Juju's pov, a few months later
I sit on my bed, a sketchbook in my lap and colored pencils sprawled next to me as I carefully draw out some cartoons. I'm at Archie's house, meaning I can hear Scarlett's show from the bunk above me, and the bang of music coming from the garage where Archie works on his music. I ignore the texts that pop up on my phone, preferring to read them once I'm finished drawing. Maybe that was a mistake.
I pick up my phone once it rings for the third time, answering the call from my dad.
"Jules, are you getting my texts?" he asks.
"Yeah, I just haven't read them yet," I reply. "What's up?"
"Y- your mom's having the baby," he says.
I set down the colored pencil in my hand. "What?" I ask.
"The baby is coming. Now," he answers.
"Oh. It's early though, right? I mean, it was supposed to be two weeks from now?" I question, confused if this is bad.
"That's normal. Nothing's wrong," Dad says. "But you should see if Archie can bring you to the hospital tomorrow. I know it's a day early, but don't you wanna meet your sister or brother?"
I nod, even though he can't see it. "I'll ask," I say. Maybe, I add on mentally.
"Great. Tell us what time," Dad reminds me.
"Course," I agree. "Bye."
"Goodbye."
I wasn't ready for this. I close my sketchbook. It's too early. I was supposed to have two more weeks at least before the baby gets here and ruins everything. Two more weeks where there wasn't constant crying, where I could bake stuff with Mom and have friends over. I sigh, packing my colored pencils up into their container.
"Where are you going?" Scarlett asks without looking up from her tablet.
"To talk to Archie," I reply.
"About what?" Scarlett demands, this time meeting my eyes.
"I just need to ask him if he can drop me off somewhere tomorrow," I inform her, reaching for the door handle.
"Where are you going?" she questions. Suddenly, a glimmer lights up her eyes. "Ooh, are you going on a date with your boyfriend?" she asks, a mischievous grin spreading across her face.
"For the last time, Preston is not my boyfriend. He's my friend who happens to be a boy," I tell Scarlett. "And no, I'm not seeing Preston tomorrow."
"Then what are you doing?"
The incessant questions are beginning to annoy me, as I just want to ask Archie if he can drive me to my parents the next day before I get back to mourning the loss of peace and quiet.
"My mom is having a baby. My dad asked if Archie could drive me to the hospital tomorrow, to see them all," I answer.
"Your mom's pregnant?" Scarlett questions.
"Yeah," I reply. "I'm sure I mentioned it sometime."
"I don't remember that," Scarlett tells me.
I shrug, opening the door. "Maybe I didn't, then. I'm not super excited, so I can see myself never bringing it up when there's no need."
"Siblings can be so annoying," Scarlett says after a quick break from speaking, looking thoughtful.
"They really can, can't they?" I agree. "Well, I'm off to ask Archie about the ride," I tell her, and walk out before Scarlett can keep me talking even longer.
I open the door to the garage, which is exploding with music. Archie doesn't even notice as I step inside, too consumed with his god awful rock music he's playing along to.
"Archie!" I yell over the sound of electric guitars and drums. "Archie!"
Archie looks up at me and stops strumming along on his guitar, fumbling with the phone as he tries to disconnect it from the speaker while pausing it. "Yeah, Ju?" he questions, setting the guitar against the stool next to him.
"Can you drive me to the hospital tomorrow?" I ask carefully.
"What, you hurt?" he asks, then adds, "If you are, your mom's taking the bill. I'm not paying thousands for a wrap of gauze. Bones can heal by themselves, we don't need this bull of a healthcare industry."
I pause, looking unsurely at him, wondering how to continue this conversation I so desperately want to leave. "Casts aren't made of gauze," I start. "It's fiberglass. And no, I'm not hurt. If I was, I'd be asking you to take me to the hospital now." I wonder what would cause him to think I would want an extra day of pain and un-diagnosis. "Mom's having the baby. Dad told me to ask if you could drop me off at the hospital, even though it's a day early, so I can meet the baby."
"I forgot that slut was knocked up again," Archie mutters. I feel my blood boil subtly, and wish to just be at home, without the baby at all, and without any knowledge of Archie whatsoever. "Sure, whatever. I'll take you around twelve. You can get lunch there, I'm not making you food."
