"He was just leaving." I heard my brother say. I saw Jughead from the bottom of the staircase, just inside the door. Jughead. He was the reason I was here. Wasn't he? I still felt loopy so I grabbed onto the railing and slid down on the steps, leaning against it. I made eye contact with Jug. When he saw me, I could tell there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes, but once he saw the far off, confused look on my face, the hope was gone and he turned around, leaving our yard. It was blurry and I wasn't sure if it was entirely real. For all I knew, this could've been a dream and I was really still in my bed. Not that I knew that's really where I was anyway.

The next day was a blur. I was more or less there, but nothing that happened seemed to be worth my attention. I don't even remember most of it. I do remember lunch. I remember Reggie and Kevin and Archie. And then Jughead. I remember a bit of yelling and then Archie being slammed into the vending machine. That didn't worry me so much, Archie could take care of himself, he had been it plenty of fights although most of the damage had been done on the football field. Then I saw Jughead. He was hurt too. Not badly, but enough to make me worried. As soon as everyone was split up, I followed Jughead out of the student lounge. I don't think anyone noticed I had left, but then again, I barely noticed that my feet were moving towards him down the hallway. Everything still felt like a dream and my vision was still strange. It was a bit warped.

I walked straight in front of Jughead and turned to look at him. He stopped short and said my name. Or at least it looked like he was saying my name. I couldn't really hear it.

"Y/N/N?"

I put my hand on his face, where a small bruise was just visible.

"Y/N/N?" I didn't even acknowledge that he was speaking, so he grabbed my hand and pulled me through the nearly empty hallway. The quick movement made me very confused, but when he finally stopped, I could see where he had taken me. We were back on the bleachers in the empty gym. He sat me down and kneeled in front of me to look at my face. I reached out and ran my thumb over the bruise again. I wanted it to go away. Jughead didn't deserve all the shit this school put him through and for the next little while he was going to have a physical mark to remind him of it.

"Y/N/N?" He said again. Why did he keep saying my name? I was right here. Maybe he needed my attention. Why would anyone need that? I was basicly useless right now. Nonetheless I was trying to be better for Jughead, so I finally met his eyes. He smiled a little bit.

"Hey." He said. I just looked at him and he sighed.

"Y/N, talk to me." I smiled at him, but didn't even try to talk. There was no point. I couldn't even form a sentence in my head that made any sense to say. My mind was still going a mile a minute and I was pretty sure that if I tried to speak, all of my thoughts would be mushed together.

"Y/N/N, come on. I want to talk to you. Please? I know it might be hard, but I miss talking to you, come on." His words were starting to make me sad. I wanted to be there for him, I just needed some time. I slunk down to the floor with him and kissed his cheek. I wrapped my arms around him and he just held me there for how long I don't now, because once again, I had no concept of time in my head. It could've been a minute or an hour, but I wouldn't know.

Everything went quickly after that. I assume that Jughead took me back to Archie, Kevin or Betty, or maybe even Veronica and after school someone led me home and I guess just let me fall into bed. I sat there wondering if what had happened today had been real. I could feel the soft blankets underneath me and a few more random thoughts popped into my head. The colour of the blankets, the amount of blankets, the patterns on one of them and a couple of memories of Betty and I sitting and talking on my bed. But one thing stood out. Another memory. A newer one. Jughead and I intertwined on lonely summer night, a couple of blankets draped over us. I began thinking about Jughead and how hard his life was right now. He was basically homeless, his dad had a drinking problem, his mom had left along with his sister, he and his best friend were fighting, he had almost no other friends, he was using his novel as a way of getting away from it all which meant he was tired from all the late nights and stressed about finding more information for it. And then there was me. The one person that he could talk to and I couldn't be there for him. I thought about for what felt like a while, but since I was so focused, I failed to realize that my sense of time was getting much better, much faster.

Jughead became my only thought and it made me sad. I could feel my breathing getting faster and willed myself to slow down and to stop thinking of Jughead. When I did, I realized that my eyes were closed. I hadn't known that I had been crying, but now I could feel tears on face I that were beginning to dry. Slowly I opened my eyes and sat up. I was welcomed by the drawings that I had put on wall. They weren't blurry, or warped, but clear and I understood what I was looking at.. My room was in front of me in full blast. This had to be real. It had to be. No situation in my mind had ever been this clear. I wanted so badly for it to be real, but I needed proof.

I got up and walked out of room to find Archie in the kitchen with an ice pack on his eye. I cleared my throat, knowing that after not talking for however long I had been spaced out for, my voice would be rough. Archie looked up when I did this.

"Archie?"

He looked at me intently. I knew he was trying to figure out if I was still gone or not.

"Did Reggie do that to you?" I asked him.

He took the ice pack away from his face, "Yeah."

"He shoved you into the vending machine, right?"

Instead of answering, he stood up and pulled me into a bone crushing hug.

"Arch, you're hurting me." I breathed out, trying to get some air. He let me go and smiled at me.

