him last night." Archie and Kevin's eyes widened, unable to process that Jughead out of all people had won his way into Betty's heart and other places. Veronica, on the other hand looked proud to be right, but also defensive of her bestie.
But speak of the devil, with his dark hair and blue eyes.
Four people with four very different expressions stared at Jughead. To say he was confused was an understatement.
"So...what exactly are we talking about?"