efflorescence || bughead oneshots [SLOW UPDATES]

{ efflorescence }

     Neither of them had brought up the subject of the kiss they had shared back in Betty's room the day before. The many events following their intimate embrace happened so fast that they barely got any time to breathe, or even to think about anything that didn't involve either Polly, Jason's car, or the Jason Blossom case.

Neither of them had brought it up, but somehow that was all Jughead could think about. The kiss. The moment he got to taste Betty's soft pink lips, which tasted like strawberries. The moment he finally got to show her how he actually felt about her, the blonde girl next door who had completely blinded him with such a strong and overwhelming feeling. When their lips had parted, he didn't think their moment was going to be squished so quickly, taken away from their main thoughts; at least from Betty's. Did she even... like it? Of course she did, he remembered noticing her sweet lips curving into a gentle smile for several seconds right after it happened. But she didn't say anything about it afterward, in fact, she still hasn't. Yes, she had spoken to him ever since, but only about things related to the case they were working on, as though their kiss had long left her mind. As though nothing had ever happened between them.

After almost 24 hours of silence coming from the blonde, Jughead couldn't take it any longer. He needed to know how she felt toward him, but at the same time, he didn't want her to feel rushed into anything. The thing is, even if she didn't want to be with him, that would have been okay. Painful, but okay. Because that's how much he cared for her.

And so the next day at school, as they all sat around their usual table outside for lunch, the raven haired boy felt so conflicted about whether he would ask her about it or not. They didn't even have to date yet or anything, he simply needed, wanted to know how she was taking all of it. He was leaning more toward remaining silence for now, knowing that Betty was currently dealing with a lot of issues concerning her family, and that she probably didn't need to have to be bothered with questions such as the one he wanted to ask her.

"I've gotta say, Archiekins, you totally crushed them all with your performance of yesterday," Veronica said loud enough for the whole table to hear, a smile creeping on her face as she looked at the redhead boy.

"Thanks, Ronnie," Archie said through a small chuckle, his cheeks tinting with a light shade of red.

"Oh yeah, you were incredible," Kevin began. "I've gotta be honest here though; I really thought for a moment you were gonna chicken out another time..." he joked, earning a couple of chuckles from the others sitting at their table.

Except from Jughead. And surprisingly, from Betty as well. She was evidently trying to keep up with the conversation going on at the table, but it was as though she wasn't there mentally. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't focus. And that really surprised the dark haired boy, because Archie used to be the blonde's first priority. He had always been the one she would give most of her attention to, and everybody, except Archie himself, knew that.

After several seconds of laughters and remarks thrown at Archie, a voice suddenly pulled Betty out of her thoughts.

"Hey, you okay, B?" Veronica asked as her eyes finally locked onto the blonde's face.

"Y-Yeah, yeah I'm fine!" Betty answered with a newfound smile, after hesitating a bit too long for Jughead's concern. "I'm just... a bit overwhelmed, I've got a lot of exams coming up next week." Which was a lie. She probably thought nobody would realize that they had no exams coming up whatsoever, even though she shared all of her classes with at least one of the people sitting around the table. She knew they were all too caught up into Archie's success to realize something so obvious, and thought she managed to avoid being thrown multiple questions at her.