CRIMINAL, sweet pea

↳ part nine

PART NINE

★ ★ ★ ★

( sabrina p.o.v )

"YOU HAVE A STAGE. would you be open to me bringing in a karaoke machine?" betty asked toni. "for fp's retirement?" toni questioned back, cleaning glasses from the other side of the bar counter. betty and i sat on booth stools at the wythe wyrm, a serpent hang out place, sitting across from toni. i know sweet pea hangs out her a lot, but i hadn't seen him so far, still keeping my eye out for him. this is where betty pictured the perfect place for fp's retirement party that her and jughead had been planning together, inviting all his friends and serpents along to help celebrate his retirement, or something along the lines like that. "sure, why not" toni chuckled as she looked around at the old serpent hang out stop, placing the glass down in a rack that was placed on the counter top. "also, toni, one of the reasons i wanted to talk to you" betty started, looking around her as she leaned in closer to toni, so only she would be able to hear what she was gonna say. i, already knew of betty's plans to talk to her. "beyond the party planning, is i've been walking the razors edge since jughead joined the serpents" betty began explaining to toni, toni also learning in a bit closer, one eyebrow cocked up. zoning out for a second my mind went to sweet pea. with all the talk about betty and jughead i thought to myself that maybe one day i'd do the same or even something similar for sweetpea as betty was for jughead, one day. "and all i've been thinking is as soon as fp gets home, everything will get better, cause he'll be there to protect jughead and make sure he doesn't get hurt." betty continued explaining, toni chipping in. "yeah, i'm following you, i mean, with fp out of the picture—" toni started, betty's then to chip into the conversation. "that's my point. i do worry." betty took a breathe in. "so, i wanna keep an eye on jughead myself. make sure that as deep into these snake infested waters he goes, he doesn't do something that you know, puts him in danger." betty said to toni, putting more heart into this than she had lead on with me. "so, what, you wanna be a serpent?" toni questioned, a very small smirk was placed on her face at the thought of betty cooper being a serpent. i began listening in more, i payed more attention to the conversation, in case one day i need this information for myself. betty looked at toni for a bit, unsure of how to put her words. "let's say, serpent-adjacent" betty said, shrugging slightly, eyes taken off toni and awkwardly wondering around the bar. "but, yeah, a part of his world, this world" betty explained more, a slight smile had made its way up to her face at the thought of being part of jughead's life and being apart of his world and taking it on together. an old lady's chuckle began to pour out, indicating that she had been listening to our conversation, expressing her opinion. i jumped slightly at the unexpectence of her laugh, it creeping me out in a way. "shut it, byrdie" toni yelled to older lady sitting behind us, still light chuckling to herself. "sorry, sweet valley high" the lady spoke back with a cigarette faded voice. "if you wanna join the club, you gotta do the dance. the serpent dance" byrdie continued. both betty and i had turned around to face her, getting interested in the information she was giving out. storing it in my mind for later. "what serpent dance?" i asked her, leaning forward a little to her, her turning around. the question was on both betty and i's mind. "it's an outdated, sexist serpent tradition!" toni began to say, sounding a little mad. "tried to get it outlawed but misogyny does hard" toni explained more, calming down a little now. betty and i looked at her, obviously curiosity plastered all over our faces. "you don't wanna know" toni whispered. "yeah we do!" i expressed, chuckling lightly looking at toni, placing both elbows on the bar counter, showing i was interested. i could see betty turn and look at me, giving me a funny look. toni raising an eyebrow at me, a small smirk on her face. my face downed a little, pulling my head back and sitting up. i looked between them both. "what?" i in a stern voice. "nothing" toni giggled looking away, them both putting two and two together in their heads. "for betty" i exclaimed to toni, pointing towards betty. "ok" toni giggles again, still not believing me. betty joined in, turning around to look at the girl dancing around the pole gracefully. "i wanna know everything."