the other boys ⇨ jarchie

5

archie.

it's been a week since jughead came to my house. since then, he's never brought up anything about the past: what his current living situation is like, his mental health, his family, schoolwork... nothing. i worry about him sometimes. he's one of my best friends, and it scares me when he doesn't tell me anything. we've been hanging out almost every night this past week after school. we went to pops, we went to my house again, we went to veronica's with betty, we raced past sweetwater river. hell, we even threw stones at thornhill mansion which almost got us into trouble.

as i'm staring into space, a skinny hand waves in front of my face vigorously. "earth to archie!"

of course, it's jughead. he points to the whiteboard, many shakespeare and charles dickens copied onto the board with annotations and labels coming from every phrase. "you should be paying attention, dumbass."

mr mccall turns around, holding his whiteboard marker high in the air. he folds his arms. "boys, would you like to share your conversation to the rest of the class?"

my face heats up, and i run a hand through my hair. jughead, on the other hand, shrugs and his muscles are perfectly relaxed.

"oh, sorry sir, i was just calling archie a dumbass." with this, he earns a few giggles.

mr mccall sighs and turns back around. "you know, jones, you're lucky you're an outstanding student or i'd put you in detention." he starts quickly writing on the board. "anyway, as i was saying, it's not charles dickens who uses old english language..."

my attention is focused on jughead. he writes 'chapter 14' in his notebook. his hand crawls up and down the white pages, tongue sticking out slightly as the words flow. i tap him on the shoulder.

"m-hm?" jughead mumbles, eyes not meeting mine.

"uh, mind if i have a read?" i ask, pointing at his extremely long paragraph.

he blushes. "yeah. i'm still working on it, though."

i read the sentences slowly, imagining each scene. 'after that traumatising episode, danny did try and kill himself. luckily, naomi was there. she saved his life - but danny still didn't turn up to school on that tragic day. his friends were terrified, especially ethan. what if he tried again? and what if he succeeded?

"i'm going over there. i don't care what the teachers say, tell them i had to go home sick." ethan murmurs, dashing from his seat.

"ethan, wait! you can't just leave school property!" gabriel yells, his ginger hair ruffled in stress.

elliot's blonde curls bounced as he ran. "watch me!"

i give the notebook back to jughead. "that sounds cool. you should make it into an actual story."

jughead puts the book into his bag. "it's nothing. just an idea, is all."

we both jump as mr mccall shouts. "right! everyone, hand your books to me." his gaze wanders to jughead and i. his mouth twists in anger. "come on boys, hand in your books. what's with the sluggishness?" the whole class is now looking at us in anticipation. he flicks through my workbook. "three paragraphs... archie, i expect more from you!"