𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭; riverdale

005 | what are you running from?

"I feel grown up with you in your car / I know it's dumb." -Lorde

As soon as the movie ended, Faye booked it out of the Drive-in theater. She needed to get away from everyone—Kevin and Veronica, who she'd found lamenting the scum of the Southside as soon as she got back to the truck. The Serpents. Carmen.

Oh, god. Where the actual hell was she supposed to go now?

Home?

It wasn't like she had any other options.

She almost wanted to cry. The only place Faye ever felt safe in Riverdale was her tiny, dingy apartment with her sister. And now, even that had been taken from her. With her shoulders hunched, she took long steps, towards a place where she used to feel at home.

Faye's grip around the knife in her pocket was so tight her nails were digging crescents into her palm, and she was so on edge about the combination of a killer roaming town and her sister keeping a massive secret from her that, had Reggie Mantle not been in his car when he approached, it was very likely indeed that Faye might have stabbed him.

"Hey!" he called, slowing down next to her. "What are you running from?"

Faye screamed until she realized who he was. "What the—"

"Jesus, Pham. I was just gonna offer you a ride."

She considered it. Loose killer, Reggie Mantle. All things considered, he was the safer option. But still. "I'm going home. It's out of your way."

"It's not, actually," he said. Reggie leaned across the car and pushed the door open. "Come on."

In a car, she actually had a chance of making it home on time, so Faye reluctantly climbed in, trying to sink into her jacket as much as possible.

"Why were you running down an unlit backroad in the middle of the night?" he asked her. "Just curious."

Faye sighed. "I snuck out, and I need to get home before my sister realizes."

Reggie whistled lowly. For a moment, he didn't move, just gave her a once-over that seemed—impressed? That couldn't be right. Faye waited for him to continue. "Well, in that case," Reggie said, before yanking the gearshift, switching the car into drive, and immediately flooring it.

The engine roared and the tires screeched against the pavement as they accelerated, Faye slamming back into her seat from the force of it all. "Oh my god—" she squawked, seizing her seatbelt like it was a pearl necklace and she was an actress in a 40s drama who just found out her husband was murdered. "How fast are you going?"

Reggie shrugged. "Sixty. It's fine, relax."

It was not fine, and Faye did not relax. She gritted her teeth as he rounded a sharp corner and started cutting through the road that bisected Fox Forest. "Why are you going to the Southside, anyway?" Faye demanded, wanting just one thing in her life to make sense.

"My supplier's Southside," Reggie replied, reaching for the radio and switching it on. Loud, bass-heavy music immediately filled the car, sound expanding and making the walls vibrate.

"Supplier for what!" Faye shouted over the music.

"Dude!" Reggie said, giving her a disbelieving look. "Drugs."

Oh. Well. That did actually make sense, unlike everything else that was happening. Reggie zig-zagged through the Fox Forest road, haphazardly crossing the lane dividers and whipping the car around with ease. Faye thought she might die, and then realized, if she died in Reggie's car, at least Carmen wouldn't have the chance to kill her.