Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Riverdale or any of that. If you recognize it, then it is not mine. Also...this story will include a romantic relationship between an older man and a teenage girl, though there most likely won't be smut. Fair Warning.

CHAPTER 2

Evelyn didn't think any more about her encounter with Jughead's father in the days following the closing of the Twilight Drive-in. Her days instead were filled with constant worry about her friends and family, particularly Archie and Betty. Archie had been looking morose for a few days after the Drive-in closed and Evie was sure that it had something to do with his music tutor Miss Grundy quitting out of the blue. Evelyn couldn't quite say that she was disappointed about Miss Grundy quitting. She had caught Miss Grundy eying her elder brother in a way that made her distinctly uncomfortable several times. Since she had left, Archie had been throwing himself more and more into his football and farther and farther away from his music. He'd stay up at all hours punching the bag in his room until the dull thud thud thud became a never ending presence in Evie's ears.

As for Betty, well, she was getting more and more enamored with the Jason Blossom case, and had even enlisted Jughead's help in recreating Sheriff Keller's "murder board" as most of the Sheriff's files had been stolen the night of the final drive-in showing. Then there was Cheryl.

Evelyn had an odd relationship with the ginger bombshell, one that most people didn't understand. It's not like Cheryl was really THAT much nicer to Evelyn than she was to anyone else. She acted superior, and could say things that hurt Evelyn's feelings but Evie was much more adept at dealing with her behavior. In a way, she felt that she empathized with Cheryl more than anyone they knew. After all, like Cheryl, Evelyn was part of a set. She and Archie were born just minutes apart and while they differed very greatly in both appearance (her coloring being taken from her father while Archie's was their mom through and through) and personality, unlike the Blossoms, Evelyn knew that she and her brother were about as close as Jason and Cheryl were. She couldn't imagine losing Archie. The thought of it, being separated from the one person who had always had her back, who she had been with since the beginning, it was unbearable. This empathy allowed Evelyn to be more patient with Cheryl than most, to be more understanding. In return for this, Cheryl seemed to be a fraction less icy with Evie than she was with others.

Evelyn had been worried about Cheryl all week. Jason's funeral was fast approaching and she could see that Cheryl's ice queen facade seemed to be cracking slightly. She was hurting. A lot. And Evelyn knew that there wasn't much, if anything, that she could do. No words she could say would help the fact that Cheryl was burying her brother and best friend.

It was the day of the funeral and Evelyn sat in a chair next to her friends in the receiving room of Thornhill. She watched in pride as Archie handed Mrs. Blossom her sons football jersey, watched the wistful emotions that passed over the grieving mother's face as she looked at her brother, and felt a wave of sadness hit her. She hadn't really known Jason Blossom, had maybe said ten words to him in her whole life. She couldn't say whether he was a good person or not, what kind of character he had, but she was certain of one thing. He was just a kid. Just a kid who didn't deserve to get murdered, a kid who didn't deserve to get his whole life cut short. Now, because of the actions of one person Mrs. Blossom was grieving the loss of a son when she should have been cheering him on at football games and Cheryl was-well, Cheryl was currently walking into the room and oh my god what was she wearing?

Clad in a snow white dress, hands encased in white lace gloves clasped in front of her, Cheryl Blossom commanded the attention of the entire room as she walked up to the podium in front of her brother's casket. Her back was straight, head held high, and her eyes were facing forward, facing Jason. Evelyn felt another small surge of pride, as well as one of sympathy as Cheryl began to speak. She poured out her pain, ending by crying against Jason's casket, gasping sobs and apologies to her dead brother being the only sound heard in the room for several seconds. Then it was over. Penelope Blossom rose and directed everyone into an adjoining room and that was that. Jason Blossom would finally be laid to rest.

