Author's Note:

You guys have truly been making my day(s) with your warm response to this story! Thank you so much for coming back week after week! In this chapter, Jughead is Jughead, Sweet Pea is Sweet Pea, and Kevin is both giddy and wise.

Enjoy!

XO ForASecondThereWe'dWon

VI

Sweet Pea had to tuck his late afternoon memory of kissing beautiful Betty Cooper away to protect it from the harsh florescence and noisy, conspicuous drug deals of the Southside High cafeteria. It was the first day back since winter break and every generic-cleaning-fluid-scented detail was like a kick in the teeth (and he knew from experience). Being around the girl―his girl, maybe―had spoiled him, he could see that now, making daily life a slog through graffiti-lined trenches. Sweet Pea wasn't very hungry, but he picked at his sandwich, keeping a hand on it whenever he set it down between bites. You had to defend your food in a place like this. It would have been easier to get through Monday blocking Betty from his thoughts, but he had one reminder sitting next to him and another on that reminder's other side; it hadn't taken long for Toni to realize that seating herself between Sweet Pea and Jughead at lunch cut the number of Serpent squabbles in half. Sweet Pea remembered the days when he'd wanted Jones at their table, just so they could keep tabs on him and where he stood with his affiliations. Now, he kinda wished he'd retracted the olive branch and let the Ghoulies jump Jones on day one.

"Charles Bukowski," the pain in the ass commented out of nowhere. Sweet Pea glanced sideways and saw Jones leaning forward around Toni, apparently directing the words at him.

"What do you want?" He made his voice creep along, slow enough to be threatening to those who knew him well. This particular character did not make the list.

"Your sandwich." Jones pointed and Sweet Pea wanted to snap his finger. "Ham on rye. It's the title of a novel by Charles Bukowski."

"Jones, you better learn to start reading people as well as you read books." He turned his head to deliver an impenetrable stare. Still too arrogant for his own good, going to class in a place where having lived among the Northsiders for even a day meant he'd always be the new kid, Jones just held up his palms and looked at Sweet Pea like he was acting nuts.

"Dude, chill."

Jones's eyes went from Sweet Pea's face to the table, where the latter noticed he was gripping a piece of cheap plastic cutlery (the staff weren't quite clueless enough to hand out sharp metal objects to the student body). He loosened his grip like it was no big deal, nothing to see here―Jones's soothing surfer lingo had drawn the gaze of every Serpent at their table, plus that of anyone in the near vicinity. Captain Beanie just had no fucking respect since the Peabody Incident.

"How 'bout you just eat your lunch and try not to choke on it?"

"Sweet Pea, what the hell?" Toni gave him a fierce look. Ok, maybe he was acting nuts. At least one of his dining companions could recognize a threat when they heard it.

"I don't know what your problem is, Sweet Pea," Jones said quietly, angled once again around Toni, "but we don't really need any dissent in the ranks right now." He shoved back from the table, grabbing up his bag and jerking his head at Toni. She started to rise as well, clearly ready to leave with Jones.

"He thinks he's better than you too, you know," Sweet Pea said, catching her eye as she untangled herself from her seat.

"Just shut the hell up," she hissed back. She'd said those words to him before, but in her eyes… it looked like he might have actually hurt her feelings. Sweet Pea felt a sense of possession scaling the inside of his chest like a mountain climber hauling himself up with metal picks as Toni began to walk after Jones. He shouldn't. He needed her as an ally. As a friend.

"You know she's not your girlfriend, right?" he called out. Jones stopped, his back going rigid where his daddy's jacket used to be. He half-turned, waiting while the room got a little (ominously) quieter. "I just wanted to let you know," Sweet Pea continued, "in case that's how you've been consoling yourself since―"

The strap of Jones's satchel slipped from his shoulder, hitting the speckled linoleum with a thunk. Toni made a grab for his arm, which gratified Sweet Pea because he knew it meant she thought her puppy was going to lose. She'd never tried to hold him back from a fight. Jones approached him at a sped up saunter, cocked his arm and hurled his fist into Sweet Pea's cheek. It knocked Sweet Pea back into the guy sitting next to him. There was no reason for letting Jones get the first punch―like Betty had told him the night they met, she'd been single by the time Sweet Pea made his advances―but truthfully, he'd felt like she was his from the moment he'd seen her dance. That made a few minutes of overlap between Betty being his and this sonofabitch's, and now they were all squared up. Sweet Pea stood, taking a half step back. Probably looked defensive, but he had longer arms and could swing at Jones from further away.

