Falice: From A to Z

Twist (1)

Summary: A world where Alice stayed on the Southside while FP escaped to the North. Role reversal AU.

Rating: PG

Genre: Drama/Angst

Notes: I have some ideas for this universe. I may come back to play. Let me know what you think! As always, thanks for reading. :)

~~Twist~~

~~Like Mother, Like Daughter~~

Alice came home to find her mother sitting on their ratty old couch that reeked of stale cigarettes. She had a shot glass in one hand and a familiar white stick firmly clenched in the other. Alice knew it was futile to ask where her mother had found it. She would just claim stumbled across it while looking for bus money or whatever other euphemism they were now using for drug money.

"You like to pretend that you're better than me but I see you're following in my footsteps," Her mother's laugh was as cheap as the tequila she slung back. "Like mother like daughter."

Alice's heart leapt to her throat. "I am nothing like you."

"16 and pregnant? Honey you are me," she laughed. "Honestly, Alice, I don't know how this didn't happen sooner given that you're the school slut."

Alice clenched her jaw, bit back the sharp retort that would surely land her on the streets. She's just drunk, Alice reminded herself. She doesn't mean it.

"So whatcha going to do?" her mother tossed her piece of lime with the rest of the junk on the coffee table. Old magazines, cigarette butts from overflowing ashtrays overflowed onto the crowded surface.

Alice sighed. "I don't know." It was the truth.

"Well figure it out quick. You're on a timeline and unlike me, you've got options. You don't have to go through with it. Hell, you might still be able to graduate even though I don't know what good that would do."

"Do you wish you didn't have me?" Alice heard the words tumble out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"How can you ask me that?" her mother snapped. "I was too far along and not even a back-alley doctor would perform an abortion. God, you're not going to start crying are you? I'm giving you the truth. Alice. I did what I had to do, you know that. No matter how hard you pretend that you're better than me, you're going to screw it up like I did."

Alice swallowed the hurt, refused to give her wasted mother the satisfaction of seeing her tears. "Forget I asked."

She didn't know why she asked. Alice had always known that her mother resented her for derailing her life. It's not like it was great secret or anything. She brought it up frequently enough.

Later while Alice stared at her dark ceiling and rested a hand on her flat stomach, she vowed that her kid would never know what it felt like to be unloved.

-

Alice finished off her junior year, and on the first day of summer vacation, she knocked on The King's door.

"What?" he flung open the door. The faint smell of cheap whiskey strong enough to singe your digestive tract from the inside out lingered in the air. It wasn't even 10 o'clock in the morning and Alice couldn't tell if he was hungover or still drunk. "Alice...haven't you heard? Junior's gone Northside. Decided he'd rather live on his friend's couch than in this dump."

"Fuck him," she said earnestly and it must have been the right thing to say because his glassy eyes lit up. "I'm not here for him. I'm here for business."