Circumlocution ≫ Jarchie

[Chapter Nine]

Trigger Warning: mention of suicide
Present

"I'm starving." Jughead groans as he flips through the menu.

"What else is new?" Archie laughs as he opens up his menu as well.

"True." Jughead shrugs. "I want mozzarella sticks." He says thoughtfully.

"As an appetizer?"

"Of course Archibald, I'm a hungry bitch I can't just eat mozzarella sticks as a meal."

"Got it." Archie laughs, missing this so much. Missing him so much.

It's almost as if, in this moment, nothing has changed. That's what happens when a relationship that wasn't meant to end, ends. Archie wants to believe it was fate that brought him together tonight, and Jughead wants this nightmare to be over. Seeing Archie hurts Jughead too much, while seeing Jughead makes Archie too happy. Both emotions are extremely dangerous for the two.

"Hey, my name is Clay and I'll be your waiter tonig-" the waiter begins before looking up and making eye contact with Archie.

Shit.

"Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" Jughead muses, tapping his chin thoughtfully. Archie shakes his head slightly at Clay, relaying a message that makes Clay smirk a bit to himself.

"You look familiar too. Actually both of you do. I think I've seen you a few times at the library. I used to work there." Clay explains , leaving out any unnecessary details.

"Oh yeah! You were the cute one who talked to Archie sometimes!" Jughead smiles and sends Archie a look; a look that Archie can immediately decipher.

Jughead knows.

"We didn't talk that much. Only sometimes." Clay shrugs, trying to cover it up.

"Yeah, the things you two did didn't require much talking I guess." Jughead smiled again, cocking his head to the side in mock innocence.

"Well this is awkward." Clay laughed. "You told me that you guys broke up." Clay raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it was more complicated than that." Archie admitted sheepishly.

"Way more complicated. See, he was planning on leaving to London but didn't tell me. And the day he left he called you and cheated on me." Jughead explains nonchalantly.

"But you're back together now?" Clay asks in a surprised tone.

"Nah. He's taking me home and buying me food because it's the least he can do after breaking my heart and destroying my life, you know?"

Clay laughs at his bluntness before shaking his head. "Well then, what would you like to order?" Jughead lists his order as Archie stares angrily at the table, not even bothering to order anything when asked. After Clay leaves, Archie starts to fume.

"Did you bring me here just because you knew he worked here? Is that why you know this place so well?" Archie yells in a whisper.

"Calm down dude, I didn't know that your boy toy worked here." Jughead shrugs. "He must've just gotten this job because I come here a lot and I've never seen him here before."

"How'd you know it was him." Archie sighs guiltily.

"How did you think I knew you cheated on me in the first place?" Jughead raises an eyebrow. That's when Archie mentally facepalms. He never thought to think about how he knew. Not once. Jughead has always had a way of finding out stuff, so Archie just didn't think it was too out of the ordinary for him to figure that out as well.

"I don't know."

"I was at the library a few days after the incident about to quit my tutoring job when I overheard him talking about the best fuck he ever had with a hot redhead before he left to catch his plane to London."Jughead rolls his eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"I tried to kill myself twice after everything went down but it didn't work." Jughead says sadly. "And at that point it was like, I can't even kill myself correctly." He laughs, although nothing about this conversation is funny.

"All because I left?" Archie mumbles sadly.

"It was everything. Because you left, and what happened after you left. It was way too much. The only thing stopping me from trying again is the fear that it won't work like the other two attempts. So i sit around and waste my entire life away instead."

"But you could be doing so much more instead of waiting to die." Archie says angrily.

"What's the point?"

"Everything! You're such a beautiful a person capable of doing beautiful things but you don't! You wait for death to embrace you in its arms like it's going to make everything better!"

"That's the plan."

"It's a stupid plan! The only way anything is ever going to get better is if you take action and you can't do that if you're dead!"

"No offense, but you don't have a right to give me advice." Jughead shrugs.

"Where's Jelly Bean, does she know what you've been up to?"

"No, I make sure she doesn't know. I don't like to bother her."

"She probably doesn't want that." Archie sighs.

"I told you a while ago that once she went to college, I'd make sure not to interrupt her life."

"That's right, she graduated a few years early and everything." Archie awes.

"Yup."

"Well I miss her, she kept you sane."

"You have no idea."

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