I’m in Love with a Girl I Hate - Riverdale
Summary: Y/n and Sweet Pea don’t get along, and the whole crew is about to find out why.
A/n: I just finished my first semester of grad school, and I’ve gotten an A on 2/3 of my classes this semester. So, here’s a little something to celebrate. I might turn this into a series?
Growing up on the Southside of Riverdale when you weren’t a serpent’s kid was a little strange. Even as a kid, you were aware of all the secrecy, all the things the other kids understood that you couldn’t. Being Toni’s cousin has its perks; though, and you weren’t completely out of the loop. When you were younger, in elementary school, your house was the go-to hang out spot because your parents were actually home to watch you and your friends. Even now, Toni and Fangs spent a ton of time at your place, especially on Tuesday nights when your dad made his famous taco bar spread, complete with beef and chicken, three types of cheese, sautéed veggies, and his homemade salsa and guacamole. Your mouth was already watering as you walked up to them both standing in front of Sweet Pea.
“Come on, man,” Fangs said to him. “Put your differences aside for one night and join us for dinner like you used to.”
“Fangs, I only ever went because my mom made me, and she’s not here to do that now. So, I’ll just see you at the Wyrm later.”
With that, Sweet Pea left, brushing your shoulder as he passed.
“Why do you even try anymore, Fangs?” you asked him. “Pea and I have never gotten along.”
“I don’t know why,” Fangs mumbled, opening his locker. “You two have more in common than you think.”
“That’s probably why.” Toni cut in. “Sweet Pea probably can’t stand that y/n can read him like a book.”
“Still,” Fangs said with a nod. “it would probably be good for him to have someone that understands him that well in his life.”
“Are you kidding me?” You asked. “We would drive each other insane.”
Toni and Fangs just looked at each other and smiled as you walked to your first class, English, in which you had a pop quiz. After class, Fangs followed you and Toni out of class, complaining.
“That pop quiz was so brutal,” he said as Sweet Pea fell into step next to him after leaving his class across the hall. “Like, how am I supposed to remember which of the main character’s family members wasn’t in the dream he had at the end of the first chapter?”
“His mom.” You and Sweet Pea answered at the same time.
“Okay. That was creepy,” Fangs said as you and Pea eyed one another.
“Glad to know I shouldn’t have a problem with that quiz when I have to take it later today.” Sweet Pea said stopping at his locker.
Toni and Fangs stopped on either side of him while you kept walking, leaving them with little more than a nod and a wave. Just before you were out of earshot, you overheard Sweet Pea warning Fangs about not asking him to join you for dinner at your house again, and you just shook your head. Fangs was right about you and Pea having some things in common, at least. You were both stubborn as hell, and you were pretty prideful too. That’s why, at the beginning of high school, when Sweet Pea had decided that he didn’t like you anymore, you never fought back. If he wasn’t going to give you the time of day, you weren’t going to give him any satisfaction by showing any emotion about it. After a while, it stopped hurting your ego anyway.
Sure, you and Sweet Pea both hung out with Fangs and Toni, and you interacted with each other when absolutely necessary, usually only to criticize one another, but you didn’t really know each other that well. That’s why you were so confused when he was waiting for you outside your class after the bell without Toni or Fangs flanking him. Honestly, you thought for a moment that he was waiting for someone else, but you were convinced otherwise when he reached out for your shoulder and turned you around as you walked past him.
“Hey, y/n, wait,” he said as you turned to face him.
“Oh? Do we actually talk to each other now?”
“Look, I’m just here to do you a favor,” Sweet Pea said, holding his hands up with his palms facing you.
“What could you possibly do for me?” you cut him off.
“If you would fucking let me finish a sentence for once, I could tell you,” he bit back.
You crossed your arms over your chest in response nodding at him to continue.
“Mantle said something at practice the other day about planning some big thing to ask you to the homecoming dance, and I know you hate shit like that. He’s in the rec room setting shit up now, so steer clear, I guess.”
“Oh, um, thanks, Sweet Pea,” you said rubbing the back of your neck. “That’s actually really nice.”
“Yeah. Whatever,” he said looking down at his feet.
You adjusted your back pack on your shoulder and headed straight for the rec room.
“Did you not listen to a thing I just said?” Sweet Pea called after you.
“I got this!” you shouted over your shoulder, not turning around to see him let out a huge sigh.
