Chapter Fifty-Four
Cheryl was out for blood. She made that much clear at Midge's funeral.
Sweet Pea, Toni, and Fangs all came to Talia's house afterwards. They decided that they needed to unwind for their own sakes; no matter how much it seemed like they were betraying Midge with their own happiness in doing so.
They watched movies on Netflix and ate snacks and tried their best to focus on everything. Lee had become somewhat close with Midge's mother so she had spent a bit of time at the Klump house. She was not, however, willing to leave until Fangs, Toni, and Sweet Pea insisted they would stay with Talia that night.
Talia went to get popcorn from the kitchen but found herself leaning against the counter with her hands over her face in equal parts frustration and fear.
"It's the message, isn't it?" he asked.
Talia uncovered her face and saw Fangs standing there, a frown on his lips. She almost never saw him frown or upset at all.
"The message freaked you out," he deduced with a soft sigh. Then he came forwards and put his hands on her shoulders. "Tal, he's not gonna hurt you. They're gonna sort this out."
She didn't say anything. She just pulled him into a hug. They stayed like that for a while and Talia calmed herself. Her heart, however, went racing when he said his next words.
"Tal, I think I was the last one to see Midge alive."
She pulled away, her eyes wide and her jaw slack. "What?" she whisper-yelled.
Fangs suddenly seemed incredibly worried. "Look, you can't tell anyone, I just-" he cut himself off, looking over at the living room where their friends were. "I just needed to tell someone."
"What were you doing?" He looked a little reluctant to speak. "Fangs, what were you doing?" she hissed.
"We were together," he said, his jaw clenched, but Talia was fairly certain that wasn't the whole truth. "Jughead came in and I told her she needed to get set up. There's proof, Tal. There's proof I was with her."
"You need to tell the Sheriff," Talia told him, fully aware of how hypocritical that statement actually was. After all, she and Sweet Pea had gotten rid of the tormentors of the Cooper family at least twice in those past few weeks.
"I know, but-" he stopped himself, then finally spoke with what seemed to be a careful statement. "I didn't go to them so they're gonna think I'm guilty. I look guilty."
"But you aren't," Talia insisted. "They'll see that."
Fangs stared at her disbelievingly. "You sure about that?"
*
Days passed by. The next time she saw her four friends, each of them had their own wild stories.
Betty confided in Talia - she and Cheryl being the only ones - that she had practically handed Chic over to the Black Hood as a sacrifice.
Veronica said that Nick St. Clair had come back to town, and to say that Talia was angry would have been an understatement. She wanted to bash his skull into the dirt the moment she found out that it was him who had given Archie the terrible bruises that painted his face and the cuts that split his skin into two.
It was nearly a week later when the Bulldogs barged into a meeting the Serpents were having. Reggie, of course, was leading them.
Talia was shocked, actually. She couldn't believe he was so angry. She had just seen him that morning and she had been spending a lot of time with him in those past weeks. He didn't seem like he had it out for the Serpents - at least, not when he was around her. What had changed?
"Which one of you Reptiles was screwing Midge Klump?" he demanded to know.
"What the hell is going on?" Jughead said, his brow furrowed as he walked over to the group like the leader he was. "This is a private meeting."
Reggie acted like he didn't even hear Jughead speak. His eyes circled the room, hunting angrily. They landed on Fangs. "I'm guessing it was you, Fogarty."
Sweet Pea was quick to jump to Fangs' defence, walking past both him and Jughead to stand directly in front of Reggie. He was only too happy to face off with him, and Talia moved closer to the two of them to make sure they didn't try to strangle each other.
"Reggie, that's enough," Archie said, putting a hand out in front of his chest.
"You ass," Sweet Pea growled. "None of us even knew Midge. But yeah, I get why she wouldn't want fleas from you mangy bulldogs!"
Reggie darted forwards and so did Sweet Pea. Archie, Jughead, and Talia all struggled for a few moments to keep them off of each other.
"Reggie, no!" shouted Archie, and he almost fell back on Talia.
It only took a few seconds of yelling and screaming for Archie and Jughead to get the two of them apart. Fangs had grabbed Sweet Pea and yanked him back, while Reggie now had his hands up as a show of surrender. Sweet Pea shook Fangs' hands off of him, his eyes boring holes into Reggie's head.
"Reggie!" Talia snarled.
The boy looked at her with a slightly more softened expression which quickly turned to fear when he saw her expression.
"Get the fuck out of here, right now. You and I will talk about this later."
He looked angry, but didn't say a single word. He turned and stormed out of the room, the other Bulldogs following after him.
When Talia looked over at him, Sweet Pea looked even more enraged than Reggie did.
"You're not talking with that mutt alone," he all but growled.
Talia sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. Sweet Pea mostly let her do whatever she wanted and didn't ask questions, but this was definitely something he wasn't going to budge on.
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Back To Life ✧ Sweet Pea (DISCONTINUED)
Fanfiction"The first time she saw Sweet Pea was the night she pointed a gun in his face." ----- In which the Northsider with a gun didn't know she was dying until he made her feel alive.