"Bukowski, huh?" Sweet Pea mocked. "You know they make movies about boxing too. You ever seen Rocky?" He faked a hook and drove his fist into Jones's stomach.

The guy didn't fall well, but Sweet Pea decided to wait him out while he got back to his feet. Kicking Jones while he was down was just bad form. Without blocking his line of sight, Sweet Pea touched the back of his hand to his face, wincing at the screaming pain that seemed to spark an inch or two under his eye and race up his cheekbone. The idea that this was the stupidest shit he'd pulled all year occurred to him, and he was forcing it back when Betty's face once again came to mind. Was it really Jones he meant to accuse of thinking they were better than him? What did it matter to him if Jones wanted to act and talk like a snob? It was Betty he was afraid of not being good enough for, not the outsider kid of F.P. By the time Jones was on his knees, winded and getting slowly to his feet, Sweet Pea didn't feel like hitting him anymore. Which was probably a sign he should actually talk to him. Which sucked.

He stuck out his hand and saw Toni jump forward. She must have assumed he was going to lash out again and it felt good to give her a look like there was something wrong with her. What else was he gonna do in front of most of the school? Apologize? Very few people ever heard his words of regret, and even fewer heard him explain himself. Sweet Pea might have just blown the silent menace thing he had going on by provoking and pummeling Jones in front of an audience, but he could still keep some things private. Jones eyed him for long seconds before letting Sweet Pea help him to stand. Boos went up all around as their unentertained peers returned to sad lunches and the two boys strode from the cafeteria, Sweet Pea motioning to Toni that she should stay behind. He'd fix things with her later.

In an eerily deserted hallway where the lights flickered like a horror movie, Sweet Pea banged the side of his fist against a Coke machine whose glory days were long past. The thing coughed out chipped ice like it was spitting broken teeth. Sweet Pea dug through his bag and sacrificed his grey gym shirt to the cause, giving the hem a yank with his teeth and tearing it in two. He filled each scrap with ice, handing one off to Jones, who unsnapped his denim jacket to hold the soaking sack against his abdomen. Sweet Pea shifted his own sorry excuse for an icepack between his throbbing cheekbone and his knuckles―Jones's stomach hadn't been as soft as he'd expected. Even injured, they sized each other up, Sweet Pea leaning against the wall while Jones stood stiffly about a foot away from it, apparently unwilling to sit and seem submissive. Finally, Sweet Pea sat first, sliding his back down the wall and keeping his eyes locked on Jones until he sat as well, bending his knees up in front of him.

"This was a good one," Sweet Pea complimented, removing the ice from his face and pointing at where Jones had hit him.

"Uh, thanks," Jones replied hesitantly. "I've wanted to punch you basically since the moment I met you."

Sweet Pea snorted, squishing the wet cloth against his cheek while cold water ran out of it and down his neck.

"You hide it pretty well."

"Not really." Jones pulled his hat down his forehead a little. "You just mostly ignore it because you know that, physically, I'm not a threat to you."

Sweet Pea squinted at him, annoyed at the implication that Jones thought that he thought there were other ways Jones might be a threat.

"Which makes me wonder, actually," Jones went on, "why did you let me hit you? I'm not so delusional that I think I got that shot in thanks to pure skill."

Breathing in and out deeply, Sweet Pea moved the ice down to his hand, flexing his fingers. Well, maybe he could get out of that History quiz they had that afternoon. He cut his eyes over to Jones.

"I'm seeing Betty."

"Betty?" Jones's confusion hurt worse than his punch.