"Okay…" I say, and turn away from him, walking back into the main part of the house. I know that around twelve for Archie means at least thirty minutes later, so I tell Dad I'll be there around one.
Mom's face breaks into a grin when she sees me. "Meet your new little sister," she says, looking at the blanketed bundle she has in her arms.
"Sister? It's a girl?" I question, standing a few feet away from her and the baby.
"Yeah," Mom tells me, her voice soft and hopeful. "We haven't decided on a name yet. Can't seem to agree on anything." She flashes a somewhat knowing smile at my dad, and his eyes seem to sparkle the slightest bit.
"If you have any name suggestions, feel free to tell us," Dad says.
I shrug unsurely. I haven't thought at all about what the name of the baby would be. I had assumed that would be decided by my parents, maybe with a few suggestions by Everett and Grayson.
"Do you want to hold her?" Mom asks.
Look at the tiny bundle in her arms. "I don't know. I'm scared I'll break her," I confess.
"I felt that way when I first saw you," Mom tells me.
"Really?" I question. Mothering had always seemed to come so naturally to her, and I couldn't imagine she had ever had to train herself for anything about it. That she had just known her whole life what she would name her future children, and everything else about parenting there was to know.
"Really," Mom confirms. "Here." She holds the baby out a bit, and instructs me on how to support her as she places her in my arms.
"Wow…" I murmur as I stare into her perfect, sleeping face. "Have Gray and Rhett seen her yet?"
"They came by this morning. They're with Grandma, they got bored of the hospital," Dad replies. "Also slightly disappointed she isn't a boy. But, they've got each other, and now you have this little one on your team."
I chuckle a bit, focusing much more on not dropping the baby in my arms. "What about… Indigo? For her name? We could call her Indie for short, so we all have nicknames," I suggest. The name had never occurred to me before, and only struck me in that moment as I watched her sleep.
My parents share a small smile before both nodding. "That's a perfect name," Dad tells me.
"Indigo Jones," Mom says. "It sounds very much like a movie star name. I love it," she tells me, smiling. I pass Indie back to my mom, very careful to not let her get hurt in any way. "Now for a middle name."
"Madeline?" Dad offers. "I know you aren't the biggest fan of it because the nickname is Maddie, which isn't your favorite, but if it's her middle name then she'd never be called that."
"Indigo Madeline Jones," I say all together. "That's so pretty."
"Hello, little Indigo. Welcome to the world," Mom whispers to the baby.
The next few weeks were a strange adjustment. There was a lot of crying, and Christmas was much different than I remember. It was her first Christmas, so we wanted to do special stuff, but she was only a few weeks old, and wasn't a huge fan of any of the projects with her foot and hand prints we attempted to create with her.
I spent a relatively large amount of time at the park or Callie's house, trying to escape the relentless crying that happened every afternoon. That was definitely not something I enjoyed about Indigo.
However, she did have her good qualities. She smiled a lot too, and everyone gushed over her when Mom brought her in one day in January to introduce Indie to all of the students she taught.
When she wasn't crying, Callie and Preston loved to hold her and play with her a bit, once she got a little older.
"You have the cutest sister ever," Callie tells me as we sit in my bedroom one day.
"Usually I have to pretend babies are cute, but honestly, Indie is actually adorable," Preston says truthfully.
"I was not a cute baby," I say, smirking a little. "I looked like an actual potato. But Gray was cute, and so was Rhett. Probably Archie's genes in me."
"I think I was cute as a baby. So was my sister," Callie says.
"Of course you were both cute, you're literally identical twins except a few years apart," I say.
"I think I was an alright baby. Just average," Preston says. "You know, nothing special in a good or bad way."
"Yes, I know what average means," I say, laughing.
After Indigo's birth on December fourth, it did seem pretty calm for the next two months, as I described above. But then the next big life event happened, and it was the opposite of the happiness that was just beginning to settle over us.
"Guys," I say over the phone to Callie and Preston, tears staining my voice and face. "Guys, something bad just happened."
"What is it?" Callie and Preston chorus, equal amounts of concern in their voices.
"My- my- my dad went to see his dad, because he wasn't answering his texts, and-" I try to explain, and break into sobs before I can complete the sentence. I slide down the wall, sobbing into the phone I hold to my ear.
"Oh my gosh," Callie says. "He's- he's not-"
"Do you need me to come over? I can come over," Preston offers.
