Chapter Text
The first time Betty Cooper meets Jughead Jones, she finds him arrogant. She spends an entire hour complaining about him—and not so much about the bad date he’d mercifully interrupted—to her patient best friend.
The second time Betty Cooper meets Jughead Jones, she upgrades (or downgrades) arrogant to vexing, and poor Veronica has to listen to Betty’s rants and raves for four hours this time—and on the night of Ronnie’s engagement party, too.
The third time Betty Cooper meets Jughead Jones, she whizzes right past vexing and settles comfortably into infuriating. This time Betty spares Veronica the dirty details until the next morning, and Veronica is smart enough to have a mimosa prepared before she answers the phone.
The seventh time Betty Cooper meets Jughead Jones, they reach and understanding, in more ways than one. Veronica is blissfully unaware, and Archie is as clueless as ever.
The eighth(?) time Betty Cooper meets Jughead Jones—she’s lost count at this point—she’s abandoned infuriating in favor of a more complex set of emotions, among them gratitude, amusement, and lust. She skips the phone call to Veronica entirely this time, for two reasons: because Veronica is on her honeymoon, and because Betty does not want to admit that she’s been recently fucked by Jughead Jones (whom she no longer hates...and maybe never did).
The tenth time and every time afterwards, Betty Cooper must admit she’s fallen in love with Jughead Jones. And that maybe she never hated him to begin with.
But first they have to meet, be forced together again and again—thanks, Veronica—and get past their mutual annoyance to find something they never knew they wanted, and no longer want to live without.