WARNING: This chapter contains very brief mentions of suicide, please keep yourselves safe <3
"Did Betty text you?" I ask, leaning on Archie's door the next evening. Archie sits on his bed lifting dumbbells. Betty had not wanted to publish the article, so Archie tells me. Yet Betty had sent me a text saying 'we're publishing that article.'
"Yeah. I wonder what the change of heart was." Archie grunts.
"Whatever it is, I wish it'd just be over. Betty doesn't deserve this." I sigh.
"I know, Nov. It sucks." Archie says, putting down the dumbbells.
"Do you think we made the wrong choice? Not making her go to the cops?" I ask.
"Honestly, Nov. I don't know anymore." Archie sighs. "Nothing seems to make sense anymore."
I go to say something to Archie when my phone rings. It's Sweet pea.
"Oh, I uh... I gotta take this." I say, rushing out of the room.
"Hey, what's up?" I ask.
"I need to tell you something. About Jones." He says.
"Is he okay?" I ask.
"He's in the initiation process, to become a serpent." Sweet pea informs me.
"You're fucking kidding." I growl.
"Wait you're mad?" He asks. "I didn't think you'd be mad?"
"I'm not about him becoming a serpent. Him and I had a pact, Sweet pea. He wasn't sure if he'd ever want to be a serpent. But if he did, we'd do it together once I turned 18." I say.
"I'm sorry, Nov. I asked him if you knew and when he said no... Someone had to tell you." Sweet pea says.
"Thank you, I appreciate that." I say
"I just didn't want you finding out the hard way-"
"I'm coming down there." I say.
"Uh, no you're not. There's a curfew remember?" Sweet pea says.
"Fuck the damn curfew, Sweet pea." I say.
"I don't want you to come-"
"Well, good thing you're not the boss of me." I say, hanging up.
"Why were you talking to Sweet pea?" Archie asks.
"Because we're fucking friends, Archie." I say.
"How can you be friends with him after what he did?" Archie asks.
"What he did? Yes, Sweet pea threatened you. But you went on his land, defiled it, and threatened him back, with a gun. You weren't exactly innocent in this Arch. I tried to stop him, trust me-"
"Didn't he hit you?!" Archie says.
"No, he wasn't the one that hit me. He's the one that made sure I was okay, he's the one that grabbed me when Veronica fired the gun. He was trying to protect me, Archie." I say. He sighs.
"I need you to cover for me." I say.
"Why?" He asks. "So you can go hang out with Sweet pea? No way."
"You owe me, after the whole gun thing. Please Arch, I have to go yell at Jughead." I say.
"What did he do?" Archie asks.
"I'll tell you later." I sigh, he nods. "I'm gonna have to take your old skateboard, to avoid getting caught."
I sigh, nodding towards Fred's room.
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Resilience | Sweet Pea.
FanfictionResilience; (n.) the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. "I came to the place I felt the safest." I tell him. "With you." Nova Daniels, the adoptive sister of Riverdale's very own Archie Andrews, has had trouble after trouble...
