ELEVEN
1st september, 10:25am
The following week consisted of very meticulous planning on behalf of Betty, Jughead and Lea. The latter blonde spent almost all of her free time switching between cheerleading practices and hiding out in the Blue and Gold offices with the other duo. While Betty and Jughead wrote article after article, and spent their time researching, Lea would pace, throwing ideas and theories towards any facts they'd state.
Despite the current mess they'd found themselves in, Lea felt as though her personal life had never been better. She found that when she wasn't actively looking for any sort of flaw or annoyance that Betty or Veronica showed, they were actually pretty good people to hang around. Herself and Jughead were still going strong in the friendship department, and it seemed as though everyone around them had come to terms they were friends now, and had moved on to the next topic of gossip that would haunt the school.
With Luke, it was almost as though he had become a different person. He picked her up for school everyday, held her hand in the hallway, waited for her after class. Even though Lea's heart fluttered whenever she saw him heading towards her, Veronica told her nearly everyday that he was doing the bare minimum. Lea tried to ignore her.
Now, Wednesday morning, Lea was assisting Jughead in spreading the news about the drive-in closure. The Twilight Drive-In just didn't get the crowds it used to, and had been bought by an anonymous buyer, Jughead had told Lea. He had until Monday morning the next week to vacate. No matter how many times Lea tried to offer him a place at her own house, Jughead declined, for he knew it could never happen, they both knew it.
Jughead hung outside of one class, handing the white flyers to those who exited. The last movie being shown was Rebel Without a Cause, which Lea found very fitting. She stood only a few feet away, pinning some flyers to the one of the many cork-boards in the hallway.
Jughead was telling her all about last night at the diner, how Betty had confronted Archie and squeezed the truth out of him. Archie and Grundy were together the morning of July 4th, and they were still trying to be together now. The thought of it made Lea question everything she thought she knew about the redheaded boy.
"What time is this at, Jug?" Lea asked, putting the last pin into the top corner of the flyer.
"Nine thirty, says in the corner." He answered simply, not questioning it.
"Oh, cool." She mumbled. Stupid comic font, she thought.
Without realising, one of the people Jughead handed a flyer to, just so happened to be Archie as he walked out of the classroom. He looked down at the flyer before looking at Jughead, who sighed and walked away. Lea followed the two, helping hand out the flyers with an encouraging smile to anyone who took one. She felt like a preacher.
"Hey, Jug, how hard would it have been to give me a little heads-up?" Archie asked.
Jughead sighed. "Look, I am, by nature, a conscientious objector."
Lea rolled her eyes.
"Not saying anything to you was the most moral, apathetic choice I could make." He continued.
"But telling Betty and Lea was?" Archie scowled.
Lea's head whipped towards him. "Don't say my name like that, Andrews."
Archie ignored her, but held out a hand to stop Jughead from walking any further. "Jug Betty's not gonna write about me and Grundy in the paper, is she? Like she did with Chuck?" His voice was lower now.
Jughead looked at him as though he had three heads before pulling him aside, leaving Lea alone in the middle of the hallway. She shrugged, continuing walking down the hall, moving on to the next cork-board to pin her flyers. As soon as she got rid of one detective, another was only there in a matter of minutes, at her other side.
"Betty, Hi." Lea smiled slightly.
"Do you think it's a good idea for me to interview Ms. Grundy?" Betty asked.
Lea furrowed her brows. "Interview in what way?"
"Like, find out where she's been, what she's doing here now." Betty gestured with her hands. "Maybe she'll slip up and, maybe, I don't know - admit to something."
Lea squinted. "What do you know?"
Betty sighed, looking all around her before lowering her voice. "Last night, I did some research. There is absolutely zero record of our Geraldine Grundy before a year ago. It's like she didn't exist before then!" She looked around again. "The only Geraldine Grundy I could find was a woman who died, seven years ago. I think Ms. Grundy isn't who she says she is."
Lea was stunned at Betty's commitment. "Betty, I think if you think she's an impostor, you should probably trust your instincts and interview her."
