Circumlocution ≫ Jarchie

[Chapter Twenty-Three]

Present

"Alright. Are you going to go now?" Archie asks nervously.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes. We're about 10 minutes away now." Archie hums.

"Well then I'll start with the hardest part first." Jughead takes a deep breath, tears starting to well up in his eyes. "Jelly Bean isn't at college."

"Then where is she? Is she here? Does that mean I can see her? I miss her a lot too." Archie smiles.

"Never mind. I can't do this." Jughead chokes out, starting to cry again which makes Archie furrow his eyebrows and put his hand on Jughead's knee again.

"Where exactly is she?" Archie says sadly.

"I'd like to think in Heaven, but only because she believed in Heaven." He cries.

"You mean..." Archie chokes, tears starting to well up in his eyes.

"Yeah. It was my dad." With those words, Archie is sent into tears as well and the two are forced to pull over again to recollect themselves.

"But she was supposed to go college and graduate early and get away from him and..." Archie continues to cry onto Jughead's shoulder. "How did... when did..."

"The day you left. It happened the day you left." Jughead says numbly, trying to soothe Archie by wrapping an arm around him. "I was tutoring and couldn't be home to watch Jelly Bean. He came home and by time I got there the situation was already bad."

"That's not like you to leave her by herself." Archie sniffles.

"I asked you to watch her that day, Archie." Jughead closes his eyes. Archie snaps his head up and looks at him in shock.

"You didn't. You couldn't have." Archie shakes his head, but he knows Jughead must have. Jughead wouldn't just make something like that up.

"The day before, you were acting strange. You wouldn't look at me, you were distant. I had to ask you twice if you could watch her for me, and even then you were moody and didn't seem to want to do it. You snapped at me in the car that day." Jughead says shakily. "Jelly Bean called me and said you weren't there so I called and texted you so many times but you didn't answer. I decided to leave my tutoring session early to go see her. By time I got there she already looked beaten up. I lunged at my dad. He broke my arm, then he snapped her wind pipe. One second she was screaming, next she wasn't. Someone jogging a block or two away heard all the screams, called 911. My dad's in prison now and Jelly Bean is dead."Jughead finishes.

"So I killed your sister." Archie chokes out and sends himself into another round of sobs and tears.

"My dad killed my sister. You didn't." Jughead sighs.

"But if I would've just done what you said and watched her instead of cheating on you with somebody else, she wouldn't be dead. You have every right to hate me! I killed your sister!" Archie cries harder and Jughead can't help but to frown.

He's been thinking about how Archie would react to this news for a whole year now. He's been holding this grudge for ages, and now that Archie is crying his heart out in front of him it feels bitter-sweet. Six hours ago, Jughead would've loved to see him like this. Six hours ago, he blamed Archie for her entire death as well. Now it just pains him.

Who's to say what would have happened if Archie did pick up Jelly Bean? There's no guarantee that things would've gone any differently. The minute Jughead and Jelly Bean would've gone back home, it's very likely that the same scenario would've gone down. He feels stupid and childish for blaming this entire thing on Archie the whole time. No one is at fault for Jelly Bean's death except for FP Jones. Jughead is finally starting to get that.

"Arch, it's not your fault. Okay? Please, stop being so hard on yourself." Jughead begs, pulling him closer to his chest.

"I can't believe she's gone." He whimpers.

"Me either." Jughead sighs.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so fucking sorry Juggy."

"It's not your fault."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm sure of it now."

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Okay The bad stuff is over.

:)

I think I'm going to post all the chapters by next week. There's only two left after this.