Riverdale: Darkness

You're moving on

Mika woke up with her sister standing over her bed. "Aaaaah! Jesus, Alice, why'd you scare me like that?" Ivy frowned. "You need to see who's at our front door." They both went downstairs to find Seb, sitting at the breakfast table. "No way? He found us this quick? I'm telling you, they had sex last night." Mika whispered towards Ivy. "You're Florian's sisters right?" Seb asked them as he got up. "No, I think you got the wrong house. We're his neighbours." Seb looked embarrassed and apologised. "Shit, I'm sorry. I woke you up, didn't I..." " You're forgiven. But you need to spill your guts before you go." The boy looked confused. "Spill my guts about what, exactly?" He asked the two standing in front of him now. "About you and Florian. Spill. Those. Guts." Mika said. Jughead walked into the kitchen, grabbing a cup of coffee and looked at the scene. "I'm not even gonna ask." he said as he walked back up the stairs. "About Florian and I, we're friends and he ran away this morning when.." Seb realised how weird that sounded. "Why was he with you this morning?" "He came over to bring me a back a game he had borrowed. Chill out, please. We talked a bit about... Well, about relationships and then he just ran off. I don't know why.." Ivy and Mika looked at each other and then at Seb. "Okay, we'll help you find him." Mika said. "We don't need to find him, I know where he is." Ivy said. Seb and Mika looked up in surprise. "And where's that?"

The three teenagers entered the El Royale, Archie's community centre. "He always came here as a kid when he was down." The centre was quiet.  "His dad owns this place? That so cool." Seb said as he put on a pair of boxing gloves and started punching into the air, as if there was a person standing in front of him. "Yeah, he does. He hosts a barbecue every thanksgiving." Mika told him, gesturing towards the office in the corner of the centre. "That's the place." Ivy said. They opened the door to the centre and found Florian sitting on his father's desk chair. He was staring at a picture in a brown frame. A picture of his father holding a 4 year old Florian and his mother standing next to them.  "Florian?" Mika asked him. "I...I don't know what's happening.." Ivy sat kneeled down in front of the chair. "You're happy, F. You're moving on." Florian started crying and hugged Ivy tightly. "I don't.. I.." "Shhhhhh..." Ivy whispered. "It's okay.." Mika hugged him too. "I just don't wanna forget him.." "You won't. We promise." "I promise." Seb said, even though he didn't know what it was about. Florian looked up. "You came along?" Mika smiled. "How else do you think we found out you ran away?" Florian got up and walked towards Seb, hugged him tightly and when Seb offered him his jacket, he took it. "Thanks.." The two boys walked out of the office and Ivy and Mika stayed in where they were. "I'm gonna tell you again." Mika said, looking at her sister. "They totally had sex last night."

News travels fast among friends, and soon the entire group had the same assumption my sister had.

During lunch, the group sat at their table and looked at Florian sitting with Seb across the cafeteria. "I'm getting bored of this. They should just come clean." Ivy laughed at Jay's comment. "They will. They'll have to. During the senior musical." Aurelia laughed. "How, Ivy? How do you see them confessing when we play a musical?" "We haven't made a choice yet, have we? Well, how about Heathers? Our parents performed it when they were our age, let's just do it again. I'm sure the school won't mind." Mika jumped up. "Of course! Heathers is perfect because of Kurt and Ram! We just need to get them cast as the jocks and kaboom! Confession on stage." "We shouldn't push too far though." Aurelia said. "It's never cool to be outed in a public place. Does Florian's dad even know? Did he know about Thomas?" Mika shook her head. "Nah, he never did."

All this talk of relationships and love made me think about my own. I hadn't spoken to Liz in weeks.

"I need to fix something." Ivy said and she got up walking towards a lonely table in the corner of the cafeteria, where Liz was seated, alone. Ivy sat down in front of her. "Hi." she said. Liz just shook her head. "I'm sorry. I tend to be a real blockhead when I'm angry, huh?" Liz looked up at Ivy, gazing into her blue eyes. "You are forgiven, but you need to stop pushing people into choosing your side. Some people like to be neutral pons in the game." she said, gesturing towards herself. "I'm sowwy.. do you folgive me?" Ivy said in a baby voice, making fun of the apology. "Sure you are." Liz said, smiling. "Only if.." she continued, "we spent the night at the five seasons." Liz giggled. Ivy frowned and laughed, "Sure." she said with a warm smile.