Second Chances [Sweet Pea x OC]

Chapter 19

I sat in the kitchen sipping my coffee as Mr Andrews slowly poured his coffee, Archie waiting anxiously for his dad to acknowledge him.

"What's going on son?" Mr Andrews asked. "Is it your breakup with Veronica?"

"No, Dad, it's not..." Archie sighed, glancing at me. I nodded at him in encouragement. "I've been thinking. Maybe college isn't for me. Maybe I can try working with you in the construction company again."

Mr Andrews nodded. "There's no shame in hard work, son, but where's this coming from?"

"After the crap I've seen these last few months, I just wanna get out of my head," Archie said. "Work with my hands. Try to make peace with things."

"Well, if you're serious about it, you better get your butt in gear," Mr Andrews said. "Shift starts in about an hour."

Archie grinned at both of us as he ran out of the kitchen to get ready while I took a sip of my coffee, avoiding Mr Andrews's eye.

"Why do I get the feeling you had something to do with this?" he asked.

"Because I may have given him the idea?" I answered. "Look, beating the crap out of that punching bag alone in the garage isn't helping, he needs to find something else. So, I figured if hitting things makes him feel better, maybe hitting things with others around would do the trick. And you did say you could use a few more hands out there breaking up the concrete from last week's demo job."

"It's worth a shot," Mr Andrews said. "Archie was a hard worker a few years back when he spent the summer working with me. He dropped it so he could play football and focus on his music. He didn't have time for it all."

Football season was long over, and I'd heard from the others that Archie used to play guitar and sing, but there was something about a teacher's death that made him lose interest in it. Maybe someone could get him back into it though. Maybe that's what it would take to get him back into the swing of things.

A few hours into the day I was surprised to hear a truck pulling up outside. It was too early for the crews to be done for the day, and no one ever came by the trailer that served as our office. Anyone who needed something done just called.

"Where's Fred at?" Vic the foreman demanded, slamming the door against the stair rail as he came in, followed a moment later by a pissed-off Sweet Pea.

"He's out doing some small job over on Grove Street," I answered, finally getting a good look at the two. They'd obviously been involved in a fight, Vic coming out the worst of the two. "What the hell happened? You've had no issues the past three days and now you pick a fight with Vic of all people?" I asked, turning my attention to Sweet Pea.

"I didn't start anything," he snapped, throwing his hard hat down. "I just finished it."

"A good thing he did too," Vic said, pulling out the First Aid kit. "When's Fred supposed to be back?"

I sighed, running my hand through my hair. "I don't know, when he's done with whatever it is he's doing? Now, one of you tell me what happened out there."

"Andrews lost it," Sweet Pea said, dropping into a chair.

"Boy refused to follow orders, said he didn't need his mandatory break," Vic explained.

"Who threw the first hit?" I asked.

"He did," Vic replied, gesturing to face. "Tell Fred he's off my crew, I don't care if Archie is his kid."

I nodded, trying to figure out how we were going to break the news to Mr Andrews. "Okay, both of you go back to work or go home, I don't really care. I'll talk to Mr Andrews, figure something out."