The Cooper girl was relieved beyond belief that she agreed. Betty grabbed Lea by her biceps. "Thank you, oh my gosh. That makes me think I'm not thinking like a crazy person. I'm gonna go set up and find her."
With that, Betty had left and Lea carried on walking. Although it seemed as though Lea couldn't be left alone today, as almost immediately, an arm was wrapped around the top of her shoulders. It wasn't the arm she was most familiar to, it was the arm of someone who she hadn't spoken to in nearly a week.
Reggie Mantle grinned down at her before taking a flyer from her hands. "When did you decide to start befriending creeps?" He asked, talking about Jughead.
Lea glared at him, shaking his arm off her shoulder. "I'm not sure, it happened around last year when I met you."
They were walking side by side, Reggie glancing up every so often from reading the flyer.
"The Last Drive-In?" He questioned. "Aren't these things kinda outdated?"
"Isn't being sexist kind of outdated?" Lea pretended to wonder. It was a direct jab at his name that was scrawled practically every other line in the playbook.
Reggie sighed. They stopped next to Lea's locker, where she started sorting out the books she needed or didn't need for the rest of the day. She shoved the rest of the flyers into Reggie's chest, forcing him to hold them.
"Look, I'm sorry." Reggie leaned against her locker. Lea didn't look at him.
"For?" Lea didn't look at him.
"You know what I'm sorry for." He said. He folded up some flyers, shoving them into the vents on the nearby lockers.
"No, I don't." She shrugged, placing the final books in her bag.
Lea slammed her locker shut and folded her arms. Her brow was arched in anticipation.
The boy in front of her only sighed, knowing what she wanted. "Fine. I'm sorry for participating in such a sexist act that probably made a lot of girls feel very insecure. I won't be doing it again, and I'm sorry that I hurt you."
He said it in such a monotone voice that Lea wondered if he actually did feel sorry, but she knew it was the best she was going to get. It wasn't in Reggie's character to apologise, but here he was, doing that exact thing. That had to count for something. Just to play with him a little more, Lea smirked.
"Thanks. Now, uh, if you could just hand the rest of those out, that'd be great." She patted him on the head in the most patronising way she could before turning on her heel and walking away.
She could hear Reggie call her a bitch under his breath, but as she turned the corner and looked over her shoulder, he was begrudgingly handing out the flyers. Lea smiled and continued on her walk, finally alone.
The rest of the day went as standard as Lea could think. She had her lessons, she had cheer practice, and she briefly met with Betty and Jughead after school. At this current moment in time, Betty and Jughead were focused on managing Archie and his relationship with Ms. Grundy. When Lea had saw the older woman in the hallway that afternoon, a shiver ran down her spine. It was truly gross. Betty had left early, for she had plans to meet the boy in question that evening, leaving just Lea and Jughead.
Lea glanced around the drab room. Most of the chairs were till upside down, on top of desks, and half of the walls weren't decorated. Whatever the opposite of school spirit and productivity was - this room was it. She looked at the empty cork-board on one side of the room, an idea popping into her head.
"We should make a murder board." Lea suggested, staring at the board.
Jughead looked up from where he was packing books into his bag. Initially, he looked at the blonde as though she had three heads, and was about to object. But, then he caught himself agreeing.
He nodded slowly. "We should make a murder board."
Lea hummed before turning to grab her bag that sat on the desk behind her.
"Hey, uh, could you do me a huge favour?" Jughead asked her.
She looked up at him, adjusting the strap on her shoulder. "I'm not taking you to the drive-on to make Betty jealous, I'm going with Luke."
Jughead rolled his eyes. "No, not that. I'd be working, anyway." He sighed. "Would you be able to drive me to the Town Hall? I wanna speak to Mayor McCoy."
"About the drive-in" Lea asked. He nodded. "Uh, Luke drove me here today, but he should be finishing practice now if you wouldn't mind him taking you?"
Jughead looked apprehensive. "Not that I don't love your footballer boyfriend who pushes me into a locker every chance he gets, but I think that's a clear indicator that he doesn't like me."
