Thaw
Lacey was spaced. There was noise in her ear, but she wasn't really listening to the music. She was replaying the way in which she'd told off her friends in the diner, telling them off differently, being more concise, or more insulting, and imagining alternate scenarios where the confrontation didn't happen at all. Hindsight is 20/20, and she was thinking up twenty scenarios a minute. So it was a wonder that she noticed that the screen on her phone was lit. She jerked forward to pick it up.
"Hello?" the voice on the other end questioned, sounding confused.
"Sarita?" Lacey wasn't so much confused herself as a bit muddled. Of course it was Sarita, she'd seen the name on the screen. But she was caught up in her twenty scenarios. She needed to come back to reality. And in reality it was a surprise that Sarita was calling her.
"Decided you were through ignoring me?"
"What?"
"This is my fourth call. I've left you one message, and a text."
"Sorry. I was listening to music," she explained as she removed the headphones from her neck. "What is it?"
"I'm on your porch. Can you come to the door?"
Her heart thudded. Great. This was either going to be an apology from Sarita or a bad confrontation between the two of them. She didn't know on which face the penny would land.
She got out of her bed and padded downstairs and to the door, thinking about how dirty her socks were getting in the process. When she opened the door, Sarita's arms were crossed and she was looking at Lacey like she'd done something wrong. Lacey prepared herself for battle.
"Aren't you gonna invite me in?" Sarita asked.
"Not really, no." Lacey crossed her arms.
Sarita rolled her eyes. "I came over for an explanation."
"Really." Lacey's stance remained confrontational, but she couldn't play down her shock.
"A full explanation. No more playing around, no bullshit. It's been a while since I was out of the loop, Lacey; I'm not used to it anymore. And I've never been out of the loop about anything relating to you. Even the times when I don't wanna hear it, you wanna tell me something. But it's different now. I'm out of the loop. And this is me giving you a chance to catch me up."
When Lacey only inhaled, lifting her shoulders in the process, Sarita noticed that her hands had emerged from her sides to hug her arms. "Danny," Sarita said, a not so subtle push. "And Jo. What's up."
Lacey inhaled again and stepped aside, opening the door wide enough for Sarita to walk in. Everything was going to hell any way with this tape out and Jo not talking to her, and Archie, then Danny...she can stand to talk.
She walked behind Sarita, the latter leading the way into the living room. She could see above Sarita's head, and she remembered all the times she would ask Sarita what it felt like to look up to her.
When Sarita turned to her, Lacey waved her arm at the couch. "Sit. You can demand to come inside, but you need an invitation to sit?"
"I didn't demand. I asked," Sarita corrected.
"Sarita, you never ask," Lacey said as she took a seat. "Not even when you say please." She couldn't stop herself from smiling, and she relaxed a twinge when Sarita smiled too.
Sarita took her seat. She widened her eyes expectantly when Lacey just stared at her. "Soooooo..." she prodded.
Lacey sighed.
"Okay, how about I start with some questions? How long have you and Danny been a thing?"
Lacey forced the lower half of her mouth to detach from the upper half. "Not long."
"Is it serious?"
"No."
"So you just wanted socio sex?"
"Sarita," she chided and bounced in her seat. She tucked her hair behind her ears.
Sarita wasn't moved by Lacey's frustration.
"No, it's not serious. I'm...it was different. Fun. But not in a sick way," she added quickly. "He isn't sick."
"See, that's news to me," Sarita said pointedly.
Lacey avoided her eyes. "He isn't what you think," she said, meeting her eyes again.
"So why is he a secret?"
"Why do you think? Socio? Freak?" It was her turn to be pointed.
"I'm not sure when you changed your mind about that or why. Nostalgia?"
"Mostly...talking to him. Or him talking to me, whatever. Look...is it really still about Regina? Because you and Archie...it's like you guys stopped caring about him maybe having murdered Regina and you just wanted to be...assholes."
