FORBIDDEN FRUIT [ARCHIE ANDREWS]

CHAPTER ONE

01. RETURN 

[August returns to Riverdale]

"It is a big world, full of things that steal your breath and fill your belly with fire...But where you go when you leave isn't as important as where you go when you come home."

― Lindsay Eagar, Hour of the Bees

    August Keller waited, and waited, and waited. Her father and dearly beloved brother were nowhere to be found at the airport. She had tried calling her dad, but it went straight to voicemail like it usually did. She then called Kevin, getting the exact same response. She assumed that her dad was at work, especially with the Jason Blossom case dragging along. The redhead's body had still not been found last August heard, which was nearly a month ago. She didn't talk to Kevin or her dad that much, but she talked to Jughead even less while she was studying abroad. Her trip had been phenomenal but there were moments where she longed for a hug from her brother or a burger from Pop's. The girl was definitely disappointed when no one was waiting for her at the airport, but she did what any self-sustaining teenager would do; she called an uber. She found it funny that she could rely on an app that was left untouched on her phone for months more than the family she had left. The brunette plugged in her headphones on the drive to Riverdale, wanting to avoid her driver's odd looks at her disheveled hair and makeup free face. The nearly ten-hour flight from France was rough and even worse because the brunette didn't sleep a wink the whole time. The only upside was that as soon as she was able to crawl into her bed, she would be out like a light.

  The small white car pulled into August's driveway as she checked her text messages. Nothing, as expected. Jughead hadn't talked to her since a week before she left and it was obvious to her that her own family was uninterested. She watched as the uber drove off and then made her way into the house.

 "Dad! Kev!" She flipped the light switch, seeing that practically nothing about her house had changed in the past four months. She set her things down and slipped off the beanie from her head along with her light cardigan. Her father and Kevin were obviously elsewhere and she couldn't help the feeling of loneliness crawling up in the back of her throat, but she quickly suppressed it as she climbed up the stairs to her room. Her room, like the rest of her house, was exactly the same.  In comparison to Paris, Riverdale was eerily and unusually quiet to the teenage girl. 

 A heavy sigh left her lips as she dropped her luggage on her bedroom floor. The room was precisely how she left it four months ago and it seemed as if it had been left untouched. She was pleased that her car keys were in the exact same place she left them like the rest of her belongings. After four months od French cuisine, she craved a burger and milkshake from Pop's. So after unpacking, she headed to the diner she missed so much while she was abroad.

Driving through Riverdale was like memory lane, but not in a pleasant way. As she drove to Pop's she passed the Archie and Betty's houses which were side by side. She hadn't spoken to the pair in months and wasn't looking forward to it when she did. There was no doubt her leaving without a word had hurt them, but she just decided to ignore those consequences for the night. As she arrived at Pop's she took notice of Archie and Betty sitting in their usual booth.