Sweet Tooth (Sweet Pea)

Chapter 10

"Riverdale's best and brightest, huh?" Alice said as we sat in the Cooper lounge room.

"Alice, thank you for hosting."

"Of, course, Mayor McCoy. When I heard what happened, I decided we should come together to deal with this Motley crew of liars, dope fiends and fornicators. Except for my Betty, who was smart enough to leave the party before it was a bacchanalian free for all."

"Oh my God. Mum, please don't."

"Just for clarity, Alice, you're hosting this to gloat?" Dad asked.

"I may have taken jingle jangle, but she had a psychotic break." I heard Veronica say to Archie who I'm sat next to.

"Cut her some slack, Veronica."

"She just broke up with Jughead." I told her.

"Hashtag 'Bughead is no more'? Betty didn't tell me?" Kev came into the conversation. Alice cleared her throat and we all stopped talking.

"Careful throwing stones there, acid-queen Alice. I'm not the only one that knows the story behind that might shot your daughter printed in her paper." Hiram told her.

"I, for one, would like to know who brought the jingle jangle to the party." Hermine said. I looked to Reggie and was about to take full blame when Reggie put his hand up.

"Reginald, not a single word out of your mouth until we get a lawyer." Mrs Mantle told him.

"No, all Reggie needs to tell us, Melinda, is how he acquired it." Hiram told her.

"Some gang member who deals on the Southside."

"Oh my God. You have a dealer?"

"Once again, Mayor, the Southside is the source of all our problems."

"Is he a Serpent? Does he go to Southside High?" Sheriff Keller asked.

"I think so."

"Does it matter?" Archie asked.

"Not all Serpents are dealers." I told them.

"Archie, Freya, not helping." Dad told us.

"You can't be trusted, you're being Biased. Your godfather is FP." Alice told me.

"Yeah, and you're my godmother. What does that say about you?"

"Look, we shouldn't have taken the JJ, but Nick's the one who asked Reggie to get it and then pushed it on us. He should be in the hot seat. He's the one who roofied Cheryl and tried to assault her-"

"Prosecuting him would be difficult, given that all the witnesses were high."

"Yeah but Josie and I saw Nick with Cheryl the night after the party. And neither of us were on jingle jangle."

"The drug stays in your system for three days. If I drig tested you right now, you'd have a credibility problem." I shifted in my seat on edge.

"Josie, you took that drug? You put that poison in your system knowing the way your father struggled with addiction?"

"I see."

"Nick's the one that started all this." I blurted out. "He's the one that made Reggie an- he made Reggie get the drugs, he pushed it on us, he forced himself on me, he roofi-"

"What?" Dad and Mama Cooper asked st the same time. I sunk in my seat.

"Crap." I mumbled.

"He hurt you." Dad said pissed off.