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Chapter Ten: Girl Talk
Even though I had agreed to head to the hospital with Rico, I needed to get there first. I needed to talk to Jo before I talked to Rico again. The only thing that I couldn't control would be if Danny was there. That would make the conversation undoable. As soon as I reach the top of the stairs, I make a beeline for Rico's room and go to grab my bag. Since I just have to head down the street to get changed, I don't bother thinking of getting changed. That would be wasting time. I did not think about the fact that Rico would have gone to his room to get ready for the day. Walking into his room, I let out a similar gasp to earlier and turn around.
"Lacey!" Rico exclaims in surprise.
"I'm sorry Rico. It was an accident." I say quickly.
"No, I should have closed the door. I'm not used to having someone who's not family being in the house in the morning." He says and I hear him pull some pants on. "You can turn around now Lacey." He says and I slowly turn around.
"I'm still really sorry Rico; I shouldn't have just barged in." I say with a small smile.
"It's okay Lacey, I don't mind." He says with a grin.
"Um, so I know that we decided to go see Jo together, but um, do you mind if I go earlier? There's something that I need to try and talk to Jo about; it's really important." I say not looking at him. I really hope that he's okay with this.
"If this is about what I said downstairs, I get it. Jo's the only other one who knows what you went through after Danny left. Go talk to Jo; I'll get a hold of Scott and iron out details about dinner tonight." Rico says with a smile. He is too good to me.
"Thank you Rico. You are a great guy." I say as I kiss his cheek and then grab my bag and head home.
As I head up to my front door, I hear a car door slam behind me. I know that it can't be my mom or my sister, and Rico is down the street at his house, and with Danny at the hospital with Jo, it leaves one of two people: Archie or Sarita. Since I'm not sure what happened to either of them, I'm scared to turn around.
"There you are Lace. I'm surprised that your own new little boy toy isn't around."
It was Sarita.
"Actually that's where you're wrong Sarita. For starters, Rico is not my "boy toy", and nor will he ever be. Next, he is around. He's always been around. And he always will be around." I say as I turn around slowly to stare at my former best friend.
"Where is he now; because unless I suddenly became blind, I don't see him anywhere?" Sarita sneered.
"That's because you aren't looking behind you." I comment calmly. I should have known that Rico wouldn't leave me by myself with Archie and Sarita's futures being up in the air.
"If you threaten Lacey one more time, I'm filing harassment charges." Rico says and Sarita simply smirks.
"Lacey wouldn't allow you to file those charges. She would have to agree to the charges, and she doesn't. She would never turn her back on her best friend." Sarita comments as she folds her arms across her chest.
"You're wrong in so many ways Sarita. I would agree to the charges if Rico filed harassment. And I have turned my back on my best friend before. And it took me 5 years to realize what I had done and to try and show Jo that she could trust me again. But you aren't my best friend. You never really were. That was always Regina… at least until she started screwing Archie behind my back, then she was just pretending. I have only ever had 2 real best friends in my life Sarita; 2 that never had an agenda. And those 2 are Danny and Jo." I explain. I can see the hurt in Rico's eyes as Sarita laughs.
"And your boy toy here? What is he?" Sarita asks with a laugh.
"He's my protector. He's my rock. He's everything else that I need in my life that I don't already have from my mom, dad, sister, Danny and Jo." I explain without hesitation.
"He has you whipped Lace. You are so caught up in an image that you are too blind to see his true intentions. He's using you to get into your pants." Sarita says with a smirk and a shake of her head.
"Don't ever talk about Rico like that ever again; especially when he is present. You have no idea what Rico's intentions are. And he would never use me just for sex. Rico isn't Archie. Hell, he's nothing even remotely close to being Archie. And I never want him to be anything like Archie. Rico is a better person than you, Archie and Regina all put together. So yeah, I would allow him to file harassment charges, and I would agree to them." I say as I just glare at her.
"You're bluffing." Sarita replies simply.
"You wish I was bluffing. I am 100% serious. You put my best friend in a fucking coma Sarita. Do you really think that I would joke about allowing Rico to file harassment against you? I want nothing to do with you. I want nothing to do with Archie. I want nothing to do with Regina or her memory. 95% of my friendship with the three of you was a lie. And I'm done with it all. I am going to be with my real friends from now on." I say as I fold my arms across my chest.
"Prove to me that you aren't bluffing." Sarita says simply. She's not even going to try and deny the stuff about her, Archie and Regina.
"It will be my pleasure." I say as I pull my phone out of my bag and dial Chief Masterson.
"This is Chief Masterson, how may I be of assistance to you?" He says and I smirk at Sarita.
"Hi Chief Masterson, its Lacey, can I put you on speaker real quick?" I ask.
