Circumlocution ≫ Jarchie

[Chapter Eighteen]

One Year Ago

"There's a doctor in London who specializes in this sort of thing. He's amazing and a very close friend of mine..." Archie stared blankly at his left leg as his doctor continued to drone on to him and his father. His voice didn't do much but ring in his ears. It was as if his brain stopped processing the information he was hearing. Matter of factly, it was as if his brain was done processing everything, because all he felt was numb. "...it's a very curable cancer." The doctor finished.

"How is this even possible?" He finally spoke up, his voice hoarse from all the crying he didn't realize he was doing. "Only sometimes it would hurt, and then I wouldn't feel the pain for months."

"That happens."

"And I could've sworn I just had the flu or something." He said weakly.

"You've had a fever that won't go away for about a week now, that isn't the flu."

"I've been living for a year with this then, and I didn't even know." He barely whispers.

"According to the tests we did, it hasn't spread anywhere else yet. If you start getting treated soon, it's not too late to start nipping this in the  butt. Like I said, Ewing's Sarcoma is very curable." The Doctor smiled.

"Thank you for all your help. Well definitely keep London in mine. My wife actually lives there." Fred took over, starting to ask more questions.

Archie was shocked to say the least. He could've sworn he was fine. Everything was going so well, or at least he thought. If he would've known that the pain in his leg was something this serious, he would've gotten it checked out. Now? Now he practically had nothing. Football was out of the question. Everything he had worked so hard for since he was about 10 was going down the drain and he couldn't do anything to stop it. Every throw, every pass, every mile, every scout was all for nothing. Without football, Archie didn't even know who he was. He just was football. Everything he did revolved around football except for maybe Jughead.

Jughead...

Jughead couldn't know. He'd be too worried and he had way too much on his plate already. Archie didn't think Jughead could handle one more piece of bad news. He was already hanging by a thread that seemed to thin more and more every single day.

Actually, forget that. If Archie's dad wanted him to go to London, he would be taken away from him all together.

Now that, was a nightmare.

How could he even leave Jughead? Archie wasn't sure what Jughead would do to himself if he left. Actually, he had a pretty good idea, and that's what he feared the most.

Jughead just couldn't know.

Jughead still doesn't know.

That night, Archie had a serious discussion with his family. His mother cried on face time, his dad had to accuse himself from the room a couple of times, and the only thing Archie wanted to do was hold Jughead in his arms and hear his sweet voice try to assure him that everything would be alright when it wasn't. Nothing was ever going to be alright and Archie knew this, but he wanted to have the sweet fantasies whispered into his ear by the one he loved most.

Archie Andrews had Ewing Sarcoma and that was just the beginning of the end.

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

The secret's out. At least one of them. Woosh

Things get worse LMFAO

It's not funny but it is

Should I change the cover of this book? I'm thinking of definitely rewriting the description and editing this once I finish publishing everything, maybe changing the cover. But the title? Idk that's a far step. Should I?

In context, the title makes sense. But if you don't really know what the word means it doesn't go with the story.