Two Evils // Sweet Pea

Chapter Eight

          A loud door slam shakes Katherine awake. Startled, she looks around the unfamiliar room — almost identical to Jughead's, but a hell of a lot messier and darker. Still disoriented, she pushes herself off of the bed, grabbing the closest shirt she can find.
"Pea?" She awkwardly half-shouts as she fastens her — Toni's — skirt. No answer. "Pea?"  She shouts again, louder this time. No answer again. Great.
Katherine pulls on her boots, ducking out of the bedroom and into the main living area — still no sign of Sweet Pea.

Brilliant. She sighs, feeling deflated. Kat actually gave the Serpent a chance, and he left her naked and alone, stranded in his trailer. Had she read too much into it — the flirting and banter, had she misread it? A sinking feeling comes over her. Despite everything, she'd actually started to like him. She'd trusted him enough to be vulnerable, intimate. Kat tries to forget the way he'd held her afterwards, the way he traced the freckles on her back as they talked about nothing; their dreams, their fears.

Grabbing a napkin from the counter and a pen from the floor, she leaves the Serpent a note, before leaving. Passive-aggressive? Possibly. Kat didn't care, she was hurting.
'My driver will return your shirt; pressed and dry-cleaned.
See you around, Serpent.
- Lodge.'

*

          Katherine Lodge carefully turns the lock of their door, trying to be as silent as possible. Father's favourite or not, Kat would be scolded severely if he realised his daughter was getting back home at 3am. It's not that she hadn't done it before, because she definitely had, far too many times, it was more based on her newly accepted role in Lodge Industries. She needed to sell herself as responsible, and nothing said irresponsible like walking through the door in the early hours. Shoes in hand, Katherine tiptoes over to her room.

"Veronica?" Katherine whispers, her raven-haired sister lays across Kat's bed like a crying Disney princess. Kat quietly places her shoes by her bedroom door, silently closing it behind her.
Sighing, she slumps onto the right side of her bed, brushing her sisters arm softly, "Ronnie, what's wrong?"
Veronica turns to look at her, mascara smudge eyes welling up. Kat suppress a laugh, Ronnie was a mess.
"Am I broken?" Veronica Lodge, always dramatic, "Am I physically unable to love?"
Kat hold her sister's hand tightly, "You're not broken."
"Why can't I say it, Kat?" She sobs, "Why is it even such a big deal?"
Katherine hugs her sister. No matter how much Veronica annoyed Kat, they were twins, and that gave them a deeper connection. Growing up, not only were they sisters, they were best friends. It was until high school — when Kat took on a small role in Lodge Industries — that the two drifted apart.
"We're young, V. If you're not ready to say it, you're not ready," Kat comforts her.
She never understood why the L-word was such a big deal, she never heard her parents say it, she never heard her grandparents say it. She only say the hyped-up L-word on TV or in books. Personally, Kat believed that, when the time was right, she would feel it — but until then, she was in no rush.
Kat let's go of her sister, sitting up straight. She pauses for a moment before scooting off of her bed, rummaging through her chest of drawers, "I know we said we'd wait for everyone else, but maybe this will cheer you up."
Kat glides back across the room, placing a pristinely wrapped gift in Veronica's lap, and taking back her previous spot on the bed. Veronica smiles softly as she unwraps the present; a gold Return to Tiffany heart necklace gleams back at her.
"You lost yours at the Dakota," Kat whispers.
Veronica smiles, wholeheartedly, as she puts the necklace on. She holds the charm tightly, "Thank you, Kat, honestly."

The following morning, Katherine sits at the table a chocolate almond croissant in front of her, courtesy of Veronica - who seemed to be back to her chipper self.
On the other side of the table, Veronica sorts through a pile of gifts, a perplexed Betty beside her.
"Kevin's Secret Santa had a strict $20 limit, V." Betty stares at the mountain.
"Kevin needs to relax," Veronica continues to sort, brushing her hair behind her ears, "Also, these aren't all Secret Santa, obvi."
Kat laughs slightly at her sister, never one to follow the rules.
"Hermés scarf for mom, leather passport case for dad — now he can travel again," Veronica points to each present, "Little somethings for my best girls, and a watch... for Archie." She sighs, "Purchased pre-breakup, but, we're still friends."
"Isn't everyone?" Betty matches Veronica's tone.
Kat raises her eyebrows. Jughead must've ended it after screaming at her in the parking lot, "B, I'm so sorry."
"You tried to stop me from doing that stupid dance," Betty half smiles, reassuringly.