They walked out of the room together, Lea closing the door behind them.
"He may not like you but he likes me," She said. "and this last week he's been on his best behaviour. I think he'd take me all the way over to Greendale if I wanted."
Jughead was still on the fence, but figured he'd push aside his feelings towards the other boy, for he had more important matters to worry about. He was about to lose the place he called home. The ever-looming fear that he was merely days away from going back to live with his dad hung over his head, but he tried not to think about that as a possibility.
As soon as they were out of the front doors, Lea and Jughead made their way towards where Luke was waiting, leaning on his car. Jughead watched as they greeted each other with a kiss. He hung back, a few steps behind Lea as he watched them exchange words. Luke glanced up from Lea to see Jughead waiting with a blank face. He didn't seem happy about it, but nonetheless, moved to open the back door. Lea headed to the passenger seat
"Town Hall, Jones?" Luke asked.
Jughead walked past him, muttering a quick 'yeah', before taking a seat in the back. Luke slammed the door shut behind him. The backseat of the car was relatively messy, as Jughead had to climb over sneakers, CDs and footballs as to sit in his seat. His leg got caught on a baseball bat that was wedged between the passenger seat and the floor.
To say it was an awkward ten-or-so minutes would be an understatement. For the first few minutes, Luke didn't speak, Lea didn't speak and Jughead didn't speak as he glanced between the two. As they stopped at a red light, Luke took a deep breath.
"So, why'd you wanna save the drive-in so bad, Juggy?" He asked, leaning one arm on the window.
Jughead was apprehensive. "It's, uh - I - I think depriving the town of the classics that it has to offer would be... sad."
Lea winced slightly at his awful excuse. It wasn't exactly a lie, but if that was his true excuse, she knew he would've phrased it better. She was sure she was the only one who knew about Jughead living at the drive-in. If he wanted, she'd take it with her to the grave.
"You know things like Netflix and Hulu exist, right?" Luke asked. The light turned green and the car moved.
Lea snapped her head towards him. "Don't be mean."
"All I'm saying is, the place has practically become home to a lot of... criminals." Luke ignored Lea. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I've seen your old man hang around there a few times."
"Luke." Lea warned.
Luke was purposefully antagonising him, and Jughead knew it, but he refused to play into his hands.
"Huh, funny," Jughead hummed. "I thought you only went round there to get your weed."
Feeling the tension arise in the car, Lea jumped in. "Personally, I can't wait for closing night. Do you remember when your dad used to sneak us all in, Jug?"
Luke's brows knitted together. Both at the idea that Lea was taking Jughead's side, and the idea that they used to be... friends? Of course, Luke didn't know Lea before freshman year, so why would he know?
Jughead turned his glare from the back of Luke's head, relaxing his stare as he looked at Lea. "Yeah, I do. Me, you, and Jellybean. That's exactly the reason it needs saving."
"Good memories are only good for a reason, Jones." Luke turned particularly harshly onto the grounds of the Town Hall. He pulled around the centrepiece before parking up outside the main doors. "They don't happen again. Otherwise, you'd be stupid enough to take them for granted."
Jughead squinted. "Right..." He looked between them both, opening the door. Lea was practically shaking in her seat from anger. "Thanks for the ride, I'll be fine from here. See you, Lea."
Luke and Lea watched in silence as Jughead exited the car, walking in front of the hood and up the stairs. Lea didn't say a word until she watched the front doors of the Town Hall close. When she saw him fully disappear, she turned to Luke, flicking the side of his head. He pushed her hand away, shielding his temple with his shoulder.
"What?" He asked. "What now?"
Lea scoffed. "What now?" She adjusted herself so she was turned to face him fully. "I told Jughead you were kind enough to give him a ride, and instead, you just spend the entirety of it pushing him."
"Lea, do you even know who his dad is?" Luke asked.
"Yes, funnily enough," Her voice rose. "we had been friends for years."
Luke made a noise. "Oh, yeah, that was news to me too! Since when have you and Jughead Jones ever been friends?"
