Pleather || A Sweet Pea Romance (Riverdale)

chapter 3|| the library

"You should've seen by the look in my eyes"

 "That there was something missing"

I take out my headphones as I step into my English classroom. I find it a lot easier on my second day than I did yesterday.

Sweet Pea is already there. He's drumming his fingers on the desk, but when I take a seat he stops. When he looks at me, he doesn't look the same as the previous times I've seen him. He looks a lot less angry...

"Hey, so, uh, sorry about yesterday. I couldn't go to the library after school."

I take out one of the copies of the book and give it to him without a word and without making eye contact with him.

"Thanks," he says as he grabs the book and puts it in his backpack.

The bell rings and Mrs. Ramirez begins her lesson.

"So you're not even going to talk to me?" he asks me in a whisper.

I cross my arms in front of my chest, but I keep my face blank. I thought about him a lot last night. At first I was sad he didn't show up to the library. And then I was a little mad. But now I don't really care. I read the whole book last night and figured I can probably do this project by myself.

"Look I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I should have gone."

I try to focus on what Mrs. Martinez is teaching.

"Can we meet up at the library today? I'll be there for real this time."

"No thanks. I'll do the project by myself."

"Come on. We can go to the public library and I'll buy you a coffee from the cafe."

I don't know why he's being so nice, but I'm not the type of person that can hold a grudge.

"And a muffin."

"Yeah. I'll meet you outside by parking lot. I can drive us there."

"You have a car?" I'm more interested now. I look over and see him smirk.

"A motorcycle."

I shake my head and roll my eyes.

"I'll just meet you there. I'm not going to ride on a motorcycle."

"What, too scared?"

"Be there at 3."

 ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° 

He's at the library before I get there. He's leaning against his motorcycle and when he sees me walking up he walks halfway to meet me.

"Did you get a chance to read any of the book today?" I ask him. We walk into the library and head towards the cafe. 

"Since you gave it to me fourth period? No." He says.

I order my coffee and muffin and he gets the same. When we get our drinks, we take a seat in a secluded area of the library.

"Well, you can start reading the first chapter now and I'll look at the packet she gave us."

"How much have you read?" he asks.

"The whole thing."

"You read this whole book in one night?" he asks in a whisper, holding up the book.

I nod.

He mumbles something, but begins reading.

I look at the questions we have to answer and start thinking of my opinions, but I don't write anything down. I'm waiting for him to read the first chapter. While I'm waiting, I eat my muffin and drink some of my coffee.

"Are you almost done with the first chapter?" I ask.

"Uh, I was thinking. It might be easier if you just gave me a summary of the book."

"I don't think that's what we're supposed to do. We're both supposed to read it."

"It's just..." he trails in a whisper.

"What?" I whisper back.

He sighs angrily. "Sometimes it's hard for me to read."

"What?" I ask again.

He turns the book so I can see the page he's on.

"The words are really small. It's hard for me to read."

"No, never mind," He says. "I was just kidding around."

Something in his voice makes me feel like he's not kidding. He's frustrated, but not at me: at himself.

"What if I read it aloud. Then you could follow along."

He takes a bite of his muffin.

"No, it's fine. I was joking."

"Actually, it would be helpful for me. Sometimes when I read things out loud, I can get different perspectives. Here..." I say as I grab my copy off the table. "If it's not helpful for either of us, I'll just stop."

"Yeah, okay then."

I clean my throat and in a soft voice I start reading from the first chapter. "Second chances. Some people never need them. Some people never get them. I found myself in the second category..."

 ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° 

"You're home late," FP says as I enter the trailer.

"I was at the library working on a project."

"You have that book project too?" Jughead asks. They're both sitting on the couch watching something on the TV.

"Yeah."

"I got Kevin as a partner. We're reading this weird sci-fi book. Who's your partner?" Jughead asks. FP has lost interest in the conversation and has returned is attention to the TV.

"I got Sweet Pea."

"Really?" Jughead asks. "And how's that going?" he asks with a smirk.

"Fine actually. We got a lot of work done today. We've finished 3 out of the 14 chapters."

"You haven't finished it already?" Jughead asks.

"I did last night, but now I'm rereading it with Sweet Pea as he reads. This way we can answer the questions in the packet together as we go."

"Huh. I'm surprised he's actually working with you. It didn't seem like he liked you too much at the bonfire."

"I still don't think he does, but I don't think he hates me anymore. If he ever did in the first place."

"I doubt he knew who you were at the bonfire," FP joins in now surprisingly.

"What do you mean?" I ask. Almost nobody knew me at the bonfire...

"I'm sure your dad doesn't talk about it much anymore, but he was a Serpent back in the day." I already knew this. I've seen his jacket in the back of his closet on a few rare occasions. "Sweet Pea doesn't like new people, hell, he didn't even like Jughead for a while." Jughead nods. "But at the end of the day you have to respect a Serpent and their family."

"Maybe that's it." I shrug.

"Either way, next time you're going to be out late, send me a text or something. Strange things happen in Riverdale and I know I'm not your dad, but I am responsible for you now."

"Of course. Sorry I didn't think to do it today."