Grief, Gin, & a Bad Boy (Part 1)
Sweet Pea x Reader
Warnings: Death, Depression, Slight Alchololism, Drug Use, Eventual Smut
Reader is Midge’s best friend. After she’s murdered, everyone else seems to have moved on. You still miss her and have trouble coping with it. You meet a tall gang member at party and he seems like a great distraction.
Kevin dragged you to this party and you couldn’t be more pissed about it. Your only saving grace is the cup of jungle juice in your hand. You’d already chugged three and you were feeling it. This one was just to replenish once your buzz wore off. Kevin was off with Betty somewhere and you’d slunk off to hide in the stairwell behind a couple making out.
You can’t help but think of Midge. She used to drag you to these things too with Moose. That seemed like a world away now. Where you were reserved and almost always caught with a resting bitch face, Midge was a smiley ball of sunshine. When she’d first dragged you into the playground with her in second grade you’d been determined not to like her.
Sometimes, when you missed her so much it hurt, you wish she’d never smiled at you that day.
You didn’t realize you were crying until a tear landed on your hand and then into your cup.
“Shit,” you mumbled under your breath and wiped at the tears quickly. You got up and carefully made you way past the couple and to the bathroom where you had to kick out another couple just about to go at it.
You slammed the door behind you and stared at yourself in the mirror. Your red eyes could be explained by the jay you’d smoked off of someone outside but the tear streaks you hadn’t wiped at yet we’re clear. Your shift your expression in the mirror from sadness back to blank and then put on your mask for the rest of the world.
“She’s not half as mean as she looks,” Midge would tell everyone. You can almost hear it in her voice.
With that, you leave the bathroom and run right into a hard body.
“Jesus watch where you’re-“ you begin and then look up to who you’d run into.
Fangs stares back at you, shock written on his face. You’re sure you look that way too until you wipe it off your expression. You turn to leave but he grabs you by the arm softly. You hadn’t seen him since the riots. It had all gone so fast. Midget had just died and word got out she was cheating on Moose with a Serpent. Everyone had gone on a witch hunt and of course came to you demanding a name.
You’d played dumb. Lied about Midge not telling you anything but you knew it was Fangs. You also knew he was in deep with her and wouldn’t hurt a hair on her head. Telling Reggie and his goons would just mean they’d hurt him.
It didn’t make a difference because Fangs got shot anyways. You hadn’t spoken to him since the moments before he’d gotten shot.
You yank your arm free harder than you meant to,”I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thank you,” he said sincerely,” Just had my last check up. I’m all healed up.”
“Good,” you say, you mean it but talking to him makes you hurt remembering Midge.
“Look, after everything happened I never got a chance to properly thank you for not ratting me out.”
You exhale a breath you didn’t know you’d been holding,” Yeah, well. It’s what she would’ve wanted.”
“You could’ve just given me up but you didn’t. I won’t forget that.”
You scoff, “What difference does it make? Midge is still dead and you got shot. My silence did nothing.”
You stare at the wal behind him, flashes of blood and knives, and screaming going through your head.
“Are you okay?”
You snap your eyes back to Fangs, “Fine.”
“Are you here with anyone? I came with some of my friends if you wanna-“
“There you are!”
You turn to see Kevin coming towards you and taking you by the arm,” I’ve been looking all over. I’m about to do shots.”
Kevin looks between you and Fangs,” Sorry am I interrupting?”
“Nope,” you say quickly and shot Kevin the fakest smile,” Lead me to the shots.”
Kevin pulls you away talking your ear off and you don’t look back. People say hi to you throughout the house and you greet them back. You see several bulldogs crowded around a table with tequila shots and lime.
“Shit looks like the jocks got to them first.”
“You think I’m gonna let Bulldogs stop me,” you say and untangle from him, pushing between two football players and finding yourself across from Reggie Mantle.
He smirks when he sees you and you’re sure you scowl as your eyes narrow.
“Well, well, well Bulldogs it looks like we’ve got a new challenger. You up for it sweetheart?”
You’re suddenly very aware that they’ve created a spectacle of all this. There’s a bunch of Riverdale student cheering it on and you’ve caught yourself in the middle of it.
