sᴄᴏʀᴘɪᴏ
CHPT NO ①⑤
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m r a n d m r s p r i c e
"Picking a girl up for a fancy party on a bike is hardly gentlemanly."
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FANGS HAD HIS ENTIRE GREETING PLANNED OUT WHEN HE HAD KNOCKED ON THE PRICE'S FRONT DOOR but when the door opened and he found himself face to face with Eddie he suddenly couldn't remember a single word in the English vocabulary. All he did was stare at her, his eyes slightly wide, even when she quirked her brow at his silence. He had thought she looked good through the kitchen window but now, this close, he was rendered completely speechless.
So Eddie greeted him, "Don't take this the wrong way but I had no idea that this was hiding underneath all of the plaid and leather."
Her voice seemed to pull him from whatever vortex he had gotten stuck in and he let out a low chuckle at her words, stating, "I'm not gonna lie I was pretty surprised too."
She smiled when he held his arm out and she linked hers with it, allowing him to guide her outside and to the truck waiting at the curb. She mused, "I thought for sure you were gonna show up on your bike. It's why I didn't wear heels."
His cheeks pinked up for a moment as he pulled the passenger side door open and let her climb in. He shut the door and leaned into the open window, and with as much confidence as he could muster he repeated Toni's words from earlier with a few changes, "Picking a girl up for a fancy party on a bike is hardly gentlemanly."
"Really? Because I was kind of looking forward to it." Eddie told him, the corners of her lips turning up into a small smile as Fangs' eyes flickered over to hers in surprise.
"Really?" He asked her.
"I have to admit that the bike is kind of growing on me." She stated.
HAH. Take that Toni.
And so he admitted, "Well... next time I won't listen to Toni."
Her laugh floated out of the car, airy and raspy in texture as Fangs jogged around the front of the truck and got in behind the wheel. He turned the keys in the ignition and the truck sprang to life with a loud rumble that rivaled that of his bike, but he didn't pull away from the curb just yet. Instead he rested one forearm against the back of the seat between them, fingers dangerously close to brushing against the bare skin of her shoulder and turned slightly in his seat to face Eddie, who was watching him curiously.
He knew he shouldn't have, not once did Eddie give any sort of inkling that this was anything close to a date and things with Joey were still so fresh, but Fangs couldn't resist reaching out and grasping gently onto a strand of her dark hair, brushing it out of her face and behind her ear. With her errant strand of hair back in place Fangs' fingers brushed against her jawline, and then down her neck where they skidded across her shoulder and then finally he dropped his hand, letting it hang off of the back of the truck seat.
He noted the fact that her arms had broken out in goosebumps which made him smile as he broke the silence in the truck to tell her, "I mean to say this earlier but you kind of caught me off guard... you look really beautiful Eddie."
Her cheeks had flushed a deep scarlet as she averted her eyes to her hands in her lap, "Thank you."
His fingers inadvertently brushed against the edge of her shoulder as he straightened up and reached for the gear shift and Eddie hoped he didn't notice her jump like his fingers had been a jolt of electricity against her skin. He had.
The drive to the party was silent, Eddie would give him directions here and there but the two opted to share a comfortable silence at all other times. It wasn't until he had circled the lot twice and pulled the truck into an empty spot so far in the back that it wasn't even a part of the parking lot that Fangs spoke. He had noticed the way she kept fiddling with her cell phone in her lap, and then he noticed her lack of a bag so he asked her, "You want me to stick that in my pocket?"
Her dark eyes met his, "Would you? I forgot my bag on the kitchen table and picked the one dress without pockets."
He chuckled and nodded, pulling her cell phone from her hands and sliding it with ease into the pocket of his dress pants with his own phone. He then hopped out of the vehicle and jogged around to her side, meeting her there just as she opened the door for herself, and he held out his arm for her. She placed her hand delicately on his forearm as she climbed out of the truck and then allowed him to link their arms together again before he guided her to the front doors of the local hall, weaving in and out and around all of the parked cars.
When they arrived at the doors, after climbing the six front steps, they stopped and Eddie gave her name to the man standing next to the door with a clip board in his hands, "Eddie Price."
His eyes scanned the paper in front of him before he stated, "Edina Price and guest, have a good night."
As they stepped inside the hall Fangs asked her, a hint of amusement peeking through his words, "Edina?"
