The Last Blue Rose// Reggie Mantle (1)

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Hi."

Caia jumped as she heard a voice come from behind her. She turned to see Reggie holding a bouquet of flowers and smiling cheekily. "Reggie!" She exclaimed, taking in the sight of the flowers. "What's all this?"

Reggie held them out to Caia. "There for you. I didn't have the chance to see you over the weekend, so this is my apology." Caia gathered the flowers into her arms. She stuck her nose in the middle of the bunch and took a deep breath in. She smiled at the heavenly arouma.

"Thank you, Reggie." She stood on her tip toes and landed a small kiss on Reggie's cheek.

"However, we do have to talk. Moose told me you were at the bar he and Archie went to to find the serpents that jumped him." Caia panicked. What was she supposed to say to that?

"Uh," Caia cleared her throat nervously. "My uncle works there. I was waiting for him to get off shift."

Reggie didn't seem fully convinced. "Moose said you seemed drunk, though."

Caia shook her head. "No, I wasn't."

"Alright," Reggie replied. "I believe you." Caia felt bad. She hated lying to Reggie, but she really didn't want to tell him the truth. Not before she told people who deserved to know, anyway.

She had decided on the day of the baby shower that she was going to tell Archie about her dad. The serpant part, anyway.

He deserved to know. She hadn't planned on him finding her the way she was on that Saturday. Truthfully, she hadn't expected anyone to find her like that.

As she entered the student lounge, her stomach dropped. All her friends were assembled, once again without her. She only caught the tail end of their conversation. "And don't worry, Roni, I can take care of myself," Archie stated.

"Famous last words, Archiekins," Veronica replied, sticking a strawberry into her mouth.

Caia's presence was finally realized as she cleared her throat. Everyone turned their eyes towards her. Betty was the first one to speak up. "Hey, Caia. Where were you the other day?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry I missed Polly's baby shower. I got kind of caught up in something." Her eyes flitted to Archie. Betty released Caia.

"Oh, it's totally fine. You probably had a lot going on." Betty smiled in understanding.

Archie snorted. Caia turned her gaze back to him, afraid he was going to share something she didn't want to be shared. "Um, do you mind if I borrow Archie for a second?" Caia questioned.

Everyone shook their heads. "Not at all," Veronica replied. Archie stood up, somewhat reluctantly and the pair trudged over to the corner of the room.

"What do you want, Caia?" Archie asked. There was a harshness in his tone. He sounded mad.

Caia bit her lip as she met Archie's gaze. "I owe you and explanation."

Archie scoffed. "Understatement of the year."

"Um, so the reason I was at the bar was because, obviously, I needed a drink. Or a few."

"You could've done that anywhere else. Why in the world did have to be in a place where the people who beat you up hang out?" He questioned accusingly.

Caia sighed and closed her eyes. "Yeah. There's an explanation for that, too."

Archie crossed his arms, waiting for Caia to continue. "You know how Jughead's dad is a serpent?" Archie nodded. "Well, my dad is too." She squeezed her eyes shut in a grimace and waited for Archie to start yelling. But he never did. She slowly opened one eye to see Archie still staring down at her.

It took a little while for it to all sink in. "Caia, is that why I never went to your house when I was a kid?" Caia nodded. It was part of the reason, at least.

She looked around her to make sure no one was listening. "Just don't tell anyone, alright? Especially not Reggie." She crossed her arms over her chest.

Archie nodded. "Okay, Caia. But they're going to find out soon enough."

Caia sighed. "Yeah, I know."

*

It was a few days later that Caia's world was rocked from side to side, like a ship tossing in the waves of a storm. The one reliable thing she had, something that had been with her since the beginning of the summer, was stripped from right under her nose. And there was nothing she could have done to stop it.

She was on her way to science, her eyes glued to the tiny glowing screen placed in her hands. As she walked past the janitors closet, she heard very suspicious sounds coming from inside. She rolled her eyes. Couples who made out in the janitor's closet were literally so gross.

She was about to keep on walking when she heard a familiar sounding voice through the door. "Please don't tell my girlfriend about this."

Caia's heart stopped. That couldn't- he would never-

Another voice perked up. "Can do, babe." It was Tina. Caia's heart was now pounding out of her chest. She didn't want it to be him, but there was a feeling deep down inside of her that it was him.

Her hand slowly reached for the door handle. She half hoped it was locked, but as the handle began to turn, she knew there was no going back now. She slowly swung the door open.

Her gut had been right. There was Reggie and Tina, in the middle of a kiss.

She shut her eyes tight, hoping it was all just a dream. She heard the sound of people scrambling to her feet.

"Caia-" Reggie started, stepping near Caia. The Sinclair girl back away, not wanting anything to do with Reggie at this point.

She felt tears leaking out of her eyes. "How could you Reggie? We haven't even been dating for that long!" Reggie's eyes filled with remorse as he saw what his actions had done to Caia. He tried to step towards her again. She pushed him away. "Don't come near me!" She exclaimed, causing him to back away. "And if you didn't already get this- we're over." She turned around and stormed away.

The tears were now rolling down her cheeks. She hoped no one saw her. She made her way to the front of the school and pushed open the doors. As soon as she was outside, she started sprinting home.

She got home and unlocked the front door, her vision blurry with tears. Her father wasn't home, which was good because there was no way she could have dealt with him too. She dropped her bag by the stairs and stumbled into the dining room. She spotted the vase of flowers sitting in the middle of the table and her tears became tears of fury.

She grabbed the bunch of flowers from the vase, almost crushing them in her hands. She took them into the kitchen, where she opened the junk drawer and pulled put a pair of scissors. She took the scissors and violently attacked the flowers, detaching the blooms from the stems. She chucked the stems in the trash and crumpled to the floor, sobbing. She sat there until she fell asleep.

Caia woke up a few hours later, the room left exactly the way it had been when she fell asleep. Her father hadn't come home yet, which probably meant he wasn't going to for a few days. It happened every once in a while. He'd dissapear and then show up a few days later with a different haircut and an expensive bottle of whiskey.

Caia slowly dragged herself to her feet. She shuffled into the living room, where she grabbed her phone from where it hand landed on top of her bag. As the screen lit up, she saw she had 4 missed calls from Betty, 4 from Veronica, 2 from Archie, and one from Jughead. She wondered if they had seen or heard about what had happened. However, at the bottom of the screen, Caia about liked at what she saw. She had 27 missed calls from Reggie and over 50 text messages. She ignored all of them.

She didn't really feel like talking to anyone at this point.