JUST PRETEND / Sweet Pea

PART 1

A/N:

Ok so, every morning I listen to my music on full volume when I'm on my way to work and sometimes there are these stories in my head and I got inspired by Bad Omens - Just Pretend. Listen to the song, read the lyrics and hopefully you will feel what I felt.

Trigger warnings:
swearing/harsh language, violence, cheating, angst

PS: Let me know, if you'd like a part two. :)

_____

Living with a Southside Serpent wasn't easy. You never knew what happened next or if they'd come back safe from their missions, but eventually you'd get used to it.

~

Four years ago you bought a free trailer with the last money your parents passed on to you after their tragic death. Not knowing where you belonged, you were glad to even have a roof over your head. You didn't know this was Serpent territory, hell, you didn't even know what city you moved into. It was cheap, there was electricity and water. That was all you needed after you were left on your own and there was a school so you could at least graduate.

The Serpents didn't exactly welcome you at first. They were skeptical and you were the newcomer, the misfit. You tried your best to be a „good neighbor", but it was hopeless. Only a few younger Serpents dared taking to you sometimes. From time to time it got worse. Every time you got home from school there was a new graffiti on your trailer.

„Fuck off!"

„Serpents only"

The list was long. It was obvious they didn't want you to be there. But one night you came home from your part time job after school. It was already 11 pm and you were exhausted and only wanted to shower quickly and get some rest. And when you rounded the last corner, you saw your trailer burn brightly, sparks rising up high into the air. „No...", you let yourself fall down onto your knees. Tears were flowing down your cheeks. Everything you owned was inside that trailer. Your last money. Your last hopes. And you could do absolutely nothing about it, but watch it burn down to the ground. You sobbed and held your stomach that was aching from all the crying until eventually your eyes went heavier and you fell asleep on the lawn in front of the remains of your trailer.

Later on you found out that it wasn't the Serpents who burnt down your trailer. It was the Ghoulies who just picked one random trailer to take vengeance for what the Serpents did to their meeting place.

It was Jughead, the son of the so called Serpent King, who convinced his father to allow you to stay at their trailer for a while until you could stand on your own feet again. And so one whole year passed and you made a few friends and kind of became a part of the Serpent family even though you never joined them. At school you hung around a lot with Jughead, Fangs, Toni and Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea was a hard nut to crack at first. He was stubborn and you had to earn his trust, but these were the attributes you fell in love with later. You two had been together now for two years and you moved into his trailer right away.

But he was acting strange for the past two months and wouldn't talk to you about it.

~

„Toni, I don't know what to say anymore. He just won't talk to me about it. He's been off minded for the past...what...like two months now."

„I know. I noticed that. We all did. Let me talk to Fangs again. Maybe he can find out what's wrong. You know...talking on a man-to-man basis", she smiled at me. „I'm sure it's nothing. You know how he is sometimes. He's stubborn."

I simply nodded.

~

A few days went by and there was still little to no communication between you two. You slept together in your bed but as soon as you tried to get closer to him he acted irritated and went to sleep on the couch or left the trailer to go for a ride on his bike. It was haunting your sleep and in the last two weeks you felt sick every night and day. You tried to push away your thoughts until you couldn't anymore and bought a pregnancy test. Positive. You held back your breath and tears while panic rose up inside you. You were too young to be pregnant and this wasn't exactly the best situation. You tried to get yourself together  and wiped your tears before hiding the test in the pocket of your jacket. You didn't want Sweet Pea to notice that you cried. It's not that he cared for you right now anyway.