You marched into the rec room to see Reggie and some of his jock friends hanging a huge banner on the wall. You leaned on the doorframe and cleared your throat loudly, causing the boys to whip their heads around to look at you. Reggie tried to jump in front of the banner, barely even covering up your name.
“Y/n!” he shouted, “You’re supposed to be at lunch.”
“Yeah, I was going to go until someone told me that you were in here doing all this,” you said waving your hand at the banner.
“Doesn’t matter,” you said, walking fully into the rec room. “Look, Reggie, I really hate big displays like this.”
His face started to fall as you spoke, and his buddies let the end of the banner that hadn’t yet been taped to the wall slip.
“But,” you continued, “I would love to go to the homecoming dance with you.”
A smile spread across Reggie’s face, and you leaned against the back of the couch next to you. He closed the distance between the two of you, placing his hands on the back of the couch on either side of you. You could feel his breath on your cheeks as he leaned toward you.
You nodded, placing your right hand on his shoulder as you bit your lip before laying a soft kiss on his lips. Reggie smiled against your lips as he placed a hand on your hip and pulled you closer to him. You and Reggie had hooked up a few times at some parties, but you had never kissed each other sober let alone in a room full of his teammates. A couple of the guys let out hollers as he deepened the kiss and you grabbed at his hair with your fingers. From the doorway, you heard Toni let out an “aww” that caused you to pull away from Reggie. She stood leaning in the door way with Fangs and Sweet Pea behind her.
“Gross,” Sweet Pea said before turning and walking away toward the cafeteria.
You rolled your eyes at him as Toni and Fangs walked up to you. Fangs clapped Reggie on the shoulder and gave him a nod while Toni pulled you into a hug and squealed. You laughed as she gushed about how she was waiting for you and Reggie to get past the drunk hookup stage of your relationship. Reggie smiled and put his arm around your shoulder.
“I think we have enough time to dip and go to Pop’s for lunch since I don’t have to set up all this shit anymore,” Reggie said to you.
You nodded and waved at Fangs and Toni as you and Reggie walked out to the parking lot.
“Where’s y/n?” I asked as Toni and Fangs sat down at the lunch table.
“She and Reggie went to Pop’s instead,” Toni replied with a smile.
“He’s one lucky son of a bitch,” I said, causing Toni and Fangs to raise their eyebrows at me.
“I mean he’s lucky he got away with pulling something like that and y/n still saying she’d go to the dance with him. Don’t go imagining things that aren’t there, Fangs.”
“She would’ve said yes either way. They have been hooking up for a while now,” Toni said.
“Yeah, you’d know that if you didn’t boycott every activity involving y/n,” Fangs snapped.
“Like you really want the two of us arguing at a party,” I scoffed. “I just wouldn’t have pegged Reggie as y/n’s type, to be honest.”
“And what would you think y/n’s type is, Sweet Pea?” Toni asked.
“Tall, dark, and Serpent perhaps?” Fangs added.
I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my sandwich, shaking my head ‘no.
“Sure,” Toni said, “go ahead and avoid the question by stuffing your face.”
Toni and Fangs spent the rest of lunch pushing the issue, suggesting that I had some sort of secret feelings for y/n.
“Come on, Sweets,” Toni said, “Don’t you remember when we were like six and y/n broke her arm while we were climbing around the rocks by Sweet Water River?”
“Yeah. She slipped on a rock. So what?”
“So she didn’t shed a tear, and you cried the whole way to the hospital because, and I quote ‘My best friend’s arm is going to fall off,’” Fangs jumped in, whining as he mocked little Sweet Pea’s crying.
“And,” Toni added, “You carried her teddy bear around her for over a month until she got her cast off.”
“Then there was the time we had to act out ‘The Princess and the Frog’ in class, and you threw a full on fit because you thought you were going to have to kiss y/n,” Fangs said.
“That doesn’t sound like it helps prove your point,” I said with a smirk.
“You weren’t upset because you didn’t want to kiss her. You were upset because you wanted to save your first kiss with y/n until your wedding,” Toni reminded him.
“That definitely sounds like a lie,” I said.
“It’s not. You also punched Jimmy Smith in the gut in fourth grade because he told you y/n was too pretty for you.”
“Because no one is ‘too pretty’ for me,” I spat placing air quotes around the words “too pretty.”
“No one?” Fangs questioned.
“Okay, maybe Heidi Klum,” I mumbled.
