Riverdale: Darkness

Everything is falling apart

"Just Florian?" Seb asked him. "Yeah. Just me.." Seb smiled. "Well, do you come here often, just Florian?" Florian nodded, even though he knew that he didn't come here as much as Ivy and Mika did. "I'm here after school from five to eight. Visit me again sometime." Seb got up and got back to his job. Florian sighed and looked at Seb until he disappeared behind the counter into the kitchen. Florian got up and ran down La Bonne Nuit. "Hi ms. Mantle, is Relia down here by any chance?" he asked Veronica when he reached the bar. "She's right there." Veronica pointed at a table far away in the darkness where Aurelia was sitting on her phone. Florian sat down in front of her. "Tell me all about him," Aurelia said as she put away her phone. "Okay, okay, he's like the prettiest person I have ever laid eyes upon.. and he works here, how did you not know that? You're mom works here and you're here all the time?" Aurelia giggled. "Of course I knew he worked here. I just wanted to let you take your time instead of going all stalker on him. He's friendly isn't he?" Florian didn't answer the question and immediately gave her one of his own. "He's been working here how long?" "Probably since a week before school started? Something like that." "And since he works here, did you..." Aurelia laughed when she saw Florian's excited face. "Yeah, we've had some talks. I know what you wanna know, F, but are you ready for it?" Florian suddenly backed down. "What? Is it bad? He's straight, isn't he? Shit, I should've known.." "Slow down, I haven't said anything yet. He told me himself, he's been a proud member of the LGBTQ community for almost two years now. He's basically vomiting rainbows all the time. He's like the definition of Gay, except for maybe mister Keller. Only he doesn't show it to you. He thinks you're straight." Florian looked down at his feet. "How do I let him know I'm not?" "You tell him," Aurelia responded. "You want me to walk up to him and shout that I'm gay?" Florian scoffed, he was not amused by Aurelia's joke. "That's a start."

Dinner at the Jones house wasn't pleasant at all. Ivy and Mika sat across each other giving each other death glares. Betty and Jughead sat across each other as well, but they didn't talk. Liz sat next to Betty and tried to enjoy dinner, even though that felt impossible. FP sat at the head of the table and looked at his sisters. In a way he despised them. The two kept staring at each other and they both got up, screaming: "STOP LOOKING AT ME!" FP got up from his seat and yelled at them as well. "STOP ACTING LIKE BABIES AND FIX THIS!" They both looked at their brother and Betty and Jughead didn't know what to do. Betty wanted to calm all three of her children, but she didn't. "You're both crazy!" FP continued. "Mika, did I give you the position of Serpent queen so you could beat others because they don't listen to you?!" Ivy smiled, thinking there was no blame on her but that quickly changed when her brother targetted her as well. "And Ivy, god, where do I begin?! All you focus on is Thomas! Guess what, THOMAS IS DEAD! He's not coming back, ever!" Ivy started crying and wiped away her tears even though they kept coming. "You saw him die, you know he's gone, so stop pondering about him! He's not missing, he's DEAD!" Ivy ran away from the table, up the stairs to her room. Liz got up and before running after Ivy, she looked FP straight in the eye, making it clear she hated what he had said and done. "You're a jerk, do you know that?" FP nodded proudly. Mika sat down and started eating her dinner. "You need to make up with Ivy," FP said to his sister. "What, you're targetting me now? I didn't do anything wrong!" Mika defended herself. "You hit her across the face and you never apologized for it. Today you fought her again. I don't see how you didn't do anything wrong." Mika grabbed her brother's collar and said: "I tried apologizing to her three days ago and she shammed me." FP pulled himself loose and pushed Mika towards the stairs. "You. Ivy. Talk it out." Mika, who didn't want to give in he was right, stomped up the stairs with an angry look. When she reached the door of her sister's room, she froze. Last time things went wrong. Liz came out of the room and got startled when she saw Mika. "I was just coming to get you. Ivy wants to talk." Mika nodded and entered the room. Ivy looked up at Mika. She started crying and jumped towards her sister, hugging her tightly. "I'm so sorry... I... I just wanted to keep you safe..." Ivy sobbed louder than Mika had ever heard her do so. "I... I just... Everything is falling apart... Mom and dad pretend like they're okay, but I can see past that... and mister Keller is... I can see the sadness in him so much... I don't want to see it... I lost Thomas and now I'm losing you... I don't want that..." Mika realized her sister was never mad at her. She was worried.