Certain Things

Chapter 2

Riverdale High could be a toxic place on the best of days, but Archie had always loved it. For most of his life, he had just been one of those guys that got along with everyone. He had gone to school with most of the kids at Riverdale High since kindergarten. They had played on the same Little League teams and belonged to the same Adventure Scout groups. Sleepovers, campouts, Birthday parties, Trick-or-Treating, junior high dances…. The kids of Riverdale were all closely connected.

Of course, Riverdale High School was like any other school in America. There were definite cliques within the school- music nerds, drama geeks, rednecks, jocks, the "popular" group, the loners, mean girls, the emo kids. Archie never really fit into any one group, though. Instead, he was able to navigate through each group as he needed, liked by almost everyone.

The truth, though, was that Archie liked to keep his circle of friends really small. In fact, he was happiest when he was hanging out with his best friends, Jughead and Betty. Occasionally, Kevin and Ethel would join their small group, but for as long as he could remember, Jughead and Betty were his closest friends.

This summer had changed things, though, and the new school year was shaping up to be different. Archie suddenly found himself smack dab in the middle of a new crowd. One that he really didn't want to be a part of him. According to Cheryl Blossom, Archie had had an "Efron-esque emergence from the chrysalis of puberty", which suddenly led to every girl in Riverdale checking him out as he walked by. On the primal level of a hormonally driven teenage boy, he liked the attention at first, but eventually it became unbearably uncomfortable and embarrassing. He wasn't used to it and it made him feel weird.

Another new development was the sudden attention thrown at him by Reggie, Moose, Chuck, and the rest of the football team. Archie had always been friends with the jocks of Riverdale High, but it was usually just a "hey" and a shoulder bump as they passed in the hallway. Now, Archie found himself being swept up in the horde of athletes as they passed through the halls, fist-bumping and high-fiving his way to each class. At lunch, he was herded over to the "popular" table, but even though he was surrounded by his classmates, he felt lonelier than he had ever felt.

He knew the reason for his loneliness, too. Ever since the summer, he and Jughead had been on the outs. He had been friends with Jughead since the first time they were put in a playpen together when they were babies. Jughead was as much an integral part of his life as his own parents. Rarely a day went by that they didn't meet up somewhere, usually at Archie's house, which was like a second home to Jughead. They'd had their fair share of disagreements over the years, of course, mostly caused by them disagreeing on what game to play or what movie to watch, but usually, their arguments were solved quickly and they never stayed mad at each other for long.

The longest fight they'd ever had, until now, occurred when they were nine years old. Archie remembered how miserable he had been for almost a full week, because Jughead refused to talk to him until he came clean about something. Archie recalled that they were so bored that summer. The pool was closed for repairs and Jughead's bike had broken down, leaving them with very little else to do. One day, they were playing around in an empty lot near one of Fred Andrews' construction sites. Archie picked up a large stick and started tossing rocks in the air and batting at them with the stick. Jughead thought it was a bad idea to hit at the rocks since there were houses surrounding the empty lot, but Archie ignored his friend. Minutes later, Archie was wishing that he would have listened to his friend.

Picking up a rather large stone, he threw it in the air and swung his stick as hard as he could, imagining that he was playing in Yankee stadium with a sold-out crowd chanting his name. Seconds later, they heard a loud crash, followed by the sound of a car alarm going off. Archie looked toward the sound of the alarm, his heart sinking at the sight of a brand new Lexus with a smashed window. Before he even registered what he was doing, he threw down the stick, yelled at Jughead to run, and took off at full speed, his heart pounding painfully.

Jughead reluctantly followed Archie and they were both out of breath by the time they made it back to the construction site. Archie looked around frantically for his dad, hoping that he hadn't witnessed them coming from the direction of the empty lot. Jughead didn't know, but Archie had already been warned to stay off of the empty lot, as it was apparently private property owned by the Blossoms.

Much to Archie's relief, Fred Andrews didn't seem to notice that they had been playing in the lot. Archie and Jughead spent the rest of the afternoon in the construction office, playing game after game of War and Go Fish. Just as Fred was getting ready to close up the office for the day, someone knocked on the door. Archie and Jughead watched as a tall man with reddish-brown hair and a rather angry look on his face stepped into the office.

"Burt Blossom, what can I do for you?" Fred asked the man as he stepped forward to greet him.

"You can explain to me how a large rock ended up flying through the window of my brand new car, Andrews," he replied nastily.

Fred missed the look that shot between Archie and Jughead.

"I'm sorry about your car, but I can't explain that, Burt. What makes you think I had anything to do with that?"

"Your construction site is kicking up dust and debris all over the place, Andrews! Not to mention the amount of noise we have to put up with every day. It's not a great stretch to imagine that you're kicking up a few rocks here and there, is it?"

