Benjamin Johnson has never been the centre of ridicule, he was far too mundane for that, but right now would be a good a time as any for the footballers to run him into the dirt.

Andy's football practice found his younger brother stranded, without a ride home from school. The bus was long since gone, and all the extracurriculars were starting back up again. So, he was stuck watching the football practice from the bleachers, trying to distract himself with whatever was on his Instagram feed. He wasn't a fan of watching his brother and his friend show everyone how hot they were, or how fit and perfect they were. Ben wasn't one for sport, his body just wasn't up for whatever physical activity would throw at him. He tried out for soccer once, and ended up with a fractured nose and the realisation that being in goals was not the position for him.

Kevin had texted him a while earlier, telling him he would be coming out of formal committee in the next fifteen minutes. He hoped it was over soon, because he was starting to get annoyed at the odd looks some of the River Vixens and football players were giving him. He was the only one on the bleachers, looking like a bit of a loner. He never wanted to be able to drive as much as he did right now. He hated that his mode of transport nowadays was his brother's car. Yeah, he had a bike, but he did not have the energy to ride it to school. He rolled his eyes as he could feel his brothers judging eyes on him, nudging Reggie as if they had a private joke against him. No doubt they did, and no doubt it was probably the stupidest thing ever.

"Well, don't you look cosy up here." Kevin said, walking up to him. "Your imaginary friends keeping you company?"

Ben just nodded, grinning. "Yeah, come on guys, say hi to Kevin!" he pretended to talk to air, but it seemed his acting was a little too convincing, as the cheerleaders on the racing track raised their brows at the freak on the bleachers. He just ignored them, shifting over a bit to let Kevin sit down. "How's being on the dance committee?"

"Great, until Josie told us how Cheryl wanted everything. Apparently, she wants Jason's face plastered on every banner and wall you can find." Kevin patted the stack of what looked like posters on his lap. "It was a weird conversation to have with the secretary. 'Sorry, Ms. Lynch, could I have a hundred copies of Jason Blossom's face, please?'." Ben snorted, dreading to think of the awkwardness that ensued after that. "So, why are you here so late?"

"Andy's my ride, so I'm stuck here until practice is over." feeling like changing the subject, Ben smirked at him. "Speaking of the dance, have you asked anyone yet, maybe a certain jock whose name rhymes with Roose?"

Kevin laughed mirthlessly, raising his brows in a matter that proved to Ben that this was somewhat of a touchy subject. "You really think he'd go to the dance with a guy. The only time he's intimate with guys in public is when he's fist bumping them after football games."

Ben sighed, rolling his eyes. Kevin just couldn't catch a break. "I'm sorry, Kev, I could go with you if you want."

His friend balked at him, before laughing. "I appreciate it, but I don't think so. You're not my type."

"What, scrawny?"

"Straight."

Ben gasped, placing his hand over his heart with a shocked look. "Um, what tells you I'm straight?" Kevin just smirked, elbowing him. "I'm serious, if Reggie Mantle swung that way, I'd at least try."

"Well then, should I be informing a certain blonde River Vixen that you won't be going with her." his best friend sang, sighing if he was carefree. Ben's head whipped to him, eyes wide until he realised how crazy he looked and tried to tone it down.

"Betty doesn't have a date to the dance?" upon hearing how desperate he sounded, he tried to dial it back. "I mean, I thought she asked Archie or something?"

Kevin just gave him a look before nodding his head in the direction of the gym, most of the River Vixens leaving. Ben turned his head to see Betty and Veronica walking across the track field, dressed in the infamous River Vixen's uniform. To say that his eyes nearly fell out of his head was an understatement. He sat there, eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar as Betty caught his eye. Her iconic ponytail swayed in the wind as she tugged at the white sleeves of the under shirt. Veronica walked beside her, blue hairband in her hair. They seemed to be talking about something serious, considering the blonde's sheepish expression. Ben's brow furrowed a bit, he hoped she was alright. "You need to stop kidding yourself, Benji. You're in love, like Noah and Ally from the Notebook, in love."

Ben blinked, turning back to his friend with a clueless look, having heard none of what he had said. "Huh, what?"

Kevin smiled a knowing smile at him, before shaking his head. "Oh, nothing."