"Cooper," he emphasized, keeping his chin up. Did the dickhead really not think the same girl he'd used to date could be interested in him?

"You're seeing Betty."

"Yeah, dimwit." Sweet Pea was still waiting for a reaction. All his organs felt like they were tensing up. Then Jones's face changed. He looked furious. Then a little sick. Sweet Pea didn't know if he was about to get yelled at or puked on. Maybe it had been a bad idea to hit him in the stomach.

"In what capacity?"

Sweet Pea's eyes swept incredulously from side to side.

"I'm not her favourite fucking cashier at the grocery store."

"So you're―" Jones started, the colour in his face levelling off.

"Yep."

"With my―"

"Uh huh."

Jones leaned away from the wall so he could openly stare at Sweet Pea, who figured the time had come for a cocky grin. The ex-boyfriend didn't like that much.

"Do you have no… no sense of honour?" he spluttered.

Sweet Pea gave him a dead stare and slowly raised his hand to point at his swelling cheek.

"Ah," Jones said in epiphany. "Hard to argue with that." His shoulders relaxed then stiffened again. "Though, you know what? No. I'm still not ok with this."

"I'm not asking you to be." Sweet Pea raised his eyebrows in what he hoped was a 'too bad, sucker' gesture.

Jones looked at him, clearly in discomfort, frowning and gripping his knee with the hand not holding a shirt full of melting ice.

"So this is what I missed at New Year's." He kept his mouth tightly shut for at least half a minute. "This is a dick move, you know that right?"

"Depends on your perspective," Sweet Pea countered. "It's not like we're friends. Betty and I might have gotten together even if I didn't know you."

"If you didn't know me, you wouldn't know her either," he argued, looking smug.

"Our paths may have crossed."

"Only if she happened to hit you with a car."

Sweet Pea's forehead crunched down towards his nose and his eyes drew up tight as he turned a hostile face to Jones. The shithead did his emotionless, wax museum look, waiting before reacting. Sweet Pea started to laugh softly, resting his head back against the wall.

"You're behaving a little too chaotically right now for me to venture telling you that you don't deserve her," Jones began. Sweet Pea's laughter died. How could Jones so easily find and prod the thing that made him feel most afraid? "But I know I didn't deserve her."

They shared a long look that was tranquil on the surface and bareknuckle combative underneath. Jones hadn't totally given her up, Sweet Pea could see that, except in words, the way that should've counted most with the goddamn bookworm. Right now, he was in limbo between the righteous faux-Northsider he'd been and the depraved Southsider he was on track to become, lacking either the entitlement that told him Betty should be his or the blind will that said she would be. Well, those were Jones's issues. Sweet Pea'd never have to make peace with being a Serpent because that's what he was. It was more permanent than the tattoo on his neck. And so was his resolve to have what Jones couldn't, and not because it was Jones who couldn't, but because he, Sweet Pea, could.

The bell rang, telling them to head to class and prepare to be underwhelmed; they stood, Jones grunting from the blow to his stomach. They didn't shake hands or anything, but when Jones started to turn away, heading in the opposite direction, Sweet Pea didn't sucker punch him in the side of the head, and really, what could be fairer than that?

"Oh-oh here she comes," came a sung whisper by Betty's left ear. Startled, she spun and found herself face to face with Kevin. "Watch out boy, she'll chew you up," he continued as Betty laughed and rolled her eyes. He sidled up next to her and they walked down the hall together. Very unsubtly, he made a point of looking her up and down.

"It's just something I'm trying out," Betty explained.

She figured she'd given the idea of a wardrobe update long enough to ferment in her mind that it was time to do something about it. Yesterday, the first day back, Betty had chickened out at the last minute and swathed herself in comforting pastels, but today she'd been brave enough to pull out some of the new things she'd bought: the blackest of black jeans and a dark sweater that draped lazily off one shoulder. She didn't want to announce that the outer change was happening alongside an inner one―which seemed to have begun the night she met Sweet Pea, she couldn't deny it―but even without words, it was hard to keep things from her closest friends.

