Aberration ≫ Jarchie

S E V E N T Y - E I G H T

Twenty One Years Old ❣︎ August

The raven haired beauty shoots out of bed quickly, his eyes widening in alert due to the harsh sound coming from his nightstand. Archie feels the rough movement and sits up, staring at Jughead with concerned eyes.

"What's up?" Archie asks tiredly.

"Phone. Make it stop." Jughead whines, grabbing his phone and handing it to Archie. Archie looks at it curiously, the phone ringing in his hands signaling a call from a New York area code number he doesn't know.

"No I think you should answer it." Archie yawns, passing it back to Jughead and laying back down. Jughead just groans before answering the call and holding the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?" Jughead answers groggily.

"Hi this is Alisha Kinney from Random House publishing, is this Jughead Jones?"

Jughead's heart drops.

"Y-yes hi!" He rushes out nervously, the tiredness knocking right out of him. Archie sits up and gives Jughead a curious glance which he responds with by mouthing "Random House". Archie immediately sits up and bites his lip, trying to keep himself from yelling in excitement. Jughead smiles at him before putting the phone on speaker.

"Is this a good time to talk?" Alisha asks nicely.

"Yeah, of course! Not doing anything." Jughead rambles again, feeling stupid for sounding so excited but not caring enough to fix it.

Alisha laughs. "Well, Jughead. We read your book."

"Thanks so much for even touching it." Jughead breathes out, making her laugh again.

"We loved it. This company usually doesn't make exceptions like this, but Mrs. Golding is very good friend of mine and has a keen eye for talent so I had to trust her judgement and at least give it a look over. I'd like to meet you today to discuss the book more in depth and learn more about you before we both make any definite decisions."

"Wait, can you please give me a moment? And not let this tarnish your first impression of me?" Jughead bites his lip.

"Go ahead."

"Holy fuck?! This is actually happening, this is actually fucking happening!" He screams as Alisha laughs harder from behind the phone, already liking this potential addition to the Random House family. "Okay. I'm back. I'm professional." Jughead clears his throat as Archie holds a hand over his mouth, trying to hold back his laughter.

"So today? What time is good for you and where would you like to meet? Today is the last day I'm in the States until a month from now." All of a sudden Jughead frowns and realizes New York is a 17 hour drive away from here, and then there's a three hour time difference. There's no way he's going to make it there.

"Can I actually get back to you on that? I'm nowhere near New York but I'll try to make something work. It would definitely have to be some time after 12." Jughead pleads.

"That's fine. Just let me know, you can call back on this number." Alisha and Jughead exchange their final goodbyes and hang up. Immediately Jughead hugs Archie, pushing him back down on the bed and cuddling into his chest.