He left the first one in jest because he was bored while Betty was studying and he couldn't stop staring at her face. She kept a neat stack of post-it notes on her desk, so Jughead peeled one off, scribbled a note, and stuck it to the mirror on her vanity.
You look beautiful today.
Betty didn't notice it until over an hour later, when she finally closed her chemistry textbook and sat at her vanity to fix her makeup before they went to Pop's for a much needed milkshake break. The smile that broke through her exhausted exterior was enough to make Jughead vow to do whatever he could to make sure that smile never went away for too long.
She found the next one tucked under her pillow the following morning. You're a pillow hog but I like you anyway. Betty chuckled to herself and carefully placed the pink sticky note on the surface of her vanity, below where she had taped down the first note from Jughead. She traced her finger lightly across the word beautiful, feeling where he had pressed the pen down in emphasis, and smiled to herself. Betty didn't always believe him when he called her beautiful, her insecurities besting her more often than not, but Jughead never failed to make her smile each time he told her. His compliments slowly muted the voice in the back of her head (the one that sounded uncannily like Alice Cooper) that constantly told her that her hips were too wide, her front teeth a little too crooked, and her chest not adequate enough. Jughead made her feel beautiful.
Betty sighed and rubbed her temples, trying to stave off the headache she knew was coming after staring at the Blue & Gold layout for too long. Jughead was stretched out across the old couch on the other end of the office, painstakingly editing the front page feature. When he heard her sigh, he crossed the room and rubbed a reassuring hand over her shoulder.
"You'll make yourself cross-eyed if you keep at it for much longer," he teased gently.
"I know," she sighed. "I just... I don't want to go home. My mom is driving me crazy this week and I'd rather kill time going cross-eyed than be interrogated over dinner."
In an instant, Jughead had her wrapped in a tight hug, turning off the computer monitor as Betty relaxed into him and nestled her head in his collarbone. "Take it from someone who knows," he whispered. "Avoiding your home won't make it any better."
Betty drew in a shaky breath. "Doesn't mean it won't suck."
He huffed out a laugh. She always got a little petulant when she was overtired. "You'll feel better once you take a shower and go to bed. The layout will still be there tomorrow morning. And I'll happily divert Alice's attention by showing up with you."
Now it was Betty's turn to laugh. "I won't subject you to her unnecessarily just because I'm cranky. Gotta save up that energy for when it counts."
"If you insist." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head, "Anything to make you stop staring at this computer and go to bed. Let's get you home."
As they packed up their things and Betty tugged on her jacket, Jughead found a scrap of paper on the main desk. While she was distracted buttoning up the complicated-looking buttons on the pink trench coat he loved so much, he wrote out his message in the neatest handwriting he could muster and left it propped on the keyboard for her to find tomorrow.
You amaze me every day, Betty Cooper.
Betty started noticing the little notes from Jughead popping up in weeks following the first one on her vanity mirror.
You amaze me every day, Betty Cooper on her keyboard in the Blue & Gold offices;
Let me use the oxford comma, you AP killjoy with a winky face in her school planner after she had taken her editing pen to his latest article;
You're my favorite person on the planet in her jacket pocket;
You owe me a burger left on her bed on an afternoon when he had climbed through her window but she wasn't home.
Jughead tried to find a balance between the serious and silly in his notes. He loves her so much but he'd been trying to avoid saying things with too much gravity--he just wants her to smile more and not be quite so hard on herself. There was a collection of notes he hadn't had the balls to leave or that he thought might make her cry: I love you more every day I see you; you are so much stronger than anyone can see; you are more than your family; I want to be with you for the rest of my life; let's get the hell out of Riverdale.
One day, he'll tell her all of those things, but for now, Jughead settled for writing them down and saving them in a textbook he's never opened in the back of his locker. Every time he'd seen Betty smile widely at his words, whether spoken aloud, typed on his laptop, or scribbled on a piece of paper, something inside him inflated like a balloon. He did that, he had the power to make Betty Cooper happy, make her smile. Jughead often felt like it was his only worthwhile skill.
Betty kept every one of the notes Jughead left her, tucked inside an old jewelry box in her dresser drawer. Once she started stacking them on her vanity, the pile became too precarious, and she hadn't wanted Alice to read them. Not that there was anything bad, but it was just something Betty wanted to keep to herself, a piece of her life that no one else could touch. They were decidedly hers , in all the ways that she was decidedly Jughead's.
Each time she found a note, Betty felt herself falling harder and harder for him. The notes weren't anything Jughead would never say out loud but it was the fact that he took the time to save them for when he knew she would really need them that got to Betty. And something about seeing the words written down, being able to relive them, and hear them in Juggie's voice echoing through the silent chaos of her overwhelmed mind made Betty feel so at peace.
On nights when she couldn't sleep because Alice had made her feel inadequate, or there were so many thoughts careening through her head that she felt her nails dig into her palms, Betty would crawl out of bed and pull the jewelry box from its hiding spot and read through every single note Jughead had written for her. They quieted her mind and helped center her enough to let sleep take over. While Betty knew she could easily have texted or called Jughead to talk her off a ledge, she loved the feeling of being self-sufficient in taking care of herself. Even if it still relying on things Jughead had already said.
She left the original you look beautiful today taped up on her mirror because she had grown accustomed to the reminder every morning when she sat down to do her makeup. Even on her worst of days, she had a reminder from the love of her life that mean-spirited, anxious voice in the back of her head wasn't always right.
On another evening the two were doing homework in Betty's room (door left half open, as per Alice's sharp reminders), Jughead had yet again grown bored of doing actual work and was aimlessly pacing back and forth. Betty was sprawled on the floor, rotating between her history textbook, her algebra notes, and the short story collection for honors English. Jughead marveled at her concentration; he had rushed his way through the required readings for the next day before immediately getting distracted by all the photos and framed art on Betty's walls.
He was looking at the framed photo of Betty and Polly as kids for the thousandth time when he noticed a beat up box left beside it. The lid was askew, unable to close for the tall stacks of paper held inside. Jughead felt bad poking around, but couldn't help digging into the box once he recognized his scratchy handwriting on some of the scraps.
It was all of his notes to her. Even the ones written on gum wrappers and the back of his algebra homework. The first one he wrote telling her he loved her. All his corny Oxford comma jokes. "Hey, Betts?"
She looked up and flushed when she saw where Jughead was. Smiling sheepishly, she got up and walked over to her dresser. She didn't say anything, but threading her fingers through his.
"You kept all of these?" he whispered.
"Of course I did!" Betty drew him into a hug and searched his eyes as she withdrew. "I read them when I can't sleep."
Jughead blinked. "You what?"
"I read them when I get too anxious. I like seeing your handwriting and reading them in your voice. It calms me down." Jughead was gaping at her. He picked up his jaw from the floor, shaking his head at her. Placing his hands on both her shoulders, he leaned into and lightly kissed her forehead.
"You are the most beautiful person I know."
Betty smiled. "Can I get that in writing?"
