Lacey texted her mom that she was headed for bed and slept like a rock for the first time since she started college.
The next morning, Lacey woke rested and happy. She had so much work to do, but her anxiety about it all seemed faded and no longer at the forefront of her mind.
Her date with Danny had solidified for her that neither of them were perfect, but that they were there for each other. He had her feeling excited and encouraged about life and always left her satisfied and cared for.
Lacey dragged Phoebe out of bed and the two of them went for a run. They did their usual laps around the perimeter of campus, admiring the athletes as they warmed up for early morning practices. Lacey and Danny caught sight of each other and smiled like idiots until they were back out of sight.
After her shower, Lacey dressed in what used to be an every day look for her: thigh high stockings, tall boots and fit and flare skirts. She had worn them all the time in high school, but when she had her ass handed to her in college, Lacey had just stopped caring about these things.
She was different. Things that mattered as gospel a year ago held little to no value in her life now. It didn't matter what she wore or who her friends were. What mattered was who she was and how she treated other people.
Lacey had opened her heart in ways she never knew were possible. He feelings for Danny had grown tremendously, but for now she was content with keeping things simple and keeping him as just a friend. The sex though, that was hers and she was never going to share it.
She felt amazing heading toward the studio. As she made her way to the front doors she was met with lots of people scattered around, gentle gossip rumbling all around her. She saw Jo standing with a smaller group and made her way over to her.
"Jo, hey—what's going on?"
"Some asshole vandalized the studio, our section."
"Seriously? How bad is it?"
"Your shit's ruined."
Oh, yep. There was her anxiety.
"What do you—like, my paintings?"
"All I know is I had a time-slot on Friday night and all of our stuff was fine when I left it. I was first in this morning and all of your supplies are used and all six of your pieces are trashed. The police are in there now, I'm sorry."
All eyes were on Lacey as she walked into the studio and saw the damage. The police were taking pictures when she walked into the room.
"Sorry, Miss, you can't be here." One of the officers said.
"I'm Lacey Porter, that is my studio space." Lacey pointed.
Her eyes took in her slashed canvases in a pile on the ground and her very expensive oil paints smeared all over the six foot canvas her and Danny had created together. Her trained eye spotted "BITCH" painted along one of the black legs of her easel. This wasn't random vandalism, this was Regina Crane.
Lacey was interviewed by police and advised they would review any security tapes they could find and follow up on the few leads they were given. When asked if she knew who could have done this, Lacey went into detail about Regina and the detective promised he would look into it.
Her professor told her she would have to replace her assignments in order to receive credit for them. This meant double work on an expedited scale that was not conducive to how fine art worked. Lacey felt violated, sabotage was not something she handled well it turns out.
Lacey busted ass the rest of her day, promising herself that she would not let this jealous baby ruin all of the other good things she had going on. Lacey was the one who had Danny and no matter how many tantrums Regina had, she wouldn't get him back.
Danny: Practice?
Lacey: You bet
Danny: Sweet. After practice?
Lacey: We'll talk
Danny: Should I be worried?
Lacey: Negative
Danny: K. Peace
Lacey filled Phoebe in on the vandalism and the pair decided to attend Danny's practice together.
"Are you sure you really want to go?"
"Lacey, he's gay, it's not like he told me he fucked my sister. I'm fine. It's Crane that should be uncomfortable. I'm going to knock her perfect teeth out!"
"Phoebe she's at least twenty pounds heavier than you and solid muscle. You're not going to do shit." Lacey smiled at her roommate and her blind allegiance.
"That doesn't matter when you're ready to whip into a blind rage—"
"Okay, well then let me just say that I'm not letting you get an assault charge for this cunt. I've got this."
"Okay, but if you decide to go in, I'm right behind you."
"Thanks, Phoebs."
Phoebe was wearing sloppy SU sweats, giving zero fucks about her appearance after the weekend she had. Lacey's news had also jaded her further and she wanted to make sure none of her good clothes became casualties in the fight she was sure would happen.
Lacey stayed in her cute, somewhat sexy outfit. She had the opposite thought pattern as Phoebe. After the weekend she had Lacey wanted to look nice. She also felt it would be an honor to be dressed up while she bested Regina's bitch-ass in her stupid orange cheer skirt.
With the exception of Homecoming and last night's green dress, Danny had almost exclusively seen Lacey wearing black jeans or black leggings. He wasn't even aware that Lacey was basically a whole other person that he just hadn't seen yet.
Lacey made her way down to the field, Danny and a few of the guys stopping to acknowledge her arrival. Danny was too far away to say anything without yelling, so instead he just brought his hand up to grab his heart as if she took his breath away. She smiled at that and how sweet he was.
The other guys just shouted and waved like annoying brothers. Lacey and Phoebe politely waved back as they walked to stand by the fence at the base of the bleachers.
Lacey heard them before she saw them. The SU spirit team were shouting a cheer together, finally coming into view from behind the gymnasium and jogging across the football field. Their entrance onto the field was meant to gain every players focus as they interrupted their practice.
The squad made it to a spot near the front of the nearly empty bleachers to start their practice. They lined up and began a new cheer, fake smiles and all.
Regina spotted Lacey and cheered to her the whole time. As their stunts got more and more involved, Danny showed up. He pointed at Lacey, which infuriated Regina. Lacey smiled back smugly and rested her elbows on the fence, pretending like she couldn't wait to see their next routine.
"BOO!" Phoebe yelled with zero shame.
Danny noticed and ticked his head to the side as he tried to assess what was going on. He knew Lacey said they had to talk, but he hadn't yet pieced together the why.
