Girls Your Age 》fp jones

21

"You can't do this!" 

"Says who?"

"You can't tear me away from my family like this!" 

Lydia was standing with her palms stretched on Hiram's desk. He sat back, his body language the polar opposite to her's. He was relaxed, sitting back in his chair.

"You have already started to pull away from them yourself, I am merely here to finish off the job."

"Well, what am I meant to do, where am I meant to go?" Her face was red with rage, but her mind was screaming at her at how she was allowing herself to scream at him. Hiram Lodge could do much worse, only if she pushed him to, and he was very nearly at that point. 

He leaned forward in his chair, his eyebrows raised. "Are you making me doubt hiring you?" He rubbed his hands together as he looked over at the girl who slowly sat back down. 

"Hiring often means pay." She muttered under her breath as she looked down away from the man's piercing eyes. 

"You don't need to be paid!" He barked. "I know really what's keeping you here." He dug in his inside blazer pocket and pulled out a sherbet straw decorated like a candy cane. "An early Christmas bonus, if you will." He said smirking and threw the Jingle Jangle at her across the desk.  She stared at the stick with tears brimming in her eyes.

"I need you closer to the south side anyway." He paced the empty space in his office behind where Lydia sat, she fiddled with the stick between her fingers, her skin already itching with anticipation. "Your family would never allow that under normal circumstances."

"And why would you even think that my dad would just abandon me here in Riverdale." Lydia laughed. "You know some men care about their daughters!" She stood up from her seat.

" Because you're going to make him!" Hiram growled. "It just so happens that your father's lovely girlfriend has gotten a promotion at The Register. Her dream job, now with some extra perks." He winked, pushing the girl back down in her seat. "So how selfish it would be of your father to force her to leave."

"He won't leave then!" She spoke quickly, trying to find ways to prove him wrong.

"Then I'll make sure there's a lovely position on the southside for him along side his darling daughter."

°°°

Dinner was silent. Lydia's food was untouched and going cold as she rubbed at her skin anxiously from under the table.

"Dad." She whispered as she stared at the mashed potatoes sat on her plate.

"Yes, honey?" He said chewing on his food.

She let in a shaky breath before she spoke. "I saw Hiram again today. "

He let go off his fork, the metal clanging loudly against the crockery. "He told me about your transfer." She whispered.

"What!" Rachel almost choked on her drink as she tried to swallow it.

Her father didn't answer, instead he stood up from the table and left the two girls stunned at his absence.

"Lydia? Who's Hiram?" Lydia sighed, leaning forward in her chair and using the table to rest. "I met him when we lived in New York for a short time." Both their meals were now left abandoned. "He's Veronica's dad. In fact I met him through Veronica. You see when I first met her, she was nothing new, since mum left I have had very rocky relationships with people. Nothing i could commit to. But with Veronica, there was something there, it scared me a little. She got excited, believing she was changing me, she told me she loved me, introduced me to her parents, tried to plan our futures together, all in the space of a few weeks. So naturally I cut her off. However, the relationship I had formed with her parents stayed. I met Hiram one night and he brought me into his study, the one place Veronica wasn't allowed to enter, the one place she couldn't eavesdrop. Apparently, Veronica had told him about my past, he was interested. To this day, I still don't know what it was she told him and what peeked his interest, maybe my hidden fragility." Lydia laughed.

" He asked me about career goals. I told him the truth, that I had none but wanted to do something important, something I could make a name for myself in. That certainly made him happy. Because that's what he had me believe what he made me do was exactly that. Important and worthwhile."

"What did he have you do? In New York?" Lydia shook her head and sniffed.

"I. I don't like talking about it." She scrunched her eyes close.

"is he making you do the same things now?"

"No." She opened her eyes again to look at Rachel. "No but I'm scared it's going to be much worse. Not for me, but  for everybody else."

"What is It? What is it, Lydia? Let me help."

She shook her head. "You can't, I just need you to help my dad move, make him take the transfer. It's a great opportunity and he needs to get out of Riverdale."

"Lydia." Rachel sighed.

"I know about your promotion." Rachel's face dropped.

"How-"

"Hiram Lodge is good at finding things he is a part of every conversation, his is every ear and every mouth that utters a word. Take the promotion or don't, it's up to you. But my dad, my dad needs to take his!" Lydia looked out the window, like she'd see the devil incarnate there, peering into their home. "Because south side business has no place for my father."

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