Alphabet ≫ Jarchie

Z is for Zarf

Zarf— the cardboard sleeve on a coffee cup

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The three days after fall daylight savings time are the most magical part of every year. It's abnormally sunny outside, the leaves morph into brilliant orange and yellow petals seemingly overnight, and the temperature is perfect, not too hot and not too cold.

Waking up at 5 a.m. feels more like waking up at 9 a.m. Getting up out of bed to find that you're well rested for the first time in years is a pleasant surprise, albeit a little scary if you've forgotten the tendency of clocks to fall back. Everybody is slow moving, trudging along without a care in the world because they're early for the first time in ages.

In the three days after daylight savings time, all apologies are accepted, all mistakes are forgiven, and anything can happen. It's like the purge, except a sweeter one filled with autumn inspired coffee flavors and treats.

Of course, there's always that one person that doesn't receive the blessings of this annual phenomenon. There's that one person that is always tired no matter how much sleep they get. There's that one person that is always running late no matter how early they wake up. That person is Jughead.

"Fucking hell!" Jughead yelled as he jumped back from his coffee cup, staring at it with betrayal. That earned him the attention of the surrounding customers in the convenience store. Jughead had bigger things to worry about though, like his burning fingertips that were reddening by the second. He went to suck on his pinky first, whimpering a bit as his saliva coated his burn. He forgot how hot the flimsy paper cup would get.

"I don't want a lot for Christmas..." the loud speaker sang, Mariah Carey's voice filling the rundown convenience store by his apartment. He normally didn't come here, but he had ran out of coffee creamer at home so he thought it would make more sense to use the self serve machines here. He was already regretting his decision.

"It's not even thanksgiving yet," he mumbled underneath his breath as he eyed his coffee cup suspiciously. Was he willing to take the chance and pick it up again? Was his sleep deprivation really worth the cure?

He was shaken out of his thoughts as one of the customers who witnessed his outburst before walked up to him with his own cup of coffee. Jughead was standing over the creamers and the milk, so the man casually reached over him to grab the vanilla bean creamer. That was Jughead's favorite one.

"How's your hand? I've done that a couple of times," the man said as he shook the bottle and opened it with a pop!

Jughead looked up in surprised and smiled. "I usually make my coffee at home so I kind of forgot that paper cups don't work the same way mugs do," he joked. He let his eyes explore the brown ones in front of him. They were so pretty. They had depth, like if he stared down them long enough he didn't think he'd ever find an end.

"Oh, well that's why you use a zarf," The man brushed off, reaching over to the other side of him and pulling out a thin ring of cardboard. He held it out to Jughead who watched, confusion written all over his face.

"That's what those things are called?" He said in amazement, taking the zarf out of his hands sheepishly.

"Yeah but don't feel bad for not knowing. I just know the names of stupid things nobody really cares about," he chuckled, taking a plastic stick and stirring his coffee.

Jughead took this chance to look him over properly. He had on a nice black overcoat that fit him well. He wore black jeans and black dress shoes, so Jughead was guessing he worked some place semi-casual. He wore a red scarf around his neck that matched the color of his messy red hair, but it was the attractive kind of messy.

All of a sudden, Jughead started to feel a bit self conscious. He didn't put a lot of effort in his appearance that morning since he was already running terribly late. He wish he could have a do-over.

"Okay, give me examples of other things," Jughead spoke up, not wanting their conversation to end. He carefully slid the zarf onto his cup and gripped it with a satisfied sigh. No burns. Amazing. Praise Zarf.

The attractive man popped a lid onto his cup and titled his head in thought. "Okay, I got one," he said after a few seconds, turning back to Jughead with an easy smile. "You know that piece of metal that separates the wood of a pencil from the eraser?"

"Oh my gosh that has a name?" Jughead said in awe, genuinely curious. He leaned closer to him, expecting an answer.

The man nodded eagerly and said, "Mhm it's called a ferrule."

"Okay give me another one," Jughead chuckled.

"You know what an aglet is?"

"Of course I know what an aglet is. I watched Phineas and Ferb," Jughead said matter-of-factly, putting his hands on his hips.

The man laughed again, causing his eyes to crinkle. "Okay, okay. What about a tittle?"

"A what now?"

"A tittle," he repeated, grabbing the coffee creamer he put back and pointing to one of the words. "It's the dot on the 'I'," he explained.

"Oh, so vanilla has a tittle, and so does juice," Jughead thought out loud.

"Actually, juice has two tittles," the man pointed out.

"Ah yes, I love myself a nice pair of tittles," Jughead mumbled.

Nice one.

"Do you have one in your name?" The man asked slyly, letting his eyes wander about Jughead just as Jughead had done to him.

"Oh, no. My name is Jughead," he said quickly, smiling as he held out his hand.

"Archie," the redhead offered, shaking his hand. "Do you know what a Tmesis is?"

Jughead shook his head.

"It's when you break apart a word to add another word inside of it for effect," Archie tried to explain.

"What do you mean?" Jughead asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Let's say I asked if I could have your number," Archie began, smirking a bit. "And instead of saying yes, you were so insistent that you said "abso-fucking-lutely" that's a Tmesis."

"I think that's a fan-fucking-tastic example and that you should give me your phone so I can put my number in it," Jughead said excitedly.

He no longer seemed to care about how late he was going to be, or how tired he was. Daylight savings time was finally doing its magic and Jughead wasn't going to let someone like Archie skip through his burnt fingertips. It was usually pretty hard for him to connect with someone so quickly.

After the two had exchanged numbers, they walked up to the cash register together and Archie paid for his coffee although it was only about two dollars. Nevertheless, it made Jughead feel warm and fuzzy inside.

"We'll talk later?" Archie said hopefully as they stepped outside into what was looking like a perfect day.

"We better," Jughead smiled as they began to walk in separate directions, both thinking about each other as they walked to their cars.

Jughead was definitely thinking about holding off on buying more coffee creamer.

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