Falice 2

Do You Love Him?

"I've never heard you once say that you love him," FP gets her to halt at the door. She turns around to face him. He carefully takes a step in her direction. "Do you love him?"

"I'm marrying him." Alice is not going to let him change her mind. She came to say what she had to say and that was that.

"Do you love him?" He asks again, refusing to let her walk away without giving him an answer.

"I'm not doing this with you." She opens the door.

"Do you love me?" He dares to ask.

She can not look back at him, at that look she knows is on his face. She knows that if she does, she will cry too. She steps out, and with that parts way with him for the next twenty years.

+

"Dad?" FP's son pushes the trailer door open. He pokes his head in and looks around. He finds him in the kitchen, bottle to his lips and hand over his eyes.

"Dad, we talked about this." Jughead, irritated, yanks it from his hands.

FP grunts.

"Why aren't you ready?" Jughead tosses the drink in the sink. "You promised."

"I'm not going," FP stands up and shuffles to his room. "I'm meeting the Serpents at the Wyrm."

"You can't do one measly thing for me, can you?" He blocks him. "It's not like I'm asking you to bother to fix your marriage anymore. I'm begging you to, for once, put me first."

"The hell are you talking about? I always put you kids first."

Jughead crosses his arms and glares at him. "Yeah, I'll make sure to tell JB that the next time I see her."

"Hey, your mom left us. She took JB from us."

"I wonder why," Jughead grinds through his teeth.

FP glares at him.

"What?" He scoffs. "Just because you let your wife down doesn't mean you have to make me let my girlfriend down. She's counting on me to bring you over for dinner. Is that too much to ask?"

"I don't mix with those Coopers. You do as you please," FP shoves past him and grabs his Serpent jacket from the chair in his room. "But I'm not going."

Jughead grabs him by the collar as he walks by again. "If you walk out that door I will never forgive you."

FP shoves his hand off.

"You know damn well that this is the last chance I'm giving you before giving up on you for good. Is this really how you want to waste it?"

FP shakes his head and shrugs off his jacket. "You have no idea what you're asking me to put up with, boy." He turns on his heel and marches back to his room to get changed.

+

Jughead parks the truck in front of the Cooper house. FP spent the last hour sobering up for the dinner.

Jughead turns to his dad. "Be good."

"I'm doing this for you and your girl," FP pushes the passenger door open. "Keep that in mind."

FP and Jughead knock on the front door. The door pulls open and Betty comes out to greet them. "Juggie!" She hugs him. She looks over at FP. "You must be Mr. Jones. It's nice to finally meet you."

"You must be Betty," FP shakes her hand.

"Elizabeth Cooper, future novelist." Betty proudly smiles. "Come in. Come in. The table is all set.