"The socio isn't relevant enough for me to be paying attention to him like that. As far as I'm concerned, he's in the same category as Jo: invisible. But he did-" she stopped herself short and cocked her head. "You don't think he killed Regina, do you."
"...I don't. And it's not because he convinced me; it's...it's what I found." She needed to be careful. She wasn't going to tell Sarita about the necklace, but she could talk about Regina. She was concerned about Regina's image, and she realized now that the only other person who sincerely cared about Regina's image too, especially at school, was sitting next to her.
Instead of sarcastically thanking her for sharing information about Regina's death, Sarita remained silent and waited for Lacey to continue.
"I was helping Mrs. Crane with some condolence letters she'd received. She'd kind of piled them in with some old mail. I found something that was addressed to Regina. It was...a letter. From someone who didn't leave a name. It had money in it, and the letter told her there would be more if she stayed quiet. I don't think that was the first payment."
Sarita narrowed her eyes, more shocked than suspicious. "Regina was being blackmailed?"
"And threatened. It didn't seem like that was the first correspondence. I think this threat...well...I think the person carried it out."
"Why?"
"I have no idea." It was only partially a lie.
"Where's the letter?"
"I gave it to the police."
Sarita stared at the floor, mulling everything over. "So wait a second...when did you find this out?"
"Fall Fest."
"And you went to the police, but you couldn't tell me."
"I didn't exactly run to the police. I kept it to myself for a while, thought about it. I didn't really know what to do; I didn't want it to become public."
"Why not?"
"Have you heard how people have been talking about Regina since she died? Definitely not how they talked about her while she was alive."
Sarita could agree with that. The way people talked about Regina now was almost sickening. "Everyone's an angel after they die."
"Yeah. And I just know this would crush her mom."
They were both quiet as Sarita thought. Then she asked softly, "If she was in trouble, why didn't she tell us? I mean I get not telling her mom, but why not us?"
Lacey had asked herself the same question, and she finally had an answer. "Can you think of a time when Regina wasn't acting like she was on top of a situation? She probably thought she had this under control, that she had the upper hand. I wouldn't even be surprised if she was...extra...to squeeze more money out of the guy."
"I remember she bought a lot of nice stuff in the last three months," Sarita said.
"Yeah, and when we asked her about them she said her mom was just trying to get on her good side."
"Do you have any idea what the letter was about?"
"None," she lied. "But I'm hoping Chief Masterson will be able to tell me soon. That's kind of why I didn't tell you about any of this. It's not because I thought you didn't deserve to know. It was just weird to find out about Regina having a double life and that it probably led to her death. She died horribly, and I just wanted to have all the answers so that I'd be able to answer all your questions, not leave you with questions...like now. And I guess that's where I was coming from with Danny, too. I haven't really figured out everything between us. We're still kind of getting to know each other, you know? Or we were. He's...different, and of course everyone has their opinions about him, and I just...I wanted to be sure I was making the right decision before I broadcasted it. And if I wasn't making the right decision, then I wanted the moment when I got egg on my face to be...a private one. But I guess that's out of the question now."
"Why are you guys past tense?"
Lacey sighed. "A lie. That's a pretty big thing: I'm always questioning whether or not he's telling me the truth. I don't think he's dangerous. But...I don't know. He keeps a lot to himself, and that kind of bothers me."
"Uh...listen. About that tape. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what I said. What I should have done was go around punching people. I should've found that little twerp Doug and wrung his neck 'till he couldn't do basic math. But I didn't, and now that I'm thinking about it...I guess I was hoping I could...scare you into coming back."
"Scare me?"
"I thought maybe if you saw what it was like on the other side, the side with Jo and the socio, then you'd come to your senses and come back to my side. It sounds stupid now."
"Really stupid."
"Super stupid."
"Cause I wasn't gonna bow down to you any time soon."
Sarita smiled. "I'm really sorry, Lacey. And I promise the neck-wringing will start tomorrow. I might even make Archie my first victim."
