She hated the diner.
It had started off as something simple, simple waitress at a low end diner; trying to pave her way to college because her parents couldn't afford to give her, her ticket out of here. Alice Cooper never hated anything more than living in the South side till she had actually started to work at Pops. She hated the hours, she hated the people and most of all she hated the smell. The smell was by far the worst part of the job. She hated the way that she would come home to the broken trailer and reek of old coffee beans and burgers. She hated everything till he showed up.
FP Jones was the reason why she worked.
She didn't like him at first to say; boy from the wrong side of the tracks who was involved with the wrong kind of activities. He was arrogant and nosy, loud too when he would arrive at midnight hungover and craving a slice of cherry pie. She had figured out long before he thought she had that he had memorized her work schedule.
On Mondays he would arrive at 6am sharp and order a coffee and an omelet full of cheese and ham. He would tease her about her hair and how she should dye it brown or even purple if she was really feeling crazy. Tuesdays he would come at 3:30, order a large coke and a cheeseburger (extra pickles) and then call me Allie Cat because he knew for a fact that it pissed her off. Wednesday and Thursday she didn't work so he would find her sitting in the back of the old bleachers alone and tell her that she needed to stop being a stick in the mud and join in with him and his friends. She didn't need friends, she needed to stay focused so she could get the hell out of Riverdale. Fridays were the best days, along with Saturday. Her shift was late and he would always arrive right before closing, telling her 'I arrived at 11:59 Allie Cat, technically speaking I am allowed to enter'. It had seemed that every single day FP Jones wanted to see how many buttons he could push until she would finally combust.
On Halloween she couldn't take it anymore and called him out on all of it. Him dressed up as a pirate and her as a well diner girl. He had ordered the usual cheeseburger and fries before sliding over a large tip.
"Allie, you never told me why you work here?"
She paused and scrubbed the counter peering up at him.
"You never asked, that and no one ever cares."
He paused and creased her cheek gently, enjoying how her cheeks turned red at the contact.
"I care Allie.." He whispered and she sighed jerking back.
"My home life isn't swell. My father is a drunk and my mother sometimes hits me when she gets too mean. I don't have that life that you have in the South Side. I don't want to join a gang or become another one of the south side mothers- young and alone. I want to leave this hell hole. I want to become a writer, do more with my life. So, as soon as I turn 18 I will be leaving and that is a promise." She whispered to him, even though she knew no one was there.
He peered at her before kissing her gently and pulled away.
"No ones life is swell Allie. " He whispered and left placing a small tip on the table.
'What in the hell was that..' She thought before wiping off the table.
The next few weeks were like cat and mouse between the two of them. Alice would go to work and find FP no where in the building. At school he stopped staring at her and calling her Allie cat. He just stopped and it down right pissed her off. He was just screwing with her this whole time. He just wanted to throw her off her game. He wouldn't throw her off, he wouldn't- until he did.
The one thing Alice hated more than having attention thrusted upon her was having it suddenly revoked.
It wasn't until a cold winter's night that she finally gave up and mentally noted to herself that she was in fact interested in FP Jones. How she was now somehow infatuated with this annoying goofball that knew how to make a leather jacket look like the coolest thing ever. How she had come to this thought about closing time when she stared down at her black coffee and heard the door open and long and behold there he was covered in snow.
"I would like a steaming hot cup of coffee, one cream and two sugars."
"FP do you even know how to read, we are closed."
"Alice, Alice, Alice you really should start locking the doors at 11:30 so you can properly kick me out. If the clock tells me correctly it is 11:59 and you must serve me." He winked. He had the actual nerve to wink at her.
"Also Allie Cat."
"FP, you call me that one more time and I will bash your face into that coffee maker."
"Fine. Alice. Add on a delicious slice of that cherry pie would you?" She dug her nails into her hands till she could feel marks forming.
She slid over the plate and glass which he of course gracefully caught and sat across from him.
"You ignored me." She said softly, not bothering to even look at him.
"You kinda sent the message that you were not interested in me what so ever Alice." He called her Alice, usually it would be ok but for some reason it hurt.
"You kissed me and then just ignored me and went back to being completely in love with stupid Hermonie." She hissed back even though inside she was just broken up.
"Again Alice. You pretty much told me you hated me." He stated and stared into her eyes leaning in a bit. "But, part of me believes that you do in fact love me and are bothered over the fact that I stopped paying attention to you."
She looked at him nodding gently. "Maybe I did." She whispered before she felt his hands grab her face and kiss her forcefully.
