"He's a bad kisser."
Jughead hears his girlfriend from across the room and looks up from his game to find her on the couch, surrounded by freshmen and sophomore girls.
"No way." One of them says. Betty nods and takes a sip of her drink.
"The worst." She glances up then, her eyes finding his.
She's laughing at him. Even all the way across the room, he can tell she's teasing him. All from her eyes.
Archie elbows him in the gut. "Your turn lover boy." He says, passing him the pong ball. When he looks back at Betty, she's still staring at him,
And then she winks.
The ball misses. Completely flies off the table and rolls almost to the other side of the room.
Right to the couch.
"I got it!" Jughead says, brushing past everyone and making his way to the ball, making his way to his girlfriend.
She's no longer looking at him, but instead, listening to the one of the girls talk about her ex, but he knows she knows he's close. They've been dating a while now, almost a year, and he can read her like an open book.
She's angled slightly toward him, and the second he's out of the crowd and into the space of the couch, she tucks her hair behind her ears.
The girls around the couch giggle. He scoops up the ball and takes two more steps until he's close enough that he could reach out and touch her.
She slowly, slowly, turns to him and meets his eyes.
"Hey Jones," she says, taking a sip of her drink.
"Sup, Cooper."
She bites her lips because she's evil, and then he leans over, bracing himself on the back of the couch.
"How's the game going?" Betty asks, not backing away.
Jughead shrugs. "I'm a little distracted." He leans a bit closer, and her resolve breaks just slightly. Her eyes drop to his lips. "Maybe a good luck kiss would help."
She gasps. Just loud enough for him to here, and, god, he loves her.
He loves this girl. This girl who knows his deepest secrets. This girl that knows his favorite movies, and who makes him cookies when she knows he's had a bad day. His girl, who loves solving murders, and writing for the blue and gold, and hates driving, and apparently teasing him from all the way across the room at parties.
He loves her so much. But she's been teasing him all night. Now it's his turn.
She wets her lips and slides her hands into his hair.
"Just one." She smiles as he closes the space between, and then, his lips meet hers.
The room disappears. It's just him and her, and her hands tugging his hair, and her lips parting, his tongue swiping out to her lips and...
He abruptly pulls away and takes two steps back.
Her pupils are blown wide and her cheeks are pink, and he wants to kiss her again, he wants to take her and get into his car and drive until they have privacy, so he can kiss her as much as he wants without an audience.
But he just winks. And turns away, back toward his boys and the pong table. Archie rolls his eyes as Jughead passes him the ball.
He waits a beat to turn back to Betty.
She's still staring at him, a smile on her face.
"So..." one of the girls says.
"I lied," Betty says, making sure she says it loud enough that he can hear.
He can't help the smile that breaks on his face.
Bad kisser his ass.