"Oh God, no. I kind of just want that part to die down and disappear."
"So it's really over between you guys?"
"Yeah. How I felt about him in the beginning isn't how I feel about him now."
"But you feel that way about the freak?"
Lacey sighed, not even wanting to admit it to herself anymore.
"Soooo, are you guys trying to work out your...thing?"
"I don't know," she said, frustrated. "I'm kind of putting that on the backburner, because of that stupid tape, and he's being kicked out of school, and Jo's mad at me..."
"Why's Jo mad?"
"About the tape." Sarita's grimace spurred Lacey to elaborate. "She didn't know about us, so that tape was kind of a surprise. Now she's not talking to me."
"Okay," Sarita responded, clearly not interested. Then with more interest, she said, "Maybe she's jealous."
"Jo?"
"Yeah. I mean she was having psycho sex first."
"Okay, if we're gonna be cool, can you please stop calling him psycho, freak, and socio?"
"Fine, I'll say it more cute: was she sleeping with Danny?"
Lacey couldn't stop herself from ginning. She parroted Sarita. "I hate you so much?" and Sarita chuckled. "And no. They had nothing going on."
"Mmmm, they were pretty close when he first came to school. Maybe she was hoping for something to start going on."
Lacey frowned. She couldn't imagine it. Why would Jo have a crush on Danny? She could imagine people in general having a crush on Danny, because obviously she had a crush and more on Danny, but...the way Danny always looked at her...the way he always made her feel...and Jo was always in his vicinity. It was hard to imagine that Jo thought there was anything left over for her. After all, Archie had picked up on the thing exuding from Danny towards her, and, after a couple of weeks, Sarita had picked up on her broadening alliances.
Lacey shook her head, more to clear it than to deny Sarita's speculation.
"Maybe she'll come around," Sarita offered.
"Maybe."
"So...are we cool?"
Lacey smiled. "Yeah. We are."
Sarita smiled. "Good." She leaned back on the couch, slouching. "Can I hang out here for a bit?"
"Uh, my mom's kind of on a no visitor kick since the tape came out, but I think you're okay."
"How's she taking it?"
"She talks about it constantly. She's called my dad about it, so when she's not cursing the administrators, she's arguing with him about it."
"Did you get in trouble?"
"No, which surprised me. She said I didn't know it was happening, so...but actually I'm surprised she hasn't said anything about Danny."
"She's probably working up to it."
"Most likely. I was supposed to be keeping my distance from him."
Sarita snorted.
"Hey, Phoebe left her Grease sing-a-long dvd here. Wanna watch it?"
"Sure. But can we keep the subtitles off please?"
Lacey laughed. "Sure."
They got up from the couch and headed to her bedroom, but Lacey stopped short. "Hey, Sarita?"
"What?" Sarita asked, turning around.
Lacey pulled her sweater down in order to do something with her hands. "Is that ultimatum still...a thing?" When Sarita looked lost, Lacey crossed her arms and said "Us or them."
"Well, I don't know how much still plan on hiding from me from now on, how many more secret meetings you plan on attending, but...no. It's not a thing. But you kind of need to figure this out. You're leading a double life."
"I know."
They didn't say a word more. Lacey walked past Sarita and led the way to her bedroom.
Both of them pulled from years of popularity to sing their hearts out to Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee and, looking at each other with tone-perfect disdain, finished the song with, "Some people can be so touchy."
The End
A/N: This show has been disappointing me on the Lacey/Sarita front (and on the Lacey front). They clearly favor Lacey/Phoebe, and I don't like that (though I like Phoebe). I didn't watch the finale or the two episodes that preceded it, so if anything's not like how you saw it in canon, that's why. I'm pretty clear on the events that took place, however. I hope you still managed to enjoy the fic! I've wanted to write for these two since I realized the show had no interest in their friendship or showing Sarita as an actual person.