rumors | sweetpea

❝𝘢𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤❞

Sweet Pea stays with me until the doctor shows up. "I'm sorry about your dad. The hit was on his side of the vehicle, and we had to do damage control before the body was out under any more trauma. I'm truly sorry for your loss." She walks away.

My throat burns and my head throbs. I check the time and see that it's past 5. "I don't wanna go home," I whisper. "You don't have to." Sweet Pea tells me. I look up at him with my brown eyes. I move up to his lips and kiss him gently.

"Thank you, Sweets," I say. He smiles. "No problem, Dais." He looks me in the eyes but then stands up. "I'll walk you out? You need sleep." He holds out a hand.

I take it and stand up. "Okay." We start walking and I see my mother still sleeping. I wouldn't wake her because the nurse said she wouldn't be up until tomorrow.

The night air hits me like a truck. It's dewy, windy, and fucking freezing. "Do you want me to drive you? I can get Toni and Fangs to drive it back." He offers. I smile and nod.

I get onto his motorcycle and hug him tight. The drive back to Sunnyside Trailer Park is less than talkative. It was silent. He pulls up to my trailer and stops the motorcycle. "I'm not expecting you to be at school, so I'll stop by tonight." I nod and smile one last time.

I get to my door and get out my keys, but they fall to the floor because my hands are shaking. I pick them up and get inside. Sweet Pea drives back to his trailer diagonal to mine. I close the door but the trailer seems emptier than usual.

I went to my bed and gently laid my keys down. I set down my phone and take off my shoes. I lay down and stared at the ceiling but I couldn't seem to fall asleep. I was stuck in my thoughts.

~

KNOCK KNOCK

I roll over and stare at the trailer door. I have no energy to stand up again. "DK, it's Jughead." I hear him. "Is the door unlocked?" I hear him ask. Knowing Jug, it doesn't matter what I say, he's coming in. Sure enough, the door opens and I roll back over.

"Daisy, I'm sorry for what happened." I hear his steps over to my bed. "Are you okay?" The bed dips. I don't answer him. I can't, because I don't know if I'm okay. Surely I'm not, but I just don't know.

"I'm going to the Wyrm," I say and get up. Jughead is sitting on the edge of my bed, looking up with concerned eyes. "Okay." He gets up and walks over to the couch. I pick out my outfit, a mini black dress and black tights with my serpent jacket and dark green Hightop Converse. I do some makeup and put small braids on my hair. Jughead will most likely be waiting for me when I get back.

"I'll be back, J." I walk out and drive over to the White Wyrm. Toni is a bartender there and Pea usually hangs and plays pool with Fangs. I stroll in and Toni immediately sees me.

"DK?" She asks confused and finishes giving a drink to an old Serpent. This causes some of the other Serpents to look at me. I go over and sit at the bar and Toni just watches over me. At one point, I see her tap Sweet Pea's shoulder when she comes back from the bathroom. He sees me walks over and sits down next to me.

"Hey, how are you?" He asks as Toni serves me a glass of straight whiskey. "Whiskey helps if you didn't know." I joke with him. Given the circumstances, Pea laughs. "You should come play with me and Fangs." He says and takes my hand. "Okay." I chug the last of the alcohol in my glass and am handed a brown cue.

Fangs sets up the balls and signals for me to break. The game against Fangs goes by fast because I annihilate him. Sweet Pea wraps his arm around my waist.

"You keep that up and you might beat me one day." He smirks. "I bet $10 I'll beat you right now." I push my index into his chest. He just chuckles.

"You'll get there, little girl."

~

Sweets waves me goodnight as I walk into my trailer. Sure enough, Jughead is still there -He's asleep on my couch. I try not to wake him as I take off my shoes and walk to my room. Once I set the Converse down, reality hits me like a truck.

"Fuck." I whisper as the lump comes back into my throat. Alcohol helps. It always does. I walk to my parent's cabinet and find a nice bottle of tequila. Tears overcome my eyes as I walk back to my room with the bottle in hand. I wanted to quit everything and drink for the rest of my life.

I sipped away as I sat on my bed, sobbing silently. Mom's going into surgery tomorrow to repair her organs or whatever. It was scheduled for after school so I was going to go over and wait for her.

I sat thinking about Dad and I's memories. At one point, I took out my phone and started looking through photos. Good thing Jug's a deep sleeper because I was full-on weeping.

I cried and drank tequila until I fell asleep or passed out, I'm not sure. But, I do know I woke up to Jughead pouring a bucket of ice water on me the next morning.

"FUCK YOU FUCKING MONKEY ASS-" I yelled at him, but he knew I never meant any of my insults to my friends. I looked up at his eyes, and I'd never seen the look before. Worry, anger, sadness, all of the above.

"Did you drink this whole damn bottle of tequila?" He asks me in a calm voice. It scares me.

"Yeah," I admit. I can hear Jughead's disappointment. "Daisy. You're gonna die of alcohol poisoning if you keep going. Or liver failure!" My nose twitched something that would happen only when I was about to cry. Even my parents warned me about alcoholism and how I was a bad alcoholic.

"Then let me fucking die." I roll over and close my eyes. He sighs, then the bed dips and I feel him scootch me to him.

"Come here, DK. I'm sorry I yelled at you." He says in a hushed voice. A few tears slip from my eyes, but nothing else. I used them up last night. I couldn't feel anything. I don't know if it was the tequila or the fact that I was in denial over my father. Jughead held me close until we both fell asleep again.

My dad's dead. I'll never see him again. I'll never hear his voice, see his eyes, or hold his hand ever again. He's gone.

originally published 12/3/23