Polaroid // Reggie Mantle (2)

Chapter Four

Archie was making a sandwich in his kitchen. Staying up all night made him hungry. He licked off the knife he had just used to spread the peanut butter on his bread. He looked up and his eyes caught sight of a shadow standing outside his kitchen window.

His breath hitched in his throat. There was a man wearing a hood standing outside of his house. He tried to shake it off, wondering if it was just his imagination. When the apparition didn't dissapear, and instead began to run towards the door, Archie took action.

He sprinted out the kitchen door and tackled the black clad man. He punched him once and struggled to tear the mask off the culprit's face. This man had shot his father. He would not be leaving the Andrews property unscathed.

He got the mask off only to see that instead of a criminal, he had attacked Reggie. "It's me," Reggie stated, shoving Archie off of him. The red haired boy crashed into the chair behind him, breathing heavily. "Are you freaking insane?" Reggie demanded.

"What the hell are you doing here Reggie?" Archie inquired loudly.

"Delivering your uppers. Clearly, the last thing you need." Reggie was not happy. Archie had just attacked him while he was trying to do a good deed. True, he hadn't gone about it in the best way, but still. "You've lost it, Andrews."

"You're the one here, wearing this hood." Archie grabbed the black hood off the ground and chucked it at Reggie.

"It's called a prank," Reggie defended. "I didn't expect you to attack me. We- wha- what if I had been the guy? Huh?" He questioned, sitting up fully. "You would've just, tackled him?"

Archie nodded. "Yeah. Damn right."

"He has a gun, Andrews!" Reggie pointed out, exasperated. "He shot people. Only a dumbass lunatic brings a baseball bat to a gun fight."

*

It was the night of the Pop's revival. Caia had spent the day helping to clean up the diner. She had made the Pop's t-shirts everyone was wearing as well. However, Betty was the one who had convinced the Pussycats, plus Cheryl, to perform at the diner.

They had picked an appropriate song, as they were doing a cute rendition of the song Milkshake. Caia was so fixed on the three girls on the top of the diner, that she didn't notice Reggie until he was standing right next to her.

He placed a hand on Caia's shoulder, causing her to jump at the unexpected contact. She turned her head to face Reggie head on. She backed up, shying away from his touch. "What do you want?" She inquired, skipping the pleasantries and getting straight to the point.

"Can we talk?" He questioned.

Caia was silent. She contemplated telling Reggie to just fuck off, but she figured that would probably not be very kind. Instead, against her better judgement, she followed Reggie into the diner where they purposely seated themselves at a booth that was not the old one they had always used to take.

Neither ordered any food. For a while, they just sat and stared at each other. Caia was still bitter from what Reggie had done and Reggie was trying to figure out how to say what he wanted.

He broke the intense eye contact and cleared his throat nervously. "So... um, I'm not really sure how to say this so I guess I'll just start with I'm sorry." He looked up into Caia's eyes again. He was hoping to see some emtion, but she still sat across the booth with her arms crossed, and unimpressed expression on her face. "I was a jerk and a dumbass and I know I really messed up."

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock."

Reggie ignored Caia's snarky statement and continued his apology. "I would like to say I'm completely over you. That I don't regret cheating on you at all-"