“What’s the rules Mantle?” You asks, refusing to be unfazed.
“That’s cute. No rules. Shots until you can’t anymore. You vs me. What do you say?”
You don’t hate Reggie. At least you didn’t used to. He was more an asshole in the periphery of your vision. Of course being friends with your best friend boyfriend meant Midge had dragged you on double dates hoping you’d click but Reggie was simple and you were not down to be his arm candy.
Then after Midge had been killed in the middle of your deepest grief he’d cornered you with a bunch of his Bulldogs and demanded you give him the name of the Serpent Midge was cheating with. You’d been crying and screaming and traumatized and his bullshit had sent you over an edge.
You hadn’t really come back since.
“You’re on,” you say and there’s something heavy in the air. Someone starts to count down and once your hear zero you slam back the first shot and then the second and then the third and the fourth and the fifth and Reggie is coughing and sputtering at that point but there’s eight shots laid out and you finish all of them. Everyone cheers around you and you don’t care as they pay you on the back. You’re staring right at Reggie and hoping he sees how much you hate him.
Kevin is the one to drag you away from it, yelling over the music about how much you just drank and asking if you’re okay.
“Fine!” you yell and then Kevin pauses and looks to someone and you follow his eyes to Moose. They both smile.
You knew they were fucking and you had no right to be mad but you were always angry nowadays and Kevin just so happened to be here.
“You two are really fucking obvious,” you say and Kevin snaps his head to you with wide eyes, “You think I wouldn’t notice?”
“Look I didn’t mean for it to happen especially after-“
You yank yourself free of him, “Don’t say her name.”
You’re not sure where you’re going but then you find yourself back in the kitchen with the Bulldogs and getting more jungle juice.
You feel him beside you before you see him. It pisses you off you’ve been around him enough times to know his cologne.
“It was kind of hot that you beat me.”
“Fuck off, Reggie,” you say without looking at him.
“Look I get that you hate me. I do. But can’t we move past it all. We had a lot of fun.”
You didn’t think you could get any angrier but you did.
“I think you think you get just how much I hate you but you don’t. And let me make it clear, I didn’t have fun when we fucked. I was drunk and you were the closest thing with a dick.”
He looks upset for just a moment before he smirks, “Well it looks like I’m the closest thing again. Wanna go for another round?”
You leaned close to him, making him think his charms had worked and then you stopped, eyes fierce,” Fucking me doesn’t count as an I’m sorry I started a panic that made Midge’s mother shoot someone and forget that the reason everything started in the first place was because your best friend died. You might not have killed Midge but you made damn sure finding her murdered became about everything else but her. Everyone forgot Midge and I blame you, you fucking idiot.”
“Everything okay here?”
You don’t look away from Reggie but you recognize Fangs’ voice. Reggie looks from you to him and you know somethings about to start.
“Fangs, how you doing buddy?”
“Fine,” he said curtly as you still stared down at Reggie, daring him to do something so you had a reason to make a scene, “Y/N are you good?”
“Why wouldn’t she be good Fogarty?”
“Because she looks like she wants to kill you.”
You snap out of it then and mumble out that you’re fine before downing more jungle juice.
“You know just because you feel bad doesn’t mean you gotta follow her around?” Reggie said and then tried to protectively put his arm around you. You shove him off much harder than you intend and send him onto the floor
“Don’t fucking touch me,” you slur out as the kitchen goes quiet, watching the scene unfold.
“Why are you so mad at me?” Reggie screamed, pulling himself up from the floor and making you jump back at his anger, “I’m not the one who was fucking Midge!”
It’s a different type of silent now at the mention of her name. Everyone knew The Black Hood went after your best friend because she was cheating on Moose with Fangs, an act deemed immoral by the serial killer. You never judged her for it, pushed her to do right by Moose because he was a good guy, but never judged her.
Reggie definitely was.
“If you want someone to be mad at, be mad at the guy that stuck his-“
Reggie doesn’t have a chance to finish because your fist is in his nose. You’re cursing at him and swinging and you can feel yourself being pulled back from him but whoever it is isn’t strong enough. You lurch out of their grip and tackle Reggie, hitting him again and again.
