The Sense Of Pain

Seven

The next day, Jughead took a day off from his work to meet up with his dad and talk about everything that had gone down in the past 20 years. He planned to go for lunch to Pop's so he quickly dressed up and walked towards the retro diner. On his way, he bumped towards a running Archie and almost fell due to his speed. 

Jughead spoke first," Damn dude, where is the fire?"

Archie chuckled a little and replied," Oh the fire is there in the office. My mom. She will kill me again for being late the third time this week."

The funny fact about Archie's words was...it was Wednesday, the third day of the week. Archie rushed of soon after telling that to Jughead, so he continued his route towards Pops. He to a half-full diner, unlike the time when he came new into town. He saw his dad sitting in the booth furthest from the entrance. He walked towards him, a little nervous as they never had a talk for a long time before. Their conversations usually went with the normal greetings and their plan for the day. 

He sat down opposite his dad and said," Hey dad, what did you wanna talk about?"

His dad smiled a little and said," Straight to point I see. I think interviewing for articles for the newspaper got you to be straight forward unlike your mother,"

Jughead knew the first point was true but what did he mean by 'unlike your mother'? Unfortunately, he didn't think of that silently and FP heard it.

He replied," Your mom twisted things up and never came to point...ever. The main reason why I didn't see you for 20 years."

Jughead looked up at him confused and asked," What do you mean by that? Why did mom leave with me 20 years ago? Was I the reason you guys divorced?-"

FP chuckled and said," Boi, don't you have a lot of questions?"

"Well yeah, mom would never tell me anything except for it was her fault which I still don't understand by the way.", said Jughead.

" Ok, I guess you should know it now. I and your mother were in love until you came. Not saying it's your fault kid. One day your mother left early in the morning. It used to happen a lot and when I used to ask her she used to tell that due to her maternity leave she missed a lot of work and it needed to be completed. As usual, I believed her...what else was I supposed to do? Anyways, I walked into our bathroom and found a positive pregnancy test in the bin. Your mother came back that night and I confronted her about it and honestly not so nicely. I was pissed why she didn't tell me about it. Then she told me the truth...", he trailed off"

Jughead exclaimed," What truth?" Then Pop came to their table with the food FP had ordered for them before Jughead came. They thanked him and Jughead turned to FP with a questioning look.

FP sighed and continued," She told me the kid wasn't mine and she was hooking up with some other man because she was sexually frustrated. I didn't understand. She could've just told me about it but she decides to go get pregnant. We fought a lot that night and you were with Sweet Pea and his dad and he heard us fight and didn't bring you home. The next morning when I woke up, I found a note on the kitchen counter telling me that Gladys had left with you because she wanted you to be with your sibling who I now know is your sister."

Jughead was surprised. He had no clue about all this and so he asked," Why didn't you fight for me or mom? She was the one in wrong, not you...did you not want me?"

"Jug...I loved you more than ever. I just knew that you needed your mother and truthfully I wasn't in the best condition after your mom left me. I became an alcoholic and went to jail two or three times. My life became a mess and I had no control over it."

Jughead felt sad but couldn't share his father's pain. That was something he was oblivious to. He had no clue how to comfort his dad but then saw the villain in his story. His mother. She was in the wrong and turned his dad's life upside down and never bothered to come back. Hell, she only told him his father stays in Riverdale when he got the letter of the change in his workplace.

He suddenly remembered a name his father took and asked while taking a bite of his burger," Who is Sweet Pea?"

His father chuckled a little and Jughead could see that the 'Sweet Pea' made him happy. He said," That kid is literally a muscular duplicate of you, except he doesn't have a beanie. He was like my own son when you weren't there. His dad helped me come back to this sober state and for that, I owe them my life. You should meet Sweets once. I think you will like him."

Jughead nodded to that and then said," I am so sorry for whatever happened and I want to spend as much as time possible for me and you. I love you, dad."

They both hugged and then talked a little more about New York and Riverdale. They started heading home together in silence while listening to the radio and all Jughead could think was why his mother did something like that. For him, his mother was his role model and now he isn't sure anymore.

A/N I am so sorry I haven't updated. My area had a blackout while I was writing the chapter yesterday and all my changes got deleted and I didn't have much time to redo it. Hope you liked this chapter as it's the longest one yet.