Legends [1] ▻ Sweet Pea

3

Izzy coughed as she looked around the room where the Red and Black used to be held. The room was really dusty and was in need of a deep cleaning. She watched as Jughead opened the curtains to let in some sunlight.

      Toni coughed also as she wiped off some dust from the top of some boxes, "Well, it's not the New York Times," Jughead remarked, "All I need now is a photographer with an amazing eye and a hunger for some social justice." Toni was about to reply to Jughead's remark when Sweet Pea and some other Serpents walked in.

"Topaz, Blake, let's bounce." Sweet Pea spoke up, quickly glancing at Toni, then Jughead, then kept his gaze on Izzy for a long moment. He never got to apologize to her.

"Jones, wanna come with us? We're going down to the quarry." Sweet Pea questioned as everyone's head turned to face Jughead.

"I—uh—don't have my beach bod yet." Jughead sarcastically replied and Izzy rolled her eyes.

"What? You ask help from the Serpents when you need it, but you won't hang with us?" Izzy scoffed, after being quiet for so long.

"Don't come crawling to us, hat in hand, when some Ghoulie decides to earn his strips by taking out FP Jones' kid." Sweet Pea added in to Izzy's comment, even more annoyed than Izzy was if that was even possible.

"Dully noted. Thanks, Izzy. Same for you, Sweet Pea. I appreciate what you guys and the Serpents have done for me and my dad. I do. But I'm done, okay? No more favors coming your way." Sweet Pea started to get angry and began to walk towards Jughead, but Izzy was quick to block his way.

"Hey, hey, thats enough, Sweet Pea. He made up his mind," Izzy quickly stated and Sweet Pea started to calm down as he looked down at the girl, "Let's go!"

   And with that, the Serpents made their way out of the classroom and left.

Izzy walked ahead of Sweet Pea and talked with some other Serpent that had brown hair and was about six feet tall. The Serpent was clearly flirting with Izzy, just like many of the young Serpents did, and Sweet Pea couldn't help but feel jealous.

     Sweet Pea groaned to himself. Toni noticed his reaction and chuckled at her friend, "Are you jealous, Sweet Pea?"

"No," Sweet Pea scoffed, "Of course not, why would I be?"

"You like her, don't you?" Toni asked calmly and after getting no answer, she figured that her suspicions were right, "Take the hint, Sweet Pea, she's just not that into you. You and her are the best of friends, you're the only person she truly trusts. Don't ruin that by admitting that you have feelings for her. You know that will only drive her away. And not just from you, from all of us."

     Sweet Pea nodded in response. Toni was right, he could never tell Izzy that he liked her. It would ruin their friendship. Izzy wasn't the relationship type. She wasn't a one-man kind of girl. She had one-night stands, never relationships, not even flings.

• • • •

     Music blasted as many teen Serpents were drinking and having a good time at the quarry. Sweet Pea sat next to Toni at the quarry with a beer in his hand. The two friends grinned when they saw Izzy dancing with some girl, having a good time, something she didn't do much.

"Are you sure she isn't into girls?" Toni joked and Sweet Pea rolled his eyes.

    After the song ended, Izzy made her way over to her two friends, smiling.

"Oh my god, is that what I think it is! The Izabella Blake smiling right before my eyes?" Toni fake gasped.

"What? I'm having a good time," Izzy replied before turning her attention towards Sweet Pea, "Sweets, can we talk? Alone?"

      Sweet Pea nodded as he got up from his seat to follow her to a quiet place, "Sure."

     The two made their way, towards the place where most of Serpent's vehicles were.

Izzy sighed as she took a seat on her motorcycle, "Look, I'm sorry that I overreacted earlier," She apologized, "But you shouldn't have assumed that I slept with that Ghoulie. I stick by the Serpents no matter what, they are my whole life. Why would I do something stupid like sleep with a damn Ghoulie?"

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. We good now?"

"Of course," She smiled and Sweet Pea looked at her with a questioning look. She smiled twice in the past hour and she never smiled. It might have sounded bizarre for him to be concerned about that, but Izzy normally rarely smiled. You would be lucky to see her smile even once within a whole month.

"You okay?" He questioned concerned and Izzy nodded a little too quickly, making it not believable.

"To be honest, no, I'm not," Izzy sighed, "It's that time of the year again. The nine year mark of my family's death is about to pass and I don't think I'm going to be able to deal with yet another year where my friends and all of the Serpents treat me like I'm this fragile object for two whole weeks. I can't. I just can't. I'm not some fragile object anymore. It happened almost a decade ago, I'm okay now. I'm trying to put on a happy face for everyone but it's hard when people treat me like I'm so fragile when I'm not. I've moved on. I still have the Serpents as my family. I'm fine with just that."

  Sweet Pea looked at his best friend sympathetically.

"We should get back to this party." Izzy spoke up as she got up from her seat and got ready to walk back.

Before Izzy could walk past Sweet Pea, he grabbed her arm, bringing her back and pulled her into a tight hug. Izzy honestly needed that hug, but she would never admit that. Izzy hugged back, making Sweet Pea surprised. She could smell his cologne and boy, did she love it.

She felt the warmth from his body and it made her not want to ever let go. She never hugged anyone. She missed it. She really did. She used to love hugs when she was younger, but now she rarely made physical contact with anyone unless it was when she threw a punch at them. She used to love physical contact when she younger. She missed it dearly. Now, her form of physical contact with someone was in hostile ways: Punching, kicking, slapping, sometimes even stabbing.

Why did she become this person? Why did she become so heartless? Why did she become so hostile?

    Sweet Pea rested his chin on the top of Izzy's head. He had to admit, he liked this hug. Just as Izzy secretly did. Her hair smelled good. It smelled like vanilla. How could someone as harsh and rude as his best friend smell so sweet?

     The two finally decided to pull away from each other when they heard Toni's voice calling for them.

  "Sweet Pea! Izzy! Where did you guys go! Did you guys die or something?" Toni joked.

  The two chuckled as they turned their head to see their friend walking over to them.