“Don’t you fucking put it on her,” you’re screaming, “Don’t you dare blame her!”
Before you can register it you’re being picked up around your waist and hauled off, still kicking and screaming.
“Put me down,” you yell, trying to pry the arms that carry you outside into the cool night air.
Finally, you’re set down on the porch and you whip around to see a frantic Fangs and Sweet Pea.
“Jesus you’re stronger than you look,” Sweet Pea mumbles, catching his breath.
“Look,” Fangs began gently, blocking your path back inside, “As much as I’d love to see Reggie get a black eye this isn’t you. You’re drunk and you’re angry and-“
“How about you don’t tell me what I am and move out of my way?” you growl at him, arms crossed.
“Midge wouldn’t want you to do this.”
“Midge is dead,” you replied, voice cold, “And I don’t need you to-“
You stop, eyebrows knitting together.
“What’s wrong?” Fangs asked.
You turn and throw your face over the porch as you violently throw up the contents of your stomach.
“I’m gonna go get her some water. Just don’t leave her side,” you hear Fangs say.
You hate being this girl. You didn’t used to drink this much and you certainly weren’t this angry when you did. It just made things easier.
You finally stop, catching your breath and groaning off the side of the balcony.
“Ew,” you mumble to yourself.
“You good?”
You’d forgotten Sweet Pea was still there to watch you. You had no right to be angry with him...or Fangs. So you resigned yourself to the exhaustion fighting its way into your body.
“Fine,” you throw over your shoulder, straightening up and running your hands back through your hair.
“You don’t look fine.”
You glare at him over your shoulder, faltering back a bit, still drunk, “Don’t take this the wrong way but I’m really fucking tired of people telling me that.”
Sweet Pea chuckles to himself, “You’re fun when you’re pissed.”
You go quiet, making him feel bad. Slowly, he came to stand next to you.
“For real, how’ve you been doing?”
You look to him. You hadn’t spoken to him since Fangs got shot. When Fangs and Midge had first hooked up, you’d found yourself awkwardly with him as both of your best friends made out across the room at the White Wyrm. He’d cracked a joke and made you laugh. You’d thought he was cute back then.
“I just punched Reggie Mantle in the face and threw up. How do you think I’m doing?”
“Well only one of those things sounds like it wasn’t fun,” he teased and you chuckled under your breath, “Oh look she still smiles.”
You half heartedly glare at him and he smiles down at you, all teeth and big, brown eyes and you can’t have the heart to be mad anymore. Vaguely you start to remember the time you’d danced with each other at a party. It seemed like a world away.
“Thank you,” you say hesitantly.
He shrugged, “You didn’t rat Fangs out and you really didn’t have to be there when he got shot...but you were. Makes you alright in my book.”
You scoffed, “Just alright?”
“Well you do go around punching people so I gotta wait before I give you the full okay.”
“Afraid I’ll turn on you,” you teased, the alcohol on your blood and on your breath making you confident as you stepped closer to him and his eyes darken enough for you to hold your breath.
“Promises, promises,” he drawls, and you’re fresh out of air in your lungs.
The door opens and you don’t realize just how close you’ve gotten to Sweet Pea. You take a step back as Fangs comes out with a bottle of water. He raises a brow at Sweet Pea who pretends like nothing had happened.
“I got you some water,” Fangs said and handed it to you. You quickly began to drink it down, grateful. When you’re done you look to him.
“I’m sorry,” you say sincerely, “You didn’t deserve me yelling at you.”
He looks down at his feet, “Not really sure what I deserve right now.”
You know what he means and suddenly you can see the guilt and grief that hangs over you is right above his head as well, darkening you both. All the time you’d been avoiding Fangs and he might be the only one who really, truly understood just how you felt about losing Midge. Sure, Moose was her boyfriend but you and Fangs shared the same guilt in the thing the Black Hood has judged her for. She cheated on Moose with Fangs and you watched her do it, you lied for her, you were by her side when you went to meet him. You weren’t the ones that killed her but it felt like it sometimes.
“It wasn’t your fault.” It tumbled out before you lose the nerve and then you’re reaching out to squeeze his hand. He takes it, giving you a squeeze back and a small smile.