"Oh, grow up." She folded her arms, slumping in her chair. "I don't like half of your friends, but at least I'm civil with them."
Luke finally put the car into gear and started to drive. He didn't say a word, which gave Lea a lot of time to think. Jughead was considered somewhat of an outcast at school, so it was given that people may not have known much about him. She knew who his parents were, for good reason, she had spent time with the Jones family. But it was unlikely that anyone else knew that Jughead's dad was a Serpent.
They pulled up outside of Lea's house, but neither moved.
"How do you know who Jughead's dad is?" She asked.
Luke sighed, his leg bouncing. "Everyone knows who his dad is."
"No, actually, they don't." Lea looked at him. "People barely know what Jughead's name is, never mind his dad."
Luke didn't look at her. He was scanning the road in front of her. Lea noticed how his Adam's apple bobbed up and down.
"Well, it's as he said, I've been round there a few times." He said. "You overhear things. You draw conclusions. They've got... similar faces."
With the mention of Luke at the drive-in, it was almost as if Lea's mind had snapped to a different conversation they had to have.
"Oh, yeah, another thing." She ignored Luke's eye roll. "You've been hanging around the drive-in? With Serpents?"
"I don't hang with them," Luke defended. "I go to pick up, and then I leave."
Lea squinted her eyes, catching him in a contradiction. "Oh, but you stay there long enough to distinguish which one of them is Jughead's dad?"
"Look, Lea - " Luke stuttered, he didn't have anything to say.
Lea had backed him into a corner, and she knew she had. She sat there in the passenger seat, with a stone cold expression, waiting for him to make his next excuse. Except, he didn't say anything.
"Don't 'Look, Lea' me. You've always taught me to hate the Serpents, and here you are, doing drug deals with them?" She seethed.
"You don't like Serpents because of your mom, not me." Luke held his hands up.
Lea nearly laughed in disbelief. "Are you kidding?"
Finally, Luke looked at her. He looked at every detail on her - very, very, angry - face. As he switched his gaze between her eyes, it seemed as though he was contemplating which path to take. Eventually, he found it. But, it just happened to be the wrong one.
"Lea, your family has always hated the Serpents." He said. "I only hated them because you did."
If Lea weren't already so angry, she probably would've taken his word for it, even when she instinctively knew it to not be true. That's what she always seemed to do. Luke would twist the narrative into whatever he wanted, and Lea would carry on, nodding her head and smiling. But there was something about the way he treated Jughead, that just made her blood boil.
"I'm going to say this once." Lea said, calmly. "Don't you ever, try and convince me that what you've been blabbing into my ear for the past year, wasn't on you." She held up a hand when he tried to but in. "You have gotten into fights with Serpents, Luke. So many times, that I ended up having to constantly drive you to the ER, when my kitchen counter stopped being your own personal one. Y-you drive in circles at night with Reggie in their High School parking lot, knowing that one of them will end up taking the blame for it the next day. You badmouth them every chance you get - all of you do, on that stupid, football team. You've always been out to get their necks, and for the first time in my life, I don't know why."
She had stunned him into silence, and even herself. Without knowing it, Lea had started to subconsciously question everything she'd ever been told. For, there was no proof to uphold it. When she thought Luke hated Serpents, she sees him hanging out with them, laughing with them. When her own mother badmouths Jughead and his family, calling them dangerous, Lea only sees a boy with an urge to solve a fully fledged murder case. The Serpents she had ran into had never once been malicious towards her, and actually held conversations with her, even when she was the one trying to cut their heads off.
"I just wanna know what the hell you're doing." Lea near whispered. "Sometimes I think you're as bad as you make them out to be."
Luke reached a hand up to wipe his thumb across her cheek. She didn't even know she had started to cry. She let him hold her face gently.
"I'm sorry that you think I'm hiding things from you." Luke said, his voice croaking. "But I'm not. You know I'd tell you if I was."
"I don't think you would." Lea muttered.
Luke moved closer, and tilted Lea's head more to face him. He held her jaw in the palm of his hand. "I promise."