"Oh, I know all about the things you're trying out," he replied, light on explanation and heavy on suggestiveness. Betty jerked her head back to frown at him in confusion and alarm.

"Kevin, not so loud!" It was Veronica, who had popped up on Betty's right when she'd turned to confront Kevin. When had her friends become so stealthy?

Betty turned her face slowly towards Veronica's, shaping her expression into a sort of surprised annoyance. Kevin could only be gloating because he knew about her big kiss with Sweet Pea at New Year's. Betty hadn't told him about it (not that she never would, the right moment just hadn't presented itself yet), but she had told Veronica.

"I'm waiting," she said calmly, raising her eyebrows, though the corners of her mouth rose as well, tipping Veronica off that she wasn't that mad.

"Well, how was I supposed to know you hadn't told Kevin?!" Veronica burst out.

"Told him what?" Archie inquired, slinging an arm around his girlfriend's waist and hitching the strap of his backpack over his shoulder.

"Nothing!" the other three said in unison. Kevin's tone was calm, Betty's was distinctly the opposite, and Veronica's was decidedly teasing, telling Betty that she'd need to take V aside and demand she not share this with Archie later.

The redhead looked at them with suspicion, but Veronica leaned up and kissed him quickly on the cheek. Betty sighed indulgently and took the pair of friends bookending her by their elbows, pulling them away to stand against the wall, out of the morning flow of student traffic. Archie understood and moved off down the hallway on his own.

"So the questions about dating a Serpent weren't purely theoretical then, huh Betty?" Kevin jumped in before Betty could admonish her friends. At least he'd lowered his voice.

"We're just… seeing how it goes so far."

"Which is how?" Veronica inquired, never one to shy from a probing question. Her eyes locked with Betty's. "Come on, B! Give me something!" She grabbed Betty's forearm and shook lightly, playfully, while shooting her a pleading smile. Betty had to smile back.

"Well. We've only seen each other once since New Year's Eve, but we've been keeping in touch," she divulged, waving her phone illustratively. Kevin made an excited oohing sound that Betty had to shush.

"It's too bad it's so hard for you guys to see each other," Kevin sympathized. "I remember what that was like."

"I can't imagine not being able to see Archie every day," Veronica added. "Even if I do have to shoo him away from private conversations."

"Maybe it's a good thing," said Betty, shrugging optimistically and glancing between her friends. "I think my relationship with Jughead would have probably benefited from a little more time apart."

Veronica opened her mouth, but Kevin gave her a stern look.

"They've been smoothing things over. We're not supposed to criticize him to her face anymore," he lectured the dark-haired girl. Betty groaned in noninterfering irritation. "The thing is, Betty," Kevin shifted his eyes back to her face, "well, two things. First of all, and I say this with the utmost affection, what you're saying is bullshit. There's nothing that would have improved your relationship with Jughead except for Jughead himself. Second of all, you've only had one boyfriend. You can't expect this guy to want the same things the last guy wanted."

"With one or two obvious exceptions," Veronica tossed out, raising her eyebrows. Betty looked quickly away from her, not ready to have that sort of discussion at school.

"Just consider," Kevin calmly suggested, "that maybe the new guy doesn't want to be apart from you."

Betty did consider it. A little then, a little between classes, and a whole lot more when Weatherbee's voice boomed over the intercom, informing them all that Riverdale High was about to become the new home of certain Southside students. There was nobody to confirm it, but Betty had a feeling she knew who that group would include.

Author's Note:

Since I'd written all of my previous chapters (and most of this one) during Riverdale's winter break, I wasn't planning to try to stick too close to canon in terms of the plot. However, the development of relocating a handful of familiar Serpent faces to the halls of Riverdale High works for me, and so will not be ignored. We'll see what happens in future chapters with Betty and Sweet Pea spending so much of their time under the same roof. I've certainly had a thought or two about it.

P.S. The song Kevin's singing to Betty is "Maneater" by Hall & Oates.

To be continued...