After Hours (Sweet Pea)

4.

Walking the same path back as the way Fangs and I came from seemed familiar and I found myself starting to familiarize myself with the general area.

I knew how to get to the quarry, thanks to Maverick. The drive-in as well as Pop's still seemed a bit foggy in my mind, though.

"The quarry is so much fun, Dallas. You'll love it." Fangs smiled at me.

I smiled back but the scoff that escaped Sweet Pea didn't go unnoticed by me.

This guy is infuriating.

"Good thing I came prepared." I chuckled, motioning to my bathing suit.

"Should've just kept it at that." I heard Sweet Pea mutter.

Fangs smacked him upside the head. "Dude." He said, almost in a scolding manner.

Sweet Pea rolled his eyes, a small smile creeping onto his lips.

I laughed, "Only in your wildest dreams."

The screams and sounds of water splashing everywhere got louder as we approached the quarry.

There was a steep incline that we had to make our way down on to finally get to the water and as Sweet Pea and Fangs jogged down, I struggled with my flip flops.

Damn my misuse of the wrong foot apparel.

I cursed to myself and sheepishly took Fangs' hand as he came back over and helped me down. "Thanks," I mumbled, ducking my head to hide the blush that crept onto my face.

He smiled proudly to himself. "No problem. Now, let's go!"

He tugged me along, trying to catch up with Sweet Pea as he was now just an unrecognizable figure up ahead.

We walked by some kids in the water and someone laying down on towels. I heard some wolf whistles but chose to ignore them as we kept walking along.

"Why are we walking so far? Everyone seems to be over there." I turned towards Fangs.

"Yeah, Serpents go more downstream. The current is better and it's more private and secluded. You can't tell anyone, though, it's our secret spot." He winked.

I chuckled and nodded, "I promise."

We finally caught up to Sweet Pea as he started cutting through some trees and I found myself even more confused.

I thought we were swimming. Why are we going through the forest?

As if on cue, the trees revealed a clearing where a river cut through the land. The current was constant and moved over jagged rocks.

There was a mini waterfall up against a cliff, no higher than 10 feet.

Sweet Pea walked over to some boys sitting on cheap lawn chairs. I noticed Kevin, Jughead, and Archie among them.

Veronica and Betty were in the water, screeching and throwing water at each other. A girl with pink hair wasn't far from them as she floated peacefully in the water and a redheaded girl floated next to her. They seemed to be having a conversation.

Fangs led me to the boys and Jughead immediately stood up, coming over to me. "Dallas, I am so sorry about what happened last night. Truly. I was on my way back when everything happened and I just got caught in the crowd."

"It's fine, Jughead. Sweet Pea helped me out." I looked over at Sweet Pea but he averted his gaze elsewhere.

I noticed Jughead immediately stiffen up. "How nice of him, huh?" He said through gritted teeth, though he wasn't even looking at me. Instead, his eyes were only on the back of Sweet Pea's head as he walked over to a cooler and pulled out a beer.