The Serpent Queen → riverdale

three ⚕

Jughead walked back to where he last saw Toni, and to his surprise she was still there along with Sweet Pea and the other teen Serpents. He walked up to them, pulling his backpack closer to his body.

Everyone's heads turned as they watched him approach them. Toni smiled at him a little, and he could have sworn that there was a small twinkle in her eyes. A familiar twinkle that he saw when Betty looked at him.

Shaking his head Jughead looked around at the group. Sweet Pea sat on a table with his arms wresting on his legs. "So, where'd you go, Jughead? I saw you walking over here a few minutes ago, and then you disappeared." He said.

Jughead shrugged. "I went to the bathroom." He lied. Toni's eyes darted between Jughead's eyes and the rest of his face, making him a little uneasy.

"You went to talk to her, didn't you?" She asked. Jughead nodded a little, only enough for her to see.

"Who'd he go talk to?" One of the Serpents asked, taking a sip from a soda can.

Sweet Pea smirked a bit, then crossed his arms over his chest. "Catalina." He said flatly. The Serpent who asked the question nearly choked on his soda.

"You talked to her? To her?" The kid asked. Jughead nodded slowly.

"Yeah, why is that such a surprise to you?" The beanie wearing boy asked. The other Serpent only shook his head.

"So? What did you two talk about?" Toni questioned, leaning against the metal fence in the cafetorium. Jughead explained what happened in the art room with Catalina, and from the looks he was getting, it was odd that Catalina was talking to a newbie Serpent.

When Jughead was finished speaking, Toni swallowed a lump she didn't even know she had stuck in her throat. "So? Are you going to meet her at Pop's or what?"

Jughead sighed. He had made up his mind as soon as Catalina told him where she would be sat. 

"I think I'm gonna go talk to her at Pop's."

⚕

Catalina was at Pop's that night, her headphones plugged into her phone, blasting her favorited songs, and her sketchbook with many pencils stretched out across the table. When she told Jughead that she was at Pop's every night, she wasn't lying. She would go when she knew the town was asleep, but the Diner wasn't. They never did.

She didn't know Jughead all that well personally, so she didn't know if he was going to show up or not, but she didn't care if he didn't. Catalina would stay in her booth, sketching and drinking coffee while she listened to her music.

It was around 6:30, maybe 7:00 when the door to Pop's opened and Jughead walked in. He twisted his head around, eyes scanning the familiar place until he saw the Serpents leather jacket, and the person who went along with it.

His feet acted faster than his brain, and before he knew it he was sitting down at the table with the red headed girl.

Catalina had her headphones in, and her head was bent down as she peered at her sketchbook page. She hadn't noticed that Jughead had sat down with her. The girl hadn't noticed the boy in front of her until she looked up just a little bit, and saw his hands folded against the table.

Catalina looked up, taking out her earbuds and closing her sketchbook. "You know you could have said something to get my attention, right?" She said, moving her belongings aside.