Circumlocution ≫ Jarchie

[Chapter Twenty]

One Year Ago

"Did you tell Jughead yet?" His dad asked the redhead softly, wrapping his arms around the sick boy.

"Do you think I'd be here crying at home in my bed on my last day here instead of with him if I did?" Archie said weakly, trying to stop himself from crying so hard but he couldn't help it. He hadn't cried about any of it before today and he was hoping to keep it that way.

"I see your point." His dad bit his lip, starting to rub circles on his back gently.

"It's just not fair! Why me? What did I do wrong? What did I-", Archie began, but soon his words turned into sobs and nothing else became audible except for his despair.

Fred would have been lying if he said that he wasn't thinking the same thing Archie was. Why Archie? Why happy, lighthearted, football playing, beautiful, Jughead loving, Archie? Was it something he did? Was it something Fred did? How did they not even know? Why did bad things happen to good people?

Why did Archie get cancer?

"I don't know Archie, I don't know." Fred managed to say, tearing up a bit himself. Perhaps what hurt most about all of this was that Fred couldn't even be with Archie in London. His mother was paying for Archie's flight, paying for his treatment, and giving him a place to stay, but she wasn't doing any of that for Fred and Fred couldn't afford that stuff on his own. He wanted nothing more than for Archie to stay with him, but Archie's health was way more important to him. If they could cure him, then he was willing to give Archie up.

"What if I die anyways? And Jughead ends up hating me for the rest of my life until I die? He's not even going to know if I do die." Archie continued to cry.

"Stop talking about dying. No ones dying." Fred insisted. "And if it does come to that I'll tell him. I'll find him and I'll tell him." He promised.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

"If Jughead asks you where I am tell him... tell him I got a football scholarship for a school in London and that I'm there."

"Archie..."

"Please."

Fred looked at Archie with hesitation. "So you're really not going to tell him?"

"It would break his heart. He's already unstable as it is and I can't just... I can't do it."

"It's going to hurt even worse if you don't."

"But at least I won't have to see it happen." Archie mumbled. "Just promise me you'll tell him?"

Fred nodded reluctantly, knowing that he was going to regret this decision.

After a few minutes of silence, Archie asked if he could be alone and got to work preparing for his new life. The first thing he did was silence Jughead's number. The next thing he did was text Clay to set up their appointment. That was probably the hardest part.

There were many reasons why Archie felt he needed to have sex with Clay. The most shallow one, perhaps, was the fact that he didn't want to die a virgin. Jughead wasn't ready for sex and Archie respected that. He was willing to wait, but now that his health had changed he felt as if he couldn't wait and using that as an excuse to pressure Jughead into sex was an asshole move that Archie wasn't going to pursue. The most ridiculous reason for sleeping with Clay was the idea that maybe Archie could get over Jughead this way. Maybe he'd feel so guilty about it that it would get him to want to stop thinking about him.

None of those were good reasons for it, he knew this, but it didn't stop him from doing it anyways.

In another hour, all of his belongings were packed up and he was asking his dad to drive him to the airport with a heavy heart and a preoccupied mind. He was going to go see Clay to lose his virginity. Losing his virginity was supposed to seem exciting, but it wasn't, not when the only thing on his mind was Jughead and how heartbroken he was going to be when he finds out he left. He was going to see his mom for the first time since he was a little kid, but none of that seemed to matter when he knew deep down that he loved Jughead more than he loved his own mother. He was going to see his doctors in London who were planning on coming up with a plan to cure his cancer, but he couldn't help but to feel as if Jughead was the only cure he needed.

None of this was supposed to be so hard. Leaving Jughead wasn't supposed to be so hard.

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you in?" Fred said nervously as he pulled up at the drop off center.

"No, I'll just start crying again if you do." Archie attempted to laugh, but it sounded more like a cough.

"Alright. I love you."

"I love you too." Archie said, sighing before getting out of the car and getting his things out of the trunk.

From check in, to sending out his luggage, to customs, and to his seat by the airplane terminal, he had a lot of time to think about what he was about to do. He came to one very important conclusion.

Fuck it. Fuck it all.

Fuck feelings, fuck cancer, fuck morals, and most of all fuck Jughead.

So when Clay made it over to Archie in some tight jeans and a loose white t-shirt, well, Archie decided to fuck Clay.

That was a mistake. Leaving was a mistake.

Archie felt like a mistake.

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

Now you know all of Archie's story. Now it's time for Jughead's.

I really love this book I can't believe it's going to be over soon.

Lmfao I'm going to ask you a very important question at the end of the epilogue and I feel like I know what the answer is going to be.

Wahahahaha.