Ben stood up. "Hey, maybe we should go and talk to them, congratulate them." his friend nodded, matching his movements as they walked down the steps of the bleachers. Ben felt a smile form on his lips as he made his way over to the girls. Maybe he could ask Betty to the dance, Veronica and Kevin had really tried to shove Betty and him together, so he really should try and make a move. He just needed to shove his nerves to the side and come out and say it. The worst she could do was reject him, and she would do it as gently as possible. He clenched his fists, nodding to himself, he was going to do it, he was going to ask Betty out.

However, this plan was shattered as he heard Veronica call out. "Archie!" Ben's smile dropped as he held out an arm to halt Kevin. Together, they both stood still, watching the three converse. "Hi, Teen Outlander." Veronica said, batting her eyelashes at him. What did she have planned?

"Hey." Archie greeted, sweaty, out of breath and even more annoyingly beautiful than before. "Nice outfits."

"Betty said she has something she wants to ask you about the Back-to-School dance." Ben felt his heart lurch at what she was implying. "Go on, Betty, ask."

"I was wondering if you wanted to come with.... the both of us." Ben's heart sank at Betty's question. Beside him, he felt Kevin deflate as Archie began to smile a little. "Huh?"

Veronica looked as confused as Archie. "What?"

Betty smiled bashfully at her new friend. "It's your first dance at Riverdale. You should have someone to go with, even if it's just a friend." Ben could feel his plans slipping through his fingers right in front of him. Was this Veronica's plan all along? His heart felt like it was going to snap in half.

Even though he was as clueless as ever, Archie seemed to be saving him though. "I mean, I'd love to. I'm not really in the headspace for a dance."

The blonde in front of him pressed her lips into a thin line, trying to hide the hurt from his rejection. "Oh, that's okay."

Veronica glared slightly at the ginger boy. "Totally unacceptable, Archiekins. We need an escort. Take a break from being a tortured musical genius and come spend a blissful evening with not one, but two newly-minted River Vixens." Archie stared at her for a moment, before smiling in both defeat and acceptance. He wasn't going to say no to two beautiful girls, of course, much to the dismay of Ben. "We'll text you time and place."

"Okay, yeah, okay." he nodded, and Ben felt every hope he had for his chances with Betty die right then and there. The two girls said goodbye to him before turning around and coming face to face with Ben and Kevin.

Betty beamed at them, while Veronica's whole demeanour changed. She gave him a smile, but he knew what was behind her eyes. She was apologising already. "Hey, guys!" Betty said, eyes practically sparkling.

"Hey," Kevin said first, knowing Ben wouldn't have the words just yet, especially after what they had been forced to witness. "Love the outfits!"

Betty giggled, smoothing down her blue skirt. "I know, I love it." she gave them a twirl, and Ben found himself smiling at her. She was so happy, and he couldn't help but be happy for her, she did end up getting the guy she liked to go to the dance with her. She had accomplished something he surely couldn't. "What do you think, Benji?"

Veronica watched the absolute adoration for the blonde fill his expression. "You look amazing. Cheryl doesn't know what's she talking about."

"Oh, speaking of, Veronica absolutely slaughtered her while at tryouts." Ben raised his brows, turning to the black haired girl who just shrugged nonchalantly.

Kevin smirked. "Oh, I need a play by play, tell me everything." he walked over to her, looping his arm through her and skipping off to the main school building. Now, it was just Betty and Ben standing there, albeit awkwardly.

"So," she said, rocking on her heels. "Looking forward to the dance?"

"Oh yeah, really looking forward to it."

Liar.

She giggled, and his heart flipped at the sound. "Have you asked anyone?"

No, because the one person I wanted to ask is horribly in love with our mutual friend.

"Well, I was thinking of asking someone, but Kevin rejected me, so I'm trying not to let that ruin my chances with anyone else."

She shot him a confused look before shaking her head in amusement at him. "Don't worry, Benji, you'll find someone. Any girl who rejects you is blind."

Ben hummed a laugh, blind didn't even begin to cover it.

