ghosts // riverdale

[3]

           Around this time, I was still feeling confident that there was a possibility that my mom and Jellybean would come back home. Was I skeptical? Yes. Had all hope been lost? No. My dad was a free man and in the last moments I had spoken to him before he was arrested for Jason's murder, he had thrown around the idea of moving to Toledo. While I knew then that Toledo would never happen, there was a faint feeling that maybe, just maybe I could get my family back.

           I was still so naive. After all that I had been through, all that my father had been through; hell, all that Riverdale had been through, that childish dream still played in my head every night before I fell asleep. I imagined waking up in a decent, humble home with the sweet smell of Blossom maple syrup swirling in the air. A 10-year-old Jellybean sitting at the kitchen counter gulping orange juice. My mother cooking breakfast. My father getting ready for work.

           I didn't think that I was ever asking for too much but perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps, I was so very wrong. Although I held that foolish image in my mind, what I would come across on Sunday morning would shatter that image into a million tiny pieces. Pieces so small that they might have well disintegrated.

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The small trailer was littered with trash and beer bottles. Brooke scrambled to clean it all up, filling an entire garbage bag, setting it to the side. As she scrubbed the wood furniture with furniture polish and cleaned out the bare fridge, she heard heavy footsteps behind her. A sleepy FP walked into the kitchen, his tan arms covered by a plaid shirt as his chest was left exposed. "You cleaning up after me now?" He said, his voice a low, sexy grumble.

"Someone has to," Brooke shrugs as she leans her back against the front of the fridge. FP pushes his lips together as he looks her up and down, unsure of how to properly thank her. "Don't worry," she smiles, "you don't have to thank me. However, there is one part of our agreement that I forgot last night."

"And what would that be?" FP asks, a small smile tugging at the inner corner of his lips. Brooke lets out a small sigh as she pushes herself away from the fridge, turning her head towards the bag full of trash leaned up against the front door. "The drinking," Brooke says, "it has to stop." FP's smile fades as he raises his eyebrows and turns his head away in a near defeat.

"Listen," Brooke says as she approaches him, grasping onto his hand before he can fully turn away from her, "I'm not asking you to give up the Serpents, okay? I know that they're apart of who you are and I'm not taking that away but the drinking is a serious problem FP. It's an addiction spiraling further out of control and a serious health hazard. I wouldn't want to know what your liver looks like."

FP licks his bottom lip as he backs up against the wall beside him, looking at the boots on his feet. He allows her to keep her hand in his as she places her free hand on his bare chest. "Besides," she shrugs, "what about Jughead? Don't you want to be there when he graduates high school? When he leaves for college? What you're doing to yourself now is only decreasing the years that you will be able to spend with your children."

"This is just funny coming from a girl that downed four doubles of whiskey with me at the Whyte Wyrm the other night," FP shrugs, a cocky smile appearing. Brooke rolls her eyes and huffs out a sigh as she pushes away from him. "If I knew how deep you were in," she mutters as she points to the multiple beer bottles still lying on the still filthy counters, "I would have never done any of those things FP."

"Not even the other part?" He asks teasingly, his eyes focused deeply on hers. She rolls her eyes again before smiling up at him. "I'm being serious, FP," she whispers, "I can only help you if you want to be helped." His daring smile fades again as he focuses on his boots again. "Fine," he agrees with a subtle nod, "I'll get clean. For Jughead." Brooke throws him a half-smile as she squeezes his hand. "Oh," she whispers, "and there's something else that I didn't tell you last night. I know that we talked a lot about the business happening in this town but there's more. Especially about Hiram Lodge."