Lea's glance switched back and forth between either of his eyes, but Luke didn't falter. He never let go of her chin, only brung her face closer to his own. Before their lips could meet, Lea held up a hand between them.
"We can't kiss because my dad could be watching and he made me promise I'd never kiss a boy." Lea said, her hand on Luke's mouth.
It was a joke that broke the tension between them as if it were glass. Luke chuckled slightly and Lea watched him visibly relax as he pulled away, shaking his head.
"Fine." He moved his hand to the back of her head instead, bringing his lips to the top of her head.
Within moments, Lea was back upstairs in her bedroom, and Luke's car had left her street. She had wordlessly, but not maliciously, left his car and watched as he drove away from the end of her driveway. Sitting on the end of her bed, Lea stared at her wall. It was mostly plain, except for the neat square that held pictures of herself with Cheryl, Luke, the River Vixens. There were a few cinema tickets, and some streamers from her pom-poms. The more she stared, the more she wondered about what had just happened.
Lea hated the way Luke seemed to solve things with a few words and simple kiss. But at the end of the day, it didn't ease her thoughts in any sense. Lea didn't realise it, but she had slowly been making a list in her head, of all the times Luke had done something out of the ordinary. It was upsetting. Their relationship never used to be like this. It never used to be so black and white, or full of so many ups and downs. Lea had never felt as though Luke was keeping something from her, but he had been so different since July 4th. She wondered if that's what grief did to a person. Was Luke still grieving? They hadn't spoken about Jason on such a personal level since before his funeral in July.
Anytime Jughead entertained the idea of questioning Luke, she immediately shut it down. Lea always intended to ask, but he had a funny skill of making her able to forget. Only when she was away from being caught up in the moment could Lea think clearly. If she was being honest, she had never felt so... lost. It felt as though Luke was pushing her away, hell, she wasn't speaking to Cheryl nearly as much as they used to. Her mom was constantly on her back because of the antics she had found herself involved in with Betty, Jughead and even Veronica. She had found a new group of friends, it appeared, even if they included people that she used to hate.
Don't hang around with enablers.
It's what the Serpent, Sweet Pea, had said when they were at the cliff. She hated to admit it, but he was right. All she ever did was hang around with people who she thought told her right from wrong. The more she thought about it, were they really in any position to tell her what was right? And what, or who was wrong? Lea thought back to all the things he said to her.
You can't go through life disguising prejudice as a habit.
All the Serpents know the names of people who are out to get them.
I would've thought you wanted to know where your boyfriend was on the fourth.
It was as though a jolt of electricity ran through Lea's veins. This Serpent knew where Luke was on July 4th, and he had even tried to tell her where he was.
"Thanks for the trash." She called out behind her. She turned around when she got to her front door, to find him still at the bottom of her drive.
"I'd read it first, but it's up to you." He swung his legs back around the bike, kicking the stand back into the end of the motorcycle. She watched, clutching the note in her hand, as the engine was brought to life. She watched as he revved it as loudly as he could. She watched as he drove away.
Lea lept to the small trash can in the corner of her room. It was full of sheets of crumpled paper and empty chocolate bar wrappers. Deep down, there was a part of her that believed the sticky note the Serpent gave her over a month ago wasn't in the trash.
That part of her was correct. She had even turned the can upside down next to her, her trash pouring out over her rug, There was no note. Lea scoffed as she sat back against the side of her bed, surrounded by trash. She had kept the napkin from the diner, but not perhaps the most important sticky note of her life?
Maybe that was an exaggeration.
Lea looked forward, to where her trash can used to be, catching sight of the radiator.
"You're... kidding me." She whispered to herself.
It seemed as though the sticky note never made it to the trash in the first place. There it was, slightly crumpled and slightly dusty, resting under the bottom of her radiator on the floor. It was accompanied by things like cotton pads and other scrap pieces of paper that had evidently missed the top of the trash can. Lea crawled forward, snatching the paper off the floor. She unfolded it.
