I edited this myself so I apologize for any errors.

FP had hopped on the island and was drinking a beer. Jughead leaned against the door frame and Betty and Alice had taken a seat at the kitchen table. They were still in their positions waiting for one of them to say anything.

"So, how did you two meet?" Betty asked, crossing her arms.

Jughead couldn't help but laugh at her nonchalance, breaking the tension in the room.

"I met FP at Al's looking for your father." Alice said calmly.

"So you traded one drunk in for another?" Betty raised an eyebrow.

"Easy there girly, you know nothing about me." FP defended.

"You're drinking a beer right now." Betty shot back.

"Touché." FP raised his drink in her direction and took a sip.

Betty focused back on her mother. "What if I was dad?" She asked.

Alice huffed and rolled her eyes. "I've already served him with divorce papers. We're over."

"Thanks for telling Polly and I." Betty said sarcastically.

"Would it have mattered if I did?"

"I might have been a little more cautious if I knew you were bringing your boyfriend home and having sex all over the place." Betty's hands were shaking and curled them into fists to make them stop.

"He's not my boyfriend, Betty, he's my fiancé." Alice stated cooly, flashing her finger with a small diamond ring on it.

"What? How long has this even been going on, like three months?" Betty spat. "How could you possibly be engaged?"

"We've been seeing each other for ten months." She said running her hand through her hair. "And he makes me happy. When you go to college, I'm selling this house and moving to Hudson with FP."

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Betty asked through a laugh of disbelief.

"Of course, I just wanted to let the news sink in for a little while. We haven't been engaged very long." She took a deep breath. "What about you and Archie? Were you ever going to tell me about that?"

"I didn't think it was important." She shrugged.

"You didn't think I would want to know that my daughter stopped dating a promising football star to slum it with some social outcast with no future?" Alice had put on her condescending mom tone.

"Seriously, mom? You want to be the kettle or the pot?" Betty snarked before her face softened. "Please don't marry him mom, please, please. I have done and been everything you've ever wanted me to be, please, don't do this. I love him." She looked over at Jughead who let the smallest smile sneak across his lips.

"I suppose we are at an impasse because FP and I are in love too." Alice said firmly.

"You've been awfully quiet." FP said, nudging Jughead.

"I think it's funny that you are marrying the mother of the only girl I've ever wanted to be with. You love fucking up every aspect of my life don't you." Jughead removed his hat and rubbed his face.

"Is that what you two are worried about? The incest thing?" FP looked between Jughead and Betty.

"Kinda yeah." Betty spat.

"It's really my only concern. I don't want to fuck my sister, even if its just a step sister." Jughead was so mad Betty could hear a quiver in his voice.

FP looked between the two of them, his tongue pushing against his lower lip. He shook his head and let out a sigh that sound more like a growl. "Your mother should be the one to tell you this but since she bailed and I didn't expect you to be dating the daughter of the woman I'm gonna marry, here goes." He brought the beer up to his lips and finished the bottle.

"Are you gonna sit there with your mouth open catching flies?" Betty snapped when he stayed silent. "Or are you gonna say something?"

There was an electricity in the air and a look of anticipation on FP's face. "Did you every wonder why I hated you so much? Why I had so much contempt for my own son?" He asked.

"I just figured you were an asshole." Jughead shrugged.

FP chuckled. "Well, I am but there's a reason why I can barely look at you. Why I see the biggest mistake of my life when I look at you."

"What are you talking about?" Jughead asked with a roll of his eyes.

"Your mom was a late bloomer, kinda like you." FP looked over at Betty and smiled. Betty instantly felt uncomfortable and looked away from her future step father.

"Anyway, in senior year she filled out, acne cleared up and she was gorgeous, like really beautiful." FP nodded and looked at his hands, his eyes glazing over as if he was remembering that time. "And she took advantage of that, she had a lot of boyfriends." He started peeling the label off the bottle and continued. "She earned a reputation as a slut but from what I could tell that was a lie. She barely put out for me and she couldn't keep a guy for more than a couple of weeks. In those days, a guy wouldn't stick around unless he was getting some."

"I can assure you Mr. Jones, with the exception of you son, much hasn't changed." Betty informed.

He laughed and shook his head. "I had the thickest rose coloured glasses on for your mom. If she asked me to kill someone I probably would have done it. She was the most incredible woman I had ever met. So when she came to me four months pregnant and we hadn't had sex yet, I was shocked."

With that statement the air was sucked out of the room. Alice's interest was peaked, Betty's heart felt like it fell into her stomach and Jughead was as white as a sheet. "What are you talking about?" He repeated, trying to keep his voice as level as possible but Betty could hear the quiver underneath.

