Betty and Archie

The Kiss

Archie POV

"Arch..." and before I knew what was happening she leaned in and I leaned forward and our lips met. I had no time to think but I felt a tingle go throughout my whole body. Her lips so plump but soft. It was short but enough to get my heart pounding and my head spinning. She broke away realizing what we had done. She looks shocked and stunned at her sudden action.

"Betty.." I say.

"We have to go." Betty says, but I want to savor this moment. I lightly touch her arm and she looks at me scared about what is about to happen. I lightly put my hand under chin and lift her face up into mine. I kiss her deeper this time. I feel her hand sorta fall and it's on my knee. She is kissing me back and with more passion than the one before. We both break apart this time.

"What are we doing?" she whispers.

I shrug my shoulders and she shakes her head. "Arch we... we shouldn't be doing this right now. We need to go." I nod slowly. She sits back up and puts the car into gear. My face feels hot. What were we just doing? Why did I go and kiss her again? To make what just happened more confusing? Me and Veronica just broke up and so did her and Jughead... Betty is not my rebound. She could never be, but for the first time I just felt comfort and safe with her. The only person I could ever feel that with. It was always Betty. I just needed to kiss her because it felt like in that moment, everything was going to be okay. We pull up to her house.

"We just have to be quiet if Alice knows we are on a man hunt for the black hood it's all over." She says and I nod. We quietly walk in the house and Betty goes to a storage closet under her stair case. I go sit on her couch and admire the Christmas decorations that are so perfectly placed throughout the Cooper household. Christmas the most wonderful time of the year... yeah not in Riverdale. She puts a box on the coffee table and sits next to me. Our knees are touching and that's enough for me. She dumps the box quietly and searches through the pictures. We quietly are looking through them trying to find a weird shaped tree that looks like 'The Devils Hand' as Nana Rose described it. I take small glances at Betty and really study her face. The way her eyes are darted to the pictures, how she is so undeniably focused on catching this monster. Then I see it, a light bulb go off.

"Arch this is it." She whispers loudly pointing at it.

"Isn't that in Picken's Park?" I whisper back, she nods.

"Call Sheriff Keller on the way." She says we get up and grab our coats and get back in Alice Coopers car and drive to Picken's Park.

Betty's POV

The closer we get to the park, the more my heart is racing. What are we supposed to do? What are we going to find? Mr. Svenson dead? I can't think of it. It makes my stomach curl. I shake my head and quickly glance over at the red headed boy next to me. He looks so calm almost as if he has been waiting to catch this guy since the moment he walked into Pop's only two short months ago. I don't blame him, he shot his dad. I get Archies need to protect this town and his dad. Sometimes his over need to be protective makes him so naïve I just hope he doesn't... lose control if we see the black hood tonight. The one thing I do feel with Archie is safe. I always have. He's my safe place. Jughead is too but... I can't think about that right now. We pull up and Archie is already out of the car with flashlight in hand. We run around until we see this yellow sign shaped like a tombstone sticking out of the ground. It reads, 'This is where Joseph Conoway Lay". Archie looks at me and looks down at the shovel placed next to the grave.

"Yeah..." I say giving him the go ahead. We grabs the shovel and starts digging. By the time we reach the coffin we are covered in dirt and can barley breathe. We both start wiping off the dirt over top of the coffin and open it up. Nothing is in it. Archie looks at me.