R
S
Lea felt as though she was being punk'd. It was her own note, from when she was practicing her reading and writing exercises, only last week. She turned the note over. It was like it was mocking her.
S
3rd september, 10:14pm
For the rest of the week, Jughead tried his absolute hardest to save the Twilight Drive-In. He spoke with Mayor McCoy, who had turned him down. He turned to Andrews Construction and spoke with Archie's dad, Fred, who had essentially told him that his hands were tied. He searched and searched endlessly, trying to figure out who the anonymous buyer of the land was. Alas, all his attempts were for naught, as it was now Saturday night, and the drive-in was busier than it had ever been for its closing night.
Luke accompanied Lea, having picked her up in his car. The Thursday and Friday before today had been awkward for the couple. Lea drove herself to school and drove herself home. It appeared as though the very brief hooneymoon-like period that Luke had entered after the playbook scandal, had ended. The couple were back to being bitter and argumentative, all the while ignoring the problems they never really spoke about. And yet, they still craved each other.
They sat in their respective driver and passenger seats of Luke's car, their lips crashing into one another. It was a distraction, both from the movie, and the seemingly typical teenage mess they had found themselves in. Although, it wasn't as good as Lea always remembered it to be. Lea pulled away from Luke, detaching her lips from his. They had been ignoring the movie plastered on the huge screen in front of them for the past twenty minutes or so. His hands were tangled in her hair as her own rested on his jawline. Breathlessly, she let go of his face and he detangled his hands from her hair, moving them down to hold either side of her neck.
"We need to watch the movie or Jughead will kill me." She sighed, holding his wrists.
"Yeah, well, we could do that," Luke nodded. "if there weren't a bunch of screaming and shouting Serpents behind us."
Lea hadn't even noticed, but as he fully pulled away, she realised he was right. The Serpents had taken up refuge behind them, as the couple were in Luke's car on the back row. The gang hollered, threw popcorn, and were just exhibiting very antisocial behaviour in general. Luke wound down his window and sat on the ledge. Lea reached forward to stop him, but all she could do from where she sat was grab at his legs.
"Yo!" He called out.
Lea rolled her eyes as he put on his 'man-voice' as she liked to call it. His voice was definitely not that deep. The Serpents turned to look at the source of the sound, as well as many others in the surrounding cars.
"Shut the hell up, or you'll find out what bulldogs do to snakes when they're bored!"
The Serpents went quiet, but most of them didn't seem phased by Luke's threat. Lea looked out of the back window, squinting to make out their unclear faces. Most, she obviously didn't recognise, until her eyes stopped at a specific group of three teenagers, all sitting together. It was the Serpent - Sweet Pea, and his friends. They looked unimpressed at Luke's shout, and a girl with pink hair placed a hand on Sweet Pea's chest as he went to shout back. The boy next to him flipped Luke the bird, to which he didn't notice. People honked their horns or waved their hands outside of their windows to show appreciation. Lea supposed they were getting sick of it too. She grabbed his shin, pulling him down from the open window. Luke fell into his seat, looking quite happy with himself.
"You can watch the movie now." He said.
Lea pulled a face and rolled her eyes, glancing over her shoulder again. "I'm going to get popcorn." She grabbed her bag from the backseat and pulled it over her shoulder. "Do you want anything?"
"Uh, Reeses Pieces."
Lea nodded, opening the door and getting out. The slamming of Luke's car door caused a few of the Serpent's heads to turn, as it came from the direction that shouted at them. She didn't look, but only kept her line of sight directly on the food stand.
The queue was only a couple people long, so Lea stood behind, looking at the options on the board in front of her, not really reading them. She didn't notice the boy behind her.
"What're you gonna get?" Sweet Pea asked.
The sound of his voice so sudden and so close made Lea jump and whip around to face him. He was stood with his hands in his jacket pockets, not looking at her, only the board above. The dim pink glow of the neon lights surrounding from the food stand and the fairy lights lit up his face perfectly. It softened his features in a way that almost made his seemingly constantly frustrated face, a lot more neutral.
