vicious ↠ sweet pea [2]

|| THIRTY-THREE ||

As Sweet Pea's jacket and chain rattled and clung with his every step, he saw Lauryn heading for the school doors, Rich beside her with his hand on her lower back.

He couldn't take it anymore, everything was spinning. Darting for the men's locker room, he barely heard Fangs calling his name from behind him, careless of the students gawking at what was going on.

Fangs heard nothing but the sound of throwing up when he caught up, and locked the door so that no Bulldogs would come in.

He waited for the sound to cease, before Sweet Pea emerged from the stall with a look of embarrassment and shame. His hair was messy, flat over his forehead.

"Hey," Fangs said, but Sweet Pea didn't respond.

He leaned against the sink, before splashing water all over his face, letting it drip onto the floor. Fangs made his way closer, appearing behind him in the mirror.

"I know this is shit," he added, patting Sweet Pea on the shoulder. "But, I got you, Sweet Pea. Like always."

Sweet Pea shook his head, standing up straight to face his best friend, his eyelids drooping and brows knitting. "You don't get it. I really did fuck up."

"What did you do?" Fangs asked dreadingly. Realization clouded his face, and he shook his head, begging for it not to be true. "You didn't..."

"I did," Sweet Pea confessed, his whole face wilting. "At the pool party. Josie and I kissed."

Fangs' chest heated up. If this wasn't his best friend, he'd have asked no questions, and beaten him to a pulp. But this was Sweet Pea.

"Did you kiss her?" Fangs asked, and Sweet Pea didn't answer, or look at him. He just stood there. "Tell me right now. Did you kiss her?"

"She kissed me out of nowhere when I was getting punch," Sweet Pea explained, the memory making him feel sick again. "And I pulled away when I processed what was going on. But, hell, I hate myself for even letting it get to that point."

Some of the rage Fangs was cooking up inside extinguished, though, he was still annoyed that Josie was around back then. "Okay, I thought it was worse."

"What do you mean?" Sweet Pea chortled in agony. "As soon as Lauryn finds out, I'll be dead to her, if I'm not already."

"So you didn't tell her?"

"No, I didn't. I should've told her right away, I just didn't want her to go crazy."

"That, I can kind of understand," Fangs responded, nodding with his head to the side. "But, come on, Lauryn's your girl, that's the only thing that seems right. Yeah, you fucked up being friends with Josie and not shutting her down sooner, but that wasn't your fault. You can't control what other people do."

"Prevention is better than cure. That's where I went wrong."

"Tell Lauryn that, then. Just be honest. She's more likely to go for Josie's throat than yours if that was the case."

"Oh, yeah," Sweet Pea scoffed, trying to fix his hair. "'Hey, Lauryn, so I just let Josie walk all over you back there and you're done with me, but just wanted to let you know she actually kissed me at Cheryl's party. Please take me back.'"

Fangs' expression soured. "Come on, you know that's not what I meant. When this is over, and you're back together."

Sweet Pea couldn't even imagine the future anymore.

It was all so dark in his mind. Even though it was intended, he hated the idea of going home and finding all of her stuff gone, and the two things that meant the most to him in life gone, too.