"Yeah… to both of those. He's- and I never got to say goodbye," I cry, cupping my head in the palms of my hands.
"I don't want to intrude," Preston says unsurely.
"Please," I say thickly, begging him. I need human connection, I need my best friend. "My parents'll understand, my dad is… with him and my mom is here with us, she'll know that I need you."
"Okay. I'll be there in five minutes," Preston says.
"I wish I could be there, but my parents insisted on this little trip for the weekend, the second I get home I'll come over," Callie reassures me.
"It's okay, I know," I say, tears still running down my face. "Enjoy… enjoy your vacation."
I hang up before she can reply, feeling envious and angry at Callie all of a sudden. Why couldn't she be there for me? I know the feelings are stupid, that Callie is away for the weekend and will be home in a few days, that it's not her fault or at all up to her to come back to comfort me. I know that if she had the choice, Callie would be back here with me, to help me just like I had when her uncle had passed.
But grief seemed to take over everything, and all I felt was envy. She may not have her uncle anymore, but she had all of her grandparents, and she was on vacation while I sat at home, with Indie crying and my brothers restless, and asking far too many questions.
A knock on the door shakes me out of the consuming grief threatening to shatter me to pieces, and I jump up and run to the living room.
"Did you invite someone over?" Mom asks. I can tell she's been crying, and she has Indigo next to her, peacefully asleep and unaware of the world around her.
"I need someone," I respond.
She nods, looking sad.
I open the door and let Preston in. He waves awkwardly at my mom, an apologetic smile on his face. "I'm so sorry for your loss," he says graciously.
"Thank you, Preston," Mom replies.
Preston and I walk back to my room, where I collapse on my bed, crying into a pillow as Preston tries to adjust himself on my bed so he isn't touching me.
"I just… never thought this would happen," I choke out. "It's too soon."
"Your grandpa was amazing," Preston says.
"The best," I add, making myself cry more. I lean up, my elbows supporting me as I look at Preston curled at the foot of the bed. "Can you hug me?" I need to be touched, I realize, in a comforting way. Know that someone is really there, is actually wanting to help me and support me and love me.
"Course," Prestons says, and wraps his arms around my somewhat awkwardly, but it grows more comfortable as time goes on.
Everything seemed to move quickly after that. The funeral was the weekend after, and I saw a lot of family I hadn't seen in a while. My dad's mom, who I rarely saw, even came around to pay her respects to her late ex-husband.
"Oh, you've grown up so much," she said when she saw all of us. "I'm glad to see you all, although sorry it's under such sad circumstances. Fp was a great guy, and we'll all miss him dearly."
I nod, not really sure what I should say to that.
JB was a whole different mess, having lost her husband and father in less than a year. "Chelse is the only thing holding me together at this point," she says, watching her daughter run around in the lawn.
"I can't even imagine how you're feeling," Mom says, placing a hand on JB's shoulder. "We're always here for you two, remember? Anything you need, call us and we'll do whatever to help."
JB gives a small nod, looking rather lost. I feel bad for her. I don't have a husband, of course, but it would be as if I lost Preston and my dad in the span of a few months. Of course I'd still have Callie, but huge pieces of my life would be missing, and I'd feel disconnected from everyone else as well.
I never quite figured out how to behave at a funeral. I felt very out of place, with people I barely knew coming up and offering condolences, sharing stories about my grandfather as a kid, or tales of his shenanigans as a teenager, or quick facts about his cheerful attitude at work. I'm glad I wasn't asked to speak, because I don't believe I could've held it together long enough to say something, or even have said something appropriate for the mood. I don't know what I would say if someone asked me to give a story about him. There's so much that it all seems to blend together, and it'll unblend when things calm down.
It feels as if I've been running a marathon these past few months, and we're nearing the end, but I still have more before it all slows down.
Authors note- okay so I was definitely planning on keeping this story going longer but I'm thinking I'll have maybe one more chapter that's a kind of epilogue style thing (or maybe not who knows) because being honest, I don't have too much inspiration for this right now. I love this story and the characters I've created but this just feels like a good place to end it. Don't worry though, I have other fanfics and I'll have a Riverdale one to replace this. I can't wait to start something fresh and new, but this story will always hold a special place in my heart. Also, please revie because I love getting those! :)