"Lea." Sweet Pea said again, knocking the girl out of her staring contest she was having with his forehead. He pointed behind her, and she turned around to see that she was the next to be served.
Lea walked towards the stand, without saying a word to Sweet Pea.
"Hi, can I have a regular sized popcorn, please?" She asked. "And a packet of Reese's."
The boy nodded and walked away to get her food. She still didn't turn around to look at Sweet Pea.
"Any normal person would get large." He said, still behind her. Lea tried to ignore him and merely stared forward with her arms crossed. "If you're ignoring me because someone might see you, there's literally no one here."
She looked around. He was right. He was the last person in the line, and everyone else had left, heading back to their cars with their food and drink. The only other person in the vicinity was the boy who had just placed Lea's popcorn and candy on the counter. She paid the seven dollars she owed and stood aside, sorting out the change to go in her bag.
"Hotdog, thanks." Sweet Pea ordered.
When the guy walked away to grab his food, Lea half-turned to him. "I need to speak to you, alone, where no one can see us."
He raised his brow. "Don't you have a boyfriend?"
Lea rolled her eyes, her face cold. "Not like that." He smirked. "Don't follow me straight away."
She took her popcorn and candy, walking behind him and towards the darkened area behind the main drive-in building. Sweet Pea watched her as she walked away, noticing the way she constantly checked over her shoulder before slinking away into the darkness.
The alley-like space behind the building was somewhere that Lea thought would be unoccupied. For, all it held were dumpsters and possibly rats.
What she didn't expect to see, was Kevin Keller, pinned to the metal fence by a Serpent. It wasn't in a threatening way - in fact, it was quite the opposite. The two boys were in the middle of a heavy make-out session that Lea interrupted the moment she dropped her bucket of popcorn.
The two jumped apart at the sound of her presence, and went into immediate defence mode. The Serpent relaxed when he realised who it was, or more so, who it wasn't. Kevin, on the other hand, looked at Lea with wide eyes that matched her own.
"Lea!" Kevin exclaimed. He wiped his mouth. "T-this, is - uh, this is J-Joaquin."
Lea's eyes looked at the Serpent, a boy with long, slicked back hair. He gave her a closed lip smile and held up his hand meekly with a small 'hi'. Lea couldn't do anything but croak.
"We were just -" Kevin hesitated. "putting aside our differences."
Understatement of the year, Lea thought. Before she could say anything to him, another voice sounded from behind her.
"Ok, so what do you want?"
Lea turned on her heel to see Sweet Pea standing behind her, looking so relaxed, taking a bite out of his hotdog. She was near traumatised to see him there, especially when Kevin was merely feet behind her.
"I told you not to follow straight away!" She snapped.
Sweet Pea shrugged before he noticed the scene happening behind her. He gave Joaquin a head nod before he looked back down at Lea, who was both angry and confused. Instead of addressing him, she turned back round to Kevin, who was now looking at Lea the same way she looked at him only a minute ago.
The two seemed to be having a conversation with only their eyes. They squinted, raised their brows, and kept their lips shut. Kevin eventually got the message.
"Well, we're just gonna... go." He stuttered out. Kevin pushed his hands onto Joaquin's shoulders and escorted him past Lea and Sweet Pea. They left, back out into the hustle and bustle of the drive-in.
Lea sighed, looking at the empty space where they once where, before realising Sweet Pea was still standing behind her. He was nearly finished with his hotdog.
"You dropped your popcorn." He pointed out, kicking a few pieces that were scattered in front of him.
She ignored him and got right to it. "What was on the note you gave me?" She asked.
He gave a single laugh. "Oh, now you wanna listen?"
She rolled her eyes. "Tell me."
Sweet Pea didn't say anything as he finished his hotdog, wiping his hands together. He looked at the way she stood, leaning into one hip with her arms crossed.
"You know, I've been told not to speak to you." He said.
Lea's brows knitted together. "Why?"
He shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Give me your phone."
As Sweet Pea held his hand out for her phone, Lea instinctively took a step backwards, creating space between them. He rolled his eyes.