"Burt, we're nearly half a block away from your house. Any debris we kick up wouldn't have the ability to go that far."

"What happened, then?!" Burt yelled loudly, causing Fred to glance over at the boys. He wasn't surprised to see both of them watching the exchange with interest.

"I have no way of knowing, Burt. Really," Fred answered as calmly as he could.

"Well, you'll be hearing from my lawyer, Andrews," Burt Blossom bellowed.

"Come on, Burt. It's a smashed window. Do we really need to involve our lawyers?"

Without another word, Burt Blossom turned and stormed out of the office.

Before Fred could say anything to the boys, Jughead spoke up. "Mr. Andrews? We need to tell you something," he said quietly.

"What is it, Jughead?" Fred answered. "Is something wrong?"

Archie interrupted before Jughead could say anything. "No, nothing's wrong, Dad. Jughead was just going to tell you that we wanted to spend the night out in the treehouse tonight. Mom said it's okay."

"Well, if mom said," Fred laughed, "it must be okay then. Is it okay with your parents, Jug?"

"They don't mind," Jughead answered. "Mr. Andrews, what about Mr. Blossom? He seemed really mad."

"Don't worry about Burt Blossom, Jug. He's all bluster and very little bite."

Jughead shot a look at Archie, who immediately avoided it by looking away. "Can we go, Dad? I'm starving!"

"Archie, it's only been two hours since you ate two burgers and some onion rings from Pops. How can you still be hungry?!"

"I'm a growing boy, Dad," Archie answered with a grin. "Right, Jug?"

"Right," Jughead mumbled.

The next few days were miserable for Archie. Once they got home, the boys scarfed down their dinners and retreated to the treehouse. The minute Archie made it through the door, Jughead started in.

"Archie, we have to tell your dad!"

"No way!" Archie exclaimed. "He'll kill me, Juggie. He told me that we weren't allowed to go onto that empty lot, so if he finds out that we did, I'm dead."

"Come on, Arch. Your dad's not going to kill you. You'll probably just get grounded or…."

"Yeah, or…." Archie sighed. "Please, Jughead! We can't tell him."

"It will be better if we just tell him, Archie. Yeah, he'll be mad, but he'll be even madder if he finds out later. What if I tell him I did it?"

"No, Jughead. Please. Just drop it, okay?"

Jughead finally did drop it, but he also stopped coming over to Archie's. After four days of being given the silent treatment by his best friend, Archie couldn't take it anymore. Gathering up his courage, he waited until his dad came down for breakfast, preparing himself to come clean. Unfortunately, his dad didn't have time to talk.

"Can you believe this?" Fred said. "Burt Blossom actually got his lawyer involved with this window situation. I have to go meet with our lawyer to prepare to meet with his lawyer. I swear, Mary, if I thought for one single second that I was responsible for that, I would pay up straightaway. But, it's not my fault. There is absolutely no way that one of our trucks or pieces of equipment could have kicked that rock up."

"Dad?" Archie interrupted. "I need to tell you something."

"Not now, Archie, okay? We'll talk later."

"But, Dad…."

"Sorry, Arch, but I need to go. I'm already running late."

Before Archie could say anything else, his dad was running out the door.

"Is everything okay, Archie?" his mom asked.

Archie thought about confessing to his mom, but he chickened out at the last minute. "It's okay, mom. What's for breakfast?"

Archie chickened out again that night when his dad finally came home from work. Fred Andrews was usually a fairly even-tempered man, but he still had his moments like every other person. It only took one look at him that evening to convince Archie to keep quiet a little bit longer. After hearing his mom and dad talking about the Blossom situation again the next morning, though, Archie knew he had to finally confront the situation head on.

Archie had been in trouble with his parents before and he didn't really think that his dad would kill him like he had told Jughead. But his parents could be strict at times. Especially his dad. After Archie had confessed his actions to both of them over the breakfast table, Fred sent his son to his room to await his punishment. Archie knew that his dad was more upset by the fact that he had lied to him and withheld the truth than the fact that he had actually broken Burt Blossom's car window.

But regardless of the fact that he was in a lot of trouble, Archie couldn't help but feel relieved that it was all over and that maybe he could finally patch things up with his best friend. Luckily, Jughead often proved to be very forgiving.

Seven years later, Archie once again found himself miserable and missing Jughead's companionship. The events of the summer had placed a great strain on their relationship and he had no idea how to fix it. And he was the one that needed to fix it. Everything was all his fault and he couldn't blame his best friend for being so angry. If only he could go back to the beginning of the summer and change it all back to the way it used to be.

Author's note: A little longer chapter this time. I love the Archie/Jughead relationship, so I couldn't help but delve a little bit into their past. I hope the flashback and the subsequent return to present time wasn't too confusing. Anyway, thanks for reading. I'm thinking the next chapter will have a little Betty and Veronica in it, so stay tuned.