"Of course you can Lacey. Oh, and be on the lookout; Sarita wasn't at her house when we went to arrest her and she wasn't at Archie's or any of her friends' houses." Chief Masterson replies.
"She's standing right in front of me Chief. Let me put you on speaker." I say before pulling the phone away from my ear and hitting the speaker button. "Are you still there Chief Masterson?" I ask.
"Yes Lacey, I am; what can I do for you?" He asks.
"I would like to file harassment charges against Sarita, and for good measure, Archie as well and get restraining orders against them." I say as I keep eye contact with Sarita.
"That is a big charge Lacey, and I need you to be 100% sure about this." Chief Masterson says.
"I am 100% sure. And is there a way to get that to cover Rico, Scott, Phoebe, Danny and Jo as well? Or would they all need separate ones?" I ask and hold back a smile as Sarita's face falls.
"They will all need separate ones. But I can definitely file 6 sets of restraining orders against them, but until I hear from Mr. Ogden and Ms Lewis saying that they would like file harassment, I can't do anything for them on that side of things." He answers.
"Rico and I will be seeing them tonight when we go to the play in NYC, so we can talk to them at that point." I reply.
"That will work. I will also need you to confirm with them that they would like the restraining orders against Archie and Sarita." Chief Masterson says.
"I will talk to them about that as well. Thank you Chief Masterson." I say.
"No, thank you Lacey; and I will get started on the restraining orders for you, Rico, Danny and Jo, as well as file the harassment charges." Chief Masterson says before ending the call.
"I told you that I wasn't bluffing." I comment to Sarita who looks pissed off to say the least.
"Do you really think that Scott and Phoebe will agree to all of that? Scott can't stand any of you; and Phoebe only tolerates your boy toy, DePsycho and his girlfriend. I highly doubt that they will go along with harassment charges and restraining orders against Archie and me." Sarita says.
"You still think that Lacey is bluffing? If you were really her friend, even for a while, you would know her better than that." Rico says as he comes to stand next to me.
"And I just love how you didn't mention anything in your defense that Scott and Archie are best friends. Or was that faked too?" I question and Sarita's face hardens.
"You are a bitch Lacey." Sarita snaps.
"Actually, that would be you Sarita. I am at least trying to make amends for my mistakes, while you just keep going on thinking that you're better than the rest of us." I say.
"We are so not friends anymore." Sarita warns.
"And I couldn't be happier about that fact." I retort.
"You will never be considered popular again." She says.
"As long as I have my real friends by my side and they are there for me, then I am perfectly okay with that." I reply.
"You're reputation is ruined, you realize that right? If you continue to hang out with killers and losers you won't be able to walk into school with your head held high." She tries, but I am not fazed by anything that she is saying. I'm just buying time for the cops to get here.
"You know Sarita, I don't care what you, or Archie, or anyone else at school thinks about me. I am finally happy with who I am. I tried to distance myself so hard from my past and from my real friends that I let the image that I had put up block me from seeing the truth about you and Regina and Archie. But I'm done. I don't need to be popular to be happy. I never really was happy when I was popular. So if you want to brand me as an outcast from the popular group, go right ahead. See just how many people are around you when you do. I have everyone that I need on my side. I have Danny, Jo, Rico, Phoebe, Scott, my mom, my dad and my sister, and those people are the only ones I need. So have a nice life." I say as Chief Masterson finally pulls up in front of the house.
"Oh, and look who's right on time for your arrest. Chief Masterson, good morning sir." Rico says with a grin.
"Good morning Rico. You two should get to the hospital, Jo's asking to talk to both of you." Chief Masterson says.
"Is everything okay?" I ask in concern
"Everything is fine Lacey. She just wants to talk to you and Rico. She wouldn't tell me what, just that she wanted to talk to you two sooner rather than later." He replies.
"Okay, we'll get there as soon as we can sir." Rico says as he takes my hand in his and turns to the door.
"Oh, and one more thing; issued a warrant for Archie's arrest, as long as you stay together, and stay within a phone call's distance until he is in custody, then you don't have to worry about him coming after you again." Chief Masterson says as one of the officers that showed up with him arrests Sarita.
"Sarita Martinez, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Jo Masterson. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can, and will, be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you by the state of New York." The officer says and the entire time, Sarita is just glaring at Rico and me.
"You'll pay for this Porter. You will not get away with any of this." Sarita warns.
"I'd like to see what you can do to me with both you and Archie in jail; especially since Scott and Phoebe are going on a double date with Rico and I tonight." I say before turning around and pulling Rico towards my house.
Once we're inside, Rico turns to me.
"So… I guess your plan of getting to the hospital first to talk to Jo isn't going to work anymore, is it?" He asks with a smile.
"I guess not." I reply. "Let me just go get dressed real quick then we can go." I say before kissing his cheek again and then heading upstairs.