"What is so special about it? It's just fast food." Archie and Betty walked into the most famous diner of the town, the sound of the bell above the door echoing through Pop's. The redheaded boy shook his head as he took her to the counter.
"This isn't just any fast food, Betty! It's really good. The best in the state." He smiled proudly, knowing that in a matter of time she would come to learn that he was absolutely right about that.
"If you say so..." Betty figured that he was just extrageratting because he was someone who loved junkfood. Though, she had to admit that the diner had a cute retro style that she loved a lot.
"Pop, can we have two cheese burgers, please?" Archie tapped his finger into the counter as he looked at the owner of the store, who like always had a smile for every customer.
"Sure you can. Who's your friend?" Pop smiled kindly and looked at Betty, who gave him a warm smile back.
"This is Betty Cooper, she moved in across the hall." Archie looked at the blonde next to him and grinned.
She wasn't sure what was waiting for her, but she hoped the high expectations would be met.
"Welcome to Riverdale, Betty. This one is on the house." Pop offered them the two burgers and without missing a beat Archie took his first bite, while Betty was still hesitating. She couldn't accept something like that from a stranger, could she?
"That's too kind, sir... I can't accept that." She took out her debit card, but Pop kindly refused it.
As a city girl she wasn't used to offers like this from people she had met seconds ago. This kind of kindness was new for her. However, it felt like something she could get used to.
"That's how it works here, Betty." Archie mumbled with his mouth full, being barely audible. T
he girl laughed and took the burger in her own hands and finally brought it to her mouth. An explosion of different spices hit her tastebuds and for a second she needed to stop to fully savor the moment of the very first time she ate a Pop's burger.
"Okay... wow. This is truly amazing." Betty chuckled as she swallowed her first bite, making both Archie and Pop look proud.
"And you haven't even tried their milkshakes yet." Archie playfully pushed her with his elbow and Pop took the hint to make them some.
"Thanks for showing me around, Archie. It means a lot." Betty said a little shyly, as opening up had never been a strong suit of hers.
Though, she had to admit that being around Archie with his welcoming energy did make her feel a lot better.
"It's my pleasure. You're fun to hang around with." He smiled at her, his cheeks flushing a little no matter how hard he tried to pretend that being with her didn't affect him the same way it did to her.
"What do you say we take some for everyone?" Archie offered after he took the first sip of the milkshake Pop had just brought them.
"Sounds great! I am sure my Mom is going to love this, too." Betty grinned brightly. She was sure they were going to be addicted to this diner food, but that was a risk she was willing to take.
"Aren't you tried yet of having dinner with us?" Her cheeks flushed, even when she tried to be casual about it.
If she was being honest with herself, she had felt like burden towards the Andrews family for hanging out there so often.
"Of course not. We love having you around. Your Mom gets along with my Dad and FP quite well, right?"
Archie assured her quickly that it was more than fine, especially since there seemed to grow a friendship between the two households.
"It sure looks that way. I am happy about that, she needs friends more than anything." Betty smiled softly as the thought of her mother, and how after months of sadness she saw her slowly becoming happy again.
**
After hearing a knock on the door Fred opened the door for Alice, gesturing for her to come further.
"Betty texted me to meet her here?" She held up the phone to share the text she had gotten, but Fred already knew what it was about.
"Yeah, they are brining Pop's. We want to see your reaction." There tugged a grin on his lips.
He knew like no other how amazing the diner food was and he was excited to see if she loved it as much as everyone in town does.
"What is Pop's exactly?" Alice asked curious, the name unfamiliar to her.
"Pop's is a diner close to our building. Their burgers and milkshakes are the best." Fred told her as he grabbed a few plates out of his cabinet, setting it on the kitchen island so they could eat there.
"So, just fast food?" Alice shrugged a little nonchalant, as she didn't understand why either Betty or Fred would hype it up like that if it wasn't anything more than a regular greasy American burger.
"It's almost adorable that she doesn't know what is waiting for her." FP shook his head playfully as he switched his look from Fred to Alice.
"Come on, it can't be that good." Alice crossed her arms and raised her eye-brow, willing to take the challenge.
Didn't everyone always think that the food from their town was better than anything else? This wouldn't be any different.
"Let your tastebuds be the judge of that." FP answered with a smug smile.
Before Alice could comment with a sassy remark, the front door opened again, revealing the oldest Cooper daughter.
