Meet Me Halfway

Chapter 14

If you had told Alice a year ago she'd be engaging in an after school or extra curricular activity, she would have laughed in your face, but last year Alice was a completely different person, and a lot had changed since then.

Despite her skepticisms over joining the Blue and Gold, she had actually begun to enjoy herself here. Everyone seemed nice enough to her and she was doing what she loved. What more could she had asked for?

Currently finishing up an article she had been working on all week, she was more than ready to make her way home, until being approached by a certain partner stopped her in her tracks.

"Wow." Hal proudly spoke, leaning slightly over her shoulder as he read what she had written on the computer. He was highly impressed by her writing and thought she added quite a unique factor to the newspaper. "You've got quite a knack for this type of writing.

Alice chuckles softly as she plays with her necklace. She had always been pretty modest. "Thanks, but it's nothing special, I just write what I see, and what I think, in quite expressive detail."

"Yeah, I can see that." He says with a smile before pulling up a chair and sitting down next to her.

She glanced in his direction, taking note of the charming grin upon his face.

"How about we go to Pops after you're done? My treat?" He kindly offers, flattering her in the same breath.

"Oh, uhm- I'm don't know. I'm kinda busy." She calmly declined. Wanting to avoid eye contact with him after the rejection, she casted her eyes towards the office window and they landed upon FP and Gladys cuddled up in a corner practically sucking each other's faces off, and it instantly changed her mood.

"Actually, you know what? I could do with a cheeseburger. Let's go."

•••

"So what made you wanna join the Blue and Gold?" Hal asked her as he tucked into his meal. The two of them had found a quiet booth to sit in away from the rest of the diner customers. It was the perfect opportunity to get to know each other.

"My friend suggested it, plus I've always enjoyed writing so I figured it would be the perfect extra curricular activity." She answered before sipping on her milkshake.

"I don't think I've seen around school before." He reveals. "But I'm glad I have now." He smirks at her.

"Yeah well our year group is pretty divided and segregated. Along with that I just keep to myself."

Leaning back into the leather seat, he rests his hand on top and twitches his lips into a soft smirk. "Well I guess fate must've brought us together then."

She chuckled a little, finding his lines to be slightly cheesy and thinking he was doing too much, but she didn't care, she could tolerate it as long as he didn't get on the wrong side of her.

"So where are you from?"

She paused her eating and gulped. The question took her a little by surprise.

"From.....here. Riverdale born and raised." She answered nervously, not wanting him to know she was from the Southside. He seemed charming and respectable enough, but she knew that meant a possible chance that he wasn't exactly Southside friendly and she wanted to get to know him properly before revealing such a huge part of herself.

"No, I meant neighbourhood." Hal clarified, taking another bite of his burger as he continued to glare at her from the other side of the table.

"I uhm, just the East side of Riverdale. I live with my Dad." She partly lies. The second part was still true.

"Well I live in the Walcott area. The best neighbourhood on the Northside." He brags with a hint of smugness in his voice. "I'm actually from one of the towns founding families, the Coopers."

She instantly stopped eating the minute she heard this, knowing damn well it was a lie.

"Uhm, founding families? Unless you're from the Uktena tribe of the Southside I find that very hard to believe." She argued.

"The Uktena tribe?" Hal repeated in confusion.

"Yes. The actual founding members of Riverdale? Whose tribe was slaughtered?"

"Well, you can't really take the words of Southsiders as the gospel truth now can you?" Hal pointed out with a slight scowl set on his face

Furrowing her brows in annoyance, she folded her arms and proceeded to grill about what he meant. "Oh yeah? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, that Southsiders are nothing but a bunch of lying, conniving criminals, gang members and thugs destroying this town with their drugs and lewd behaviour, ruining it for us hard working decent law abiding citizens. Of course a lie like that would be spouted by them."

She found it harder than ever to hold her tongue in that moment. Here he was, literally degrading her neighbourhood, her family, her friends. Heck, he was degrading her all along too. Maybe he wasn't the catch she thought after all.

"You have no idea what you're talking about-" She snapped before being cut off by him.

"I know enough! They've stolen from businesses, dealt drugs to innocent bystanders, trashed my family's newspaper-"

"Well maybe if your family didn't write utter bullshit about them they wouldn't feel the need to." She fiercely defended, her lips parting as she angrily barred her teeth. "And those drugs you speak of? They're not sold to innocent bystanders, they're sold to regular stuck up Northside crackheads looking for a thrill." Alice exaggerated.

"What do you care anyway? They're just a bunch of useless thugs, the sooner they're out of town the better." Hal questions.

Alice's mouth widened in surprise, closing her eyes and scoffing in disbelief. For her, that was the final straw.

"You know what?" She began as she grabbed her coat. "I think I'm gonna go, it's getting late anyway." She stood up and proceeded to walk away from the booth before Hal called out.

"Wait! At least let me give you a ride."

"No, thank you. It's not that far." She rudely declines before leaving out the door, thankful that she was finally away from him. Thank God he showed himself before things went any further.