Danny dutifully based several of the girls, Regina included. When he helped Regina dismount she slid down Danny's body like a fireman on a pole. Zero grace and nefarious smile. Their coach tried to correct her a few times, meaning Regina had won the opportunity for more one on one time with her body on Danny's. Couldn't he see right through that shit?!
"YOU SUCK AT THAT!" Phoebe shouted.
"Thanks, D! You're so strong!" Regina giggled before reaching to pat Danny on his belly.
Danny lurched backward to avoid her touch, "My pleasure, please don't touch me otherwise."
Lacey heard this, stunned and impressed he was still trying to stick to the new kink they wanted so bad.
"You scared of girls now? I know that's not true!" Regina boasted loud enough to make the other girls giggle.
"Drop it, right now." Danny hushed to her.
"Relax, Jesus you're no fun anymore. So what kind of backward monogamy is this anyway? You're only with one person and now no one else can touch you either?"
"The Regina Crane I know wouldn't judge, only love." Danny scolded.
"I call it like I see it. We used to have fun, D. Where did you go?" The two of them walked to the back of the group for the final stunt.
"I'm still exploring, you should too."
"Kinda hard when I've lost my map." Regina stuck her tongue out at him.
"Never been called a map before—"
Danny grabbed Regina's waist and hurled her up to stand on his hands. Regina completed her perfect moves and Danny safely helped her back to the ground.
"Damnit, she's really good at that." Lacey groaned.
"Desai! Let's go!" Danny's coach called and he took off to be a football player.
"Oh, hey Lacey!" Regina waved like she had just recognized her.
Lacey didn't say anything back and ignored her completely. Regina walked closer, never wanting to be challenged in front of other people.
"Um—earth to Lacey." Regina waved her hand in front of Lacey's face.
"Eww, go away." Phoebe sneered at her.
"I would get your body parts out of my face if I were you." Lacey replied calmly.
"WOAH, someone's having a bad day, huh?" Regina giggled, stepping closer, "Is that it? Bad day?"
"The actions of others who are so desperately seeking happiness in their own lives don't result in me having a bad day. I just feel sorry for them."
"Well, I know I'd be upset if all my free time was now going to be eaten up by redoing work that's already been done." Regina shrugged.
"Sure, but nothing changes. I'm still riding Danny's dick tonight, over and over again. He won't even let you touch him. So, what about you? Bad day?"
Regina's nostrils flared and she stomped back with her team to work on their halftime routine for Friday's home game.
"How do you do that?!" Phoebe giggled, in awe of her roommate, "I would have tackled her to the ground."
"Thanks, Phoebs."
Archie called another play and hurled the football to Cole. Lacey wondered if any of the other players knew about Archie or Archie and Danny for that matter.
"Let's get out of here." Lacey suggested, knowing this could not be fun for Phoebe.
The girls made it to the library and set up at stations next to each other to get some major work done. Almost two hours later, two hands appeared along the edge of the wall surrounding her station. Beautiful brown hands adorned with many unique rings.
Lacey smiled before even looking up. She pulled her earbuds out and looked up to see a much more serious Danny face than she had expected to see. Her smile faltered a bit.
"Hey there." Lacey greeted.
"Did you two really come to practice to roast Regina the whole time?"
Lacey was shocked, "No—"
"Well I heard Phoebe myself, but did you flaunt about being with me?"
"I—she—" Where were her words now?
"I don't talk about my hookups to anyone. My hookups afford me the same courtesy. We've talked about this."
"Are you going to let me explain or is this the Danny show?"
"Of course, whenever you're ready—" Danny said, his voice a bit clipped and nothing Lacey had experienced from him before.
"Quiet please—" The librarian hushed to them.
Lacey held her hand up in a quick apology before leaning into Phoebe's station to tell her she was leaving. Danny and Lacey walked in silence into the courtyard in front of the library, Danny patiently waiting for more information.
Lacey explained about this morning at the studio and all the way through to the confrontation at practice. While Phoebe had been a bit harsh on a surface level, Lacey had chosen to say the things she knew would hurt her.
"She didn't do it."
"Bullshit."
"She was with me." Danny revealed.
Lacey turned to head back to her dorm, Danny skating around in her path. He wanted to keep talking and didn't want to reach out and grab her and ruin their kink game.
"We didn't touch."
"Whatever, Danny. I don't have time now for any of this, I'm glad you have the back up. Enjoy yourself, okay?"
"She's not a back up. We're not sleeping together. We're friends, regardless of the feelings she has for me. She came over to go over today's stunting, we ate, we fell asleep on the couch watching some shit on tv."
"She literally had my leftovers." Lacey chuckled to herself.
"Your focus here is disrupting my peace. My friends don't treat each other this way—"
"I'm sorry your little free-sex world is riddled with so much jealousy. Like I said, I don't have time for this. I now have to go ask my parents for money to replace hundreds of dollars worth of paint supplies they find worthless and then I'll be in the studio until the end of time trying to produce six paintings before the semester ends so I don't fail the class I told my parents I wanted as a career."
"Lacey—"
"No, no, look, Archie and Regina will be traveling with you, it's ideal. I'm glad you have them and whoever else. How'd you put it last night? 'I'll see ya 'round, pal' yeah, that fits."
Lacey walked away from Danny and into her dorm. Danny was right, this was some stupid high school level shit. Lacey was right too though, she really didn't have the time to invest in all that now. If Regina hadn't destroyed months worth of work, who did? This was personal.