Something bubbles in your chest and you let go more forcefully than you intended.
“Nights still young,” Sweet Pea said, breaking the tension, “y’all still down to party?”
“Fuck it,” you mumble and you’re the first one back into the house
You find yourself at the beer pong table. You slink the last shot right into the final cup in your game. Sweet Pea and you are on the winning team and just beat Cheryl and Toni. Sweet Pea hollers and pick you up, spinning you around. He’s caught up to you in how drunk you are.
He puts you down, quickly and yells over the cheers, “Don’t throw up!”
“Fuck you,” you yell and shove him at his chest playfully. He grabs your hand and holds it there, making intense eye contact with you.
“Got room for another game.”
Your moments broken up by a particularly pissed looking Reggie with a bruised nose. You snort a laugh, too drunk to be angry anymore.
“Not enough that a punched you in the face you want me to wreck you at beer pong too, Mantle?” you call out, laughing and taunting him as you down what’s in your cup.
“I could wreck you sweetheart,” Reggie says, lewdly scanning your body.
“Mantle you wanna fuck off,” Sweet Pea said calmly, arms crossed.
Reggie looks from Sweet Pea to you, his smile unnerving, “Careful, bro. She’s pretty but she might punch you in the face next.”
You recover quickly and drawl, “Oh my god you think I’m pretty.”
Moose comes to his side, pulling him away and looking at you with an apologetic look. It was the only way he ever looked at you now.
“C’mon bro that’s enough,” Moose said, tugging Reggie away.
Reggie pointed to Sweet Pea with a smirk, “She’s a real handful when she’s mad but she’s a great time.”
Luckily no ones paying attention to the drunk Bulldog this time. You know Sweet Pea hears it though because he looks from Reggie to you with a raised brow. Your jaw clenched and you start to walk away but Sweet Pea stops you. You hate that he made you feel ashamed of yourself. You hate Reggie for making you remember this drunk, angry girl is not who you are.
“Wanna get out of here?”
There’s tears pricking at the corners of your eyes and you’re suddenly very aware of how loud it is in here, back leaning against a wall.
You look up at him and wipe it all away to smirk and bat your lashes, “I want you to take me somewhere to fuck me.”
His brows shoot off his head, “Don’t fuck me to get back at Reggie.”
“I’m fucking you because you look like you want it about as much as I do,” you’re pushing it. You know that but Sweet Pea smiles and leans down until his lips are at your ear.
“If you did wanna piss Reggie off look at him right now,” he whispers in your ear, hands coming up to grab at your waist. You find Reggie over Sweet Pea’s shoulder, glaring at the two of you. You smirk at him just as Sweet Pea pulls back to look at your face, forcing your attention to him.
“Was he looking?” he asked though his eyes are on your lips, the last thing in his mind Reggie Mantle.
“Yeah,” you manage as the hulking boy in front of you puts a hand at your jaw, tilting your face up.
“Good, let’s give him a show.”
He kisses you deep, thumb brushing at your cheek and pulling you so close you gasp. In the space of your parted lips, his tongue meets yours. All thoughts other than the Serpent holding you leave your head. He’s a good kisser, a great kisser and he’s everywhere. Your back presses into the wall and you find yourself fisting your hands in his shirt, trying to pull him closer but there’s no more space for you two to close between you.
He brings a leg forward, making you part yours for him. There’s a whimper in your ears and you realize it’s you. He chuckles, dangerous and low against your mouth.
“You okay baby girl?”
You nod, eyes still closed.
“Look at me.”
You pull your gaze to his and if you couldn’t hear your heartbeat before you can now looking into his eyes, pupils blown wide and gaze heavy lidded on you. He puts his fingers under your chin, tilting your head up to look at him.
“When I fuck you, it’s going to be because you want me so bad you can’t take it. Not because we’re drunk and you want to piss off Reggie.”
He kisses you one last time, slow and sweet instead of with the sloppy heat of before. He finds your hand entangling with his.
When he pulls away your gaze at him is soft.
“C’mon let’s get some water,” he suggest over the music and leads you away hand in hand. You don’t even look back at Reggie as he pulls you through the crowd.














