beast [jarchie]

-chapter one-

may 25th

maybe the odds weren't in his favor today. or the gods were against him. or maybe it was the fact that he literally pushed everything for last minute. it didn't matter though, he managed to be late. he was late to the only thing they had told him he could not be allowed to be late to. the only thing he needed to be there for.

his dads funeral.

he walked towards the area where his dad was suppose to be buried. he nodded his head in a greeting sort of way to the serpents that passed by him. he walked towards the headstone, but he was too late.

everyone walked away as he walked closer. his dad... gone. and he didn't have a chance to say goodbye. he left his life like that. no chance of teary goodbyes, or smiling memories, 'thank you's' from jughead to his dad. he didn't say his speech he didn't thank everyone for coming. his dad was gone before he could say bye for forever.

the clouds dispersed, the sun set, and the moon settled. jughead finally built up the courage to look up from the drying grass and read the headstone.

In loving memory of:
F.P. Jones
A father and a friend
January 20th, 1970-
May 17th, 2016

it made jughead sick to his stomach. the graving didn't seem original. it felt like his dad was unimportant to the people around him. like he wasn't as special as he was. he questioned how everyone around him kept going on with their day. his dad died and nobody seemed affected. he wondered how people could be okay with this.

that night jughead didn't move an inch. he stayed that night and the next day and the following. for three weeks. some serpents that jughead and his father were close to would come to visit jughead. they would bring him food, blankets, and pillows, and occasionally clothes, which was in vain because jughead never changed his clothes.

jughead memorized by the scenery around him. at night and during the day. the way the sun moved and the shadows moved with it. or how at night the owls moved from tree to tree conversing with each other. never once was he scared though. he had his dad by his side and the world around him was nothing.

he ate when no one was around, he lied down when no one was around, he used the blankets when no one was around. he didn't want to seem weak, but to everyone else he looked invincible.

a little fifteen-year-old boy losing a father and a mother was never easy. even if the way he lost them was different. everyone understood that. they understood that not having the support of parents especially at a young age could not be easy. they respected him for that. he had their gratitude. jughead didn't want any of that though, he just wanted his dad back, but no one could ever give him that again.

his sophomore year ended and he wasn't there for the last day of school. in fact he hadn't gone to school since April. three months out of school almost drove jughead insane. he was always alone. he never talked. he never laughed or smile. he just sat next to his dad emotionless. for some reason, though, he enjoyed that. nothing but him and his dead dad.

rumors had already been spread all throughout the school. everyone already knew jughead was a serpent and they knew his dad was the leader, so that didn't help everyone's imagination. the rumors were all different. some were similar, but never the same. jughead had killed his dad, fp killed himself, the serpents had turned against fp and killed him, archie didn't like jughead being in a gang and used his rich family to his advantage to buy someone to execute fp. all the outrageous lies circled around for months. the rumors hung in the air like a drug. nobody seemed to get enough of it.

jughead luckily never had the chance to hear any of them as he hadn't been to school. the teachers had pardoned him from school altogether, they pitied jughead. they knew jughead was grieving, so they just let him move to the next year with all the grades he had before he left. which luckily, were very good grades. jughead didn't feel all that bad that they pitied him though, it's what allowed him to finish his sophomore year.

when he finally left his dads side to go to the trailer, he cried. he cried for the first time since it had all went down. and it sure as hell was a lot of tears. he didn't feel bad for crying. he had wanted to the entire time, but the tears just wouldn't leave his system. his sat by his dad and cried for two hours. the sky cried with him.

he walked home crying. the ten-minute walk felt like hell. he cried so much. ugly sobs leaving his mouth uncontrollably. he entered his house crying. the ugly sobs became choked sobs. he couldn't breathe with the tears and noises that clouded him. he took off his smelly clothes crying. he hadn't showered in almost a month. and as disgusting it was, he didn't care. he would go forever without showering if that meant he could be by his dad's side. he looked at his bone thin figure in the mirror and cried harder. he had never been more repulsed by himself than in that moment. he wanted to puke at his reflection. he never experienced such self loathe. he got into the shower crying. the sobs died down slowly. only small tears fell. he got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. the tears were over and he thought he would feel better, but he didn't. it just made him feel weak.

he sat on the bed. all the memories rushed towards him and suddenly there were more tears.

"why dad?" he sobbed, "why would you leave me like this?" his eyes hurt from all the tears.

"why!?!" he sniffled. "i need you." he whispered.

"i need you!" he jumped up from the bed.

"i needed you!!" he yelled.

he punched the wall leaving a hole.

the surprise on everyone's face when he returned to school the next year.