beast [jarchie]

-chapter sixteen-

february 2nd

archie groaned as the light from the warm sun hit his face. he could feel his brain throbbing inside his head as his eyes took a second to adjust to the new light.

"i'm done taking care of your ass. time to get up!" jughead hissed as he opened the other blind. he moved slowly as to not hurt the other too much but enough so that he would know that jughead was serious about his statement.

"what?" archie closed his eyes and faced away from the sun. he pulled the foreign blanket over his head. "what are you talking about? where am i?"

"get up. here have this." he handed archie an ibuprofen and some water as he sat up. "your head must be killing you." archie gratefully took the pill and water.

that almost sounded sympathetic, archie thought.

"yeah, yeah it does." archie responded slowly. he covered his eyes once again shading it from the blinding sun.

"good. that's what you deserve," jughead flicked archie ear. archie flinched under his grasp. he hadn't been so close to jughead in a long time.

"okay. ow!" archie groaned. "i thought you were being nice to me." he frowned slightly.

"oh, really? after i cleaned your vomit from the inside of sam's truck, i have to be nice?" jughead scoffed. archie looked at him in amusement and curiosity. archie gave a small smile.

"you took care of me last night?" archie asked softly.

"better me than reggie could ever." was all jughead said with a shrug. "and don't think i'm doing that again." that didn't seem honest and it only made archie more curious.

"why?" jughead looked away not being able to maintain eye contact. whereas all archie wanted was to make eye contact with jughead. once again, he frowned slightly.

"if you're gonna question instead of saying thank you, i swear i'll never do it again." jughead warned with no truth to his statement.

"thank you, juggie. honest, thanks." before he could even process it, he was running to the bathroom puking his guts once again.

not the ideal way he wanted to end his conversation with jughead.

*****
february 4th

nothing seemed to changed between the two. as if the party never happened.

when they would passed eachother in the hallways they would look the other way. archie continued to avoid everyone, but with less of a strain than before. he didn't want to be found by them but he also didn't really care as much.

"hey boo," veronica said as she approached archie. "we're all going a to watch a movie together. wanna join us?"

veronica didn't have to elaborate who 'us' was archie already knew it was the entire group that he was purposely avoiding.

he pondered for a moment. "sure, why not?" he shrugged.

together they made their way to the parking lot where the others stood around there car. betty smiled at archie.

"nice of you to join us." then they were hit with a predicament.

betty's car. an old, blue 1990's bug that could only sit five people with six of them being there.

"nope, i'm not being squished." kevin scoffed. him and joaquin were having issues again. "i don't care where anyone goes. i'll walk if i have to, but i'm not being squished."

joaquin tried to calm him down, but kevin only glared at him. they all began speaking at once, arguing.

"fine, everyone calm down. i'll walk." archie proposed. "i was the last one to join anyways, so i'll talk the bus or something." they all began speaking at once again. some agreeing, the others arguing that kevin was being ridiculous. all we're speaking except for jughead and archie.

"would you all just be quiet, sheesh." jughead finally spoke. "i have my motorcycle. archie can ride with me."

to that archie scoffed. "yeah, i'm okay. i'd rather just walk."

jughead sighed. "stop being dramatic. just hop on." the others agreed and hopped in betty's bug.

"we'll see you guys there!" betty said cheerfully. "have fun!"

"they definitely did that on purpose," archie sighed as he turned to jughead. "i'm serious though. i'm not getting on that thing."

jughead gasped dramatically. "do not say such horrible things about her to her face!"

archie laughed loudly. "it's a her now? you're unbelievable!" a big smile taking over his face.

"oh yeah! i never told you her name?" archie only wheezed to that, laughing louder.

"she has a name?" he replied wiping his tears that came with the laughter.

jughead smiled adoringly to him. " of course she does. her name is roxanne."

archie seemed to think about that. "hm? i like it."

"i sure hope so." jughead smiled again. "now stop being mean to her and jump on." he said as he handed his helmet to archie.

archie stared at the helmet, split. on one hand, he could walk to the movies and have some free time to himself. on the other hand, he could hop on this motorcycle with the love of his life wearing a serpent snake on his back.

he chose the latter.

"fine, but don't make me regret this."

"oh don't worry you." jughead winked at him. to which archie responded with a chuckle.

"you're weird." jughead only smiled.

and together the rode off into the sunset.