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Betty sat on the edge of her plush bed and looked out the window at the boy next door’s bedroom. It’d been a few weeks since she rejected the love of her life and only a few days since her best friend and boyfriend discovered a tape of her kissing Archie in his garage. So not only had Betty lost Archie, she had also lost Jughead and Veronica. Looking into Archie’s room, she noticed a few things were missing. His boxing bag, the posters of his favourite bands by his door, and the green curtains that she’d been seeing way too often lately. Slightly curious, Betty headed downstairs to ask her mother whether she knew anything about it. Alice was on the phone, most likely with FP, her mom’s boyfriend. He had to move out after Betty and Jughead broke up to avoid bad tension within the house (Jughead was his son). Betty waited a few minutes before deciding to not disrupt her mother, and instead headed outback. She knocked on Archie’s side door, half of her praying that it was him to open it, that he was alright. The other half hoped it was his mother so she wouldn’t have to confront Archie alone. Sure enough, Archie’s kind-faced, red-headed mother, Mary, opened the door.
“Betty? What are you doing here?”
Betty stepped inside the home she knew like the back of her hand, her second home.
“I’m so sorry if I woke you Ms Andrews, but I couldn’t help but notice Archie’s room looked a little-“
“Empty?” Betty nodded. “He didn’t tell you?”
Betty’s heart sank a little. No matter what had happened they were still best friends, why wouldn’t he tell her whatever what had happened? “Tell me what?”
“Betty”, Mary sighed, “ Archie signed up for the Navy a couple of weeks ago. He left this morning, I figured he’d told all of his friends.”
It felt like someone had taken a knife and stabbed Betty in the heart. He left? For the navy? He didn’t tell her, didn’t say goodbye. A single, cold tear slowly trickled down her face. What did she expect? She’d avoided Archie for weeks, she broke his heart and for what? For Jughead to break up with her only a few weeks later? Betty felt sick. He didn’t even say goodbye.
