Chapter Text
“So, first things, first. What is the evidence we have collected so far?” Jug asks, getting down to business as soon as I enter the office.
I set down my bag on my desk and pull out the letter and the gardenia I placed in my textbook to press. “So far It is just these two letters and this beautiful flower.”
“The second one is new. What do you think of it?”
I begin to respond but then decide to brush off the question. “Doesn’t matter what I think. I can’t even think about my feelings until I find out who this person is.” I pick up my trusty highlighter and purple pen that I use to edit Jug’s articles and start rereading the second letter once again. When I reach the last paragraph, I say, “This guy obviously has to have known me for a long time. That eliminates anyone new to the school…”
“Great, we can eliminate Veronica. Now we have it narrowed down to the entire male student body!”
“Look, Jughead,” I snap, “I asked for your help, not your sarcasm! Now, focus. I return my eyes to the letter but I can feel his gaze linger on me. “I didn’t mean to bite your head off. I’m sorry. I just really need to find out who this is, Juggie. Please?”
“Why does this mean so much to you, Betts? He obviously doesn’t want you to know its him. Can’t you leave it alone?”
“I don’t know why. I just have to. No one has ever really felt this way about me before. I want… I need to know if it is genuine, that he actually cares and this isn’t just… Veronica trying to cheer me up or a dumb cheer initiation prank masterminded by Cheryl. That’s why you are here. You’re my best friend but you are also one of the most honest people I know. I need you to tell me this isn’t some elaborate scheme, that this seems legitimate.”
He pulls up a chair next to me and envelopes my hands in his. When he brings them up to his lips and places a gentle kiss on them, I am momentarily stunned to silence and a rush of warmth rushes through my body. He tilts my chin up so our eyes can meet and whispers, “You are amazing, Betty Cooper. You’re like Nancy Drew meets Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. You deserve love. You are too fantastic to be with anyone who treats you less than a princess.”
I am speechless. What can you say to that? Those are the most beautiful, romantic words that any person has ever said to me. I don’t do it consciously, but gravity seems to pull our faces closer— so close I can feel his breath skate over my face. I see him glance down at my lips. Just a little closer and—
Knock. Knock.
I spring out of my chair just in time to see the smiling face of Trev Brown round the corner. “Hey, Betty! I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute?” He then seems to spot Jughead and, as a second thought, adds, “Oh, hi, Jughead.”
I take a look down at Jug only to see him staring down at his shoes. He only spares a second to half-heartedly wave at Trev before he storms out of the room.
“Is he okay? Did I interrupt something?”
I look after Jughead for a moment, still reeling from our… whatever it was, before I respond. “What? Oh, no. No. I think he’ll be fine. Anyway, what did you need?”
“Well, I was hoping I could ask you on a date, actually. Just you and me, maybe a movie, a round of milkshakes at Pop’s…”
For the second time in an hour, I feel the wind knocked out of me in shock. He’s asking me out? Me? We have known each other since pre-school and not once have I ever had an suspicion that he liked me as friends, much less romantically. We’ve talked in passing during student council functions, but never more than a few words here or there. I would’ve never guessed…
However, it seems that my mouth can process the information faster than my head can, because I hear myself say, “Sure.”
“Cool! Yeah!” He answers, his timid smile growing to a full-blown grin.
I hear him ramble on about times he is free and “I’ll text you later”, yet all I can think about Is what Jughead will think.
I am at cheer practice hours later when Cheryl announces that we will be here much longer than she originally thought.
“You bitches are a lot less capable than I gave you credit for. My mistake. Take a five minute break while I call Toni to tell her I have cancel our date because some people don’t understand their front handsprings from their hurkies!”
I collapse onto the ground, my muscles exhausted from basing far too many stunts than I ever want to. “V, can you pass me my phone in the front packet of my bag? I have to tell my mom I won’t be home in time to make the cupcakes for her book club tonight.”
“Sure, B. Oh you have a—“
I look up at her pause and see her staring intently at my phone, a look of shock or horror on her face. Which one, I’m not so sure.
“Elizabeth I-don’t-know-your-middle-name Cooper, what is this text from a Mr. Trev Brown?” She begins to read the message in a voice that is supposed to be male, but sounds more Terminator than Trev. “Hey, Betty! Just wanted to know if next Friday at six is okay for our date? Blushy smiley face! Betty! Why is this gentleman inquiring of your plans on Friday night and sending you flushing emoticons? What are you not telling me!”
She plops down on the floor next to me. I make to grab my phone but she moves it out of my reach before I can grab it and raises her eye brows at me.
“Its nothing, I promise. I was in the Blue and Gold office this morning when he came in and asked me out.”
