Barchie Oneshots

Oh No!

A/N
BARCHIE NATION RISE!!! We were fed this episode, FINALLY! I haven't written barchie in so long, but this episode inspired me. This takes place after the kiss!!
—————————————————————-
"That was..."

Betty didn't know what she was trying to say.

"Yeah."

Betty felt her heart drop into her stomach. What had she done?

The pair had broken apart many minutes ago, and split to opposite sides of the room. Betty felt the pit in her stomach grow with each passing second, but she couldn't bring herself to leave the garage. It was like leaving would make it worse somehow.

"What do we do?" Archie asked.

"I-I don't know. What can we do?" Betty felt her tone grow uneven, desperation seeping through.

Betty pushes her smooth fingernails into the familiar grooves of her palms, calluses giving way to blood. Tears burned in her eyes, her heart was beating out of her chest.

Archie sat on the couch and put his head in his hands.

Without thinking, Betty sat next to him.

"Betty..."

"We did something awful."

Archie looked at Betty, catching her by surprise with his intensity.

"It didn't feel awful."

There it was. After all of it—the crush, the pining, the moving on, the dancing around each other—Archie was showing his hand.

He liked her, or at least, felt something for her.

And the timing couldn't be worse.

"We can't do this Arch," the tears spilled over, wetting her lids, "we-we just can't. Jughead and Veronica would be-they're gonna be crushed! What we did-"

Archie grabbed Betty's hands, pulling her fingers from her fist.

"I'm sorry." Archie said, pain evident.

Betty chanced a look at him. His face was contorted in pain, and she could see a wetness in his eyes.

"Don't be sorry," she said, leaning back against the cushion, "not to me."

They were silent for a while more.

"I can't tell Jughead. It would kill him."

"Which means I can't tell Veronica."

Betty squeezed Archie's hand and stood up.

"I gotta go."

And with that she left the garage, leaving Archie in pieces.

It's bad. For three days, Betty and Archie avoid each other. They spend agonizing hours lying to their partners, crying in the bathroom.

Betty knows the guilt will fade, when she marries Jughead and gives him a house full of kids and the stability he deserves, the guilt won't be there anymore.