Toni and Fangs continued to list off every childhood memory they could think of to prove their point that I, at some point in life, had feelings for y/n. There were still fifteen minutes left of lunch by the time I got up and walked out of the cafeteria, having heard enough. I went to my locker and grabbed the books I needed to do my homework, deciding I was just going to skip the rest of the day. The front doors to the school flew open just as I was about to push them, and y/n and Reggie came through laughing and carrying milkshakes. I slid to the side to keep from running right into y/n and knocking her milkshake to the ground.
“Oops. Sorry, Pea,” she said looking up at me and slipping through the door.
The way she looked up at me through her bangs had me reliving each story Fangs and Toni had just brought up before I remembered one of my own. The one where y/n looked up at me in exactly the same way after both our names had been drawn to play Seven Minutes in Heaven during our first high school party. “I’m sorry, Sweets. I- I can’t,” she had whispered. I stood in the middle of the room with everyone staring at me as I watched her walk out the door. That was the last night I could remember us being friends. I pushed past her and Reggie with a wave of my hand and stormed through the parking lot toward my bike.
“Did he look mad to you?” Reggie asked y/n.
“Honestly, when does he not?” she asked.
You and Reggie walked into the rec room hand in hand and sat on the couch next to Fangs. Toni and Cheryl sat together on the chair next to the couch, looking at something on Cheryl’s phone and laughing.
“Hey,” you said. “Did something happen at lunch? Sweet Pea looked kind of pissed when we passed him coming in from the parking lot.”
Toni and Fangs looked at one another with wide eyes.
“He left before free period? You don’t think we took it too far, do you?” Fangs asked Toni.
“I mean, anything is possible,” Toni shrugged.
“Took what too far?” Reggie asked, leaning forward and taking another sip of his milkshake.
Toni and Fangs looked at you, then at each other, and back a few times before they started muttering and speaking over one another. You, Cheryl, and Reggie just exchanged confused glances as you tried to decipher what they were saying. It proved to be of little use because all you could here were a series of ums and wells between long, quick sentences run together so haphazardly that it sounded like they were speaking another language.
“Wait,” Cheryl commanded. “Slow down and speak one at a time. TT, you start.”
“Well, um, Fangs and I were just giving Sweet Pea a hard time at lunch is all.”
“A hard time about what?” you asked, sighing and thinking you were pretty sure you already knew the answer.
“We, um, well, we may or may not have listed all the reasons we think he has feelings for y/n,” Fangs confessed.
Reggie choked on his milkshake and sat up straight with wide eyes. He continued to cough as you rubbed his back and shot Fangs a look.
“Exactly how many reasons are there?” Reggie asked between coughs.
“Well, we started with the time y/n broke her arm on the rocks by Sweet Water River,” Fangs said.
“Dude! We were six,” you replied.
“But he carried your teddy bear around for you for like a month!” Fangs defended, “Then we talked about the princess and the frog fiasco.”
“The what fiasco?” Reggie asked, causing you to turn to him and place your hand on his knee as you explained.
“I’m not exactly sure how they think that proves their point, though,” you said rolling your eyes.
“Well, there’s another detail you don’t know about, y/n,” Toni mumbled.
Your cousin looked down at her hands and picked at her nails. You looked over at Fangs with an eyebrow raised, but he was avoiding eye contact with you too. Toni spoke up after you leaned back in your seat and crossed your arms over your chest,
“The reason Sweet Pea was so upset about the thought of kissing you is because he wanted to save his first kiss with you until your wedding.”
“What the hell, T?” you asked, unable to hold back your laughter as you spoke, “What does that prove? We were in the first grade! That’s the most ridiculous-”
“Hold up,” Reggie cut in, “Sweet Pea said he was going to marry y/n?”
“Reggie, we were in the first grade. Kids talk about that shit all the time like they even know what it means,” you shot back.
“Sweet Pea?” he asked again.
“Yeah,” Fangs said, “then he swore me and Toni to secrecy.”
“I’m not saying Sweet Pea and I are close or anything. Really, we just play basketball together, but I know for a fact marriage is one thing the dude takes seriously.”
“And how would you know that?” you asked.
“Well, we have this tradition for initiating new team members where we get them really drunk and ask a bunch of super personal, embarrassing questions.”
“If Pea was drunk, you can’t trust a word he said,” you, Toni, and Fangs said in unison.
“That’s the thing,” Reggie continued, “Sweet Pea was the only new guy who wasn’t drunk. He told us all it should’ve been enough that he came to the initiation bull shit in the first place considering there was quote “no way in hell” it was tougher then his Serpent initiation had been.”