The day after the funeral held more revelations for Evelyn and her friends. Jughead and Betty had come to school practically brimming with anticipation as they told Evelyn, Veronica and Archie the news that Jason and Polly had been secretly engaged, with the blessing of Nana Rose Blossom. While everyone else muttered and expressed their shock over the new development Evelyn could only internally sigh. She just knew that this would only encourage Betty to delve deeper into the murder mystery, which is the last thing she'd wanted. Evelyn wanted her friends safe and alive, not found in a river with a bullet between the eyes. Maybe that made her colder than her friends, but that was something she was willing to deal with. She wanted justice for Jason, yes, but she didn't want her friends to become Jason in the process.

The one positive development of the day was that Archie had apparently decided to focus on his music again, and had turned down a captaincy position on the football team. He was even considering auditioning for the variety show, something which Evelyn supported wholeheartedly.

Evelyn watched in anticipation as her brother took the stage for his audition, smiling in encouragement when his eyes met hers and turning to glare at the rude idiots from the football team that were heckling her brother the moment he looked away. She watched as Archie seemed to focus on the jerks behind her, saw him seem to brace himself. He looked absolutely terrified, paler than usual and Evie could make out the droplets of sweat on his face from her seat. Archie sat in silence for about 45 seconds before abruptly running off the stage, mocking laughter following him from behind Evelyn. She rose angrily and turned to leave the auditorium, intent on finding her brother.

"Assholes!" she seethed as she wandered the hallways looking for Archie. She couldn't believe that they could be so rude to her brother, someone they would claim as a friend! "Heckle my brother you air-headed, roided up dickwads! When I see you again I'm going to-" her angry mutterings came to a halt as she caught sight of her brother sitting on the ground in front of his locker with Valerie from the pussycats, appearing to be in deep discussion. Well well well, what do we have here?

She continued to watch from a distance until Valerie suddenly got up and walked away, with Archie looking at her back almost wistfully. Taking this as her cue, Evelyn sidled up next to her brother and plopped down. He looked up, startled brown eyes relaxing when he caught sight of her.

"Hey Evie," he sighed, and she could hear the sadness in his voice, tell how disappointed he was in the defeated slump of his shoulders.

"Oh, Archie…." gently Evelyn took one of her brother's arms from where it was clutching his knees and wrapped it around her own shoulder. She burrowed closer to his chest and felt him relax even more. Since they were little this had been a surefire way to comfort her brother, the silent assurance by Evelyn that she was there for him, and wouldn't be going anywhere. "Do you want to tell me what that was about?"

Archie shrugged his shoulders minutely. "I'm not really sure. I was fine and then I got up there and suddenly I felt like I couldn't breathe. My throat just tightened up and I-" he huffed a short, frustrated breath, "-I just couldn't sing. I don't know what's wrong with me Evie."

Here Evelyn sat up and turned to look her brother in the eyes. "Now you listen to me, Archibald Andrews. There is NOTHING wrong with you. You just got a little stage fright, that's all. It's a perfectly normal thing to experience, and I have faith that you will overcome it and kick-ass in the variety show next week."

A smile grew on Archie's face. "Promise?"

"Promise. And you know I always keep my promises." As she said this, Evelyn stood up and reached for her brother's hand, pulling him up beside her. They began to walk down the hallway towards the auditorium where both of them had left their bags in a comfortable silence.

As they neared the auditorium doors, Archie suddenly stopped and looked down at his sister with worried eyes. "Evie, I didn't actually audition, there's no way that I'll be allowed to compete in the variety show!" Evelyn smiled reassuringly.

"Kevin is judging the auditions, remember? He's heard you sing enough times to know that your music is amazing Arch. I'm sure he will let you compete."

As it turned out Evelyn was correct and Kevin would be allowing Archie to compete, thanks in large part to Veronica's persuasive efforts. Not only that, but Veronica had offered to sing with Archie in order to help him with his stage fright. All in all, everything had seemed to be shaping up nicely. Right up until it all went topsy-turvy.