He didn't even want to ask her if she had asked anyone, because he knew it would hurt too much to hear her tell him she had asked Archie, and he had accepted it. Jealously sizzled like a rekindled fire in his chest as he thought about Andrews getting to take the girl he had basically fallen in love with to the dance, it roared at the inevitability of the two of them getting together and being cute and in a relationship in front of him and it grew out of control as he came to the realisation that Betty harboured absolutely no romantic feelings toward him, in any capacity, at any point in their friendship.

(Little did he know, he was wrong about two of those things) 

-

In the end, he did end up asking someone to the dance, a family friend by the name of Ethel Muggs.

It was after they had returned from the football field, entering the locker area as Betty and Veronica collected their things to head home. Veronica had pulled him off to the side, apologising profusely about what had happened. "I didn't think she'd rope me into it, I had a plan to make them both jealous." she'd hissed.

"What was the plan?" he had asked, although was there any point now? It wasn't going to be put into motion.

"I was going to ask you in front of her, and Archie if I was lucky enough, to make them jealous."

"Betty doesn't get jealous when it comes to me."

Veronica tilted her head slightly, in an 'are you kidding me' motion. "Did you see how she reacted back at the diner?"

"Huh?" he blinked at her, making her sigh.

"Oh, court jester," she placed her hands on his shoulders, squeezing, "you really are as dumb as Kevin says you are."

He didn't know what to say to that, so he left the conversation be, and before he knew it, he was back in Andy's car, done with school for the day.

Asking Ethel was both terrifying and easy at the same time. What if she rejected him, what if she already had a date, would she think this was a romantic thing? Ben had a problem for over-thinking situations, anyone who knew him could tell you that, but this seemed to be a lot more complicated than he had originally thought out.

She had agreed, with a soft smile and a nod of her head, "Sure, I'd love to go!" she had said, after he had asked her to go as just friends. Strangely, he felt proud to make her feel happy, Ethel deserved to get the same treatment as any other girl when it came to the formal. Just because Cheryl deemed them unpopular did not make them loose the right to go. So, they had arranged a time to pick her up, and here he was, at her door with his brother waiting in the car, sans Cheryl Blossom.

Ethel answered the door dressed in a cute emerald green dress. Her hair was curled and she wore a nice pair of white flats. "Hi, Benny!" he smiled at the nickname, Benny was his nickname from middle school, when he and his brother were best friends with her, before he moved on to Benji. "You look great!"

"Thanks, you do too Ethel." he handed her the corsage he had bought, a lovely white lily. "Sorry about the ride by the way, Andy's my only method of transportation until I'm old enough to drive." he felt like he was the lamest person when he heard his words, but Ethel didn't seem to mind, even if his brother was a bit of a touchy subject for her.

"It's fine, I understand." she had grown a tad bit smaller in her stance, but he just took a hold of her hand and squeezed it. "Come on." he said, a comforting smile on his face. "Let's have a kickass time."

After taking a few pictures at her mothers request, they had squeezed into the back of Andy's car. Andy took one look in the rear view mirror at Ethel, who shied away at their eyes locking. "Hey, Andy." she said in a quiet voice, staring out the window at the slowly disappearing front of her house.

"Hi, Ethel." he ground out, Ben knowing that this had struck a nerve. He swallowed, fixing his tie around his collar as it had gotten painfully tight. This may not have been the best idea he'd ever had.

They got to the gym entrance, where some bass filled pop song flooded the room. Andy looked fit to explode beside him, even going so far as to grab a fist of his brothers shirt and drag him back as Ethel opened the gym doors. "Did you do this on purpose?" Andy seethed, pushing his brother up against the wall.

"No, you ass, get off!" he shoved him back, fixing his clothes. "I was just trying to be nice, lord knows you aren't."

Andy's chest heaved, but he made no move toward him. "It's not my fault." he said, as if saying it enough times would make him belief himself.

"Sure it wasn't." was all Ben said to him before entering the gym on his own. Ethel was at the snack table, holding two cups of punch. "Hey, sorry about that." he said, taking one of the cups from her. "So," he sipped his drink, eyes wandering around all the Jason Blossom memorabilia. "This isn't creepy at all."

"I was fine with it until I saw those." she giggled, pointing to the large banners with Jason's yearbook photo from last year plastered over them. "Then it got weird." he laughed, sighing a little as they both swayed along to the music. "Hey, Ben?" he raised his brows at her, acknowledging her question. "How many people did you ask before me?"

