Just Met You | Choni AU

13

Fangs would not stop laughing. He had told himself that out of all the days he could've ditched school, he did it today.

Which saved him the trouble of getting in a fight, but he wished he'd seen Toni being made the school mascot.

Toni grumpily bartended what little customers they had at the time of the night, Jughead as usual was on his laptop, idly typing out his story on Jason Blossom.

' Why were you out of school anyways?' Toni asked him.

' I forgot to run an errand for FP, so I bailed.'

' Speaking of which, the weirdest thing happened today.' Fangs continued.

' I saw Clifford Blossom with Malachai.'

That made Toni stop doing whatever she was doing.

' What were they doing?' Sweet Pea cluelessly asked.

' I don't know, man. Something about what happened last night and a new batch?'

' Batch of what?'

' Jingle Jangle.' Toni blurted.

' What?' Jughead joined the conversation.

' I'm just, i'm just guessing, chill out.' Toni lied.

' No, no. It's true. I saw them too.' Jughead whispered.

Everyone just looked at him.

' I saw 'em that night when we visited the Blossoms.' Jughead closed his laptop.

' Clifford Blossom handed him several bags, one of them just fell out, Dad thought I didn't see it. But I did. When I blindly asked him what was in it, he told me to not worry about it.'

' Serpents don't do drugs.' Fangs said.

' Or sell them, for your information.'

Sweet Pea added, in case Jughead was having other ideas.

' You don't think I know that, Sweet Pea?' Jughead got up.

' What's up your butt, Jones? Calm the fuck down.' Sweet Pea crossed his arms.

' It's the way you said it, you think I'm just a stupid north sider, accusing my own gang of dealing with drugs.' He said as he got closer.

' Well, I used to be, now I'm not, I'm with you, I'm with my Dad. I'm with the Serpents, so stop treating me like I'm an outsider.'

' If I actually am, you wouldn't be alive talking to me with that tone, so stop feeling so special and go write your stupid book.' Sweet Pea shoved him off.

' Okay, all of this is giving me a headache. I'm going out to smoke.' Toni, not wanting to get further involved in it, checked out her job roster, and left the Whyte Wyrm.

Outside the bar, the night was quiet and cold, it always calmed her down. She lighted her cigarette and took a puff.

She watched as the smoke left her mouth.

She had been thinking about what had happened earlier. She couldn't tell them but she, too saw the drugs being handed to Clifford Blossom last night.

What if they'd been doing it all this time, and Clifford, having no choice but to keep his end of the deal, has been selling them to FP.

But that's not possible. Like Sweet Pea and Fangs had said, Serpents don't do or sell drugs. They were the Ghoulies' business. That and street racing of course.

The only other thing that got her scratching her head was the way Jughead said FP willingly took the drugs with him, knowing well that it's a bad rep for them.

FP would literally kill them if the younger ones did drugs, let alone do it himself.

Things were kind of starting to make sense, and yet it left more questions for her than when she started.

She should tell Cheryl about it, although it was highly unlikely that they would be talking to each other again.

Besides, Toni's got bigger stuff to worry about. Like washing the bulldog costume.

Being made mascot meant communication with Cheryl Blossom and her River Vixens, not to mention more communication with Reggie Mantle and his team of stupids.

So far, only a handful of people know that she was going to be a representative of Riverdale High, but she could already feel the judgmental eyes on her, how they're going to wonder if a gang member should be worthy of being the most loved member of Riverdale's beloved football team.

Life would suck a little less if she weren't a serpent, she thought.

That's not entirely true. Her life would suck more if it wasn't for the serpents.

They were there for her when her own blood-related couldn't, (that's a story for another time), they made her this independent girl at the age of seventeen.

When other girls were persuading their parents to buy them a new car, Toni just saved up her own money and bought herself a motorcycle.

When other girls walked the halls of Riverdale with their heads held high because of who their parents were, Toni was just shoved aside just because who her parents were.

She knows having a life as easy as them would only get them so far. That was the only thing that has given her hope.

Hope that one day it'll all be worth it.

The Serpents were her family, her saviours, her everything. But sometimes, just sometimes, she wished to live a day where she was just Toni Topaz. No more, no less.

Toni looked at the deserted dark road ahead of her.

She couldn't wait to get out of this town.