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The last few weeks had been the happiest of Archie’s life. He was back being best friends with Betty, who was happily dating Veronica, he was playing football on the weekends, he’d found a music teacher who wasn’t Ms. Grundy and he was able to help his dad out almost every day. On top of all that was Jughead. They’d been dating and Archie couldn’t believe that he’d manage to go through all those months of summer without Jughead by his side. Every night they were at each other’s house, watching movies, chatting or silently working. They had settled into the most comfortable reality that, six months previously, Archie wouldn’t have been able to imagine.
***
They were sat at a school assembly when, predictably, Cheryl Blossom announced the date of the spring formal.
“If anyone suggests Floral as the theme, I will end you. Any other suggestions tweet them using the hashtag RiverdaleSpringFormal2017, thank you!” She flounced off the stage, ponytail bouncing behind her. Mr. Wheatherbee stood back up to continue his announcements, but the general hum of whispers around them made it pretty obvious that no one was listening. Veronica leaned over Betty to whisper to Jughead and Archie.
“The four of us should totally take my mom’s car!” she said, before leaning back to Betty and excitedly whispering about dresses and colours. Archie glanced over at Jughead, who hadn’t reacted to the news of a dance at all. In fact, he seemed too casual. Normally Jughead would be full of sarcastic comments about the pointlessness of teenage dances, full of horny idiots dancing as inappropriately as they can with teachers still present. He didn’t get the chance to ask if he was ok, however, because the assembly quickly let up and the bleachers quickly became too rowdy with students leaving to hold any hope of a conversation. When Archie made his way out of the heavier part of the crowd, he couldn’t see Jughead anywhere. Knowing that he’d be late for his dad if he waited too long, he opted instead to send Jughead a text.
“Had 2 run 2 dads – we still on 4 2nite?”
A few seconds later, he got a simple text back.
“See you then”.
***
When Jughead arrived, he was carrying a bag of food from Pop’s and the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD. His grin was back to normal and Archie almost forgot the weirdness of earlier. They both settled on to Archie’s bed and began on the food as Marty McFly was woken up by his ridiculously complicated alarm. Nothing was out of the ordinary, with Jughead making comments on his favourite bits or little pieces of trivia, while Archie laughed too hard at most of the jokes, until the final scenes of the movie. When Marty and his mom walked into the Enchantment Under The Sea dance, Jughead went noticeably quite, for the second time that day. Again, Archie was worried. And so, rather than let it go, he leant over and paused the film.
“What’s up?” he asked Jughead, whose head was leaning on his chest.
“Nothing,” Jughead replied. “Why would something be up?”
“You got weird earlier about the dance, and now again?”
“Ah, right,” said Jughead. There was a few moments of silence before he continued. “I guess I just know that you like that kind of thing, and wasn’t sure if you wanted to go, or if you’d be bringing a date, or whatever.” Archie grinned. Jughead appeared confident and that was because, in most cases, he was. When it came to their relationship, however, it was a different story.
“I would want to go,” said Archie, “If, and only if, a certain guy I know would want to go with me.”
“You can’t see me, but I just rolled my eyes at you,” Jughead said. “You don’t mind your football friends seeing you go with me?”
“Moose will probably go with Kevin,” Archie argued, “and Reggie can get over himself. I don’t want to go to some overly cheesy event unless you’re with me.” When Jughead elbowed him in the side, Archie only laughed.
“Just play the fucking movie.”
***
When the day of the formal arrived, Jughead and Archie did indeed get a ride with Betty and Veronica. The theme had been finalized a few weeks before and when they arrived, the gym had a huge banner over the door with the words “Happily Ever After” on it in the classic Disney font. The hall itself was decorated with hearts and castles, silhouettes and roses, clearly trying to capture the Disney magic.
“It looks like Mickey Mouse vomited in here,” was Jughead’s comment. Betty and Veronica rolled their eyes. Betty, undoubtedly, had convinced Veronica that sticking to theme was important, and both were wearing dresses that had a throwback to Classic Disney – Betty’s the colour of Aurora, and Veronica’s the colour of Cinderella. Archie and Jughead, however, had both opted for simple jackets and trousers, and dark shirts. Veronica had been horrified to see that Jughead was wearing his hat, but Jughead had argued that it was thematically relevant. (“It’s a crown. I’m being a Disney Prince!”)
“Nice one Archie, which is your date!” Reggie sauntered over, throwing his arm around Archie’s shoulders and gesturing at Veronica and Betty.
“This one!” said Archie, putting his own arm around Jughead’s waist. Reggie frowned and dropped his arm.
“What the fuck, man?” he said. “Is everyone on this team gay?”
“Cheerleaders too!” exclaimed Veronica, pulling Betty in for a kiss. When they separated, Betty was visibly pink. Reggie however, spluttered.
“Jesus Christ, what’s a guy gotta do to find a girl around here?” he said, and Veronica waved.
“You could leave!” she said, taking Betty’s hand and pulling her over to the drinks table, throwing a quick “Goodbye, boys!” over her shoulder as she left. Reggie stood there for a second, before evidently deciding that his time would be better spent somewhere else and turning on his heels and leaving without another word.
“See?” Archie said, turning to Jughead. “Easy!” Jughead rolled his eyes.
“Whatever, Archibald,” he said, but smiled nonetheless.
“Now, can I ask for a dance from my Prince?” he joking went down on one knee and Jughead quickly pulled him back up.
“Only if you never call me that ever again,” he said, before wrapping his arms around Archie’s neck. The two swayed for the rest of the song, something slow that was being sung by Josie and the Pussycats.
“I hope your first dance isn’t going too badly,” Archie said, when the song was nearing its end.
“I can think of worse ways to spend an evening,” Jughead said. “Also better ways. But it’s not too awful. Except for the decorations. Those are atrocious.” Archie laughed.
“Cheryl’s in charge, you gotta expect it,” he said smiling.
“Whatever, you’re buying me a whole bunch of burgers for subjecting me to that torture.”
“Anytime.”