Girls Your Age 》fp jones

16

Sleep hadn't fallen upon Lydia that night, she tried to blame it on her father's snores trembling through the walls, but she knew better than to try and pin it on that. 

She knew sleeping with FP was a bad decision, even without Veronica Lodge trying to wrap herself around her fingers, but she ended up craving his touch, his rough fingertips and his chapped lips. 

It was evident she had had no sleep when she walked into school the next morning, carrying her body like a zombie's. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun and she put no effort into her clothes, just wearing the sweatpants and t-shirt she had tried to sleep in. 

She buried her face into her locker, the small space briefly giving her some darkness she could sink into, but she then felt hands wrap around her waist. 

"My father is back." Veronica mumbled when Lydia stood up straight. 

"Oh." Lydia replied, she knew already that the devil incarnate had made his entrance into Riverdale. 

"How are you doing?"

Veronica shrugged. "I'm just hoping we can somehow salvage the relationship we used to have." 

Lydia's jaw tightened when the sound of the school bell rang through the halls and Veronica rushed to her morning lesson, with no question as to how Lydia was doing, because Hiram Lodge being back in the girl's life was much worse for her than it was for Veronica. 

Lydia found her seat in her English classroom, the seat beside it as empty as it had been the past few weeks previously. She once, long ago, did care about school, but she was naive then and that was before she had first met the Lodge family, before she had been exposed to how the world really worked. And since then she had found it a lot harder to focus and had found it a lot easier to fall into sticky situations. Just like the sticky situation she had with FP Jones, or used to have anyway. 

The seat beside her was pulled back, and an unfamiliar girl sporting an over-sized sweater and curly blonde locks sat down. She smiled widely at Lydia. "I'm Polly. You're Lydia, right?" Lydia nodded. "Betty's told me about you." Polly just didn't stop smiling and Lydia wondered how her face wasn't hurting by now. 

"Oh, you're Betty's sister?" 

Polly nodded enthusiastically.

Lydia felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. The teacher had now entered the classroom and begun to teach. Lydia pulled out her phone and hid it under the desk. A text was sent from an unknown number, but she knew exactly who it was.

A car is outside waiting for you.

She gulped. She'd found herself back into almost the exact same sticky situation she was in in New York. She shoved her phone back into her pocket, and tapped her fingers on the table, nerves jittering through her.

The clocks second had ticked by so fast, and the lump in her throat and the sickly feeling in her stomach grew twice as fast.

Polly sat beside her, rubbing her stomach and twiddling with her pen. "Lydia?" She whispered over. "I don't suppose you could help me? Turns out missing this much school isn't good for senior year test papers." She laughed lightly.

Lydia looked down at her own paper, her writing shaky with nerves as she tried to distract herself from the inevitable hell that was waiting for her. "You've probably been more present than I have." Lydia laughed back, earning a hush and a scowl from the teacher at the front of the classroom. But the girl leaned over anyway and helped the Cooper girl with the question, Lydia believed it was best for her to do something good before standing face to face with the world of evil she was about to encounter.

The eleventh hour of the day hit and the teacher collected in the papers. "Don't look so worried, Lydia. I'm sure you've done just fine. And if not that's what these tests are for to help you before final exams." Lydia smiled at the teacher before she passed to collect the papers of the students behind her.

If only Lydia Prescott's worries were about finals.

Lydia stood in the car park, looking for the car. She looked around to find an excuse to walk back inside the school to where she was safe, but she knew the driver would be watching her.

She forced herself down the concrete steps, secretly hoping she'd trip and fall. But she didn't. And instead her feet hit the ground in perfect physical condition. She heard an engine turn on and she saw the car near the back of the lot, trying to disguise itself among the cheap student cars.

The windows were blacked out, but there was nothing on the inside she hadn't already seen. The leather seats and champagne flutes screamed Lodge elegance.

The driver watched her as the student climbed in, her denim and plaid clashing against the luxury motor's interior.

"Didn't think he'd need me this quickly?" Lydia said more to herself, as the driver kept quiet. He wasn't allowed to speak, Lodge rules.

The Pembrooke stood tall amongst the other buildings over Riverdale. One of it's most expensive looking pieces of architecture that's for sure. The lobby was quiet when Lydia entered, only the  hum of classical music playing in the background, trying to create a peaceful ambiance. But peace was far from what Lydia was feeling, instead a war was waging in her mind and a plague felt like it was drifting through her veins.

Hiram Lodge was that war, that plague. The poison in the snake's bite, because he was more of a snake than the self titled serpents of Riverdale were.

The Lodge apartment was still. Lydia didn't expect anything else. Veronica was at school and Hermione was busy at Andrew's Construction. 

The door to Hiram's study was shut. Lydia remembered Veronica telling her the rules of the Lodge household. Veronica was never allowed in daddy's study. What Veronica didn't know was in New York she'd been inside plenty of times. Lydia pulled back the door to reveal Mr Lodge sitting at his desk.

He smirked. A smirk most venomous. "I see the loyalty still remains." Lydia didn't reply.

"I have a new shipment and I want you to try it." Lydia sat down at his desk refusing to look at the man who now towered over her in his stance.

"I came to Riverdale to compete with the Blossom's little heroine game. But it looks like I unfortunately don't get to see Clifford's face as he realises he had lost." Lydia stared at the painting on the wall. Veronica's painted eyes stared back at her, almost disapprovingly.

"Keeps me honest." Hiram chuckled as he pulled the painting off the wall to reveal a safe, which he blocked Lydia's view of as he put in the code.

A single sealed straw was in the safe and he looked at it smiling, almost proud. He placed it on the desk in front of Lydia.

"It's called Jingle Jangle. Stupid, I know." He laughed but it's meant to sound fun and harmless. He motioned towards the drug that sat upon the mahogany.

Lydia shook her head. "Don't act like that, Lydia." Hiram walked to the back of her chair and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I know how fucked up you used to get back in New York. Let's see that Lydia make an appearance in Riverdale." The man smiled, rubbing the girl's cheek as be spoke.

"I've got a job for you, Lydia." Hiram walked back round his desk and sat down at his chair. "There's a war brewing in Riverdale." He leaned over his desk, pushing the straw closer to her. Her eyes were locked upon it. Her mouth dry. Her palms sweaty. "And I want you to be right in the center of it."  Her eyes flickered to the man sat before her. And no matter how much she wanted to say no, she knew that in his presence she wouldn't dare.

Nobody said no to Hiram Lodge.

Lydia leaned forward, picking up the drug, tearing open one end. Hiram watched eagerly as Lydia tipped the white powdered substance into her mouth like a child with sherbet. She sunk lower into her seat and closed her eyes.

The last thing she remembered before her drugged haze overtook every sense, was Hiram Lodge's sick and dastardly smile as he thought about how had gotten Lydia Prescott to crawl back to him so easily.