Valerie had apparently quit the Pussycats in order to perform with Archie at the variety show, which prompted Archie to immediately accept Val and boot Ronnie. This made Veronica understandably upset, something that Archie didn't seem to understand which-seriously Archie, you don't get why that was a very not cool thing to do-Evelyn loved her brother but sometimes she wondered what went on in that brain of his. Betty and Jughead were pretty much MIA for the entirety of the variety show drama, so Evelyn was left to deal with a hurt Ronnie and confused Archie by herself which was so. much. fun….. NOT!

By the night of the show, everything had seemed to smooth out for the most part. Veronica and Valerie both sang backup for the Pussycats and they sounded incredible. Then Archie came up on stage by himself and proceeded to wow the whole crowd. Evelyn, who was seated next to her father, was sure that hers was the loudest applause of the whole audience.

The morning after the Variety show was normal enough for Evelyn. Archie had woken up early enough to decide that he wanted to work out down at the school and, since Evie had nothing better to do, she joined him (not to work out of course, but maybe she could walk a couple laps around the gym or something). When they arrived Archie split and headed for the weight room while Evelyn made her way to the gymnasium. She busied herself with walking and letting her mind wander for a little under an hour before she made her way out to find her brother. She was shocked to see that when she found him, he was not alone.

Her brother was walking down the hallway towards her, Jughead keeping pace next to him, his hair soaking wet and surprisingly not covered by his signature beanie. She quickened her pace to meet them.

"Good morning Jughead, what brings you down here this early?" This close she could tell that he had apparently just showered.

"He's about to show us," Archie interjected before Jughead could even respond and Evelyn could see that his jaw seemed to be tense. Before she could ask just what Jughead would be showing them, Jughead opened the door to a storage closet underneath the stairs and Evelyn found out.

Inside the cramped space was a cot, blanket, bags full of clothes, alarm clock, and a pile of books. Jughead had been living in the school.

Archie turned to Jughead after surveying the area, voice tight with anger. "How long?" he asked. Jughead just looked at him for a second before replying.

"Since the drive-in. It was where I was living before" Evelyn looked at him aghast.

"What about your home Jug? Why aren't you living with your family?" Jughead released a short, sardonic laugh before responding.

"After your dad fired my dad everything gradually fell apart. Dad couldn't hold down a job, and his drinking got worse and worse. Finally, at the beginning of the summer, Mom took Jellybean and left. I got out of there soon after. Haven't really been back to the trailer since." The whole time he was telling his tale Jughead was looking at the ground, bitterness in his voice audible.

Evelyn could do nothing but think for several moments. She couldn't believe that things had gotten so bad for Jughead and she hadn't even noticed! She hadn't realized that his dad's drinking had gotten so bad. Of course, she'd always had a peripheral sort of awareness that FP Jones had a liking for the bottle, but she'd never recalled it being such a hindrance to the Jones family. For the first time since the night that she'd run into him, Evelyn took a moment to think about her last encounter with FP Jones.

He hadn't looked drunk when she'd bumped into him, even though it was certainly late enough in the night for him to be so. The area around his dark brown eyes had been white, not bloodshot. There'd been slight dark circles underneath his eyes, but nothing too crazy. The flannel underneath his leather jacket had looked clean, and actually the whole outfit had been sort of rugged but still put together. He hadn't looked quite as bad as Jughead described. In fact, he looked sort of-good. Smelled good too, Evelyn remembered. Like cigarettes and soap and the musky scent of a man. She kind of wanted to bury her nose in that scent forever and-what the hell was she thinking?!

Evelyn quickly opened her eyes, mortified to discover that she'd closed them in the first place, so caught up was she with thinking about her friend's dad. Oh god. She'd just thought that her friends father, a man at least 20 years older than her, a man who'd been friends with her father for christ's sake, looked good. She'd been practically drooling at the memory of his smell! Thoroughly caught up in her tumultuous thoughts, Evie was barely aware of following her brother back home. She thought he may have said something about asking their dad about something with Jughead but she was too far gone to really pay attention. This was a matter that beared careful thought and consideration. But later. For now, school.

