Aberration ≫ Jarchie

T W E N T Y - T W O

Trigger warning, homophobic slur where Asterisks are.

Eleven Years Old ❣︎ September

"How's it going? Not dressed in drag today?"

"Wow, almost didn't recognize you without the makeup."

"I see Riverdale's gay boy finally made it to the middle school."

"Is that your boyfriend? Do you do his make up too?"

Jughead frowns and keeps his head down, walking side by side with Archie as they make their way down the halls, insults being thrown at the darker hue left and right.

***"What's up @#!?"***

The comment made Jughead's head snap up so fast, you'd think he broke it.

"What did you just say to me?" Jughead challenged, his ocean eyes boring into dark chocolate ones.

"Jughead, just leave it alone." Archie mutters under his breath, staring up at the tall kid in front of them.

Jughead mentally frowns.

Archie called him Jughead.

Since when has Archie ever called him Jughead?

"You heard me." The challenger said confidently, taking a step closer to Jughead who refused to back down.

"And you are?" Jughead asked sassily, squinting his eyes at the boy.

"Reggie."

"Well Reggie, I'll have you know my name is pronounced Jughead, I know you might have had a hard time reading and sounding it out, so I'll let your incorrect comment slide, but just for future reference-" Jughead smiles innocently before taking out a pen from his pocket, grabbing Reggie's wrist, and spelling Jughead on his wrist.

"There, have a nice day!" Jughead says cheerfully before grabbing Archie's hand and leading them down the hall, leaving a shocked Reggie, and an annoyed Archie.

The duo turn the corner, causing Jughead to laugh a little at the situation. He's honestly quiet proud of his little come back.

"I ship it!" Some boy yells out mockingly, making kissy faces as he walks pass the two, causing Archie to quickly pull his hand away from the raven haired boy.

"What's your problem?" Jughead eyes the redhead suspiciously who is trying his absolute best to create a visible distance between the two.

"Why'd you have to pick a fight with Reggie? Why couldn't you have just ignored the comments like you've been doing all day?"

Jelly Bean had sent that photo to Kevin Keller, someone who has always been a big gossip in elementary school, and who continues to be a big gossip now.

The picture has gotten around fast, and Jughead has been receiving a lot of crap from it all day. Admittedly, Jughead was a little upset with Jelly Bean at first, he even yelled at her.

He never yells at her.

But once he saw tears prickle her soft innocent eyes, he felt horrible. How was she supposed to know this was going to happen? He spent the rest of that day trying to make it up to her, but the truth is, Jelly Bean had already forgiven him after he had said sorry.

She just liked the idea of having him on his hands and knees like a servant for her, so she played the guilt trip up a bit.

Jughead took most of the comments throughout the day well. He knows it'll blow over, and somebody else will take the spot light and do something stupid. That's why he hasn't cared so much. He doesn't see anything wrong with allowing his sister to practice make up on him. He just likes to see her happy, and wearing make up doesn't make you gay anyways. He doesn't see the correlation. If he has to suffer all the name calling for being a good brother, he'll take it.

But what you aren't going to do, is use that word. You're not going to disrespect a group of people who did nothing to you. Jughead has never even had a crush on anybody before, so he's not even really sure if he's gay or not.

Either way, you're not going to say that word around him and walk away untouched.

Jughead thought that out of all people, Archie would understand that.

But Archie doesn't.

Archie doesn't even want to be seen with Jughead.

If they think Jughead is gay, they'll think I'm gay by association.

The Scarlett hue has been avoiding all kinds of physical contact with the raven haired boy all day.

That means no more holding hands, no more greeting hugs, and definitely no more nick names.

They aren't children anymore, this is middle school, and doing those types of things isn't acceptable anymore.

Why can't Jughead see that?

The bell sounds dissonantly across the school, signaling that class starts in 2 minutes.

"I'll see you later Jughead." Archie sighs before starting to walk away.

"In front of the school where everyone can see? Or in the back of the school behind a bush, Archie." Jughead asks sadly, with an undertone of venom directed at Archie's self centered behavior.

He always knows how Archie is feeling, and Archie's obvious disdain for him today, is prevalent.

For some reason though, Jughead has never been able to pin point the fact that Archie has had a crush on him since the third grade.

"I'm sorry." Archie says nervously, not wanting Jughead to be mad at him, but still not wanting the same reputation as he has.

"No you're not." Jughead shrugs sadly before walking off down the hall to his last class of the day.

Archie and Jughead have just had their first fight.

🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾

Trouble in paradise.

And so the drama begins oops.

I was considering quitting wattpad last weekend after this book is over. I was literally a mess. I was crying and crying and crying.

Because I don't want this book to be over, I'm going to miss writing this so much when it's over. I'm going to miss all of you who entertain my weirdness or my rambling when I reply to comments.

And I know my next jarchie book will never be as popular or top this one. So it's like, why even bother?

Sometimes you have to quit while you're ahead I guess.

Hopefully I don't decide to quit after this book is over, but if I do y'all will be the first to know.

And hopefully when this book is all SAID and done you won't forget about me and we can still talk about music and tv shows and anything really.

I mean if you want I'm not really all that interesting or great or whatever but I'll try to be.