Boyhood → jarchie ( EDITING )

2

13 years old

Archie knew his friendship with Jughead was close. He liked it that way, he was able to tell him things that he would never dream of telling Betty or Kevin. No one had ever really brought it to either boys attention that they were too close, mostly due to the fact that Archie was oblivious to his teammates jokes and some people were too intimidated by Jughead to even go up to him and ask.

"How sure are we that Archie is straight?" Kevin questioned bring his voice to a low tone once said the redheaded boy was out of ear shot just to be safe. Betty's response was to roll her eyes and give him a quick sharp punch to his shoulder earning a groan of annoyance from the boy.

"You ask that every time." Betty says twirling her straw around in her vanilla milkshake. Jughead, not surprisingly wasn't listening, keeping his attention on the falling rain through the neon lit window of Pops.

"Jughead must know." He looked to the two that sat across from him the moment he heard his name, he raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. "About Archies sexuality." Kevin finished shoving some fries into his mouth.

Reality was Jughead never thought about it much unless it was brought up, he never bothered to ask the overly happy boy during late night conversations in Archies living room. It was known that he was never the one to talk about girls much or even boys for that matter, he was too involved in football and learning the guitar to focus on other things.

In response, Jughead gave a shrug of the shoulders "look if you're so curious why don't you ask him yourself?"

"Don't you think I've tried?" Betty spoke before Kevin could "he always dances around the question like it's a snake that's gonna bite him and kill him."

Jughead sat back into the booth crossing his arms at his chest looking back to the outside world . "And that's my problem because...?"

"People at school are always questioning if your relationship was more than "just friends." Kevin put air quotes around "just friends." Jug snapped his head away from the window bring his attention on the boy who sat before him, praying that his face wouldn't start turning red. He knew exactly what he meant, it wouldn't be the first time that his and Archies friendship was questioned but mostly by his parents or little sister, he never knew that kids at school thought this too.

"First I'm hearing of this."

Him and Archie? Impossible

"Well maybe if people didn't think you lead the cult from The Children of the Corn, more people would talk to you."

Jughead scoffed, people thinking that he lead a cult was nothing new. Spotting Archie walking back from the table of teammates he started with them after he left the bathroom, he knew that the conversation had to come to a stop before Archie over hears.

"Look if he does turn out to be gay or whatever else he may be, then let him come out on his own time, stop trying to force it out of him like a mother trying to force herself into every activity her child does." Jughead said in a whisper

Archie came to the table immediately sitting back down without a word staring down at the almost empty plate on the table. The three looked to him noticing his face was completely red, Betty went to ask was was wrong but Jughead caught her eye before she could

"Leave it." He mouthed

Later that night Jughead stared up at the dark ceiling of Archie room listening a mixture of rain against the roof and the restless movements of the boy who laid in the bed a few feet from him. Every now and then he the conversation they had at the diner popped back into his head only adding more questions to the already big question.

'Why did he never talk about girls like the rest of the boys besides Kevin, did?'

'Are him and Archie too close?'

'Do either of them show signs of possibly liking one another, more than a friend?'

These questions racked inside Jugheads brain, he could just straight up ask him. Then again he didn't want to make things weird between.

"What if I don't like girls." Archie spoke breaking the silence, the statement was almost like he was having a conversation with himself and started speaking a loud. Jughead turned adjusting himself on the air mattress so that he was propped up on his elbows, finding the other boy staring back at him.

"Huh?"

"I don't know." Archie let out a sigh sitting up in his bed "it's like I've never been attracted to a girl in the sense that I want to date her or do anything with her , I only find them pretty."

"What's wrong with that?"

"My teammates make fun of me for it."

"Screw them." Jughead spat making Archie laugh a bit

"It's just- shouldn't I know by now? Shouldn't I know if-

"Look man, who cares what they say. And no, you don't have to know right now."

Archie flopped back down into his bed "I guess you're right."

With that the conversation ended, of course Jughead wanted to ask more questions but he decided to stay quiet not wanting to press on it. It's one of the first times Archie has ever opened up on a topic like this and if he was to bombard the other boy with questions he knew that he would shut down.

'Leave it for another day.'
                                                                **********
Author: YOOOOO. I'm sorry I haven't updated in like weeks but I literally have written a chapter and deleted this chapter dozens of times before I came to this point. And I know my writing is horrible and the storyline is horrible at the moment don't come for me sideways

Also this book is going to contain flash backs but will mostly take place in present time unless indicated other wise.

The "sleepover scene" I guess you can call it is loosely based off a conversation I had with my friend at two in the morning over the phone ((I was jug and he was Archie))