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It started with a smirk and a condescending look.
Betty wasn't used to the setting of the Southside side of the town. When she showed up at the bar, with her preppy pinks and pretty pastels, she felt so out of place that it made her want to turn around and leave. However, friends needed to be there for one another and Betty Cooper was one fierce friend, if nothing.
"Um, hi," she used her sweetest voice on the long haired bartender. "I was looking for Jughead? Jughead Jones?"
Bartender eyed her from head to toe, which made Betty avert her gaze.
"FP's kid?" The man chuckled. "What do you need from a lowlife like our kind, Naughty Northerner?"
Betty glared at him and narrowed her eyes.
"I'm a friend." she said coldly. "He hasn't been picking up his phone and I was--"
"You don't need to worry for Jones," she heard another voice joining them behind her. She turned around to find a very tall boy, (a gorgeous beanstalk, Veronica would say) with a notorious snake tattoo on his neck. "We take care of our own in the Southside."
"I don't think that's a trait that only you guys hold dear." Betty tilted her head, annoyed.
"Look, Ponytail," the tall guy said. "Apparently you're looking for some sort of trouble, but I don't recommend Southside for that." he scoffed. "Not your speed."
"One," Betty raised a finger, "You don't know me. Two," she raised the second, "I said I'm looking for my friend. Aren't you supposed to honor that or something, if you're so big on your Southside codes?"
The guy looked at her for a moment too long, enough to make Betty uncomfortable.
"Jones would've contacted you if he wanted to." he said dryly. "I say leave him be."
"Where's he?" Betty ignored him and crossed her arms. She felt so tiny next to this boy but would never give him the satisfaction of it.
"You're Betty, right?" he smirked. "Should've known by the ponytail."
"So?" she pressed. "Where's Jughead?"
"Are you gonna shut up and leave if I tell you?" he seemed to be bored of her.
"Depends." she also smirked.
That made him smile for real, much to her surprise.
She raised her eyebrow at him to continue but when he was about to say something, she heard her friend.
"Betty?" Jughead didn't seem all too happy to see her. "What are you doing here?"
"Juggie!" she exclaimed and went over to hug him. When her best friend returned the hug just as warm, she was relieved. "I was so worried about you after…" she turned around to eye the Neck-Snake guy tentatively. "Everything." she didn't want to get into the details.
Noticing that, Jughead just smiled.
"Sweet Pea is no stranger." he said. "He's fine."
Betty couldn't hold her laughter.
" Sweet Pea?" she asked. "That's your name?"
"That's the only part you're allowed to know." Sweet Pea - Sweet Pea!- wasn't amused at all but Betty thought that this wasn't the first time someone laughed at his name. And probably wasn't the last, either.
"Okay, Sweet Pea ." Betty went back to him and extended a hand with the best Alice Cooper infused smile of hers. "Any friend of Jughead is a friend of mine. Nice to meet you."
The threatening look he had was gone by the action, leaving its place to a boyish wonder. He took her tiny -so tiny next to his - hand into his and gave it a little shake.
"Uh, nice to meet you, too, Betty."
It continued like this for a while: Sweet Pea itching for a banter with her, Betty trying to remain calm and sweet just to annoy him. He was there when Jughead was busy with getting over Archie, he was there when Betty couldn't go home because of her mother, and he was there when Betty decided to become a Southside adjacent to annoy her mother in the pretenses of protecting Jughead.
He watched her undressing in front of all the other Serpents, young and old, and it sent something to his stomach. It wasn't pain, it wasn't anger but it was… something different.
Toni would even call that lust . And jealousy . Two things Sweet Pea had been proud of not having in the past.
Shut up, Toni.
He watched from afar how FP wrapped a jacket around her shoulders, how Jughead stormed off and she followed. Well, he followed, too.
"Betty are you out of your damn mind?" Jughead was yelling. "I told you that I didn't need your protection! I told you to stay away! Why, why, for the love of God, can't you just let go? I am not the boy you knew anymore! I am not the childhood friend you wanted to mother around, Betty!"
"Jones, that's enough." He couldn't help himself once he saw Betty trembling and about to cry out in the cold. "I think she got the point."
"You stay away from it, Sweet Pea." Jughead was furious.
But hell hath no fury like Sweet Pea.
"That's enough, man." he yanked him from his collar. "Like it or not, she went through with the whole thing. She's just as a Serpent as you are now."
Jughead scoffed.
"You're supporting this?" he asked, pointing at the bar behind them. "Didn't you see how they were looking at her?"
I was one of them , crossed his mind but he decided not to utter that.
"So?" he shrugged. "She's… a beautiful girl. She knew that would happen."
She wanted that to happen .
"Whatever." Jughead waved his hand dismissively. He seemed so done with it when he left the two of them in the parking lot. "Be safe, Betty." he murmured.
When it was just the two of them, Sweet Pea felt awkward.
"That was quite the show you put up there." he said and saw Betty flushing.
"Thank you." she said slowly. "I don't think everyone agrees with you."
"Pfft, screw them." He chuckled. "They just didn't know you had it in you, is all. Neither did I." he added.
Betty gave him a look that it made his stomach twitch. There was a mischievous, dark glint under the neon lights of Riverdale.
"That's nice to hear." she said only, pulling the collars of the jacket over her shoulders.
Sweet Pea walked close to her, towering her fragile figure.
"You're just looking for trouble since day one, aren't you?" he whispered in the dark.
Her green eyes were so close, he could feel her warm breath.
"I swear, I was just looking for a friend." she whispered with a smile.
"Then maybe trouble has a habit of finding you, Cooper."
"Maybe," she dragged the word. "What are you going to do about it, Sweet Pea?"
He tucked a hair behind her ear and chuckled from his chest.
"Baby," he whispered before he leaned in to kiss her, "I am the trouble."