fierce ↠ sweet pea [1] [✔]

|| EIGHTEEN ||

"Shh, you're such a baby!" Lauryn complained as she was trying to dab a wet cloth onto her boyfriend's face. He kept grunting and frowning in irritation as the alcohol touched his skin, trying to dodge her.

"I'll be fine, Angel Face," he insisted, despite the ache on the left side of his face. "I think Andrews learned some kind of lesson tonight."

"I think he did," Lauryn continued cleaning him up as gently as she could. "But I think you did last night, too."

"What did I learn?" he pulled away from her grasp, so she held one of his cheeks in her palm so he wouldn't escape out of stubbornness. 

"Not to bring a knife to a gunfight," she teased him, but he rolled his eyes to reject the joke. "I was kidding, don't be like that. Why do you do such crazy shit, huh?"

He took a second, but then merely smiled, looking cleanly into her glimmering pupils. "Because I'm in love with you, Lauryn Fogarty."

Sweet Pea watched the way her eyes lit up, and she grinned, kissing him. Confidently, he repeated himself. "I love you. I have for ages."

She chuckled in amazement, her heart melting inside of her chest. "I love you, too."

"I can't believe I had the guts to say that to you."

"Please," she differed, continuing to aid him but this time with a smile she couldn't extinguish, staying sat on his lap. "You have the guts for anything."

"Except..."

"Except what?"

"I know you hate getting into stuff about your past. But-"

She sighed knowingly. "You wanna know about my parents?"

"Well, yeah. You know about mine but you've always put off telling me about yours."

"Well," Lauryn began amongst an exhalation. "You know that Fangs and I share a dad, we both never really knew about his mom, and I don't really remember what happened to her, but we know that mine didn't like Fangs, and I still can't figure out why she made such a fuss out of him.  My dad was rarely home, and he was prone to affairs."

"I had no idea," Sweet Pea looked astonished. "How've you managed to hide that from me for like eight years?"

His girl shrugged. "I never really felt like there was a need to talk about it."

"Why don't we go to the registry office and look up Fangs' mom?"

"We tried, Katherine Fogarty is listed but there's nothing about his mom," Lauryn said gloomily. "I don't like talking about it, especially not to Fangs. My mom and me are the reason he lost his, and he knows, but I'm scared that one day he'll hate me."

"Baby, that's not your fault," Sweet Pea pushed her wet hair back, his fingers then tracing over her collarbones. "He can't hate you. He loves you to literal death."

Lauryn felt the urge to cry, tears burning in her eyes. He noticed instantly, taking the cloth out of her hand and throwing it onto the coffee table.

"Hey," Sweet Pea soothed, pulling her down so he could cradle her properly. "Don't cry. Is something wrong?"

"No, everything's fine," she lied, trying her hardest to stop herself.

Nothing was fine, and she knew that.

There was a loud bang on the trailer door, making Lauryn jump up. Sweet Pea gave her a reassuring nod before going to answer the door. As soon as he pulled down the door handle, the sheriff burst through the door, he and some other officers handcuffing the Serpents.