♡ reggie . 

_{“ …yeah, betts. I’ll stay. as long as you need me to. ”  people could say whatever they wanted about reggie, but he wasn’t heartless. he wasn’t a monster. what other answer could he have given betty, who sounded small in a way she never did, so frightened? reggie reached out, after a beat of hesitation, took betty’s hand and squeezed gently, offering a tiny smile to the shadows of her room. the bed dipped under his weight, and he pulled the covers up over her best he could, settling in for a short wait until she fell asleep.}

_{“ … shouldn’t drink so much, y’know. it’s bad for your liver. ”  spoken like a true hypocrite. reggie sighed softly, ran a hand through sweaty, dishevelled hair, and tried not to let his mind wander to the spectacle downstairs that had driven betty to drink herself stupid in the first place. he failed in that endeavour. spectacularly. reggie’s voice was no louder than a whisper when he spoke into the darkness again. “ it won’t make it hurt any less, either. just makes it all… go away for a while. but it comes back, hurts just as much. ”}

_{the door creaked open just a little as someone peeked in – probably looking for the bathroom or something – and enough light spilled into the room that reggie could just catch a glimpse of the wetness on betty’s cheeks. and he hated the painful little throb his heart gives, hated that he was already reaching out to brush it away with a gentle brush of his knuckles. “ you shouldn’t cry over him, betty. he’s not worth tears. no guy is worth your tears. ”}

             _{Her tongue was lifeless behind her lips, but it didn’t keep Betty’s thoughts from spinning like the solar system around the scene she’d born witness to downstairs. Even now, she could remember that} SPIKE _{of hurt as she’d seen Veronica pressed to Archie’s body, their lips locked, locks of her raven-thick hair clutched in Archie’s freckled hand. It shouldn’t have hit so close to home, but it was her birthday… it was her} birthday _{and they probably had not even noticed she was} GONE_{; that Reggie was the one to take her away from the devastating sight; that they’d} ruined _{her seventeenth so wholly and completely.} 

_{She wasn’t sure where the hammer had struck harder. Archie? Or Veronica. Her so called} best friends_{? The only reprieve she could find in her drunken state was that Cheryl hadn’t been around to see, to laugh at the} mortification _{and pain that had flitted over Betty’s fragile face.} 

_{Betty hardly noticed the crack of light, but seconds later felt, rather than saw, Reggie’s hand on her face. She was taken back to her childhood, when nightmares had made sleep} IMPOSSIBLE_{, and her dad would put her to bed.} Shh, shh, _{he’d say.} I’ve got you_{. Despite everything, she felt} safe _{now, under Reggie’s watch. Safe enough to whisper,} “ _{I don’t know… what kills most. Him, or her. I feel so} STUPID_. ” _{Four-point-oh GPA and she still couldn’t find a way to get over the boy next door without breaking her own heart.} 

_{Before he could pull back, she reached up to twine her fingers around his wrist.} “ _{How do I get over him, Reg? I don’t –– I don’t want to} feel this way _anymore. ”