She shot him a smile and reached out to pinch his forearm gently, "Shut up, Fangs."
A laugh bubbled out of his mouth but he fell into silence when a thin brunette who bore a striking resemblance to the one on his own arm approached them with a tall, bald man following behind her. The woman wore a wide smile on her crimson painted lips and Eddie leaned closer to Fangs and apologized quietly, "That would be the hippie freaks who raised me, I'm truly very sorry for whatever is about to happen as I'm sure that it will be most embarrassing for all parties."
He almost snorted.
Eddie was pulled into a tight hug, but Fangs noted the fact that she made sure not to be pulled from his arm, and when she was released she took a step back toward him, finding comfort in a place that made them both equally as uncomfortable. She did however smile at her mother as she said, "We were beginning to think you decided to stay home."
"Don't think I didn't think about it. Several times. In fact, I'm even thinking about it right now." Eddie stated, and her father let out a commanding laugh from behind her mother.
He reached out and patted her shoulder, telling her, "Stay for an hour and then you can leave."
"Robert!" Her mother chastised.
But it was too late, the idea had already been planted in her head and Eddie grinned over at him, "Deal."
Fangs supposed that up until now he had been lucky that he had been on the outside looking in because as soon as the word left Eddie's mouth her parents turned to her date, him, expectantly. He cleared his throat and slipped his arm out from Eddie's grasp, holding it out as he introduced himself, "Mr. and Mrs. Price, it's nice to meet you."
Her mother shook her head and with a warm smile and a rather firm handshake for someone so delicate looking she told him, "Oh no, sweetheart it's Krishna and Robert, please."
Her father on the other hand had a relaxed handshake, much gentler than that of his wife's which Fangs found unnerving. Fathers were supposed to be the tough ones, and here was this man, towering over him by several inches with broad shoulders contained by an expensive suit, who by all standards certainly looked the part of terrifyingly intimidating father. But his demeanor was so soft, his dark eyes so gentle and a lively smile that gave him a youthful appearance said otherwise. It threw the teenage boy for a loop.
Fangs had purposely offered up a one sided introduction, he knew if he introduced himself, the boy their daughter was spending time with, as Fangs he would probably be sent right back out the door that they had only walked through minutes before. With a name like that it wouldn't take very long for them to piece it together and realize that he was a Serpent and that nervous pit in his stomach was growing now.
Eddie seemed to notice his inner turmoil but she only made it worse when she introduced him, even going so far as to say, "This is Fangs, we go to school together. He used to go to Southside High."
He braced for it; the realization that would slowly creep onto their faces and the anger that would swell up in her father's features, the fear that would fill her mother's eyes. He waited for it and yet it never came.
Krishna smiled at him and, to Fangs' clear surprise, she said, "Oh, that must have been a difficult transition but I think it's great that you're all being given the same opportunities education wise now. In my opinion there never should have been such a striking difference between the two schools and it was a great disservice to you kids that there was."
"You'll have to excuse her, she gets a bit... passionate about the state of education in Riverdale." Robert told Fangs and Krishna rolled her eyes at her husband, even going so far as to reach out and pinch his side. Robert shot a warm smile in Fangs' direction and said, "It's nice to meet you son."
And Fangs hated himself just a little for jumping the gun and being so judgemental.
Eddie slipped her arm back under his and she grasped onto his forearm, telling her parents, "Alright, well we're gonna go... do whatever teenagers are supposed to do at stuffy work parties."
"Have fun." Krishna told them.
Eddie's face went bright red when her father stated, "If a guy in a grey suit tries to sell you any drugs say no, he sells awful shit."
As they headed away from her parents Eddie told Fangs, "Now you know why I never bring friends home."
A chuckle escaped his lips and he told her, "I like them, they seem really nice."
"I cannot say the same about the rest of the people here." Eddie warned him, and when a raven-haired girl came to a screeching halt in front of them with a redheaded boy on her arm Eddie had to keep herself from groaning out loud.
"Eddie!" She exclaimed, tightening her grip on Archie's arm as she asked, "My mom said you'd be here. You know Archie, right?"
They had only been going to school together since pre-school so yeah, it was safe to say that she and Archie Andrews knew each other. Of course, Eddie could count on one hand, less than if she really thought about it, the amount of times they had a single conversation in all those years but they did know each other enough to nod and smile, maybe even offer a hello or polite small talk if they ever ran into each other but that was it.
