The Story of Emma Andrews

Finalized

"Emma, can you come with us real quick?" Fred gestured for the strawberry-blonde to follow behind him and Archie. 

Looking up from her laptop, she got off of her bed and nodded. Sharing an equally confused look, the twins were led out of the door and onto the front porch.

Emma stood against the porch railing as her dad and brother sat on the bench. She hugged herself, cursing at the cool October morning breeze. Instantly she had regret her pajama shorts.

Fred could see the two oddly eyeing him before cutting to the chase. The two of them knew that their dad would be flying out to Chicago to meet with Mary.  "So, the good news is that all the divorce papers and legal mumbo jumbo will be done. Should be behind us by the end of the week." 

Emma could see the confliction on Archie's face. The strawberry-blonde figured that her dad was leaving town to finalize the divorce, something both her parents were pushing for.

 Archie, however, was the only person who hadn't saw it coming.

His eyebrows furrowed out of confusion. "Are you only going to see mom now because you and Hermione Lodge..." Archie trailed off.

"No, no, son, I ended that. Being together, working together, not a good idea."

"But, in that case, why finalize things in such a final way now?" Archie looked to Emma hoping that she would back him up. Yet, his sister was on a whole different page from him.

Emma smiled meekly at her brother, "When are they suppose to do it, Arch? It's been two years. Mom just got a new position that is sole base is in Chicago."

Fred nodded lightly, "Sometimes, son, you just gotta rip the Bad-Aid off." Fred stood up making his way to the stairs. Archie shook his head at his dad's comment.

Emma could tell Archie was not giving up without a fight. "Or you could go and fix things."

"We're past that point, Archie."

"Come on, Arch..." Emma grabbed her brother's arm, hoping he wouldn't start. "I spoke to mom last week, she didn't mention any of this, Dad." He looked at Emma, knowing she didn't hear anything either.

"Yeah, she didn't tell you because she wanted me to be the bearer of bad news." Emma looked at Archie as watched Fred go down the stairs and towards his car. 

She knew Archie was not okay with the idea. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Shaking his head, he went inside, not wanting to deal with his parent's divorce anymore. Emma felt bad, but she knew that her parents were happier apart than together. Mary and Fred Andrews got along better when apart than the last year of their marriage. 

Archie wouldn't admit it, but he knew this was for the best. There parents tried to make things work for the sake of their children, yet like many things, sometimes good things need to come to an end. 

Emma wasn't hurt by her parents move to finalize their divorce, she hoped it would help their relationship. Watching her mother mourn the peril of their relationship hurt her, but now he mom was happy. And so was her father. 

She had faith that Archie would soon realize that. 

Waving to her dad as he pulled out of the driveway, Emma returned into the warmth of her house. Ignoring Archie ranting in the next room to Jughead, utterly frustrated at the entire situation.

***

Emma picked at her food as Veronica talked about her latest drama at the Pembroke.

The strawberry blonde was clearly not interested, wishing she had stay home just like Jughead. Her bed sounded much better than Veronica ranting about her mom and her dad's lawyer attempting to coax her into lying about how she truly felt about her dad coming home.