Our Lustful Summer

Chapter Four: Archie, My Love

(Archie's P.O.V.)

Those last words I heard come out of Jughead's mouth played like an annoying song in my head.

"-Is because I think I'm in love with him. I think I'm love with Archie, Betty,"

It was all I could think about, well, for the short time I had to process the thought until the I made "the noise around the world", so to speak, and awoke Bughead's attention span.

I stared emptily at the both of them for a few seconds, trying to find the correct word in order to form a sentence. I eventually started replying, nervously.

"Jug, is it true? Do you really love me?"

He looked into my eyes before answering back.

"Yeah, I do. Since our time at Sweetwater, and even before then. Honestly, you've made this summer the best one I've had yet, and I didn't wanna risk scaring you off by telling you."

It took me a while longer to process everything that had been brought out into the open. I picked up the little bits of courage that I could muster.

"Betty, can Jug and I have some time alone please?" I asked her solemnly.

She looked at me with an icy glare, but also with one of devastation, almost as if she had heard something disheartening, which I would later find out was actually the case. But with agreement, she turned to Jug to say goodbye.

"If you need me, you can always give me a call, okay Juggy?"

Jug looked at her and nodded. Betty made her exit out of the Twilight Drive-In, leaving Jug and I to talk.

We just sat in silence as time drew on and on, and what felt like hours was only minutes in reality. It was hard to think at a time like this, let alone make conversation. I, however, knew that if one of us didn't speak up, that nothing would get resolved, so I decided to be the sacrificial lamb.

"Juggy.."

But that was it. I couldn't formulate anything else. I just sat rubbing my hands together as if a chill ran through the empty drive-in, when Jug picked up where I seemingly left off.

"I didn't want to make anything harder on you than it already was," Jug said.

"Well, what do you mean by that?" I asked him.

He started to pace the room as he continued to speak.

"I know that with your mom gone, things haven't been easy. Also with the stuff about your dad wanting you to work for him, and football and your music, I didn't want to add to it all."

The air stood still as I was searching my brain for the words needed to reply back to him.

"And I know that I shouldn't feel like this; like I'm some sort of burden to you, but that's honestly how I've felt since summer ended. And seeing you with Miss Grundy didn't help with that either, so I just don't know what to do Archie. I'm at a standstill. I can't eat, I can't sleep; something's gotta give."

I looked at him and couldn't help but sympathize.

"Juggy.... the whole thing with her is a complicated story. Basically her and I had been working on some stuff for my music the last few weeks before school started, and then things heated up faster than I'd have thought. I got together with Miss Grundy to try and prove something to myself; I didn't know what that was, and I still don't. I do, however, know that I'm crazy about you, Jug. And I don't want to lose you. If you want me to stop seeing Grundy, then I will. Not because you'd be wanting me to, but because our friendship, and possibly beyond that, is more important to me than some "cougar".