Chances ▻ Riverdale

5

Eliza sat on a bar stool at the Wyrm with a glass of whiskey in front of her. Hog Eye came over, about to fill her glass. After doing so, he was about to walk away, but Eliza grabbed ahold of the bottle, placing a finger to her lips. Hog Eye sighed, rolling his eyes as he allowed her to have the bottle.

"Eliza," She heard a familiar voice speak up as she drank from the bottle.

Eliza placed the bottle back down, turning her head to see FP standing before her, looking nervous, seeing as he was in the Serpent's hangout. Or maybe it was because he was standing in front of Eliza, the girl who just punched him in the face for a reason he did not know of.

"You shouldn't be here, Bulldog," Eliza told him while giving him a cold stare, "This is Southside Serpent territory and last time I checked, you're not a Serpent."

FP sighed out, walking a bit closer to Eliza, "Alice said you'd be here," He informed her quietly.

Eliza scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Well, Alice sucks at keeping secrets." She commented, sounding deeply annoyed.

"Tell me what I did, Eliza!" FP nearly shouted at Eliza, causing numerous Serpents that were in the bar to turn to glance at them, "I don't even know what the hell I did."

"You went out with me for a competition that you were in with the other football players!" She shouted at him as she stood up from her seat.

She was a bit buzzed, causing her to stumble a bit. FP went to help her, but she placed the palm of her hand outwards, telling him to stay where he was, "I'll admit, they included me in the competition, but that wasn't the reason I went out with you, Liza. I like you. A lot, actually," He confessed to her, "I'm your best friend. Why were you so inclined to believe the rumors? I would never hurt you. Not on purpose."

"Because everyone always lets me down," Eliza admitted to him, "My mom left me with my abusive drunk of a father, my sister skipped down the minute she turned eighteen, my dad clearly doesn't care about me, he just wants me to take his place in the Serpents, and all the boys at school want from me is sex. So do you understand why I am so inclined to believe that you would screw me over?"

FP walked forward, grabbing Eliza's hand, "I will never let you down, Eliza. I promise you. I will never do anything to hurt you. You gotta believe me when I say that." He promised her and Eliza slowly nodded her head in understanding.

"I'm sorry that I expected the worst from you." Eliza apologized and FP nodded, pulling Eliza in for a hug.

"Let's start fresh and forget everything that went wrong with this night." FP suggested and Eliza pulled away from hugging FP.

"I'm down with that," She replied, a smile forming on her lips, "Let's go to Pop's."

"Sounds great," FP smiled back at Eliza, grabbing her head as they headed outside.

______

FP and Eliza ended up spending about two hours at Pop's having the time of their lives. For once in Eliza's life, she felt like a regular teenage girl. She didn't feel like she was the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She didn't even like a Serpent. But all that was ruined when she went back home.

Eliza smiled as she entered her father's trailer, closing the door behind her, "We need to talk," Her father suddenly spoke up as he stood up from his seat in the living room.

Eliza frowned, turning to face her father. He only ever needed to talk with her when it had to do with the Serpents, "So much for a night of being just a normal teenage girl." She thought to herself before finally speaking up, "What is it?" She asked her father curiously, placing her jacket on the coat hanger that was near the door.

"Forsythe and I voted on it with the rest of the Serpents. We want you to do the male initiation. To know if you're really worthy of being the next leader of the Serpents," James informed her in a calm tone and Eliza couldn't help but notice, for the first time in a while, he actually looked sober, "Your initiation will start in a few hours. First with you assuming guardianship of the beast."

"You mean, Hot Dog?" Eliza asked, a concerned look on her face.

"The Beast," James argued and Eliza sighed, nodding her head in response.

"Okay, okay. I'm ready," She replied before turning around, ready to walk back to her bedroom.

"I swear, you better not screw this up, Eliza!" James shouted to her as Eliza closed her bedroom door and plopped down on her bed.

Eliza ended up dozing off to sleep a few minutes after her face hit the pillow. Several hours later, she began to stir in her sleep when she heard footsteps nearby. Thinking it was just her father walking around the chair, Eliza ignored it. Only to abruptly sit up when the sheet covering her body was ripped off the bed, "What the hell!" Eliza exclaimed, her eyes wide when she sat up to see five Serpents standing at the foot of her bed, wearing snake masks over their heads to hide their identity.

"Your initiation begins now," The person standing in the front of the group spoke up, "With you assuming guardianship of the beast."

Eliza frowned, clearly recognizing the voice of the person, "Johnny?" She questioned, but he ignored her.

The person she assumed to be Johnny moved out of the way and allowed another gang member to place Hot Dog, the Serpent's dog, down on Eliza's bed.

Like ghosts, the Serpents disappeared from the room as Hot Dog rushed over to Eliza, showing her with kisses. Eliza laughed out, petting Hot Dog as he licked her face, "Aww, you're so cute!" She smiled brightly, only to make a disgusted look when she caught a whiff of how bad he smelled, "And in deep need of a bath."

Eliza turned her, glancing over at the clock to see that it read five AM, "I guess we can give you a bath now, Hot Dog. We'll have to head to the pet store first to get you some supplies first though."

Eliza immediately jumped out of bed, changing out of the clothes she fell asleep in. Once doing so, she brought Hot Dog along with her as she headed toward the door. She placed on her jacket before heading out, Hot Dog following along with her.