"Sorry. I just... you're okay." He laughed.

I smiled at him, "Yeah, I guess I am. How long was I... you know."

"About three days."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah, but it was worst you've ever been. I was fucking scared, Y/N/N, you were barely eating, I don't think you slept more than half an hour every night. We had to pull you wherever you needed to be, you didn't say a single word the whole time.

"I'm so sorry, Arch. I was trying to get better the whole time, but I couldn't. It was so hard. It felt like I was stuck and I just couldn't move and I these images of Jason's body kept popping into my head and I couldn't focus on anything. " I said. More tears began to form in my eyes as I spoke and I put a hand over my mouth to keep from making any noise.

"No, Y/N this was not your fault. None of this is ever your fault and I know you're trying to get better, okay?"

I nodded my head and took a deep breath. "Right. So what's happening tonight?"

"Actually, Cheryl's hosting a pep rally to honor Jason."

"Oh. That's kinda weird, but okay."

"Do you want to come? I mean I know you hate this sort of thing, but Betty and Veronica are River Vixens so they'll be there and I know Betty would want to know that you're okay."

"There's gonna be a lot of people there isn't there?"

"Yeah, but you can hang out behind the bleachers if you want."

"Okay, I'll come. To support you, Betty and Veronica."

He smiled at me and sat down to put the ice pack back on his face.

"Hey, Arch?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Jughead will be there?"

He laughed, "Jughead? At a pep rally? I don't think so, why?"

"Just wondering."

"Hey, this morning after the fight with Reggie, I saw Jughead leave the student lounge and then I couldn't find you. Betty, Veronica and I went looking for you and after a while, Veronica found you, but she wouldn't tell me where. Is there a reason for that?"

I had to think for a second before I remembered being on the bleacher with Jughead. She must have found me there with him.

"I ah, don't know. I don't really remember much of what happened the last few days." I answered, avoiding the truth. "What did happen these last few days?"

"Not much. I mean, I made varsity football."

"Oh, Arch, that's amazing! Anything else.?"

His face dropped a bit and his voice got a little quieter. "Jughead found out about me and Ms. Grundy."

"What? How?"

"He saw us in the music room."

"Archie. I'm not gonna try to talk you out of this anymore, but please be careful. Does anyone else know?"

"No." He shook his head. "We should get ready to go."

I knew he didn't want to talk about this, so I didn't make him, but that didn't change the fact that I was worried about him. About half an hour later, we were walking to the school, Archie with his football bag in hand and me with my hair brushed and fresh clothes on.

Once we got there, I found Betty, who was very happy to know that I was feeling better. Then I went behind the bleachers which were decorated in strands of lights and climbed up the poles that supported them. I went up halfway, only about seven feet off the ground and sat down on one of the metal bars. I sat there and listened to "Candy Girl" being played by Josie, Melody and Valerie and basically just wondered when this would be over and I could go find Jughead.

~Archie's P.O.V.~

Archie had just told Ms.Grundy about his plan to tell Weatherbee and Sheriff Keller about the gunshot. As he walked away from her, he spotted Jughead next to the bleachers. He had been wrong when he told Y/N he didn't think that Jughead would be here.

"Girl trouble? You?" Jughead said as Archie approached him.

"Grundy and me. We're telling Weatherbee. Or at least, I am. And also, I didn't mean all that crap I said to you. I'm sorry."

"It's cool." Jughead smiled. A real smile. One that only the Andrews twins seemed to be able to get out of him. "We are not gonna hug in front of this whole town."

They both laughed and Jughead made another suggestion, "So why don't we just do that bro thing where we just nod like douches and mutually suppress our emotions?"

"Yeah, but as friends, right?"

"To be discussed, over many burgers, and many days." He smiled again.

Archie turned to go join his teammates. This was good, he thought. He and Jughead were pretty much friends again. Y/N would be happy about that, he knew she wanted them to make up really badly. Y/N/N. Archie remembered their conversation before they had left. He turned back to Jughead, who was still leaning against the side of the bleachers.

"Jug!"

Jughead looked back at Archie, who walked back over to his friend.

"Y/N/N asked me if you would be here."

Jughead straightened up, "She's talking again?"

"Yeah, just an hour ago. She got better really fast. You were one of the first things she asked about. It just got me wondering though, I mean you guys seemed to hang out together a lot during the summer and I was just wondering, is there something going on between you two?"

Jughead sighed and knowing that he shouldn't lie because Archie would probably find out eventually. "We've had a few moments."

"Dude, it's okay. I can't tell you guys what to do and I mean, she did seem really happy all summer, so it's all good. You can probably find her just behind the bleachers. I'm sure she wants to see you."

Jughead smiled, relieved that Archie wouldn't be a problem. He then turned around and walked around the bleachers. He was met with the sight of a red haired girl sitting on the bars of the bleachers, looking up at the sky. He knew exactly what she was doing. She was looking for the constellations and stars that she knew the names of.

"Hey." He called out to her.