italy | sweet pea

t e n

Sweet Pea

I watched as Toni and Fangs drove off, leaving me with Kathryn. She was gripping onto her black bag and she avoided eye contact with me. I walked over and sat next to her. I looked at the ground as well during our moment of awkward silence.

"Kathryn, I-" I stuttered. "I know you won't forgive me for what I've been doing to you. I say I feel one way but act another. I would always bully you for being a dumb northsider, but the day you defended us when we transferred to Riverdale... I knew something was off, like you knew us somehow. I hurt you when you were Marci, but I know I hurt you even more now. I told you how much I hated you and wanted to never see you again. Then when you nearly die, I say I love you. I guess all I'm leading up to is...I'm sorry, for everything."

Kathryn giggled and put her hand on my knee. "You turned soft Sweetie Pea," she laughed. "I get what you mean though. Having mixed feelings and your thoughts being thrown around is a weird thing. I loved you even when you bullied me, then hated you when I was on my death bed."

"So, you forgive me?" I ask, looking at her.

"Of course, I'll forgive you, you're my Sweetie Pea!" She laughs.

"Get up, loser," I say. She hands me her black bag and we walked over to my motorcycle. I put her bag under the seat and hand her a helmet.

We climb onto the bike and we drove to Evergreen Park. We sat together under the tree with our initials carved into. Kathryn laid her head on my shoulder as we talked under the tree.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Kathryn says, sitting up. "Give me my ring back." She holds out her hand and makes puppy eyes at me. I take off my necklace and hand it over. The ring was strung on the same chain as my dog tags.

"Just wear the damn dog tags," I say as Kathryn fiddles with trying to take the ring off the chain.

"Hey, is it true that Fangs fought with that Carlos kid?" She asks, putting the necklace around her.

"Half true, Carlos was talkin' shit then Fangs got hella pissed but he couldn't fight. So, I kinda beat him up for saying that stuff about you," I slightly smiled but she hit my shoulder. "What was that for!"

"Not telling the truth!" She laughed. "I don't like you anymore." She crossed her arms and looked away from me. I sat up and wrapped my arms around her.

"So you did like me?" I joked. She pushed my arms away and stands up.

"Get up, let's find that Carlos kid," Kathryn says. I look at her as if she's crazy but she glares at me before I dispute her idea.

Fangs

"God I hope they didn't kill each other," I say. Toni and I sat together at Pop's waiting on a response from Sweet Pea. I heard the bell ring at the front door of Pop's. Carlos walks in with some familiar faces.

"Isn't that Abel?" I ask Toni. I looked over and Abel was with Carlos and two other ghoulies.

The group of misfits looked over in my direction and they stride over to us. When they reached the table, Carlos slammed his fists on the surface.

"Take it outside!" FP says before Carlos can speak. The group walks out and Toni and I hesitated. We looked at FP for help but no luck. We got outside and they held up switchblades.

"Let's finish this," Carlos smirked. He pins me on the wall but someone pulls into the parking lot.

"Get off my brother, you asshole," I heard. Carlos let's go of me and turns around. Kathryn and Sweet Pea stood before us.

"Aw, Sweet Pea and his little princess! Why don't you finish your fight Pea?" Carlos laughs. "Or do you wanna watch your little bitch get beat up?"

"You little-" Sweet Pea was cut off by Kathryn kissing his cheek.

"I got this," Kathryn says. She turns around and walks up to Carlos. She grabs his collar and shoves him agains his car. "You fucking touch my brother or my friends again, I'll make sure you can't walk again."

"Aw," Carlos shoves Kathryn to the ground. "She thinks she's all tough now huh! Maybe Kathryn wasn't tough but that bitch Marci was."

Carlos turns around and looked at me. I pull out my switchblade but before Carlos could reach me, he was smacked on the back of his head. He falls to the ground and Kathryn appears holding a metal bar.

"Where the hell did you get a bar?" Toni says in shock.

"Found it on the side of Pop's," Kathryn pants. She turns to the rest of the group of misfits and glares at Abel. "Anyone else want their legs broken in?"

The group runs off, leaving Carlos on the group holding his head. Kathryn drops the bar and crouches down to Carlos. She picks up his switchblade and throws it at the wall of Pop's, causing it to stick in the wall.

"So tell me Carlos, are you gonna hurt my friends again?" Kathryn asks. Carlos shakes his head in fear as he laid on the ground. "Good." Kat pats his cheek and gets up.

I looked at Kathryn as she walked over to Sweet Pea noticed something so different about her. When we were younger, she was this perfect princess. My sister loved being nice to people and making sure that I was okay. She loved smiling and it just gave me a reason to hate her. I hated how my parents praised her, I hated how people loved her, and I wanted to make her miserable. Now, I have no clue who this girl is. Her attitude changed drastically, she wouldn't hurt a fly before and now she looks as if she could kill you.

"Kathryn, can we talk?" I say as the Ghoulies drove off. We walked away from Sweet Pea and Toni to gave a private talk.

"What's up?" She says.

"You're...different..." I say. "You're not like you were before."

"How so?" Kat laughed.

"You've changed, like you were this goodie-two-shoes and now you're this-this-I don't know! You're just not my sister," I say.

"Not your sister?" Kathryn scoffs. "Of course I'm not like you remember! I ran away to get away from how you treated me. Treating people nice is still something I do but-but just being who I was before wasn't helping me! I lived in so many foster homes that being nice wasn't an option."

"Why do you act like you're all tough! Just because you act mean to 'survive' life doesn't mean you are!" I growled. "You haven't been shot, Kathryn!"

"Sorry I disappointed you! I'll go back to being all nice and bubbly!" Kathryn retorted. "You're just like you were when I ran away!"

"What?" I took a step back.

"You're treating me different! Can't you just be my brother and care that I'm alive! Why can't you be happy I'm here!" She cried out. "I should've stayed as Marci."

Kathryn walked away from me and past Sweet Pea but he grabs her wrist to try and stop her. I watch her break his hold and walk off.

I walked up to Sweet Pea and put my hand on his shoulder. "I fucked up hard.." I mumbled.

Kathryn

I felt tears run down my face as I headed to the bus station. This is just like my foster home. Abby would treat me like shit until something bad comes up. Even now, after I helped Abby with her dad, she still doesn't want to see me.

A/N
I HAVE AN IDEA ON WHAT TO DO NEXT CHAPTER