Him and I {Chuck Clayton}

Chapter 22

The sky is a cloudless blue and the sun is beaming with its UV rays soaking into my skin. It's my day off and I am at Crystal Lake on the Southside with Sasha and Chad grilling hamburgers and hot dogs, listening our playlists on Apple Music with beers in our hands. Sasha is wearing a hi top white flower print bikini with a lily in her hair and white slide in sandals. The bikini goes well with her tanned smooth skin and Chad is matching the flowers with dark green swim shorts. I decide to keep it simple and wear a black one piece with the sides around my hips exposing my water lily tattoos. I keep my hair down with only lip gloss as my make up, considering I'll be in and out of the water most of the day. It's been a couple weeks since I have seen Jughead. I've kept my promise and reached out to him more, and it's like we never skipped a beat. I missed my best friend and I'm glad to have him back. Chuck and I have spoken here and there, but haven't made any new plans to see each other. I for one am not stressing about it, as I need to figure out where things are going to go with us.

"Serena," Sasha calls out to me and waves me over. I come out of the water and she walks over and hands me a towel with a plate of food in her other hand.
"Your birthday is coming in a week, what are we doing?" Sasha asks taking a seat on Chad's lap digging into her plate of food.
"Uh, I'm not sure yet," I shrug. "I might go and hang out with my mom in the morning and then the rest is up in the air."
"Wait, no plans with Chuck?" Chad raises an eyebrow and chugs his beer.
"Not that I'm aware.. I told him when my birthday was. Maybe I should remind him?"
"Maybe you should remind him yourself," Chad suggests nodding in my direction. "Look who's here."

I turn around and see Chuck walking towards me with Archie and Reggie and I almost drop my plate. Chuck is shirtless with black shorts and black slide ins and a white towel over his shoulder. Archie is wearing a white beater with the American flag on his shorts and Reggie is shirtless as well with dark blue shorts accompanied with Ray Banz glasses on his face.
"H-hey," I greet Chuck shocked to see him here. I lean in to hug him and he gives me a kiss instead, a surprise I welcome back. I just happen to glance at Archie and he looks away quickly.
"I didn't know you were coming," I take his towel and sit it on the bench and sit him down on the bench with me.
"Yeah Chad told me you guys were coming out here so I figured why not?" Chuck gloats giving me another.
"Yeah, I invited some people over too so we can make it a real party," Reggie practicality squeals ribbing his hands together. "I'm going to go grab more food from the car and the beer."
"Uh, how many people did you invite?" Sasha calls out to Reggie as he walks away and she gives Chad a look. Chad shrugs his shoulders and starts eating his good and Chuck begins massaging my shoulders.

Another car pulls up and the good mood I once had vanishes and is replaced with annoyance. Veronica Lodge comes out of the driver's seat, straightening her hair and she's accompanied with Betty Cooper and Josie McCoy. Josie notices Chuck and I and she smirks and I respond by rolling my eyes.
"Did you know she was coming?" I ask Chuck.
"No I didn't," Chuck swears. "I heard Reggie calling Veronica and Betty but I had no clue she was coming."
"Mmhmm," I sigh walking over to Sasha who's giving the girls an evil glare.
"Well this turned into a shit show," Sasha mutters under her breath.
"Yeah, well it's our day off so let's not let them get to us yeah?" I give her a small smile.
"Sure," Sasha mutters under her breath.