It turns out that Evelyn was able to put FP from her mind for the rest of the day, for the rest of the next few days actually, as Riverdale drama took the forefront of her life once more. Apparently a car carrying items belonging to Jason Blossom had been found by Betty and Jughead and torched before the police could get there. Polly Cooper, who was apparently missing from her group home, was the main suspect in the arson as well as a new frontrunner for the winner of the "Who Killed Jason Blossom?" mystery. After several days of searching for Polly, with Cheryl and the Blossoms smearing her name, the Coopers released a press statement that Polly was pregnant with Jason's child, and the rumors about her were false. Somewhere in the midst of this chaos, Jughead moved out of the closet under the stairs and into Archie's bedroom with her father's blessing. As the chaos died down, however, it soon became apparent to Evie that she would not be able to escape thoughts of FP Jones forever.

After some coaxing from Archie, Fred Andrews had decided to extend a job offer FP's way which, after some pleading from Jughead, FP accepted. That is how Evelyn found herself in her current position. Curled up on a couch in her dad's trailer office, listening to Jughead and Archie banter while they waited for their father's to finish up a long day at work. Finally, when Evelyn was half-asleep the door to the trailer opened up and her father and FP walked in, immediately causing the boys to straighten up in their seats. Evie half-heartedly rose her head from the armrest in greeting.

"Hey, so how did it go?" Jughead asked, glancing from his father to Evelyn's.

"Your father is the hardest worker on my crew, as always," Fred responded, sending a smile to the two boys. Silence reigned for a second before Archie spoke up.

"Why don't we all go out to Pop's to celebrate Mr. Jones's first day back?" At this, Evelyn perked up a bit, the prospect of some hot food stirring her enough from her slumber to allow her to nod her agreement. Before her father could speak his rejection to the idea, FP interjected that it was fine by him. This settled it and everyone soon stood ready to leave for the diner.

Evelyn stood from the couch, stretching her arms above her head to pop her spine and, rolling her neck to release the tension. As she grabbed her jacket and began to head for the door to the trailer she saw that besides FP, she was the last one inside. FP saw her coming and held the door open for her to leave first. She gave him a small smile.

"Thanks, Mr. Jones."

"Ah-ah-ah Evelyn, now what did I tell you about calling me Mr. Jones?" His left eyebrow cocked just like it had at the Drive-in that night, making him look slightly mischievous and even more attractive. Evelyn gave an awkward laugh and tore her eyes from his face.

"Sorry Mr. J-FP. I'll try to remember. And you don't have to call me Evelyn you know, you can uh call me Evie." He let out a slight laugh, one that was all rasp and had a slight shiver running through Evelyn.

"You're always apologizing to me, Evie, when you don't have anything to apologize for."

"I'm sor-umm, ha" Evelyn blushed as she almost apologized to the man again, flustered at hearing her nickname slide from between his lips, and quickly made the last few steps towards her father's car, sliding into the backseat between her brother and Jug. FP slid into the passenger seat and off they went.

At Pop's they all slid into a booth with Evelyn crammed against the wall, Jughead and Archie to her right, and FP sitting across from her with her father to his left. As they all ordered their food, surprisingly easy conversation started up between the four boys. Evelyn was content to sit and laugh at the stories being traded between the two sides, with FP and her father relating one of their youthful mishaps, and Arch and Jughead volleying back with one of their own.

When the food arrived conversation halted for several minutes as the men (who had just worked a full day) and the boys (who were teenagers) scarfed down their food like animals. Evelyn chose to eat with a bit less speed and was therefore still in the middle of eating when her father began to question her brother and Jughead about one of their stories.

Having finally finished her burger, Evelyn pulled her strawberry milkshake towards her and, after eating the cherry, put the straw in her mouth. She let out a happy hum as the sugary delightfulness hit her tongue, but stopped a moment later when she felt like she was being watched.

