𝐕𝐈𝐏𝐄𝐑 || Sweet Pea ✔️ || REWRITING

𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙎𝙄𝙓

𝐄𝐙𝐑𝐀 𝐉𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒

She pretended to be asleep, the harsh lights were blinding her even through closed eyes and the beeping monitors were torment enough. Her illness had hospitalised her before, when she was fourteen and stupid, though she reckoned she mustn't have been any less stupid because here she was again.

It landed her a psychiatric evaluation and a stint in hospital, which she covered up by saying her absence was down to a visit to Toledo, now she was formulating another excuse for when it got out she was in hospital again.

Reluctantly she opened her eyes, hoping that the room was empty and she'd have at least five minutes to herself before being bombarded with questions. The first thing she'd noticed was Sweet Peas head resting on one side of her bed, presumably asleep, while Fred Andrews sat on the chair beside her bed looking at something on his phone.

Through the window she could see a doctor speaking animatedly to Alice Cooper, which only confused her more.

"What are you doing here?" She spoke softly, voice hoarse from who knows how long asleep.

Fred sat up straight, dropping his phone onto his lap "I agreed to be Jughead and yours emergency contact, your father asked me when Gladys moved. How're you feeling?"

"Like shit." Ezra laughed, eyes still fixed on the woman outside her room "Why is Bettys mom here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, I should let your doctor know you're up. Don't go anywhere."

"Like I could if I wanted to."

Not even thirty seconds after Fred had left, he'd returned with the doctor and Alice in tow. Ezra nudged Sweet Pea to wake him up, ignoring him when he told her to fuck off.

"Miss Jones. I'm Doctor Irving, how are we feeling." Her doctor asked, drumming his fingers on the back of his clipboard.

"Yeah, fine." Ezra mumbled "What's Misses Cooper doing here?"

Irving scanned over his papers before looking back up at her "I see here this isn't the first time this has happened, so I think you already know where this is going."

Ezra scoffed, sitting up in the bed and shaking her head "Absolutely not, you can't keep me here. Besides, my dad can't exactly sign anything and I'm a minor so good luck."

"Actually, Miss Jones, we don't need your father's signature." Irving explained, lips pressing into a thin line momentarily before speaking again "Either parent's signature is acceptable, and while we had some trouble contacting her your mother is here. Her signature will do."

She was joining the dots as her doctor spoke, Gladys Jones was nowhere to be seen but Alice Cooper was. It explained a lot, like why Alice sometimes came poking around the trailer or why she was always allowed stay over without question.

The very small age gap between herself and Jughead had always baffled her, but she just assumed it was a case of Gladys being unlucky rather than thinking they had different mothers.

"I'd like for you to leave, please." Ezra spoke calmly "The three of you, now."

"Ezra —"