“Sounds about right,” Fangs muttered.
“Anyway, he about beat the shit out of Chad when he said the worst thing he ever did was propose to his girlfriend in front of all her friends as part of a prank. I’m talking slammed the dude against the wall and went straight for his neck while screaming about how that’s one thing a man should never joke about. When we finally pried Sweet Pea off him all he said was that playing with someone else’s emotions like that wasn’t cool, that it wasn’t okay to build up a person’s trust like that and then embarrass them in front of all their friends.”
The room fell silent, and somehow you knew you were the only one who could break it.
“I don’t think that has anything to do with me, though. Sweet Pea and I haven’t been friends for like two and a half years, way before we even came to Riverdale High,” you said. “And even if he did have a crush on me in the first grade, I don’t think he would’ve held onto that until now. Trust me, he hates me now.”
“But do you hate him?” Cheryl asked.
“That’s a good question,” Reggie said turning to you, “I know you pretty well, and from what I’m hearing, it sounds like you and Sweet Pea have a long history with each other.”
“We grew up in the same place. My mom used to watch all the kids in the neighborhood.”
“He’s right, y/n,” Toni said. “You’re not the kind of person to just give up on someone. It’s like one day you and Sweet Pea were super close, and the next, it was like you two barely knew each other.”
“You’ll have to ask him about that. I just went along with it, I guess.”
“Well, because he was mad at me, and I didn’t know how to make him not be mad anymore,” you admitted.
“Do you know why he was mad at you?”
“No,” you said, thinking about the last time you really talked to Sweet Pea. There was a sense of guilt you weren’t quite able to place.
“When did you stop being friends?” Reggie asked.
“It was like the beginning of freshman year,” you said, “right after- Oh shit.”
“Right after our first high school party. Toni and Fangs couldn’t go, so I begged Sweet Pea to come with me, and I um, I kind of left him there.”
Your voice started to trail off at the end of the sentence as you finally remembered exactly what had happened that night.
“Wait. Shit. I remember that,” Fangs said. “He came to my house after you left. He was pissed.”
“I’d be pissed too,” you admitted, “if my best friend left me at a party where I barely knew anyone because she was too afraid to tell me she had accidentally gotten really drunk.”
“You accidentally got drunk?” Reggie asked.
“Oh, shut up! It was my first party ever. I had no idea what I was doing, and I got drunk. Then, I got embarrassed about being drunk, and my anxiety made me feel like I was definitely going to puke, so I ran outside. Some junior girls outside said that the best way to avoid throwing up was to keep drinking, and I think I blacked out. God, I probably seemed like a total bitch the next day because I had no idea what happened.”
You put your empty milkshake cup on the table in font of you and laid your head on your knees, wrapping you arms around it to try and hide from the room full of people who were looking at you. When you finally looked up again a couple minutes later, Fangs was biting at his nails.
“Why are you doing that?” you asked him, knowing it was something he did only when he was really nervous or uncomfortable.
“You still don’t have the whole story, y/n,” he said. “Sweet Pea came to me house fuming because you had ditched him right after Jessica pulled both your names to play Seven Minutes in Heaven.”
Your face quickly turned bright red as the memory hit you like a ton of bricks.
“Okay, now even I’m convinced that Sweet Pea has feelings for y/n,” Reggie said sadly, looking you in the eye, “The poor dude probably thought you left because you didn’t want to kiss him.”
“That’s exactly what he thought,” a voice called from the doorway to the rec room.
It was Sweet Pea’s. Everyone slowly turned their head to look at him, all their cheeks blushing in either embarrassment or nervousness. You and Sweet Pea locked eyes over Reggie’s head, and your started to water. You were feeling a rush of guilt, embarrassment, apology, and pain. The mix of emotions bubbled up in your chest and started to push the air our of your throat. Legs shaking, you stood up and made your way across the room, stopping in front of Sweet Pea and looking up at him.
“I- I’m sorry, Sweets,” you whispered choking on your breath, “I can’t.”
Tears started pouring down your cheeks as your whole body started to jitter. You crossed your arms over your stomach as you started wheezing. The sound of your lungs struggling to suck in air in short bursts overwhelmed the room, and you suddenly realized that everyone was staring at you with concern. Without thinking, you bolted from the rec room, ran across the hall, and locked yourself in a dark, empty classroom. As you slid down with your back against the door and curled into yourself, you heard Toni call out, “Shit! She’s having an anxiety attack.”
