Aberration ≫ Jarchie

F O R T Y - E I G H T

Sixteen Years Old ❣︎ December

"What's wrong with you?" Reggie snorts as he walks into Archie's house uninvited.

Archie looks like a mess.

He is a mess.

So much stuff has just been on his mind lately and it shows.

"Nothing, why are you here exactly?" Archie questions before closing the front door and following Archie into his kitchen.

Only Jughead is allowed to walk in like that, didn't Reggie get the memo?

"I don't know, I'm bored. It's New Years Eve, don't you want to go to a party or something?" Reggie shrugs before opening his cabinets and raiding them for food.

"News flash, parties don't start at 9 a.m." Archie says in an annoyed matter.

Unlike Jughead, he's very cranky in the mornings and nicer as time goes on.

"You've got a point. Hey, I heard you made it to third base with Val last month." Reggie smirks before taking a bite out of the Oreos he managed to find.

"Who told you that?" Archie questioned, but he could honestly care less.

"Josie." Reggie smiles.

In all honesty, their first time wasn't horrendous. It was mostly an entree of laughter , followed by a side of actually getting down to what they planned to do. They've done it a few times since then, and Archie's not really complaining. They're both getting better at it, even if it's awkward to say.

"Oh, I thought you were going to say someone I actually cared about." Archie mumbles under his breath before snatching the tray of Oreos away and putting them back into the cabinet.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Reggie laughs.

"Haha." Archie rolls his eyes before going back into the living room and turning on the tv. A few seconds later, Reggie joins him and looks at him worriedly.

"It's showing."

"What's showing?"

"How not happy you are."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're not happy, but most of us learn to hide it. You didn't know there was a trick to this? We spend most of our middle school lives and high school lives pretending to be something we're not for no reason at all. You really think all of us are happy? We're not. I'm definitely not, but I hide it well."

Archie just looks down at his hands and sighs.

"I thought that you'd be different though, because you had something keeping you sane and happy."

"And what was that?"

"Jughead."

A silence settles around the room as Archie curls up into himself, willing himself not to be upset.