Pleather || A Sweet Pea Romance (Riverdale)

chapter 20|| mom

   "Well uh-uh, baby, I ain't got no plan"

   "Well I float on, maybe would you understand?"

Sweet Pea and I are at the Sunny Side laundromat doing our laundry together. He tosses all of his in one washer. I take a little more time separating my lights and darks into two different washers. When I'm done, Sweet Pea puts in quarters for me and my machine starts.

"You don't understand, Pea, Veronica's like, really mad at me," I say, continuing our conversation. I was telling him what happened the night before at the sleep over after we hung up.

"Okay, so she's really mad at you. Who cares about Veronica?" he asks. We take a seat next to each other as we wait for our laundry. He wraps his arm around me and I put my head on his shoulder and grab his other hand.

"I mean, she's not my best friend, but she was one of my friends. I just don't want her to be mad at me. Especially for some reason I don't even know."

"I could probably take a guess," Sweet Pea mumbles.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I heard from Joaquin, who heard from Kevin, that her and Archie are kind of on the outs. I guess he isn't giving her much attention right now. Who knows? Anyways, last year she used every opportunity to show off her relationship with Archie. Now she's old news, and Archie and her aren't as close as they were."

"What does that have to do with me?" I ask.

"It's obvious, Ray. She's jealous."

"Veronica is jealous of me? I live in a trailer with no heat and do my laundry at a laundromat?"

"Jealous of us maybe. I don't know. And I don't really care."

"I guess she did leave the room when you told everyone you loved me," I think it through. 

"Which by the way, I've been really patient about, but you still haven't said it back," Sweet Pea says. "Just saying."

"I know," I trail. This is an entirely different conversation. "I'm saving it, I think," I tell him.

"Saving it?" he asks. I can tell from his tone that he's smiling even though I can't see him.

"Yeah. I love my dad and I had to move away from him. I loved my mom and she died. I'm just saving it, because, and even though I know it's not rational, I don't want something to happen to you after I say it."

"But you do love me, right?"

I hold his hand tighter and I reach over and kiss his neck tattoo and then return my head to his shoulder.

"You never told me what happened to your mom," he asks. His voice is soft and I can feel the caution in his voice.

"No, I didn't." I agree. I'm thinking if I should tell him or not, it's not something I openly talk about. "She, um, died in an accident. Well, she was drinking and driving."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he says, wrapping his hand around me tighter.

"She was a Serpent, as you know, and she did the dance. All the Serpents saw her dance half naked. One Serpent, Jay, became obsessed with her after she was initiated, but she was already with my dad. Jay was sent to jail for a few years and when he was released he went back to harassing my mom. So my parents moved to Greendale. 

"A few years passed and she didn't hear from Jay, but one day he leaves a voicemail saying he's coming to Greendale to find her. She became really anxious. I remember her looking through the blinds constantly and locking the doors religiously. To deal with her anxiety she started drinking. I don't remember her drinking a lot, but my dad told me a year ago that it was true. She drank almost constantly.

"One night, she get's a message saying that she needed to leave the house before he came in and murdered my dad and me. Jay wanted them to run away and start a new life together. She was drunk, but thought she had no other option. She got in her car planning to drive to her aunt's house which was a few hours away, but she drove straight into a tree and died instantly.

"My dad had to go to trial against Jay, and a year later he was put back into prison where he'll be for fifteen more years," I tell the story.

We're quiet for a second.

"I'm sorry," Sweet Pea says.

"It's too late to change anything. I miss her, but what's done is done."

"That's why you didn't want to do the dance?" he asks me after a few moments.

"Yeah," I answer.

"And that's why you don't drink."

"Yeah," I answer. 

I feel him kiss the top of my head.

"I don't know what's worse. To have an amazing mom for a short amount of time, or have a shitty mom for your whole life."

"Your mom still hasn't come home?" I ask.

"No, it's been a month. I've been living with Fangs for the past two weeks. I don't have any food or electricity at my place."

I hold him closer and tell him, "I'm sorry."

 ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° ° º ° 

We're done folding Sweet Pea's laundry and now we're folding mine. If it were up to Sweet Pea, there would be no folding at all, but he humors me.

My clothes are sprawled across the table at the laundry mat and I pass all my socks and pants to Sweet Pea to fold for me.

"What is this?" he asks, holding up a pair of my more sexier underwear. It's lacy and a dark red color.

I rip it away from his hand. "That's mine," I say.

"Why haven't I seen you in that?" he asks flirtatiously. 

"I was going to wear it on Valentine's day, but then I got that fever and I forgot about it."

"When did you wear it then?" he asks.

"Yesterday. I thought we were going to get dinner before Cheryl guilted me into going to her sleepover."

"So you're telling me when we were making out on your couch before I took you to Cheryl's you were wearing that," he asks, pointing to where I put my underwear.

I nod and I can feel my cheeks turn red.

"Well, how about we go get dinner tomorrow," he closes the distance around us and puts in hands around me. His body is pressed against mine and I can feel his muscles keeping me from creating distance between us. 

"You know, that is special occasion underwear," I flirt back.

"Special occasion?" he asks. His voice is lower than it usually is. "I'll make it a special occasion," he tells me.

"You'll wear something nice too?" I ask.

He nods as he leans down to kiss me on the neck.

"And you'll take me out to a nice dinner?" I ask.

"Mm hmm," he hums into my neck.

"Pea," I giggle. 

He laughs into my neck and brings his lips to peck mine quickly.

"I'll wear something nice and take you to a nice dinner if that means I can see you in those," he agrees.

I giggle as he leans down to kiss the corner of my mouth.

I hear the door to the laundromat open, but neither of us are distracted by it. We're in a trance that can't be broken by someone else trying to do their laundry.

The person clears their throat, but we don't look over until the woman says, "Steven."

Sweet Pea looks over and his demeanor changes immediately. "Mom?" he asks.