The sounds of your friends shuffling across the hall covered the click of the second door to the classroom closing a few feet to your left after Sweet Pea had slipped inside. He waved them away through the window before sitting cross legged on the floor in front of you. Outside the door, Toni, Cheryl, Fangs, and Reggie walked back into the rec room. Once he sat back down on the couch, Reggie pulled out his phone to text Sweet Pea. The message read: Go for it. I won’t be mad.
My phone buzzed just as I took it out of my pocket. I glanced at a message from Reggie on the lit-up screen and rolled my eyes. I clicked the lock button and set it down beside me as I reached out for y/n. With a low chuckle, I tapped my knuckles on her shin as if I were knocking on a door. She pulled her feet toward her and folded her legs like mine, looking up at me and wiping her eyes. I scooted toward her and placed my hands on her knees; her body was still shaking.
“Shhh,” I whispered, “You have more of a reason to be mad at me than I do to be mad at you.”
“I’m such a,” she choked out, “such a bitch.”
“No, you’re not,” I whispered, shifting to sit next to her and pull her into my chest. “You didn’t know what happened, and instead of talking to you about it, I’ve spent the past two years being mad at you, being mean to you.”
“But I hurt you,” y/n cried into my chest, her shaking beginning to subside as I ran my hand up and down her arm and rocked us back and forth. “I was a shitty friend, and I hurt you. And I didn’t even know it.”
“You didn’t hurt me any more than I hurt myself by not saying anything,” I said honestly. “I’m sorry, y/n. I should’ve just talked to you instead of throwing our entire friendship away.”
“I would’ve done the same thing. Actually, I kind of did. I never talked to you either. I just assumed you hated me.”
“I’ve never hated you, y/n,” I said feeling a heat rise in my chest. If I could’ve stepped out of my body and kicked my own ass in that moment, I would have. “I was just-“
“Yeah, I was hurt, and I didn’t handle it well. I’m really sorry. Honestly, it’s probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, and that’s saying something because I shot an arrow through Toni’s tent last week just for shits and gigs.”
Y/n sat up and wiped her eyes as he laughed at me. I moved my arms from around her and folded my hands in my lap.
“It’s fine. We can talk about it more later if you want, but I think you should go tell the rest of your friends that everything is ok.”
Y/n paused for a second and looked down at her hands.
“They’re still,” she whispered. “How did you?”
“You used to have anxiety attacks all the time when we were kids. If I could get you talking through it, they usually ended pretty fast.”
“I did? I don’t remember.”
“Yeah, you did,” I nodded. “Now go let everyone else know you’re good.”
I watched as y/n walked into the rec room, stopping in the middle of the hallway to wipe her eyes one last time. She walked quietly into the room and sat down next to Reggie, placing her head on his shoulder. His gaze snapped to me as I turned to leave.
“Where are you going?” he asked as the bell rang.
“It’s the end of free period,” I said, “I’m going home.”
“I forgot I was going to have a pop quiz in English today. I told Mr. Thomas I had a doctor’s appointment and asked if I could take it early and still get credit.”
“I heard Fangs loud ass telling all my secrets and was gonna kick his ass,” I shrugged. “Timing, I guess.”
“Are you still gonna-” Fangs started, but Reggie interrupted him.
“Yes, it does,” Reggie said, getting up off the couch next to y/n.
I started walking away, hoping Reggie would just leave it, but he jogged in front of me and cut me off before I could turn the corner. I could see everyone else spilling out of the rec room and weaving through the sea of students trying to get to their next class. Fangs craned his neck above the crowd, trying to focus in on the conversation Reggie and I were having.
“I told you I wouldn’t be mad,” Reggie said.
“I know,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
“So you did read my text.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said right as the warning bell rang and the halls cleared out again, allowing Toni, Cheryl, Fangs, and y/n to come up behind Reggie.
When he looked over his shoulder at them, I took the opportunity to step out of his blockade and start heading for the door again.
“You and y/n clearly have feelings for one another, and I’m not going to be the one that gets in the way of that,” Reggie called after me.
“You already asked her to homecoming, bro. She likes you. Have fun,” I called back before walking out the front door of the school.
I heard running behind me as I approached my bike. Turning, ready to yell in Reggie’s face to back off, I locked eyes with a much smaller figure.
“You didn’t deny it,” y/n said, stepping toward me.