“Oh my God! B! I didn’t even know you liked him. Good for you! I told you things would look up soon.” She pulls me up by my shoulders and gives me a big hug.
Cheryl’s commanding voice booms across the gym. “ENOUGH AFFECTION! The only times you ladies are allowed to look happy is when you are smiling through the intense pain and adrenaline coursing through your veins in the midst of the mind-blowing routine. Which is anything but mind-blowing right now! Back to work!”
Veronica helps me stand up and says, “We are not done talking about this, Ms. Cooper! I am calling Kevin and talking this out before we meet the guys at Pop’s tonight!”
In my bedroom, I sit at my vanity while Veronica does my makeup and Kevin looks through my closet to find an outfit for my date.
“Kev, I love and appreciate you for doing this, but my date is still a week away! That is plenty of time!”
“Oh, my dear, sweet Betty. This is not just any date. This is your first date. Why are you acting so blasé about this?” He kneels in front of me and V halts her war on my eyebrows.
I take a deep breath before thinking about it. Because he is right. I should probably be more excited about this. But something is keeping me from celebrating this thing that, just a few days ago, I was longing for.
But I don’t answer.
“Betty, if you aren’t really into him, maybe it’s not the best idea for you to go out on your first date with him? There is still time to back out, no shame,” Veronica hedges.
“I don’t want to cancel it. I had to have said yes for a reason. Whats the harm in one date, right?”
Then it hits me.
The letters. The flower.
I want him.
I want the guy who has been sweeping me off my feet. I want the one who writes me the sweet nothings and makes even my extra-curricular hell sound romantic. What if that guy is Trev? What if he has been writing the letters and has changed his mind about his anonymity? And this date is his way of telling me?
This date suddenly just got more interesting.
I must remain silent for too long because Kevin and Veronica have changed the subject to their own love lives.
“So I bought Archie’s anniversary gift yesterday and, I have to say, it is perfect!”
My curiosity piqued, I ask, “What did you decide to get him?”
She reaches into her purse and pulls out what looks like a ring box. When she opens the box, I see two small guitar pick-shaped silver pieces, each engraved with an “A”. “I was talking to his dad a couple weeks ago and he was saying that they have a wedding to go to soon, some friend of the family, and I asked if Archie had a pair of cufflinks to wear. He said no, so I called a friend of Daddy’s to have these custom-made! Aren’t they the cutest?”
“Veronica, he will adore them! They are perfect!” Exclaims Kevin, stealing the box so he can examine them a little more closely.
Wait, his dad? “I thought you asked for Jughead’s help with the gift?”
“Jughead,” she scoffs “why would I need Jughead’s help? That boy is as inept with gift-giving as he is with his own damn emotions!” Kevin nods along in agreement.
“But he said that he was talking to you the other day because you needed his help with Archie’s gift?”
She seems to think for a moment before it dawns on her and she hurries to come up with an answer. “Oh, yeah, that. Right! I needed him to hide the gift somewhere Archie wouldn’t find it, but then I realized I could just put it in my purse.” She turns and nervously digs through her bag.
Its clear that this is not even close to the truth, but I know better than to try and get a secret out of Veronica Lodge. Its like her mind has a high-security vault that has a code only a select few know.
Instead, we leave for Pop’s.
When we walk into the diner, I look around and see Archie and Jughead in our signature booth. It is clear they are in mid-conversation, Archie laughing and Jughead…is he blushing? God only knows what that is about. I start to head over, but Pop calls me over to his position behind the register.
“I’ll meet you guys at the table, just give me a minute. Make sure Juggie doesn’t drink my shake before I get there!”
Before I can ask, Pop hands me a letter. It is just like the others. A plain white envelope with To my Beloved on the front.
He seems to read my mind because I can’t even get the question out before he says, “I don’t know who it's from. The fella was long gone before I got back from the kitchen. It was just this and a post-it note that told me to give it to you.”
I rip it open, starving for the next installment in this saga.
To my Juliet,
You are so much more powerful than any celestial body.
I like to think I have at least a basic understanding of astronomy. I know how a star is born, and how it dies. I know that the sun will some day consume the Earth in a fiery inferno like no life has ever seen. I know that we all orbit that very sun.
But I have a new theory, something much more profound and ground breaking than Galileo or Newton.
I orbit you.
You have a gravitational pull that is so effortless, yet so strong, that I am powerless to resist it.
I am helpless, and I am not so sure that I want to be helped.
With each passing moment, I feel my body falling out of my own control and taking the path that you have determined for it, whether you are aware of it or not.
I cannot stop loving you, Betty Cooper, and I am not sure that I want to.
Always and forever yours,
Your Romeo.