Walk A Mile & Even Further [Part I] (Patreon)

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In his mind, Archie knew that he wasn’t exactly suffering from a unique situation. There were plenty of teenage boys out there who didn’t always agree with their fathers but there were times when things became so ugly between him and his old man that he didn’t think anybody could understand. 

It didn’t matter how willing he was to confide in his best friends, his brain operated in tunnel vision where he simply didn’t have the time or consideration to think about anybody else’s situation other than his own. Besides, the likes of Jughead and Betty were all going through their own things and he didn’t want to be the guy who unloaded all of his problems on them. That wouldn’t be fair.

Despite knowing that things with his father could escalate from the smallest thing, Archie simply couldn’t stop himself from disagreeing and arguing back whenever he felt like the older man was being unjust towards him. The root of the problem was that his father simply couldn’t understand him and no matter how hard he tried, Archie didn’t know how to get them on the same page. He had tried pretty much everything he could to be a ‘good son’ but his father always seemed to find holes to pick that left him feeling angry and confused. 

While he knew that his father loved him and meant well, Archie simply wished that he could understand him. His father had shown so little interest in his musical ambitions and considering it was his main passion over football or any of his schoolwork, it stung. Was it really so much to ask for his parent to show some interest in his hobbies? 

Knowing that something was wrong but opting not to try to pull it out of him unwillingly, Veronica recommended that he speak to somebody about whatever was going on in his mind. After a particularly long and tiresome argument with his father early in the morning sent him off to school in a terrible mood, Archie decided that she was right. He had barely circumnavigated detention twice and had almost picked a fight with Reggie before Jughead reminded him that it simply wasn’t worth it.

During the lunch break that he would normally be spending strumming out chords on his guitar, Archie instead opted to visit the school counsellor to try and address some of the more turbulent thoughts clouding his mind. 

Mr Cassius was a new member of staff, starting only a few weeks earlier, and considering he was a lot younger than some of the other staff members as well conventionally handsome - even Archie was man enough to admit it - the new counsellor had earned himself some popularity amongst the student body. Quite a few of the ditzier popular girls had visited him in the hopes of perhaps getting lucky but they always seemed to leave his office with a little more common sense and maturity.

Fighting back the strange nerves building up in his gut, Archie knocked on the office door and waited. Just a few short moments later and the door opened to reveal Mr Cassius, a bright smile decorating his face. “Archie Andrews? Well, this is quite unexpected,” he declared before taking a step back and opening the door further. “Please, do come in!”

Momentarily stunned that the school counsellor already knew his name, Archie tried not to think too much into it and instead stepped into the office with a brief smile of his own directed towards the older man. “Thank you, sir.” After a moment of consideration, Archie realized was likely only because of his position on the football team that Mr Cassius had any idea who he was and couldn’t help but feel a little foolish for being so surprised. Sometimes his own popularity still managed to stun him. He didn’t feel any different for his position on the team really, he was still just the same Archie Andrews!

“Now what can I do for you, Archie?” the counsellor asked, settling down in his rotating leather chair behind the desk. “I must say it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard great things about your music.”

“My music?” Archie exclaimed, surprised that the older man hadn’t commented upon his work on the football field instead. He was once again left flustered and wondered how to respond, especially to the unexpected praise. “Well, I, uh -- thanks. It’s… well, cutting straight to it, it’s things with my dad. They aren’t so good.”

Within moments a clipboard and pen appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the counsellor’s hands and he began to scribble several notes. While Archie was left to contemplate if really had just witnessed items materializing out of nowhere, the member of staff cleared his throat and asked, “What do you feel would help the situation between yourself and your father?”

The question was so direct that Archie was momentarily stunned - until the words seemed to flow from his mouth without any thought or compulsion. “He needs to learn to understand me,” he confessed, surprising even himself.

“Interesting,” Mr Cassius hummed, scribbling another note down before glancing back up. As their eyes locked, Archie was left to wonder if the man’s pupils had always been so golden. “And do you think you would benefit from understanding him too?”

