Only You and Me

BETTY

First day of school is over. And we survived it. What a miracle.

I'm walking home with Jug, as Archie gets to us. He glances at us shyly.

„Hey!" he says happy but quiet. "You two must be" he looks at me: "Betty" his gaze goes to Jug "and Jughead, right?" he asks.

„Yeah that's us." I try to give him the brightest smile I can.

I look over to Jug, expecting him to say something too. But he's looking at the so handsome and nice looking boy...annoyed?

I get myself to ignore his negativity. "Want to walk home together?" I ask Archie, still smiling at him.

„Yeah! Of course." he answers while we're walking towards our homes.

„So, how was your first day at Riverdale High?" I ask looking at him very curious.

„It was great." he says smiling. "All the people are great. And I got into the football team."

Jug snorts contemptuous. He says: "Well maybe you will be voted captain."

Archie seems confused about Jug's behavior. He continues as I give Jughead a warning look: "Well. Maybe."

Jug looks back at me. But he seems to have his head in the clouds.

„Anyways," I try to change the subject. "Mr. Brown, huh?" Archie chuckles.

„Yeah. He sucks." We all laugh, even Jug, and I'm relieved that I could loosen up the conversation.

We arrive at our houses. "Here we are." I say to them as me and Jug start to walk towards our door.

„I guess see you tomorrow in school, Archie?"

„Of course." he says giving me one last bright smile before I close the door after Jughead.

-
"What was this all about?" I ask Jug maybe a little too enraged.

He casually leans against the wall, grinning. "Oh come on. The handsome, super athletic and on-the-first-day-of-school-already-popular guy, doesn't have to be treated like a king." He scoffs.

„I get your point, Jughead. But he's nice. And this was just rude." I try to calm down.

„Betty." Jughead says looking at me. „You don't even know him. You talked for like what? Five minutes?"

The way he looks at me changes. He's expression seems kind of sad or thoughtful. „Listen. I just want to protect you. A guy like him will hurt you."

Even if it seems like he really just wants to protect me, his words are offending me.

I don't want to talk about this situation or Archie himself any longer, so I say: „I'm gonna get ready for Pops." and run upstairs.

-
The Pops is a diner in Riverdale, that belongs to our loveable Pop Tate.

He makes the diner feel like a second home for all of the residents of Riverdale.

On our way to the homely diner we don't talk.

The whole way this weird silence is between us. It's not an awkward silence, Jug and I know each other to well for that, it's different. Narrowing.

We arrive at the diner, where Veronica is already sitting in a booth. Right on the other side of the table sits a boy.

That must be Reggie.

He's one of that guys, that you can see why others think they're pretty, but you just don't agree.

I let myself fall next to Veronica, onto the soft cushion of the bench.

"Hey B, hey Jug!" she squeals excited, looking at us smiling.

She turns back to Reggie: "Reggie, Betty and Jughead"

"Betty and Jughead, Reggie" she repeats the sentence the other way, while again looking at us.

"Hello you two." His voice sounds exuberant. Reggie doesn't seem like he's shy. Or conservative.

-
We all tell each other some stories about ourselves and Jug, Reggie and me try to get to know each other better.

Jughead and I put our little fight thing from earlier away and just try to have some fun. It works.

Reggie is telling a story about him as a little kid. He says with the age of five, he could already fight against a wild animal. Whereat he keeps to him self, which ‚wild' animal it was, that he had so heroically beaten.

I personally think it was something harmless. He's bluffing.

But we all laugh, so technically his attempt was successful.

The bell of Pops door rings and I turn around.

Chuck steps through the door and with him, the whole Riverdale football team.

Including Archie.

My heart beat gets faster, I start to blush. I take all the courage in me and shout a ‚hey' to him.

He smiles back at me and waves.

A pleasing warmth goes through my body and the big smile, that was planted at my face when Archie entered the door, stays at its place the whole evening.