He kissed her everywhere. He kissed her head, her nose and mouth before scooping her up and laying her across the diners booth table. Everything had been frantic, as if if they didn't do this at this exact moment that they would never get the chance again.
Clothes were quickly discarded and more kisses were exchanged before the diner was filled with loud moans and breathy whispers as skin hit skin at a rapid pace before she let out a scream and he groaned leaving them both breathless on the table.
"Did you really just have sex with me on the table in the place where I work?" She asked once they were done.
"You are really gonna have to wipe this table down later Allie.."
"FP do not tell me how to do my job. I will clean this table mediocre and watch customers eat off of the place where we first had sex ok."
The next two months were blissful. He came over to her trailer and made love to her or slept with her. She would lay back in his old van butt naked while he played the guitar and tell her that she would make a good journalist. There were even the few times where they would sneak off to behind the bleachers before lunch ended and would enter bio with mixed matched sneakers and frizzy hair. He knew everything about her. He protected her. He loved her. So it had come to a complete surprise to both of them when Alice had informed him that she was late.
"How could this happen Allie." He hissed as he held her hair in the parking lot of an old abandoned supermarket.
She groaned vomiting again before wiping her face. "I don't know Forysthe did you ever bother to use a rubber?" She whined before throwing up again.
He sighed and rubbed her back, trying to support her. "Every time except for the… oh god damn it." He yelled causing her to jump.
"What?"
"The diner.. "
She groaned and leaned back on him reaching into her backpack and took out the pregnancy test.
Ten minutes in the porta potty was excruciating. Alice could already see all her dreams just evaporating and see her new less happy life reappear. It wasn't tell she saw the two lines did she crumple. So much for getting out. So much for New York. So much for being a journalist.
"Allie... Allie cat is it positive?" He whispered knocking on the door and she jammed the test in his hands dead silent.
"We can fix this, I'll marry you and we can raise this baby Al." He whispered to her and she buried her face in his chest.
She came to him at the diner a week later, the uniform a bit tighter on her usual slender figure.
"Hal told me he knows of a clinic that can take care of this." She whispered to him as she poured his coffee.
"Allie do you really want to abort our baby? Are you that heartless?" He growled under his breath and her own skin crawled.
"FP do you honest to god think that we are going to have this cookie cutter life? You and me with this baby? NO I need to get out of this shit town. I saved enough money to get the procedure all I need is for you to drive me there." She hissed.
He shook his head throwing down a five.
"Allie if you get this… this procedure done I am through with you." He said softly under his breath.
She stared at him, her heart shattering at the thought.
"Well fine. I will ask Hal to drive me. It looks like we are over."
She hated doctors' offices more than she hated work. She had to lie to her boss and say that she had a lady doctor visit.
She hated how clean the office smelt when she laid back on the table before the operation. She hated how shiny the tools were. She hated how much it hurt. She hated how much she bled. She hated the smug smile on Hal's face when they left. She hated how much guilt and emptiness she felt after it was done. She hated how she bled at work so much that at 11:59 she was scrubbing blood off the floor.
She had realized that he hated her more.
After the abortion FP didn't look at her anymore.
He had Glady's now, she had Hal.
She got out for a couple years before she ended up right where she was before. It was different now, her dark hair was now bleached to a nice sunshine yellow. She lived on the nice side of town. She had a nice home, white picket fence with daisies in the front lawn. She had a husband now- the same man that had driven her to get an abortion down in peaks. He was nice enough, he had a stable job with her in the department. They had two daughters- two perfect blonde daughters. Polly had been the surprise, a honeymoon baby. Betty was that child that was going to save their marriage and in all actuality she did.
She had found out on the first day of daycare that FP had a son. Jughead Jones, same age as Betty. Seeing him for the first time destroyed her. Would their son or daughter would of looked like that?
She still hated Pops.
20 years later she still hated the place that represented her whole high school years. Here she was now on the other side at their booth. The booth where she had lazily scrubbed down after the conception of their aborted child.
She was 37 now. No longer 17. She was a mother. A grandmother (here was her daughter making the same mistakes as her but having the balls to actually keep the twins).
She stared down at her cup of black coffee wondering if the past twenty years were nothing but a circle. She was still stuck in a place that she hated, still reeking of old coffee and hamburgers.
She paused when she heard the familiar sound of the bell.
"One coffee, extra cream, two sugars and add a slice of cherry pie."
His order. The one order she could never forget.
"Hey Allie cat, it seems some things never change."