Circumlocution ≫ Jarchie

[Chapter Twenty-One]

Present

"You go first." Jughead bites his lip as Archie turns back onto the highway.

"Why do I have to go first?"

"Because it was your idea in the first place."

"Oh yeah." Archie frowns.

"Mhm." Jughead sticks his tongue out.

"It's funny because I've had a whole year to think about how to tell you and I still don't know how to. To be honest with you, if I wasn't able to find you today I was going to record a video of myself and explain everything and ask my dad to find away to give it to you if I never got the chance to."

"That makes it sound like you're dying or something." Jughead chuckles. Archie just shoots Jughead a guilty look, and when the realization hits the raven haired beauty, Archie has to look away. "You're not actually dying, are you?" Jughead barely whispers. Archie nods his head so gently that, if Jughead wasn't watching him as closely as he was, he would've missed it.

"You can't be dying." Jughead whimpers.

"Let me explain everything." Archie sighs. Jughead just nods with a heavy heart.

"Two years ago I realized that something was wrong my leg. It was swollen, I couldn't walk, and I was screaming in pain the first day I realized it. My dad and I didn't go to the hospital or anything though because we thought it was just another injury that would go away since I was always getting hurt. I should've known something was up though when the so-called swelling never went down and the pain never really went away. I should've known it was serious when some days I couldn't go to school because it hurt so bad or the fact that I kept catching fevers that lasted days." Archie explains.

"You're sick?" Jughead mumbles.

"Yeah. I'm sick Juggy."

"How sick?"

"Cancer. It's cancer."

"Oh my God." Jughead chokes out, starting to cry as Archie attempts to rub his knee gently while he focuses on the road.

"It was supposed to be really curable. That's what every doctor told me." Archie sighs, trying to stop himself from crying as well. "A year after all the symptoms, my dad finally decided to take me to the hospital and they broke the news to us. They recommended a specialist in London."

"That's why you went to London? Archie, why didn't you just tell me that instead of leaving me without explanation!?" Jughead sobs, and Archie can physically feel his heart breaking into pieces.

"I thought it would be better for you if you didn't have to deal with knowing I was sick. You were already hanging by a thread and I couldn't do that to you. I thought it would be easy for everyone if you didn't know. I figured that the sooner I went to London the sooner they could cure me and then the sooner I could be back here with you and try to make up for everything I did but obviously things didn't turn out that way."

"Obviously." Jughead sniffs.

"My life in London is hospital beds, examinations, and chemo chairs. My cancer was supposed to be easy to cure but then it spread and they realized that I was misdiagnosed. Now things are pretty bad." Archie admits.

"How bad?"

"About a half year left to live or surgery bad."

"So then you're doing the surgery right?" Jughead yells.

"Surgery has a 30% survival rate." Archie sighs.

"Oh my God."

"So I asked if I could spend the weekend before surgery in America with my dad. My surgery is tomorrow. I have a bad feeling about it. I didn't even want to have it. I would have much rather spent my last six months here with my dad." Archie shrugs.

"So then why did you do it?"

"My parents wanted me to. They couldn't take the idea of me only having six months and I said sure why not. To be honest I didn't really care as long as I was able to see you before I die. That sounds so morbid but it's the truth."

"So you're telling me that there's a 70% chance you'll die tomorrow, after I just spent about 6 hours in a car with you and confessed my love for you?"

"Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying." Archie laughs a bit.

"It's not funny." Jughead slaps his arm.

"You're right. It's not. It's tragic actually."

"But then why'd you cheat on me?" Jughead asks.

"I thought it would help me move on. Obviously that didn't work. And then there was the fact that I thought I was going to die and I didn't want to die a virgin and I also didn't want to spring this on you like "hey Juggy I have cancer. Now I'm going to guilt you into having sex with me even though you're clearly uncomfortable with it." That's the selfish reason." Archie says sheepishly.

"Wow." Jughead laughs. "You're still an asshole for cheating on me and there's still no excuse for making me feel like complete utter shit, but at least I understand."

"Do you forgive me?"

"I've been forgiven you for that."

"Okay. Good." Archie sighs in relieve.

"I can't believe I have to tell a dying boy what he did to me." Jughead cringes.

"I can take it." Archie insists.

"I don't think you can. I don't think you'll be able to die happy if I tell you." Jughead mumbles.

"Just tell me."

"Give me a few minutes. I still need to take in the fact that you have cancer and you're going to be dying at the age of 19." Jughead snaps.

"It doesn't really feel like I'm dying. Some days are awful yeah but some days I feel normal."

"That still doesn't change the fact that you could die tomorrow."

"It doesn't. But I'm fine with those odds now that I've gotten to be with you one last time." Archie shrugs.

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

Dun Dun Dunnnnn.

Kinda a double update but not really? I changed the covers to all my books and updated the description on this book to make it more accurate.

Next chapter is going to be crazyyyyyyyy. I feel like some of y'all know what's going to happen.