Girls Your Age 》fp jones

23

Lydia squeezed the rainwater out her hair, the drops falling down her shoulder and onto the floor. 

"Thanks, I've got to mop that up now." A voice laughed, she looked up to see FP, his stubble growing and fitted with a Pop's crisp white uniform and smart bow tie. "Long time no see." He winked walking past her with a tray of milkshakes for a table full of tourists. 

She looked back at him as she followed in the direction Rachel went and sat at a booth with her. It had been over a week since she had last seen the man, her problems with Hiram Lodge always distracted her from everything else, and with him wrapped so tightly around his little finger she didn't want to risk seeing her lover when she wasn't supposed to. 

"Forsythe Jones?!" Rachel exclaimed as FP made his way to the table to take their order. 

FP glanced quickly to Lydia before drifting back to Rachel and smiling. "In the flesh." He laughed. "Just about anyway." Lydia didn't like the joke because it was Rachel who didn't know how true it was. Every day, for FP, was a chance to lose his head. Lydia, unfortunately, understood this too well. 

"You look well." She smiled, almost patronisingly. Nobody expected FP to amount to anything when he was younger, and he hadn't, but he'd done far better than people believed he would of. 

He nodded. "You know what...I am." He smiled, his eyes subtly falling on Lydia. "You? What are you doing back? Always thought Riverdale was too good for a girl like you." 

She laughed. "I was gone for awhile." FP knew this already, everybody did. The community of Riverdale was so tight that once one person left there was nothing but an empty void that remained, especially if that person was a northsider like Rachel. "But Riverdale was always a good place to raise a family." She grinned looking across the table at Lydia. 

"Oh." FP went wide-eyed. "This one yours?" 

"Lydia?" She sat back in her chair. "Oh God no, she's my stepdaughter." She said slowly, not wanting to overstep their relationship, but Lydia didn't say anything back so she believed she was safe with her chosen words.  

"I dated him in high school," Rachel whispered, leaning forward over the table, as FP disappeared into the kitchen. Lydia almost choked on her coffee, managing to spit it back into her cup before Rachel noticed her reaction. "Good kisser." She snuck a glance at FP as he served another table across the diner. Lydia followed her line of sight, seeing FP laugh with a customer. He really was a good kisser. "Don't worry." She laughed. "I won't leave your father for him." Lydia turned back round to face her, still staring at FP over her coffee cup. "Still as good looking as I remember though, probably even more so." She winked. "I complete mess though." She sighed, putting the cup down on the saucer. "Majorly involved with the wrong crowds, Riverdale can be a scary place sometimes and he was always in the thick of it. Had kids way too young, and then rushed into marriage because he believed that was the right thing to do. I can tell you it was not! Gladys Jones was and will always be a bitch!" Rachel went bright red as her voice carried louder than she expected. "Poor guy, stuck in a loveless marriage. Gladys definitely has him hook, line and sinker." She sipped her coffee, shaking her head. 

"They're still married?" Lydia had pushed her coffee to the side, the liquid now going cold. "I saw no wedding ring." 

"He took it off years ago. I heard he sold it for money to keep the house, don't know how well that worked out." 

"How do you know all this, if you haven't been back in Riverdale for...years?"

"I'm a journalist, Lydia. I have my ways."  

Lydia looked back at the man trying to act innocent in his smart uniform, but those clothes could only hide so much, and they certainly didn't disguise the snake underneath them. 

Lydia tapped her badly bitten nails on the tabletop as she waited impatiently, for what she was waiting for she didn't know. It wasn't her food, for now, she had lost her appetite. FP made his way over smiling, placing down the girls' plates. A napkin was stuffed under Lydia's plate. She pulled it out slightly to see FP's chicken scratch. 'I get off in an hour. Wait for me.' Lydia could just make out. She wiped her mouth with the napkin after taking a bite of her burger. FP watched with a frown, not knowing if that was a no or not. And if Lydia was being honest she didn't know either. 

Soon after they had finished eating, FP took their plates away without a single word falling from his lips. Rachel sat back down after paying the bill, shoving her purse back into her bag. "You ready to go?" 

"Actually Rach, Jughead said he'd meet me here, he wants to introduce me to some of his friends from southside high, so I'm not completely alone when I enroll on Monday, you know." She smiled.

"That's good of him." She pulled her bag onto her shoulder. "He's awfully sweet that boy, does he have a thing for you." Lydia rolled her eyes. 

"Not every boy is interested in me," She laughed. "Plus, he's dating Betty."

"Well, they should be." She smiled, getting up from the booth. "You're one of a kind, Lydia Prescott." She tapped the girl under her chin and left her alone in the booth. She reached the door of the diner before calling over to the girl. "I'd wish you'd meet someone sooner or later, even if it's Jughead or not. As a distraction, Lydia. If that's what you're comfortable with." She knew she meant someone that had nothing to do with the Lodge's, knew she meant no going back to Veronica Lodge. That was if Hiram Lodge ever let her. Because she still hated how she had left the girl, left the girl the first time and the second. 

FP walked over with a smirk after Rachel's car left the car park. "What's this with you and my son." He laughed knowing Rachel had gotten the complete wrong end of the stick. 

But Lydia bit back, much harder. "What's this with you and your wife!"