"Yeah, we go way back." Archie joked, a soft smile on his face and Veronica was clearly pleased with this fact, which was something that had, admittedly, caught Eddie off guard. Most girls didn't like the idea that their boyfriends had known other girls before them, even if they were just acquaintances who had grown up together. Still, she didn't question it because truthfully she didn't care.
Veronica, insisting on a pushing a conversation on seeing as the four of them were the only teenagers at the whole party, set her eyes on Fangs and she asked, "Fangs, right?"
He nodded his head, "Yeah."
She smiled, proud of herself for remembering the boy's name and she stated, "I didn't know that you two knew each other."
She was pushing for information regarding her Southside date, Eddie knew that, and so all that she offered up to the girl, "We do."
On any other occasion Eddie would have felt a little guilty for being so short and closed off with Veronica, it wasn't like she had any real distaste for the girl, just the family she came from. But tonight, here, Eddie's patience was growing thin she couldn't help it. She hated these parties and the people that she was forced to mingle with because of them, everyone here always put up this front as if they were friendly and polite when Eddie knew that if she ran into them on the street they wouldn't look twice at her. She wasn't a Riverdaler the way that Archie was, she had been born in New York like Veronica, but moved to the sleepy little town when she was three so, as much as she hated to admit it, Riverdale was her home.
But her general distaste for the small town and the people in it had grown with each passing year once she was old enough to understand society. So much so that she knew, despite not having a clue what she wanted to do with her life post high school that as soon as she walked across that stage with a diploma in her hand she was gone.
The foursome was interrupted by Hiram Lodge himself, who placed hand on Veronica's back and greeted her, "Veronica, there you are."
"Hi daddy." Eddie could have rolled her eyes. What teenage girl still called her father daddy?
"Edina." He greeted with a warm smile. Apparently the Lodge's weren't big on nicknames because Eddie had corrected him many times and he still insisted on her full name.
His eyes flickered over to Fangs, who seemed to stiffen, which Eddie noted and if she had the courage she would ask him about it later. Eddie simply squeezed his arm and offered Hiram a smile, "Hi Mr. Lodge."
He seemed content with her greeting because he turned to Veronica and spoke quietly, "Mind if I borrow you for a moment?"
Her eyes flickered over to Eddie and Fangs and Eddie assured her, "We actually have to go say hi to my parents, see you around Veronica."
When Eddie tugged him away from the Lodge's and Archie Fangs questioned her, "Didn't we already meet your parents? Or do you have a second set of parents I don't know about?"
"No, I've just been looking for an excuse to get the hell away from whatever that was since they showed up." Eddie informed him and Fangs chuckled.
He shot her a questioning look when she dragged him around the corner and down a hallway and his brows raised when she pushed the door to the men's bathroom open and listened for any noise. When she had determined that there was no one inside she grabbed onto his arm and tugged him into the bathroom, the door shutting behind them enveloped them in silence.
"Why are we in the men's bathroom?" Fangs questioned her.
"Because there's always people in the women's one." She stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
He nodded, "Right, yeah, of course."
Eddie approached the window on the far wall and she dragged the metal garbage bin across the floor before carefully stepping on it. He watched as she tested her weight to make sure that it wouldn't fall or crumble beneath her before she yanked the window open and hopped onto the ledge. She turned to face him, her legs dangling underneath her, heels brushing against the wall as she asked, "You coming?"
With that she swung her legs around and through the window and then disappeared, her hair blowing in the wind as she dropped to the ground outside of the window with a light laugh. Fangs glanced back at the bathroom door for a moment before he shrugged and pushed the garbage can out of the way, climbing through the window with ease.
When his feet hit the ground next to Eddie's he asked her, "What are we doing?"
"Going to Sweetwater River."
**OOOOOOF I'm sorry this took so damn long to get out. It's been a rough month.
Anywhoooo... I ended up making this a three-parter ??? Idk, my bad guys but I just couldn't get rid of anything to make it shorter. There's too much goodness (mostly to come in the following chapter)
Also, Robert is probs my favorite character in the whole story and I can't wait for you guys to really experience the wonder of his hippie-stoner ways. It's truly magnificent and everything I always wanted in a father LOL.
Also... I've posted the first chapter of my new story, it's a Clark Kent/Superman story so if you wanna check it out that would be real cool and very much appreciated.