Heart & Sincerity

1/ Hostile Mornings

Alice sat at the dining table, away from her husband. Hal didn't make a big fuss over her silent treatment. He kept himself busy reading the newspaper and drinking his coffee.

Betty carried a bowl of cereal to the table. There was awkward tension between her parents and she was yet to fully know why. Her older sister, Polly, had run away not too long ago, so she could only assume it had to do with that.

"Good morning, Elizabeth. I'll be stopping by the Blue and Gold room to talk about the internship we're offering at The Register." As an advisor to the school newspaper, Alice wanted to give students a wonderful opportunity to do something she would have wanted to have at their age.

"It won't be much of a crowd. It's just Jughead and me."

"Jughead?"

"Yeah, he's not much of a talker. He's a great writer though. He would probably be interested."

"I'll have the chance to speak to him then," Alice nodded.

Betty looked at the time. "I've got to get going," She excused herself. "I'm walking to school with Archie."

"Don't be late," Hal told her as she walked away. Betty grabbed her bag and made her way out the door.

"Will you be joining me at the high school?" Alice asked her husband.

"I have a meeting to attend," Hal tucked his newspaper away. "You'll have to go alone this time."

"Yeah, this time." Alice mumbled.

"I'll meet you at The Register later."

"You know, you never make time for this family anymore." Alice scoffed.

"Well, what do you want, Alice?" Hal stood up. He was growing irritated. Maybe he preferred the silent treatment. "It's for work."

"You could at least put in the effort to spend time with Betty!" Alice followed him up the stairs. "Since we can't with Polly!"

"It's not my fault she ran away to some farm with her boyfriend!" Betty walked back into the house to grab something she forgot while Archie waited outside. She could hear the yelling upstairs. Her parents didn't know she was downstairs. "You refused to send her to the Sisters!"

"I was not going to send her there!" Alice fought the lump in her throat.

"Think of all the mistakes I pulled you away from because of that."

Alice shook her head, trying her best to remain sane. She felt like he was labeling everything about her as a flaw. "I can't believe you. You're an arrogant asshole."

"You should be thanking me," Hal continued. "Without me, you'd be nothing but southside scum like those Serpents."

"I hate you," She shot back.

"You don't hate me. You need me. You needed everything I gave you."

"Shut up," She looked away.

"I gave you a home, a family. We have two daughters together." Alice narrowed her eyes to refrain from crying. "Besides, she refused to get an appointment. What else were we to do? I was doing her a favor."

Alice's face hardened. "You made her an appointment?" She yelled at him. "You mean to tell me you had the nerve to put her through the same damn shit you put me through?"

"We couldn't raise a child at her age. We were children ourselves. Think about what people would have thought."

"Who cares what people think?" Alice hated when he would say that. "You made me give up my baby!"

"It was for the best. What do you not understand?" He threw his hands up in the air. "That child was a mistake of ours."

"No, he wasn't." Alice seethed.

"It was an accident. We didn't plan it; I fixed the problem."

"He wasn't planned, but he wasn't your problem." Alice was fuming in anger. "I wanted my child and it was all your fault I lost him!"

"It was not in our place to raise our son. The past is in the past. Let it go."

"Don't call him your son," Alice glared at him. "My son needed his mother, but you selfishly took that away from us."

"You don't really think we could have raised him, do you?" Hal furrowed his eyebrows. "I had a reputation to uphold. You know, sometimes I even thought it wasn't mine."

"How could you say that?" Alice couldn't believe what he was implying.

"Rumors went around calling you a Serpent slut." He said too calmly.

"I can't believe you just said that," This time she couldn't hold her tears in. "Just because I was a Serpent doesn't mean I was such things."

"The Serpents don't have a good track record. I only helped you get away from all that."

"If you don't believe that the Serpents are good people, then go see for yourself. Go talk to them. Go see what they're like."

"Don't act like you don't blame them for anything they caused you," Hal gritted through his teeth. "You wrote those negative articles about them. You had them published for the whole town to see."

"Yes, I get angry, but I never meant for them to get out. I write down what I feel and you somehow always manage to convince me to print it out. I can't believe I've always listened to you when all you ever did was make me feel worthless. Like I'm nothing without you."

"What would you be without me, huh?" He taunted. She remained silent, sulking. "That's what I thought." He took a step back.

"Get out. Get away from me." Alice kicked him out. She shut the door in his face again. Hal turned around and walked away. Betty heard his footsteps and quickly left the house.

"Did you get it?" Archie asked.

"No, I couldn't find it. I think I left it in my locker. Let's just go." Betty shoved him down to the sidewalk. She glanced over to the house. She couldn't believe what she heard.

***

Jughead sat in the kitchen eating toast for breakfast. He watched his father walk in and look into the refrigerator for something to eat too. It was for the most part pretty empty. They had been used to just eating out or ordering in after his mother left for Toledo with his sister.

"Dad, when are you going to get it refilled?" FP looked at him confused. Jughead placed the empty capsule on the table. He found it in one of the drawers. FP sighed, knowing very well where this was heading. "When was the last time you refilled your prescription?"

"I don't need to keep wasting money on that junk. I'm fine." FP avoided looking back at his son. "It's just those pesky doctors' way of taking my money. As if those hospital bills weren't already enough."

"You know you need these. What if you have a relapse?" Jughead needed him to take these things seriously. "When did you stop taking your meds?"

FP stayed silent but eventually spoke up. "We can't afford them. You know things are tight right now."

"Just like that alcohol that caused this all in the first place, right?" Jughead got smart with his father. He grabbed his bag and made his way to the door. He didn't want to argue and be late for school.

"Jughead," FP called out his name but he didn't listen.