Collateral Damage ▻ Riverdale [1]

1.20

THE BEGINNING
CHAPTER TWENTY
June 21, 2017

The next day, Queenie sat in a booth at Pop's with Sweet Pea, "You really think he's actually going to be here?" Sweet Pea asked her for the third time since arriving at Pop's, which was twenty minutes prior.

It was about noon on a Wednesday and Queenie had decided an hour before to go to Pop's to see if Jason would come here with Cheryl like he always did when he wasn't with Queenie. She tried calling him, but for some odd reason, he didn't answer.

"I told you, Sweet Pea, if you don't want to wait, you can go home. I don't need a babysitter. Plus, if someone needs a babysitter, it's you. I'm older than you—" Queenie started, but was cut off by Sweet Pea.

"Yeah, by like six months," He argued and Queenie rolled her eyes, resting her head on the table.

  Suddenly, the door's bell rang and Jason entered by himself, "He's here." Sweet Pea announced, causing Queenie to quickly lift her head up.

Just then, Jason walked over to her table and gave Sweet Pea a glare before looking over at his girlfriend, "I can't believe you would do this to me, Queenie! And with all people, him? The person you claim to be one of your closest friends? Was you going you Malachi's to help save him just a lie so you could go to his place to sleep with him? And don't think I'm not noticing that you're wearing his clothes right now. I can't believe you would do this. I thought you were better than this." Jason ranted and Queenie looked at him shocked.

"Jas—" Before Queenie could finish her sentence, Jason cut her off.

"Save it, Queenie. I just came here to tell you. I'm done." He snapped at her before leaving the diner.

  Queenie had tears streaming down her cheeks as she watched the Blossom boy walk out the door without another word. She didn't care that she was in a public place, she began to cry.

When Sweet Pea noticed this, he began to become angry with Jason, who was outside the diner on the phone with someone, getting ready to leave. Sweet Pea was about to get up and tell Jason off, maybe even kick his ass, but Queenie grabbed his arm and stopped him from doing so, "Sweet Pea, no." She demanded.

  Sweet Pea scoffed, "He hurt you. He literally just made you cry. After everything you've been through in the past twenty four hours, he shouldn't get to do that."

"Sweet Pea. Don't. Please." She pleaded and Sweet Pea finally agreed on not doing anything.

Once finally convincing the tall Serpent to leave, Cheryl, who was sitting at a booth with two of her little minions, got up and made her way over to Queenie's booth.

She took a seat next to Queenie, who was silently crying.

"How could you do that to my brother, Queenie? He loves you more than anything and you love him just as much. And you're carrying his baby for heaven's sake. Why would you cheat on him?" Cheryl told her.

Queenie shook her head, "I didn't cheat on him, I swear I didn't go back to Thornhill last night because something happened to me. The guy who beat Jason up, he did something..." Queenie trailed off as more tears fell down her cheeks.

"My God, Queenie, did he rape you?" Cheryl asked in a voice just above a whisper. She was completely shocked.

Queenie didn't say a word to the redhead, she only nodded her head and gave Cheryl a sad look.

Cheryl didn't waste any time with pulling the Serpent girl in for a tight and comforting hug, "Oh, my God, Queenie. I'm so so sorry. Jason had it all wrong. You need to tell him. He thinks you cheated on him when in reality, you were raped. You have to tell him." Cheryl sighed as she kept hugging Queenie.

Queenie pulled away for a moment and shook her head, "No, I can't!" Queenie protested.

"Why not?" Cheryl questioned, confused about why the Jones girl didn't want to tell her boyfriend.

"Because," Queenie said quietly, "Just please, can you keep this between us? Please?" Queenie begged and Cheryl sighed as she nodded her head.

"Fine," She replied, even though it was a total lie. No way would she keep this a secret from her brother.

••••••

  Later on that night, Queenie ended up being invited to the Wyrm to hang out with her friends. She entered the bar to see Mandy, Sweet Pea, and Joaquin all standing at one of the pool tables. She wondered where Fangs and Toni were, she hadn't seen them in a while. It was sad to say, but she actually missed them a lot.

"I still don't understand why you invite me to hang out with you guys. It's a bar and I'm...you know." Queenie said as she walked over to her friends.

"But you're still one of our best friends and the only places we ever hang out is the quarry and the Wyrm." Joaquin explained, "Plus, we heard about you and Jason breaking up from Sweet Pea."

Queenie groaned as she sent Sweet Pea a glare, "Are you kidding me, Sweet Pea? You told them?" She asked him annoyed.

"Mandy asked how her favorite couple was doing and it kinda slipped out." He argued defensively, "She can be scary."

"I second that." Joaquin added in.

  "Can't argue with that." Mandy smirked, feeling confident after Sweet Pea called her scary for some odd reason.

"And did anything else seem to 'slip out'?" She questioned, clearly referring to what happened to her just the night before.

"No, of course not! What kind of person do you think I am?" Sweet Pea scoffed. He couldn't believe Queenie would ask such a thing.

"Mhmm." Queenie hummed in response as she crossed her arms.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Mandy asked, growing extremely confused with the duo's bickering.

"Nothing!" Sweet Pea and Queenie shouted in unison.

"For some reason, I don't believe that," Joaquin said sarcastically, crossing her arms as he gave the duo a questioning look, "Do the two of you got something to say?" He questioned and Queenie and Sweet Pea quickly shook their heads in response.

"You know what? I'm going to get some air." Sweet Pea announced before heading out the exit door.

Sweet Pea made his way outside to see Jason Blossom making his way over. Sweet Pea couldn't help himself, he roughly grabbed Jason by the collar of his leather jacket and pinned him against the outside wall of the bar, "What the hell are you doing here, Blossom?" He questioned angrily.

"I'm here to talk to Queenie. I know what happened last night. My sister told me. I need to apologize. Please, just let me do that." Jason explained to him.

  Sweet Pea sighed as he let go of Jason and backed away from him. He dug his hand into his back pocket and pulled out his phone before he started to text Queenie.

'I need your help with something. Come outside?'