Just The Two Of Us <Sweet Pea FF>

90. Not much

"Hey Ju, how are you feeling?"

I lift my head carefully off the pillow, seeing Archie, Veronica and Betty entering the hospital room.

"Great, they gave me the painkillers and everything. I can't feel any pain, physical and emotional which is good because my life is screwed" I slur, a little smile creeping on my face.

Although clearly the painkillers are to blame for my weird behaviour, the three frown and look at each other.
"Anyways" Veronica tries to start a conversation, pushing the awkwardness aside "What happened? We heard you were transported to the hospital."

"Oh, ehm, some jerk bumped into me with like 3829 miles an hour. Then some guy picked me up and now I am here. Everything's kind of a blur."

"They say your arm's broken. That sucks." Archie rubs his neck.
"Yeah, no it's real fun."
Betty laughs, rolling her eyes, "It can't be that bad if she's still sarcastic."

A knock and the door opens "Sorry?"
Sweet peas big head peaks into the room.
"I guess that's our queue to leave" Ronnie winks although I really want them to stay.

Sweet pea steps closer until he reached the end of my bed, resting his arms on the footboard.
"They told me you asked for me"
"That doesn't sound like me" I blurb out. I hate how much I like him here while simultaneously not standing to look at him.

"The nurse told m-" he points to the door, uneasiness visible on his face, but I interrupt him.
"Yeah, well they lie." I shrug awkwardly, my voice jumping a couple pitches higher.

"Hm" he hums, tilting his terribly handsome head sideways. I feel horrible, high on painkillers and laying in this bed because I was too dumb to slide down a slope. Plus, I want him to lie down next to me, sling his arm around me so I can rest my head on his chest.

But no.

He takes one step closer,"Look, Julia-"
"No. Wait. Maybe it's better if you just leave. I meant what I said yesterday." My eyes fall to his feet, I can't stand the defeated look in his eyes.

"Alright. Maybe get some rest. We'll leave tomorrow." And with that he is out the door.

And indeed we did leave the next day. For the rest of the day and the way home I actually slept most of the time, due to the painkillers making me drowsy.

Eventually, I'm back home in my bed, not finding any comfortable position with that stupid cast on my arm.

I haven’t really talked to anyone since that day in the hospital. Despite the necessity of explaining what happened and the usual small talk, I avoided conversations. Especially the ones concerning sweet pea.

"Knock knock, kiddo. Just wanted to check up on you." Fp enters, seeing me struggle in my bed causes him to release a deep chuckle.
"Perfect" I sigh, obviously ironicly.
"Well, just wanted to let you know that you can stay at home a little longer if you want to. No need to go to school that soon after your injury."

For a moment I consider his words. I planned on going back to school tomorrow, it's always a great way to distract myself from, well, sweet pea. But a few more days at home do sound temptatingly good.

"That would be great."

With a smile and a "Sure thing, kid" FP leaves again and I slump back onto the mattress.

The next day, everybody went back to school while I stayed at home. And while I like sleeping in, the cast starts itching and I can't find a comfortable position. And I'm left with nothing but Netflix and my own thoughts.
While I want to push Sweetpea far from my mind, everything I can do is imagine our time together.

Our first date, watching Casablanca. Sweet pea didn't like it and we left early, so we watched it again and again and again in attempt to watch the whole thing and I thoroughly believe he loves that movie now. It is our movie and we have adapted too many quotes that we throw into every conversation. Used to throw into every conversation.

And when we wanted to spend some time, just the two of us, we would drive to the river and sit down by the water, eating Pop's donuts. We used to joke around, few people understand my sarcasm, even less appreciate it. But only sweet pea countered it.

It was that kind of relationship where you can just sit around, laugh and talk and simply enjoy each others company, sometimes even in silence. But his presence was enough.

I suppose we liked calm things since Riverdale itself is wrenched in drama, action and misery.

And if I hasn't told him to go away and distance himself he would probably be here right now. I would lie in his arm and we would joke and watch Casablanca.

A very dramatic sigh escapes my lips and my eyes wander to the ceiling. For a while when we lived together in that Trail-

"Knockedy knock"

"Betty?"

Sunshine herself walks into my room and sits down on my bed next to me.
"Just wanted to see how you're holding up. Need anything?"

"Oh, no, thank you. Where were you?" I try to sit up as well and lean against the wall.

"With Jug. Catching up, you know how it is." Her smile fades a bit.
"Sure do. Anything new?"
"Trouble with the stonis, as always. But we didn't really...talk a lot, if you know what I mean."

"I always know what you mean. No details please" my healthy hand shoots up, visibly stopping her from talking about her sex life with jug.

"Anyways, jules. I wanted to tell you something." Her expression falters further.

"What happened?" My heart drops and a seriousness settles in the air.

"It's about Sweet pea"