"She told me she was having an affair with a married man, he had graduated about six years before us. When she told this guy she was pregnant, needed help and wanted to know what to do, he told her to hit the road. This guy wasn't going to leave his wife considering he had found out she was pregnant too. When she asked me to act as the child's father to cover up the affair and avoid questions, I didn't even think twice. I was so in love with her." He shook his head. "I was an idiot."

Betty's eyes were locked on FP and waited for his next words with bated breath.

"I was infatuated with her beauty, with the idea of her. You and I both know she's not the most reliable person and she'll always do what she needs to do to serve herself first." FP said.

Jughead looked down and started to nod, believing that now more than ever. She had left her son with a horrible man that wasn't even his father.

"I told myself I could do it. I could be the man she needed me to be, that I could be your father but I realized quickly that I couldn't. You're lucky you look more like your mom than you do him. Every once and awhile you would make a face and I could see him in you and it reminded me every time that you weren't mine. I was the second choice, so I started drinking to make everything a little easier until I couldn't go without it." He ran his hand through his hair. "It got a little better when your sister was born but it was short lived. Things kept getting shittier and shittier for me and better and better for your dad and I couldn't handle it."

Betty's heart was racing. She could feel the climax coming and she knew the reveal would change everything.

"One night around four years ago I was out of my mind drunk at Al's and I decided that I had enough. If he destroyed my life, I was going to ruin his. So I walked across town, to the house directly beside this one, and banged on the door till Mary Andrews answered."

Betty gasped and covered her mouth to muffle any more sounds that threatened to escape. She watched as Jughead stilled but his hands began to tremble.

"I knew Fred was away on business. I told Mary about the child that came out of the affair he had. How he had known all these years and lied about it every damn day." He made direct eye contact with Jughead. "Apparently your dad and the Mrs. were having some troubles because she left town about a week later. Andrews Construction took off and they moved into that mansion."

"Their son, Mary and Fred's son, when you went over there to tell her everything, was he there? Was he listening?" Betty asked leaning forward in her seat.

"Their little red haired dickhead of a son? Yeah, he was sitting on the steps the entire time."

Betty looked over at Jughead. "That's why he hates you. That's what he meant about asking your piece of shit family. He blames you for his mom leaving. If you didn't exist then everything would have been fine." She shook her head. "I knew it couldn't have been money, I knew it, I mean-" A firm grasp on her wrist cut her off. She looked over to see her mother shaking her head and giving her a look that said, 'Now is not the time.'

"Your mom and I tried to make it work but we couldn't and so she left with my real kid and I was left with you." The room was silent expect for Jughead's rapid breathing. "I'm really sorry, Jug."

Jughead looked up at him and Betty could see there was tears in his eyes. "You're sorry? It's a little fucking late for that, now isn't?"

FP sighed and shook his head. "I suppose it is." He rubbed his face.

The room was quite. Alice didn't want to engage and Betty had no idea what to do. This moment between father and son made every moment between her and Alice seem like a cake walk.

"I don't believe you." Jughead finally said.

"Why would I lie about this?" FP sighed. "Call your mom, she'll tell you."

"Why would she leave me here with you?" He asked already knowing the answer.

"You didn't want to go, remember?" FP took another sip of beer.

"And Fred knows?" Jughead asked.

He nodded. "He hired me because he wanted to make sure you and your mother were taken care of. Didn't you ever wonder why I never got fired? I was a terrible employee. He let me go the day after your eighteenth birthday. You weren't a liability anymore."

"You did a fucking lousy job taking care of me." He brushed a tear away from his cheek.

"Yeah well, so did he." FP justified.

Jughead shook his head and pushed himself away from the door frame. "I gotta get out of here." He looked over at FP. "Have a nice life or whatever." He looked over at Alice. "Good luck with that." He motioned to the man that used to be his father and left the room, pushing the door so hard it dented the wall behind it.

Betty stood and went to go after him.

Alice caught her arm. "Don't go after him, that is not the life you want." Alice warned. "You're better than that."

"What is that supposed to mean, Mom? You did everything 'right' and looks like you ended up in the same place as me." She shot a glance at FP. " I'm just not going to waste 20 years of my life trying to get there. From now on I decide what's best for me." She turned to leave before looking back one last time. "Oh yeah, and in the fall, I'm going to Juilliard." She left the kitchen and went after Jughead.

She knew she was going to have to help Jughead through this and realized she had no idea how to do that. They were still trying to figure out their relationship and now they had to deal with a massive life altering event. She took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly, opening her front door to move forward with the next chapter of her life.