Aberration ≫ Jarchie

T W E L V E

Six Years Old ❣︎ February

Archie won't go to school.

His mother left him, and his Dad feels as if he's the blame, so he lets his son stay home out of guilt.

The only time the redhead speaks is when Jughead is around, and even then it's more like a mumbled mess of incoherent stutters.

But Jughead is fluent in "Archie".

The raven haired boy takes care of him well.

After school he immediately goes home to say hi to his parents and play with Jellybean. He loves to hear her cute little giggles, and he loves how happy she gets when he's around.

He hopes they are always close when she grows up.

And after he's done checking up on Jellybean, who hasn't got much to say yet, he quickly makes his way to Archie's house to attempt to cheer him up.

Everyday Archie sits in his bed and stares at his dark blue walls which are decked with posters of his favorite superheroes and pictures of his family.

It hurts Jughead how empty the scarlet hue looks.

When he brought up Archie's condition to his own parents, he caught them conversing about the boy being depressed when they thought he was asleep.

Jughead has no idea what that means.

But he knows that when the word was uttered, it was laced with a certain darkness. It was said with finality, and the seriousness of the word shocked Jughead to the core.

Was Archie going to die? It sure sounded and felt like it.

And when he asked this question, his parents only laughed and shook their heads.

"He'll be okay, especially with your help." They reassured him, and that calmed his nerves a little bit.

His afternoons with Archie usually consist of the raven haired boy crawling into bed with the redhead, and allowing him to cuddle into his side.

Although Jughead doesn't have a problem with his clinginess, it worries him because he's never seen his friend this sad before.

Archie holds him tight.

Too tight.

Almost as if Jughead would leave him too if he didn't.

And when the evening comes, the darker hue has to coerce the scarlet hue out of bed for dinner, because he seemingly never wants to leave his room.

After Jughead and Mr. Andrews make sure Archie is fed and cleaned, the young duo gets into Archie's bed.

Jughead sleeps over every night, and if Archie had it his way, he'd make sure Jughead could stay home with him all day.

That's how things usually go.

But today the fire alarm went off at school at the very end of the day, and everyone was delayed from going home.