Our Lustful Summer

Chapter One: Falling for the Red Head

(Jughead's P.O.V.)

There he was.... Archie Andrews, sitting at the lunch table with his guitar in hand, singing away. He has such an angelic voice, he makes my body weak. He also has the most beautiful smile I've ever seen, and his ginger hair is to die for. Gosh, I've been in love with him since the ninth grade. He was, and is, the cutest guy in class, and of course on the high school football team (since the majority of the football team are douchebags).  

I have a confession to make. Archie and I.... well, we had a "fling" of sorts over summer vacation. Veronica went back to New York for a few months to visit her extended family, while Betty's mom forced her and her family to go on a road trip to Nevada or some place to visit relatives. Since it was just us left in town in our friend group, Archie and I started hanging out more and more, like we always had, but just the two of us, which we hadn't done in a while. However, this wasn't like it always was. When we were kids, I just saw him as a guy that I aspired to be. He's so nice and genuine, and always tries to do the right thing, while I'm snarky as fuck and can be the devil's advocate when needed. We're basically fire and ice, but have a common ground: burgers at Pop's. We've been going there for as long as I could remember, but it's definitely gained a special place in my heart after this summer.

One night, July 4th, to be exact, Arch and I went on a midnight run for all the burgers and milkshakes we could stuff in our mouths, when all of a sudden he gave me this look. I can't describe it, but it made me feel like I never had with anyone else before. I've never been too interested in dating, while Archie is practically a "womanizer", for lack of a better word. He's dated almost the entire student body (an exaggeration, but still) of female students, and each time he would, a little part of me died inside. I didn't realize what that feeling was until the last day of finals before our Christmas break in ninth grade. Reggie and his goons were being dicks, as usual, but this time they struck a nerve. They were talking about how lousy my parents were, and how much of a freak my little sister, Jellybean, was. My family is my rock; my everything. Yes, they may not be the "perfect" family, but perfect is just a relative term, made up by society, just to widen the dividing line between the "haves" and the "have-nots", but that's beside the point. Archie overheard them and stood up for me. He was friends with all of them (and still is, for some reason), but beat the shit out of them. Granted, he's done this for me before, as well as Betty, but this event awoke something inside of me that made me realize the ultimate truth: I was falling head over heels for the red headed boy everyone loved and adored.

Oh.. don't mind me, I'm just crushing hard over here.... I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Jughead Jones III. I'm the quiet guy in the back of the class who minds his own business and writes his "manifestos" while the rest of the world gets wrapped up in one materialistic trend after another. No one really pays much attention to me; I'm an outsider, as my peers would describe me, so I don't run with the popular crowd, which is just the way I like it. I prefer a quiet area (such as my own booth at Pop's in the late hours of the night, trickling into early morning) and solitude to the noisy and crowded hallways full of teenage angst and hormones; i.e, a bunch of neanderthals, like the jocks for example. But with Archie, he's able to break down those walls I've spent so much time building, and actually makes me enjoy living in the here and now; something I've never been able to do before.

*The 5 minute warning bell started it's obnoxious tone, signaling my presence inside the now hallowed halls of the one and only Riverdale High.*

English, first period. Whose bright idea was that? As much as I enjoy dabbling in my writing abilities with some Shakespeare or F. Scott Fitzgerald, 8 AM is just too early for these narrow minding numbskulls, including myself.

I got so caught up in my "gush session" that I didn't even realize how late I had stayed outside school. I stood up from the steps where I had been sitting and swung my bag onto my shoulder, hearing a thud once it got there. I turned around and noticed I hit Archie in the face, scaring the life out of me as well.