𝖛𝖎𝖈𝖎𝖔𝖚𝖘 ↠ sweet pea [2]

|| FORTY-THREE ||

The group were stuffed, slumped on the couch and carpet watching a dead-beat reality show. Each of them was too full to reach for the remote control, too dazed to even care.

Every now and then one of them would make fun of someone on TV, causing either a debate or or a laughing session.

The doorbell rang as Lauryn was laughing so hard that her stomach muscles were hurting, and she sat up from where she lay on the couch, lifting her legs from where they rested on Sweet Pea's lap.

"I'll get it," she said, groaning as she stood up.

Fangs lifted his head up slowly so he could see the door. "Careful, might be the camera crew I signed you up for."

Giggling again, Lauryn thought nothing of it, but her face then whitened when she recognized who it was, feeling as though her dinner would make a sudden appearance.

A man stood before her, torn down and skinny but a beer-belly nonetheless, with a messy coat of black to grey stubble across his cheeks. He wore a grey t-shirt which sat loose at the chest underneath a brown jacket.

"You must be Lorraine..." he said, almost in awe when he saw her. "Do you remember me?"

"You're Benji..." Lauryn replied, utterly dumbfounded. She cleared her throat, trying to act clueless. "You're Skye's dad. Uh... What can I do for you?"

Sweet Pea heard what she said from his seat, and he darted to the door, flashbacks from a year ago training him. He stood behind Lauryn, crossing his arms.

"Yes, I am," the man chuckled helplessly. "I... I just came to say thank you."

"Thank you?" Lauryn raised a brow. "What for?"

"For finding out what happened to my daughter," he explained. "Her boyfriend told me that without you, we wouldn't have found out who killed her. Maybe now, I can sleep, and... so can Skye, wherever she is," Benji poured out, his slightly drunken state slurring his vocabulary.

He dabbed his eyes with a faded yellow handkerchief. "You were clearly such a good friend to her, Lorraine. Admitting that your own mother killed her."

"It's, uh, Lauryn," she corrected him awkwardly.

"Right. I'm sorry."

"No, don't worry. It's okay," she said, feeling her whole body start to tremble as she chose her next words carefully. "I just... told the truth."

Lauryn felt sick. She wanted him to leave. She wanted to hide. She never imagined Skye's father showing his face on her doorstep.

"If I may ask, when was the last time you saw her before she disappeared...?" Benji then asked her, and from the look in his eyes, she thought he was begging her.

All she could see in her head was Skye's sinister look when she was about to execute the newborn, the haunting sight of the aftermath, and watching the body be rolled up into the bloody carpet.

With no time left to lie, she gave him a response. "Probably about May... After she was exiled from the Serpents."

"Exiled? Why didn't I know about this?"

"Oh... I thought you..." Lauryn's voice dropped to almost a mumble. "She was a Ghoulie spy, Jughead took her jacket."

She knew it would shatter his heart if he knew about how much of a monster his daughter really was, and all she did, and was about to do the day she died. Although Lauryn wanted to, she couldn't tell him. Not just for his sake, but also for her own.

"Would you like to come in?" she invited, but he shook his head to her relief.

"No, thank you. I just wanted to thank you for being a friend to my little girl before I go. She always had a hard time fitting in," he sniffled. "Sometimes, I didn't think I knew her at all."