DISMANTLED | riverdale

ii/

two (ii.) || syd simon swears

I swear I don't do anything and yet I get targeted. What did I do to disrupt Cheryl? I didn't do anything to say anything to upset her. 

Yet here I stand at the bakery window with windex, a sponge and more cleaning supplies.

'syd simon is a serpent slut'

I'm just glad that I caught it before my grandma did. Thankfully she's a light sleeper and the sound of eggs hitting the window didn't pull her from her sweet dreams. I have to clean this up before she wakes up and sees it.

If she finds out I'm being messed with-

She'll call my mom.

And then my mom will somehow spin it for me to go back.

After all she spun my dad's death as a reason to get away.

I put down the bucket of supplies and grab my sponge. Loading it up with windex and then spraying it on the window I begin to wipe up the paint from the glass. At least it hasn't been long enough to set and ruin the glass.

One by one the letters are slowly coming off and I'm making progress. It shouldn't be that hard to get rid of the paint, the eggs and then shake it off like nothing ever happened. I can get through this.

As I get to the last painted word- slut- I hear the roar of an engine. I hope my grandma doesn't wake up to some stupid idiot on a bike. It would suck. Honestly.

The engine gets louder and louder until I stop and see a single headlight coming down the block. What the hell?!

I drop my sponge and run out to the edge of the sidewalk. Waving my hands like a madwoman I flag down the ultra douche who has the gaul to ride around on a death machine this late at night. Damn. I really sound like Aggy.

As the bike pulls up to me I can see him. Harrison.

It was him.

He cuts the engine quickly with a wince.

"Sorry?" He mostly asks but also says.

I roll my eyes at him. "It's so late at night- you could have woken her up!"

"Why are you-" He begins to ask but then he sees the window which still has the word slut dripping from it and all the eggs on the sidewalk. "Syd.."

"Look, I have to clean this before she sees. Just keep it down yeah?" I put quickly as I jog back to where I dropped the sponge and begin to wipe down the bakery windows.

My mindless wiping didn't clue me in that Harrison didn't not ride away. So when he appeared beside me and began to pick up the eggs on the ground I almost caught a heart attack. 

"Correction we have to clean this."

-

 I drop the last egg shell I could find into the garbage.

"So are we finally gonna talk about how you're getting bullied at the hands of Cheryl Blossom and you don't deserve it?" He asks silently from behind me. I have my back towards him so he can't see the face I make.

But I don't answer quickly enough.

Maybe to her I did deserve it. Maybe this could help me get rid of my guilt. 

"You don't deserve this Syd." He tries to tell me but I let out a strangled laugh. "Syd this is bullshit."

I take a deep breath when I feel the water building up in my eyes. I turn back to look at him with a small shrug. "It's my life Harry. I don't control anything. I'm just living it."

"No. This is not what's- Syd tell me don't you think you actually deserve this." He moves closer to me and I hold my hand out to stop him.

We had been getting closer. And I know it's one of the most cliche things to say but I feel like everyone I get close to either leaves me or turns on me. I mean look at my father, Jason, Cheryl, my mother. 

A huge part of me doesn't want to add him to that list. I need someone in my life that won't do any of that. Someone that can still truly know me and make the active decision to not leave me. Or to just put up with me out of obligation.

"Harry she's lashing out, she has reason. She felt abandoned by me. I wasn't here for her when she lost the one thing in the world that meant the most to her. She was there for me when I did but I didn't repay the service." I explained.

"So what just because you weren't here she's allowed? No. Syd. This shit is not okay. It's not okay for you and it's starting to affect more than just you." He pointed to the freshly cleaned window as evidence in his case.

I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him for a moment. 

"I still haven't even told you everything about me." I argued and with that I was met with a curt head shake.

"I don't want you to tell me anything you don't want to. I don't want you to use your past to justify what she's doing to you right now. Truth is I don't care who you were when you were gone. I only know you as you are right now." He began ranting. "And I know that I don't know the old you but that doesn't matter to me right now. All that matters is that you get to be a good person."

We both say nothing as a few seconds pass us by. I didn't know he felt that strongly about me. We are only about two months in to this friendship. I've patched him up when he came in bruised and he's taken me under his wing at school.

Under normal riverdale circumstances I don't think we would have even looked at each other. But somehow between my dad's death, Jason's death and my re-arrival I have changed. I'm not riverdale syd anymore.

So who's he to know that this new me is capable of change? Capable of being good?

"How do you know I deserve it? A second chance?" 

He looks to me, his teeth poking out with a smile. "I think that everyone deserves a chance. You just happen to be my newest favorite person so you're different from everyone else. You deserve two chances."

I couldn't help the snort that came out.

"That was so bad. Like you almost had me there."

"Just a little bit?"

"Yeah, but then-"

"Gone?"

"Yup. Completely."