"Mom, why did Betty text us to be here?" The girl looked confused, but walked into the Andrews apartment nevertheless.
"She brought take-out food, which is great because that means I don't have to cook." Alice beamed, making Fred and FP laugh.
"Alright, guess that can't hurt." The girl shrugged and sat down on one of the barstools next to her mother.
Alice wanted to ask what had gotten her into this mood, as she looked even more down than she had a few days before, but then Betty and Archie walked into the apartment with happy smiles plastered all over their faces.
"Ladies and gentleman, prepare for the best burger you have ever eaten." She basically ran over to the kitchen with the paper take-out bag in her hand and placed it in front of her mother and sister.
"So, Betty's sold?" Fred eyed his son with a smile.
"Oh, most definitely." Archie grinned back, looking at the scene in front of him.
"Come on, now I am curious and hungry. Give me that burger."
Alice dug into the bag and grabbed the first burger she saw and carefully unwrapped the paper around it, only holding it on the edges now so her hands wouldn't get greasy. Just before she was about to get a bite, she saw five pairs of eyes looking at her intensely.
"Can you stop staring at me, I am trying to eat." She huffed, making all of them laugh a little.
She sat her teeth into the bread and the meat of the burger, and from the very first second she could taste the flavor of the burger, she'd would swear it was the best thing she had eaten in a very long time. Fred, Archie, FP and Betty definitely lived up to the brag they had made about it.
"Oh god, this is so good." She let out a satisfied sigh as she chewed the very first bite of her Pop's burger, knowing for sure that it wouldn't be the last time she'd eat this.
"If I am dreaming, please don't wake me up." Alice tried to talk between bites, which came out as some sort of muffled sound.
"Jeez, get a room, Al." FP teased her playfully.
The kitchen filled with laughter by the others, who now started to eat their burgers too.
"Oh shut up." She rolled her eyes at his joke but couldn't stop a smile from appearing on her face.
"We're eating this every day for the rest of our lives." She pointed at her daughters, who nodded in agreement.
If that was a good idea was another thing, but they definitely all loved it way more than they had expected.
"That was FP's plan too, until he realized that might not be as good for his health." Fred laughed a little and elbowed his best friend.
After having eaten every little crumb in the take-out bags, nobody had room for anything more. The three teenagers laid on the couch together, trying their best not to move too much just in case they would explode.
"How about your kids grab a movie tonight? It's on me." Fred offered them politely, having a feeling that some bonding time would be good.
"Fred, you don't have to do that. I can pay for Betty and Polly." Alice intervened and already grabbed her purse to get them some money, but he held up his hand to stop her from doing so.
"Don't be crazy, it's my treat." He smiled kindly, and grabbed enough for the three of them to have a few night out. Snacks included, if they would find the room to eat any popcorn.
"Thanks Dad, you're the best." Archie thanked him gratefully and helped Betty and Polly to stood up, who send a kind smile towards Fred as well.
**
After a few hours of chatting together, Fred took a glance at the clock and noticed that it was past midnight already. Archie had come home an hour ago, which meant that Polly and Betty were home, too. He had a busy work day waiting for him tomorrow, so he figured that it would be best to go to sleep.
"I don't want to ruin the fun, but I am heading to bed. Feel free to stay though, Alice. If you dare to be alone with FP." He playfully joked at the two of them. FP faked a gasp.
"Hey! She is the one who came onto me, I should be the one scared to be alone with her." He pointed out, referring to the night where Alice had come onto him and didn't remember a single thing about it.
"Please, that was one time and I was drunk! Don't give yourself too much credit." Alice rolled her eyes even though she found the comment amusing.
At this point she was glad that it was an opportunity to joke about it, instead that she was still embarrassed of what had happened.
"You kids have fun. Don't forget I am one door away so don't do things my ears can't handle." He gave them a playful wink, making Alice and FP laugh.
"Sleep tight, Freddie." FP called after him, as Fred was leaving to his bedroom.
"You two are really close, aren't you?" Alice asked with a soft smile on her face as soon as she had heard the bedroom door shut. FP nodded and took a moment before fully answering what she had said.
"Fred is like my brother. I'd do anything for him. Without his help... I would probably be dead now. He really saved my life."
FP swallowed the emotion he could feel bottling up, not being in the mood to make this a big sob story once again. But Alice wasn't blind, she could see that talking about it wasn't easy.
