"Juggie, I'm your fucking girlfriend! Betty's my fucking sister! How could you do something like this?" I asked him throwing every ounce of betrayal I felt into the words I said. Jughead looks to the ground, obviously guilty but not enough to spare...
"Whose jacket is that Gwen?" Cheryl asks, knowing full well it was Fp's, just wanting to hear me say it.
"It happens to be Fp's Cheryl, now, please let me have my ice cream." I beg her, making grabby hands. She rolls her eyes and gives me my tub of ice cream, I rip the top off and find the box of plastic spoons from out of my closet, handing one to Reggie and Cheryl, we dig into our ice cream, talking quietly, I tell Cheryl about Reggie's less-than-graceful arrival.
"Ninja my ass, Reggie." Cheryl says, shaking with suppressed laughter.
"Hey, we all know I'm the closest thing to a ninja in this room." He tells us.
"Just because you're Asian, doesn't mean you're a ninja, Reggie. You actually have to have grace and stealth. Both of which, I happen to have, thank you very much." Cheryl has to shove her face into a pillow to muffle her laughter at the mention of his ethnicity.
"I don't sit here and take this type of disrespect," Reggie stands, holding his spoon out like a sword, a dramatic look of valor on his face, "Allison Gwendolyn Cooper, I challenge you to a duel." I stand, doing the same stance as Reggie, Cheryl takes her phone out, recording the shit about to go down.
"Reginald Dominick Mantle, I accept your challenge, the stakes are Maid Cheryl's hand in marriage. If I win, I marry Maid Cheryl, if you win, I marry Maid Cheryl. Got it?" I ask, knowing he would follow along.
"Yes, wait I mean-"
"Now, we fight!" I whisper-yell, taking a dramatic lunge, using my dominant left hand. Reggie and I have a very dramatic duel, moving around to room and on top of furniture, he and I both make ridiculous sound effects as we strike, block and parry. Eventually, I get a lucky shot, stabbing Reggie in the abdomen with my spoon, I pretend to turn the blade before pulling it out, Reggie falling to the floor and having a drawn-out and very dramatic death scene that involves a lot of ridiculousness about sleeping with my mom.
When Reggie finally 'dies' I place my foot on top of his chest, placing my right fist on my hip and raising my other arm into the air. "Mantle the Magnificent has perished by my hand! I am victorious!" I take my foot off him and step over the boy, getting down on one knee before 'Maid Cheryl' and taking the hand that wasn't recording me in my own, kissing it and looking dramatically love-struck. "Maid Cheryl, would you do me the extreme honor of giving me your hand in marriage." I ask, Cheryl opens her mouth to reply but before she can, Reggie staggers to his feet, stabbing me in the back with his spoon, his last act before he truly dies was killing me.
We both have a death scene that involves apologizing to each other and saying that we never should've let a Maiden get in between us and a lot of crying. Then we died, ever so dramatically, Cheryl recording the whole thing...
The next morning, I woke up to Reggie's alarm, much like yesterday morning, he does his usual, throwing the phone across the room and falling back asleep. Then ten minutes later, the thing goes off again and Reggie has to get up to turn the annoying thing off. Reggie wakes Cheryl and I up, having to shove Cheryl off the bed to get her going. The girl hitting the floor with a painful-sounding thud and a groan.
"Asshole." Cheryl mutters, slowly standing up and beginning to stretch. I slowly begin to do the same, wincing when I stretch my right arm too high and irritate my ribs. Reggie and Cheryl glance at me but continue their morning routine, Cheryl going through her phone. "I was thinking about posting the video from last night but you can see all of your bruises."
She shows me the video, I look at myself, in the dim lamplight from last night, you can kind of see the bruises, not enough at the beginning to really think anything of it but when I kneel in front of Cheryl, you can see them quite clearly. I shrug, not really caring enough to make a big deal out of it.
"If people ask, we could just tell them its makeup to make things more dramatic." I tell her, giving her the green-light to post it. She nods, sending the video to mine and Reggie's phones and posting them on our social medias.
I allow Cheryl to rifle through my new clothes and pick out something for me to wear today. She spends a lot of time, making outfits and remaking them. She finally settles on an outfit, telling me that she actually loves the new look I'm going for. Asking to borrow some clothes for today, I tell her to knock herself out, then I grab the bundle of clothes she hands to me and begin changing into them, glad she chose a shirt that covers most of my bruises, I'm tired of worrying if people can see them.
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I quickly throw the clothes on, making my way over to my vanity as the others get dressed, and throwing some darker makeup on and covering the few bits of discolored skin still visible. I quickly curl my blonde locks and put earrings in all my ear piercings. Switching my golden septum ring for a black one. I look at my friends through the vanity mirror, we're quite a mis-matched trio, but I'm glad we're different, it makes our group unique, we're not boring. We all quickly finish getting ready, agreeing to swing by the café for coffee before school. We drop all pretense of them not being here and all three of us storm down the stairs, scaring the shit out of Mom.
"Bye Mom, love you!" I yelled, she was standing confusedly in the entryway to the kitchen, we walk to school today, wanting to savor the nice weather. "Reggie, let me on your shoulders." I tell the boy, he rolls his eyes and steps behind me, grabbing my waist, I jump as he lifts me up, dropping me on his shoulders as though I weighed nothing. I laugh and grab my phone out of my pocket, grabbing the small, portable speaker out of my backpack, pairing my phone with the speaker and blasting FVCK NIGHT by Chri$tian Gate$, we all sing along to the song, the song making us smile, people giving us amused or annoyed looks as we made our way to the café then the school...
