skin and bone ; riverdale ♡

one ♡

"Olivia, what are you doing here? Where are your parents? Are you okay?" Alice shoots question after question and I roll my eyes playfully.

"I'll explain later and my parents are in Italy." I answer her questions, avoiding the last one.

She looks at me confused. "I thought you guys were in England." She states.

"We were." I answer. "Well I was, mom and dad have been on business trips most of the time."

A look of what seems like anger takes over my aunts face as she raises an eyebrow at me. "Are you telling me they left you in England alone? You're barely sixteen! You're not old enough to look after yourself."

"Calm down, I wasn't technically alone, I was at boarding school. I assumed you knew, but obviously not." I inform her, sipping on the hot chocolate that she had placed in front of me.

"Why didn't you say? You should've come here sooner." She says as she walks around the counter to join me with her own hot chocolate.

"I wasn't sure if you'd want me here." I reply honestly.

"How could you think that? Your mom and I might not get along, but you're always welcome here. You know you're more of a daughter to me than a niece anyway." She replies.

"Thanks." I softly smile at her. "So, uh, is it okay if I stay here for a while?"

"Of course. Are you going to tell me why you're not at boarding school anymore then?" She asks, and I nod my head in reply before filling her in on everything.

After explaining everything to Alice and catching up, she shows me to the guest bedroom that I had always stayed in when I was younger, before leaving me to get ready.

She said Betty was at Pop's for some retro night thing, and she was heading there too, to write an article about it for the newspaper, and asked if I wanted to go too. Of course, I said yes, I couldn't turn down Pop's infamous milkshakes.

I quickly change out of the outfit I was wearing and into a mini white a-line dress, with a black satin bow on the neck before touching up my makeup.

Once I'm ready, I turn to look at myself in the full length mirror, smoothing my dress down. I quickly comb my hair before grabbing my handbag and meeting Alice downstairs.

"Ready to go?" She asks, carrying her laptop in her hands and her handbag swinging off her arm.

"Yep!" I chirp in reply, following her out to her car.

I climb into the passenger seat, buckling up my seat belt. I turn to face my aunt, with a tilt of my head. "So what's this retro night thing about?"

"Just some thing Betty's organised to help Pop's, I guess to try and stop it from closing down." Alice shrugs, starting up the engine.

"Why is Pop's closing?" I ask. "Everyone loves Pop's."

"Didn't you hear? Fred Andrews was shot there a week ago, everyone has been avoiding the death diner ever since." She informs me nonchalantly.

Shock takes over as I gasp loudly, "Fred was shot?!"

"Yeah, no one knows who did it yet though, probably just some southsider." She snarls.

I raise an eyebrow at her, "You used to be a southsider Aunt Alice. So did Mom."

"Yeah, well that's all in the past." Alice rolls her eyes, before concentrating on the road.

For the rest of the ride, we sit in silence, apart from the quiet hum of the slow pop song on the radio. I let my mind wander to Fred as we park outside of Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. Did he even survive?