"I wanted to thank you, for opening up to me. That meant a lot, especially when I was freaking out." Her voice was sweet and low, and when he looked up at her he felt his heart jump for a moment.
It had been a long time since he had shared his past with someone who was willing to listen the way she had.
"It was no big deal." He shrugged, trying to make it seem like he was totally fine with it. Almost as if it was an every day thing. But it wasn't.
FP only opened up when he felt comfortable around someone, and that was a really rare feeling.
"It was, FP. It was hard to do, I think you know that." She added as she tried to break though his walls just a little without going too far.
"Well, thank you for listening. Not many people actually care to hear the story of the depressed alcoholic who breaks up his family." He looked down at his feet in order to avoid looking into her eyes, still afraid to find some from of judgement that he wouldn't be able to handle.
He knew the look of pity and disappointment and he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle it if he would read that in her gaze.
"That's what friends do, right?" Alice smiled, the words slipping out so easily. However, she had no idea what a simple sentence like that meant to someone like FP.
"We're friends?" His eyes started to sparkle in hope and surprise and for a moment Alice fell silent.
She had never seen someone be so amazed by stating a simple thing as that they were friends, which in her eyes was something that was obvious.
But to FP it meant the world. When you had experienced years of letting people down and people letting you down, it was a world of difference when someone would tell him that they were friends, knowing his history and all. He had always felt like someone people would rather walk away instead of befriend, but Alice was different. She didn't judge him. He actually had a mate in her.
"Yeah, we are. If you're okay with that." She said softly as she realized how much of a deal this was to him.
"More than okay." FP smiled back, his eyes not leaving hers. But then he caught himself staring and cleared his throat.
"You uh, you want another glass of wine?" He stood up even before she could answer, but either way she wouldn't normally refuse having a drink.
She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to drink in his presence but she didn't need to ask, he could read the question in her eyes.
"Don't worry. It's alright. I've gotten used to it." He cleared up, assuring her that it was fine.
Sure, it was different when they were having dinner and only Fred and Alice had a glass of wine, when the kids didn't compared to when you were just with one other person who was drinking.
The context mattered to him, but with a lot of practice he had grown to be more and more okay with it. It was a process, but he tried really hard. He came back with her wine and smiled softly.
"Okay, tell me something funny. What is the weirdest place you had sex?" Alice tried to lighten the mood but a second after blurting out her impulse question she realized what that meant for FP. She wanted to take it back, but he didn't seem to be bothered.
"You really wanna hear that?" He started to chuckle by her boldness, but had to admit that he liked having someone to have this kind of conversations with without it being weird.
"Come on, don't be shy." She teased, a grin tugging on her lips once she could see on his face that was comfortable enough by her sudden question.
FP switched his seating position so his feet were now on the couch too and dug into his memory until he had found what he was looking for.
He was leaving behind all the meaningless hook-ups from the last few years, not only because he could barely remember them, but because that wasn't a fun memory on the first place.
"Okay, fine. That must have been in high school, on top of my girlfriends Dad's car." He answered the question honestly and chuckled a little.
"Is that so bad?" Alice questioned her eye-brow furrowing.
She had expected something extreme from him, as she had a feeling that he had some pretty wild teenage years.
"It was a Porsche. If he would have found out I would have been dead meat." He pointed out, and then she realized that it was indeed a little crazy considering what he had risked.
"And you?" He shoot her question back, his curiosity to her past growing now, too. Alice didn't have to think that long.
"I guess I'd say in the showers of the boys dressing room, during PE." She smiled a little smugly.
"Wow, you were a bad girl. Skipping class to get laid." FP let out a chuckle as he hadn't expected from her to do something like that, but maybe she had more of a wild past than had assumed.
"Well, it was once and never again." Alice laughed a little and shook her head before she took another sip from her drink.
"Yeah, I feel you. My crazy days are far behind me, too." He grabbed his soda from the coffee table and took a long chug.
"No more strange girls?"
"No more strange girls."
"But I know you, so I can make an exception." He elbowed her tease-fully.
"Are you starting again? I was wasted, don't blame me!" She pushed his chest, making his laugh fill the apartment.
"Hey, you're tipsy now aren't you? Two more wine and you're good to go." He gestured to her almost empty glass, making her smile.
"In your dreams, Jones." She said confidentially, telling him that it was never going to happen.
"In yours, you mean." He shot back and she rolled her eyes, a smile tugging on her lips. She would come to learn that both of them were more than right.