Looking up, lips still closed around the straw, Evie caught FP's brown eyes staring at her, looking even darker than usual if that was possible. As his gaze flickered up (had he been looking at her mouth?) he caught her eyes and quickly looked away, clearing his throat as he did so. Evelyn watched him for a moment as he seemed to become engrossed in what the others were saying before mentally shrugging and continuing to drink her milkshake, aware of every time dark eyes looked her way.

Oh god. This wasn't fair. No, this wasn't just unfair. This was downright cruel. The whole group was still at Pop's, food long gone but conversation still flowing and no signs of leaving in sight. About twenty minutes previously FP had decided to sprawl out more in his seat. This put his arm around the back of her father's seat and his foot pressed side to side with Evelyn's. Not only his foot, no. From knee to toe their legs were flush together, heat sparking in Evelyn's leg where FP's was touching her. When his leg had first touched hers she had jolted slightly. His eye had caught hers and at first she had thought that he would move his leg back, but instead he had just turned his head and continued with the conversation.

Now here Evelyn was, twenty minutes later, body taut with some previously unfelt tension and hyper aware of the solid line pressed to her leg. She tried to concentrate on what everyone around her was saying, she was sure that her dad and FP were pretty much the sole storytellers now while Archie and Jughead listened and laughed, but her mind was on the fritz. Everytime she tried to concentrate on what they were saying her eyes would inevitably land on FP and the way his mouth moved when he talked, the way hints of his collarbone were exposed in the henley shirt that stretched across his chest. They would follow the muscular line of his arm down to his hand where it rested on the table, looking strong and calloused, securing her in the knowledge that it would be warm and comforting to hold in her own. As soon as she became aware of her thoughts she would be quick to look down, feeling heat rush to her cheeks. She was sure that he had noticed her staring as the few times she had caught his eye they had been shining with apparent laughter, lips twisted in a smirk. She needed to get away from this man. Her thoughts were becoming unreasonable.

Evelyn's prayers for salvation came in the form of Pop, carrying the check over to their table, looking as genial as he always did. As her father began to pay FP's relaxed demeanor suddenly seemed to disappear. "Hey, I told you this was my treat, right?" The question was pointed, hint of anger underneath. All of a sudden the whole table became rigid with tension.

Jughead was quick to offer to pay for his own only to stop as FP let out a sharp "Put your damn money away!" As Pop stood uncertainly by the table FP dug out his own cash and exchanged it for Fred's, still looking slightly angry. An awkward silence befell the table for a moment until Evelyn's father decided to break it.

"Well uh, if I had known that I would have ordered another milkshake!" The joking exclamation lightened the mood of everyone at the table and Evelyn breathed a short laugh of relief at the significantly less tense atmosphere.

As one they all stood up, seeming to decide that now was the time to go unanimously, and Evelyn hated herself for feeling a pang of disappointment as FP's leg disconnected from her own. She was relieved, she told herself, to be getting away. Her musings on her friend's father's attractiveness needed to come to an end. He would go home to his trailer and she, Archie, Jughead and her father would head home allowing her to cleanse her thoughts of him and get her head on straight. At least, that was what she thought. Apparently Archie and Jughead had decided to invite FP over to have some sort of jam session in the garage. FP. Holding a guitar. Would this torture never end?

AN: Sooo...uhhhh what did you think? This one was a little over 4000 words and while I know it took a while to get to more FP/Evelyn interaction I wanted to cover episodes 5 & 6 and, sadly, those contain no FP. I also wanted to get some more insight into the relationships between Evelyn and Archie and Evelyn and Cheryl as I don't want Evelyn's character to only be about her feelings for FP. Speaking of, how do you think that went? Evie definitely knows that she is attracted to FP, and this attraction comes to the forefront of her mind when she's with him but doesn't take over her life all the time. It seems like FP might be slightly interested as well right? Idk how I am at creating romantic tension, but let me know. From here one there will be more FP/ Evelyn interaction as at this point he's featured more prominently in the show! Hope you enjoyed!