Our next class was cut short for an assembly. Cheryl Blossom stood at the podium, dressed in all lacy black, like she was at an actual funeral and not a small memorial at her high school. She looked around the room with a sad look on her face, speaking of her beloved brother, while I sat back on the same bleachers Jughead and I had been on, except this time, I was with Archie.

I looked over and saw Archie exchange glances with his music teacher, Miss Grundy. I couldn't help but get a little angry as they both looked away from each other quickly. This woman had some sort of hold on my brother and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. Archie hadn't told me exactly what was going on with them, but I had the idea that they were probably fucking. It was illegal, yes, but I wasn't going to do anything unless I knew Archie was in some sort of immediate danger.

I was jerked out of thoughts when I heard applause and cheering from the students around me. I could just make out what Cheryl was saying through all the celebrating.

"...but rather, let us use it as a way to heal, collectively, and celebrate my brother's too, too short life on this mortal coil."

I looked around the stands to see Jughead way in the back. I wanted nothing more in that moment to go and sit with him. To get away from the noise and the people. To let him wrap his arms around me, like he had done almost every night this summer. I wanted it to be just him and me, in my bed at home, where I could touch him and not have to worry that anyone was judging me or making sure I was okay. I wasn't okay. But with Jughead, it seemed like I could be.

As soon as school was over, Archie was at my locker, asking what I was doing that night. As I told him I was going to Pop's, I looked around the hallway. I wasn't one for a lot of eye contact and Archie knew that so he didn't bother trying to see what I was looking at. As I scanned the crowd, I caught the eye of a certain writer who was at his locker, further down the hall. He smiled at me and I smiled back.

"What?" I heard Archie ask. I turned my attention back to him.

"What?" I asked him.

"You're smiling. Why are you smiling?" I just shrugged my shoulders and told him that I had to go.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Pop's. I already told you."

"With who?"

"Why do I have to go with someone?"

"You know why."

"There are plenty of people at Pop's, Archie. Someone will notice if I walk off. Pop knows not to let me start walking away without anyone with me. I'll be fine. If you're worried about me, than drop me off and I'll call you when I'm ready to come home 'cause I know you probably don't want me to walk home alone either. Okay?"

"... fine. Are you sure you don't want any company?"

"No. I need to be alone for a bit. Besides, I'm sure you have something better to do. What with football and music and... certain classes... certain teachers."

"Y/N, don't bring this up here."

"I won't. I didn't mean to, I just was talking and it popped into head." I said. He looked at me, worried.

"Arch, don't worry. It's a secret and I'm not willing to give it up without a good reason, okay? You can trust me. You know that."

"I know... it's just got me paranoid."

"Okay. C'mon, let's go to Pop's."

We walked to Pop's and Archie left me in a booth with a milkshake and fries. As soon as he left, I stood up, taking my food and walking to the booth in the back of the diner and sitting down across from the same writer who had caught my eye in the hallway just half an hour ago. I swung my legs up onto the table and began to eat, as Jughead typed on his laptop. I assumed he was near the end of a thought or something because he typed for a minute more before looking up.

"Hey." he said, leaning across the table to eat some of my fries. "So, how was your first day back in hell?"

I smiled, "Awful, how about yours?"

"I avoided human contact for most of the day, so it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. You're the only person I talked to other than the teachers."

"I wish, I could say the same."

He smiled at me. A real smile. A smile that I rarely saw out in public. That I only saw late at night, when neither of us could sleep but we were okay with that because we got to enjoy the little bit of time we had together before the sun came up. I had learned to hate the sunrise this summer. It meant that Juggie was leaving. It meant coldness from the disappearance of his body in my bed. It meant i was alone again. No more beams of light from the flashlight on my bedside table swirling across the walls of my room. No more little jokes and muffled laughter. No more sweet short kisses (or loving long ones). It just meant no more Juggie.