That was a dangerous question to answer, he knew that from the moment she finished the question. How the hell was he supposed to answer that? "Um, no one, well, no one seriously anyway."

"I'm honoured you asked me, but I thought you would've asked the new girl, or Betty. Not me."

Ben shrugged. "I mean, it crossed my mind."

"Yeah, and if we're being honest, you were my first choice either." her eyes drifted to his brother, who was busy dancing with Cheryl. He knew that look, that was the look he gave Betty all the time, only Ethel had it at one point, and Andy let it go.

Ben put down his drink and faced her head on. "Hey, let's forget about our lacklustre love lives and let's just be ourselves tonight, you know? Let's not worry about Betty, or Andy, or anyone else, okay? Let's just have fun."

Ethel stared at him a few moments before breaking out into a grin. "I'd like that." there was a call for her name, the two turning around to see two girls waving at her from the side of the bleachers. "Hey, could you give me a sec, I wanna say hi!"

"Yeah, sure, save me a dance, Ethel Muggs!" she laughed, running off to greet her friends who were starting to stare at him. He went to the punch, topping up his drink and nodding along to the song when he felt a tap against his shoulder. Veronica was there, dressed in a deep purple cocktail dress. "Hey, Ms. New York, you look fantastic."

"Not as fantastic as the apple of your eye, court jester." she pointed to where Betty stood, alone, without Archie. He didn't really care about that last part though, he was too busy drinking up the beauty that was Betty Cooper. She wore a dusty pink gown, with intricate cut outs in the waist. She held a matching clutch in her hand, tapping it against her free one as if she was waiting. There was a few seconds were Veronica genuinely the boy had short circuited, and had to wave a hand across his line of vision to get him to re-focus. "Wow, you've got it bad." she muttered, smirking at him.

"Hey, where's Archie?" he asked out of the blue. Veronica was a bit taken aback by his question as she looked back to see Betty without a redhead beside her, now talking to Kevin.

"I don't know, he was there a second ago."

Ben scanned the area around them in an effort to find their mutual friend, and he was successful, only problem was where he found him. Archie was over at the seats, sitting a few seats away from Ms. Grundy, trying and failing to look inconspicuous. He rolled his eyes, his grip tightening on his plastic cup until his knuckles went white. "I'll be back in a second." he informed Veronica, handing her his drink and walking toward the football player. If this boy thought he was going to spend the whole dance talking to this creep instead of Betty, then he had another thing coming.

"Hey, Archie!" he said, trying to make it look like he was just calling him over. Both Ms. Grundy and Archie looked up, fear flashing over their eyes for a second before Archie stood up and walked as casually as he could over to him. Once he was close enough, Ben dropped the act. "Are you out of your mind?" he seethed through gritted teeth.

Archie blinked at him. "What—What do you mean, Ben?"

"Cut the act, Andrews, I know what's going on between you and Grundy." Archie's eyes widened as he gestured for him to keep it down. "Seriously, man, what the hell are you doing?"

"Nothing!" he said, in an effort to keep Ben's voice down. "Nothing is happening. We were just talking about music, I swear."

"Really?" Archie nodded. "Then how do you know her first name?" his friend went pale. "You're pretty intimate with each other to just be talking about music."

"Look, Ben, it's a lot more complicated than that, so can you just drop it?"

Ben took a good minute to stare at him, before he pushed a finger at his chest. "I hope you know what you're doing, Andrews."

"I can handle this." Archie said, chest puffing a bit at the insinuation in Ben's voice.

The smaller boy's stare turned to steel. "Then you go back to Betty, and you forget about what is happening between you and Grundy. You show her a nice night and you be the date she's always wanted you to be, got it?"

Because so help me, he thought, if you hurt her, your secret won't be a secret much longer.

-

A/N: Am I shitty for ending it there, probably, but it would've dragged on if I continued. 

Anyway, you get a little bit of family drama with the introduction of Ethel into the story. What had gone on with Andy and Ethel?? Time will tell.

Also, Ben is a smol angry bean who needs a nap and lots of cuddles, and that gif of Tom is just 😍😍😍

Comment, vote & follow! - Emma