Nameless ≫ Jarchie

_52_

"Abe, I think I may have to fire you," Jughead said sadly.

Fred Andrews looked up from his laptop and smiled at the boy slightly. "I figured we'd have to talk more about this eventually."

"You are the best social worker in the entire world and I do not want to jeopardize that just because I'm dating Archie. And now we are more serious and you do not deserve to get—"

"Jughead, it's okay. I already reported your relationship to my boss," Fred laughed.

"And what did he say?"

"He said that as long as it did not interfere with your progress, he did not see the problem with it. He will only report me to his boss if he feels that our relationship gets in the way of my job. I guess it helps that you've been making lots of progress lately. You almost don't need me anymore."

"Wow, that is... wow do not say that," Jughead frowned, turning his attention away from Fred and focusing on the view from outside his window instead.

"You paved your own path to closure, you found a name, you've been off your medication for two years now, you're happy, you have found a place in your adoptive family, you're going to graduate in a couple of months," Fred pointed out.

"But..." he tried to protest. He couldn't really disagree.

"There's going to be a time in your life where I won't be your social worker anymore," Fred sighed.

"Oh," Jughead nodded. It was something he knew in the back of his mind, but he just never really considered it.

"But I am your boyfriend's dad so even if I wasn't your social worker you could still come to me," Fred added on quickly. "And even if you two don't work out in the end you could still come and talk to me."

"I appreciate that, Abe." He smiled.

"Keep calling me that and I'll take it back." Fred rolled his eyes. "But for now, I'm still your social worker and I still have to keep an eye on you."

"Good, good. I do not think I can handle anymore changes at the moment," he admitted.

"I'm honestly surprised you're dealing with all the changes well," Fred pointed out.

"Me too. It is still hard though. My birth father wants to call me but I do not want to have to talk to him. It would feel weird. Jay is not around the house much anymore because he actually has a life now, trying to get the teachers at school to call me Jughead is honestly a hassle, and then there is still the matter of my future," he frowned.

He'd been thinking hard lately, trying to find a passion he could keep up with for the rest of his life but he couldn't. He realized that even if he went to college he still wouldn't know what to study, or what job to pick. He realized that it was normal, probably one of the first normal stresses he's ever had to deal with, but he felt like he just had so much less time to figure things out compared to everybody else.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out, but you shouldn't overwhelm yourself,"

"I cannot help it. I need something to do to take my mind off it," He frowned.

"Don't you have like finals or AP exams or something?"

"I am going to ace those. Every time I take a practice test, I get at least 90% of the questions correct," Jughead sighed again. He never expected to be so bored with life once he actually got one.

"You haven't read anything new in a while," Fred suggested.

"I read three books last week and none of them were amazing."

"You can get a new hobby?"

"I am awful at most things."

"Track season is coming up."

"Archie is already forcing me to do it."

"You can make social media? You have a lot of opinions about books, movies, and TV shows. You could probably get a lot of followers on tumblr or something."

"I cannot be bothered with the comments I would get on the way I type my words. Every on the internet speaks this weird language that I do not really understand."

"What do you mean?" Fred chuckled.

"They say things like 'my wig' and 'mood' and I do not really get it. How can everything be a mood? There will be a picture of a flower with different colored petals and everyone will comment 'mood'. What is the mood? Photosynthesis? And everyone just goes along with it like it makes sense. No it does not! And not everyone on the internet owns a wig so what does that even mean? And what is the relevance of the wig? What is the wig doing? Why are they bringing it up? I cannot deal with it," Jughead huffed as Fred started to double over in laughter.

"What else do they say?"

"People will call things 'bops', comment 'oof' under everything, reference a lot of dead memes for no reason. I do not think I can go a day scrolling on social media without seeing at least one 'you know I had to do it to em' reference or something referring to the loss.jpeg meme. The internet is not for me," Jughead rolled his eyes.

"Okay, fine if you don't want to own a fan page or anything. What about a YouTube channel?" Fred suggests after recomposing himself.

Jughead cocks his head to the side a bit and stares at him curiously. It wasn't a completely bad idea.

———

"So what if I started a YouTube channel?" Jughead brought up nonchalantly. He was twirling his hair like always, staring up at the ceiling and holding his cellphone up to his ear.

"I'd watch it. Do it. Yes. Please," Archie responded through the phone eagerly, and Jughead had to chuckle at the sound.

"Okay then it is settled. I will start a YouTube channel."

"What are you gonna name it?"

"Nameless Boy," Jughead sighed. "I know I have a name now but it still feels appropriate in a sense."

"I guess I get it. Hey, we can go get you a camera tomorrow! I'm really excited if you can't tell," Archie laughed.

"I am expecting you to be in a few videos so you better not let me down," Jughead warned.

"Of course not, I'm all yours when you need me."

"Good. So what are you doing right now?"

"Talking to you. Thinking of you. Yearning for you," Archie whined.

"Corny."

"Wishing you were here. Wishing I could hold you. Wishing I could touch you. Wishing I could hear the pretty sounds you make when I touch you there. Wishing I could see the faces you make when you're—"

"Archie!" Jughead cut him off, blushing bright red at his little tangent.

"Are you blushing? I can tell," Archie laughed over the phone.

"Do not say things like that to me over the phone," he scolded, desperately trying to remove the words he spoke from his head but failing miserably.

"Okay, are you suggesting that I can say things like that to you in real life?"

"Not in public..." he mumbled.

"But that takes the fun out of it."

"So embarrassing me is the fun part?"

"I wouldn't call it embarrassment. Making you flustered is the fun part."

"Goodnight Archie, I am going to bed," Jughead sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Goodnight Jughead, even though I know you're not going to bed," Archie chuckled.

"Oh really? What will I be doing?"

"Probably reading or letting your mind run wild for another hour and a half."

Jughead didn't think anyone would ever know him as well as Archie did.

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