“I guess so, yeah,” Archie agreed, a slight blush to his cheeks as he found himself opening up without any hesitation once more. He wasn’t sure what it was about Mr Cassius but he felt compelled to tell the truth and not hide anything from him which certainly wasn’t normal when it came to Archie’s teachers. There was something different about Mr Cassius though, he just simply couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

The clipboard of notes was placed down on the desk and Mr Cassius leaned forward, a charming smile settling over his facial features. Archie was immediately reminded of all the girls that had attempted to win his favor and in that exact moment even he as somebody who identified as straight could understand. 

“I think I can help you, Mr Andrews,” the counsellor declared. “You both need to opportunity to understand each other better and is there really any better opportunity than walking in each other’s shoes?”

Archie barely had the time to question in his mind what Mr Cassius was referring to before the man clicked his fingers and suddenly the world around him was cast into darkness and his mind drifted into the realms of deep sleep and confusing dreams.

The first thing Archie noticed when he begun to resume consciousness was just how sore his back felt. He tried to think back to his most recent football practice, wondering if he’d taken any particularly nasty bumps that could have caused it. None came to mind and he was only left further confused when he realized his joints didn’t move quite as smoothly as he expected. It was quite unlike anything he had experienced before and made him crave the relative peace of sleeping.

Before he could fully return to his senses a drumming began to increase in volume in his mind and the strangely familiar caffeine cravings were beginning to eat away at him. I don’t even drink coffee, he thought to himself, despite knowing that the first thing he was going to do once he was fully awake was make a strong cup of coffee. Did it make sense? Not particularly, but it would definitely help him feel a little bit more like himself.

Myself… I don’t feel very like myself at all right now. The words exchanged in the session with the school counsellor slowly began to return to Archie’s mind and, when matched with how he currently felt, they suddenly begun to make a lot more sense. 

Thrust completely awake by the horrible feeling swelling in his gut, Archie only had to look at his surroundings to confirm what he’d suspected. He was no longer at Riverdale High but instead in his father’s workplace and a glance into a nearby grubby mirror confirmed that it was his father’s face staring back at him in shock rather than his own.

“This really isn’t the kind of therapy I was asking for,” he muttered under his breath, doing his best to fight back against the anxiety that was beginning to consume his mind. Coffee! I need coffee, he thought desperately before making a beeline to the break room. He wasn’t sure why he knew where that was but Archie wasn’t prepared to consider any reasons - or anything really - until he had at least one stiff shot of coffee down him.

The surprises kept coming as the (regrettably former) teenage jock was quick to locate his father’s usual coffee flask and everything he’d need to make the brew that suited this adult body best. His body - not that he was willing to accept that it was currently his - worked on autopilot until he finally had something that could be considered fuel for his depressingly adult life. 

While he had once considered coffee to be bitter and unpleasant, Archie was instead greeted by an immediately taste that filled him with warmth. Even the headache that was building in his mind seemed momentarily dulled, convincing him to take a second sip from the mug. 

Keeping his coffee flask close at hand, Archie located his father’s rucksack and freed his cell phone from the very bottom of the mess within. He had every intention of calling his own number and hoping to get in contact with his father on the end of the line - only for that plan to be immediately derailed by the cell phone’s lack of charge. Has he ever heard of a charger? Archie thought in frustration, knowing there was no way he could simply walk out of his father’s work. It was his construction firm after all and even though they had their differences, Archie didn’t want to cause his father’s work colleagues to view him negatively for running out.

Despite resisting his father’s wishes for him to one day take over the construction firm in favor of his desires to follow his musical passions, Archie struggled only minimally throughout the day. He knew of his father’s employees through casual discussion and visiting his father at work but every time they spoke it was as if Archie knew more and more about them. All of his hesitations faded away as hours passed by and as a result he missed the clock ticking past the end of school hours, only realizing once the last of his employees clocked out.

