Poison | Jughead Jones

Chapter twenty three

Periwinkle pink

The group had huddled into the construction hut, chucking their hard hats away and each grabbing something to drink as the day wound down. Bella and Jughead stood off to one side, in close proxemics due to the confined cabin space, and whispered crude jokes to one another.

Archie watched smugly as Bella rested on one of the cabinets and laughed into Jugheads shoulder, an almost invisible blush sweeping at her cheeks. The moment was rudely interrupted by a hallow shout and an array of bangs from outside.

The group hurried out, Jughead, keeping a very capable in protecting herself Bella, behind him. The girl couldn't see who they were, but two men had moose pinned to the ground with a crowbar in hand. Jughead and Bella glanced at each other as Archie helped the disgruntled jock up.

The two intruders had sprinted it as soon as back up called, the fear of prejudice not leaving with them. Bella knew who would be blamed, and a pit of anger bubbled up in her stomach.

"Who did this to you?" Archie asked as the identity was lost in the mayhem. The boy furrowed his eyebrows and glanced back at the now vacant construction sight, unable to answer such a direct question.

"I don't know."

*****

With the most recent revelation of the thugs having to be serpents spouting from the redheads lips, Bella had stormed off. She had helped the boy on countless occasions, the serpents were even the foundation for the town they had today. Yet still any chance the northsiders got, the serpents were mauled.

No one would strike a cobra out of pure entertainment, so Bella was confused as to why people would attack the serpents with no evidence.
She turned her phone on silent the following day, as the weekend thrived she took it as a chance to distance her way back into the Southside.

She sat on a bar stool at the Whyte worm, with Toni Topaz playing with her hair and trying to convince her to dye it back to the infamous blue shade jessebelle had washed out years ago. Her fingers traced the sticky bar surface and painted delicate art work amidst the dirt.

She didn't notice when three out of place Northsiders strolled into the bar with a serpent, nor did she see her phone frantically buzzing with a picture of jugheads face blaring on her screen.

"All I'm saying is, blue. Bella, bluuee." Toni whined as she twirled some of her friends hair around her finger. Bella rolled her eyes shaking her head slightly as she knocked back another drink.

"Don't you think if I dyed my hair, and thats a big fat if, that it should be periwinkle. you know, because thats where the P comes from..." bella drawled on with a slanted brow, eyeing the suddenly annoyed serpent sitting beside her.

"No." Toni declared with a sharp pout, grasping the ends of her hair and shaking it vigorously in bellas face.

"I'm pink Pea we both can't be..." Toni bickered, unamused by the humorous expression dancing on Bellas skin. "Periwinkle is lavender, you moron. Google it." Pea laughed sarcastically, her low chuckle shuddering underneath a sudden brawl happening behind her. The girls quickly jumped from their stools to catch what was going on, and pea's blood ran cold.

"Aren't they your..." Toni whispered as she eyed the redheaded boy pushing back a serpent with as much resentment as he could.

"Freaking hell." Pea muttered, shoving her empty glass in her friends hand before darting toward the scene.

"Do you fellas want to calm down, a bar really isn't a place for a brawl." Bella called out, almost immediately silencing the air around them. Archie froze, eyes glued to the girl who wore a scruffy black jacket and a pissed off expression.

It had suddenly settled into Archies stomach that his friend was a serpent, and it took seeing her, in what he could only assume as her natural habitat, for it to register. Kevin stood there silently, eyeing his semi boyfriend in disbelief and just soaking in all the drama radiating from the room.

"If it isn't little princess poison. Come to the pretty boys rescue?" Spike, the provoked gang member, yelled. Bella rolled her eyes, her hands outstretched in between the two to form a barrier.

"You're going to stand there and lecture me on my actions? When, you're acting like a kid in middle school jacked up on grape soda. At least you have a name to match your attitude, spike." She hollered back, turning to face him with anger bubbling in her eyes. Archie allowed the girl to cover him through his startled mind, dazed at the ordeal hanging loosely in the air.

"You want to shut your mouth little missy, before I shut it for you." The serpent retorted, balling his hands into fists and attempting to square off to the smaller girl. She chuckled humorously, beckoning the man to come closer with a simple movement of her index finger.

"Thats enough, both of you!" A new voice shouted into the tense air, as the leader came strolling down the staircase. The room fell quiet once again, and Bella scuffed her feet on the ground in annoyance.

He always came to stop her fights, yet the other kids could run wild. FP Jones stepped into the foggy light, dread filling his stomach as soon as he clocked the red hair and the preppy boy from the north side.

"Ill take care of this." He declared to the eager followers, yet his finite words forced people to scurry back into the shadows of the bar.