"Do you want to know or not?" He asked.
Lea stared at him for a few seconds. They had been alone before, and if he wanted to hurt her, he would've done it then. By the look on his face, he seemed pretty tired by the situation and wanted to leave. So, reluctantly, she stepped closer and handed him her phone.
They stood in silence for no longer than ten seconds, as Sweet Pea typed on her phone. Lea could only assume he was on the note app, as there was no way he could've known her password. Without saying a word, he handed her phone back to her, locked. Their fingertips brushed for a split second, making Lea jump.
"Anything else?" Sweet Pea asked, shoving his hands in his jacket pocket again.
Lea shook her head and he turned to walk away. Before he turned the corner, he turned back around.
"Oh, by the way, you've got a little..." He wiped his thumb across his chin and left, leaving Lea alone in the darkness.
She reached up to wipe her chin, seeing a faded pink appear on her thumb from her lipstick. She could barely see it in the dim light, but groaned, realising she had had smudged lipstick on her face the entire time. Now she knew why Kevin seemed so shocked.
The sound of the movie playing could still be heard in the distance as Lea unlocked the phone she was clutching tightly in her hands. She went straight to her notes app. All written in large, bold text, the letters in front of her were clear as day.
6DE541 ROUTE 40
Even though Lea could read it clearly, she was still utterly confused. A location? A bunch of numbers and letters? Route 40 was the route leading out of Riverdale that you could only really access if you had a car. She had only ever been on it a few times, as she had hardly ever left the town.
A car. It was a registration.
This confused Lea further. This wasn't Luke's license plate at all, so what was the relevance? It wasn't the license of her own car, or any car she recognised for that matter. She stared at the letters in front of her, before the sign of a notification at the top of her screen caught her attention. When she clicked it, she saw it was a message from Luke, asking where she was.
Lea gasped lightly, realising how long she had been gone. She shoved her phone into her bag and left the darkened alley. This time, as she walked past the gang of Serpents, she couldn't help but look their way. They were all involved in their own activity of either watching the movie, talking with the people next to them, or laughing at something someone had said. So, they were behaving like anyone else in the drive-in.
The blonde rolled her eyes, only briefly catching the eyes of Sweet Pea, who sat in a garden chair, surrounded by his friends. She could feel his eyes on her as she headed towards Luke's car. Except, as she approached, she realised there was someone leaning on the passenger door, their head in the open window. The Serpent jacket the man was wearing threw Lea off, as she halted in her tracks, merely feet away.
The man stood up from the window and turned around, coming to a sudden stop when he saw Lea behind him. They recognised each other instantly. She hadn't seen him in over a year.
"Oh, Lea." FP Jones, Jughead's own dad, stood in front of her. He shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled softly at the sight of the girl. Lea's eyes darted back and forth between Luke's car and FP. Why was he there? "You, uh - I hear you're speaking with Jug, again."
Lea didn't say anything. Was he really about to try and start a conversation with her? In the middle of the drive-in? What was he doing hanging out of Luke's car? FP realised she wasn't going to say a word to him, and he sighed. He walked towards her, meaning to walk away, but stopped when He was next to her shoulder.
"You're a good kid, Lea." He said to her. "Don't lose that."
She didn't watch him walk away, but only listened as his footsteps disappeared. The sound of the movie on the screen took over and she was knocked out of her thoughts. Lea sighed, moving forward to open the passenger door. She swung herself into the seat and sighed again, this time a lot more dramatically as she let herself relax.
Luke looked at her as she sat there. She expected him to ask where she had been, and was ready to come up with an excuse, but he didn't.
"Did you get my Reese's Pieces?" He asked.
Lea looked forward, staring at the movie screen. She lazily passed him the candy that had been in her hand for the past ten minutes. He took it with a grin, not knowing that she had just seen FP, and he had seen her. Luke ate his candy and watched the rest of the movie in peace. But Lea couldn't help but squirm in her seat and overthink, as his arm was draped over her shoulder.