With a rapidly beating heart and a strange twisting sensation in his gut, Archie climbed into his father’s car and made his way back home, eagerly hoping that his father had not caused too much chaos in his life. The last thing he needed was for the likes of Reggie and his meathead friends to start making comments on him acting like ‘an old man’ or being out of touch, as his father no doubt was. It would all be about damage control, that was for sure.

Instead of the perplexed panic he had expected of a man suddenly switched into his teenage son’s body, Archie’s father was acting surprisingly casually once he finally reached home. The guitar that Archie treasured so much was strapped around the shoulders of his virile teenage frame and he strummed every string with such precision that it was if he’d been practicing for the same amount of time as Archie himself.

“I didn’t know you could play,” the (once) red-headed musician declared in surprise, stood in the doorframe of their living room watching his father. It was strange but he almost felt proud of what he saw, as if he could finally see a way for him and his father to get on the same page. That was all Archie had wanted, after all, and he’d said as much to Mr Cassius too.

Expecting his father to respond in a somewhat flustered tone or to perhaps even apologise for being so judgmental of his musical ambitions, Archie was instead greeted with a scowl. “Yes you did,” the older man responded, “Whatever. Today was… Look, I just don’t have time for this today, dad.” Without another word, the redheaded teen pushed himself off the sofa and stormed out with little more than a look of disappointment at the other.

“Wait, what did you just call me?” Archie asked, his brain struggling to catch up to the situation. He reached out, grabbing his father by the arm before he could get too far, only to be easily shrugged off.

“Dad,” his father repeated, the ends of his lips curling into a frown. “What did you want me to call you? Mr Andrews? Sir?” There was no disguising the venom in the other’s voice and Archie was ashamed to admit that he was sure he had taken the exact same tone during arguments with his father before. He hadn’t realized quite how upsetting it could be to be on the other end of it, although that feeling came second to the confusion swirling around his mind. 

“He needs to learn to understand me.” Archie’s own words from his earlier meeting with Mr Cassius echoed in his mind.

“And do you think you would benefit from understanding him too?” the school counsellor had responded, solidifying a thought that had been steadily building in Archie’s brain. He had told the counsellor that both father and son would benefit from understanding each other’s point of views more and his father… well, Fred Andrews now truly believed he was Archie Andrews.

The former Archie Andrews stared at his father - no, his son - with his mouth slightly open, aghast at the situation he found himself in. His own father, the man he had switched bodies with, had no memory of anything being out of the ordinary between them and was running on neutral as if he really was Archie. There was no way anybody would believe him if he told them what had happened - they’d think he was crazy and just jealous of his own son’s youth and talent!

“Don’t take that tone with me,” the new father of the family responded, reluctantly accepting his new authority in this household. “Maybe you should go to your room after all. I need to make a phone call to your school.” There was only one person who could fix this and he needed to get in contact with them as soon as possible.

“What? Why?!” the new Archie exclaimed, frustration and horror flashing across his features. “What have I done?!”

“Just go to your room!” he responded sternly, taking offense at the manner of which his own son would dare talk to him. Didn’t he have any respect for his elders? What the hell am I thinking? With every passing second he was losing himself to this new persona and it scared him.

Once his son had stalked off back to his room, guitar in hand, Fred let out a deep sigh and collapsed back onto the sofa. “Kids,” he muttered to himself, before chuckling darkly. This day certainly hadn’t gone the way he’d expected it to.

After a quick glass of whiskey was consumed, the new father got on the phone to his former high school and immediately requested to speak to the school counsellor, Mr Cassius. He was willing to admit that he’d been wrong and too judgmental of his father - anything that would reverse the situation so he could go back to living his own life rather than his father’s. He never got the opportunity to speak to the counsellor though, as he was greeted instead by a rather stressful piece of new information:

“I’m sorry Mr. Andrews, there is no Mr. Cassius working at Riverdale High.” And then, the most damning statement of all: “In fact, there never has been.”