Two weeks.
Lacey had an incredibly difficult time acclimating to her new role as a crime fighter. She had contacted her parents who immediately hired a lawyer on behalf of their daughter. Despite her parents' insistence, Lacey refused to go home, refused to take a break from school or look for other colleges to transfer to.
She hadn't left her room. For the two weeks after Regina's death, Lacey rebuilt the frames that Jo and broken during her second attempt at sabotaging her paintings. Some of the canvases had even split and Lacey ended up sewing them back together, incorporating the stitches as part of her pieces.
Lacey asked for space from Danny while she worked to get her life back on track. They knew what they could be some day, but they agreed to put all of their energy into making it through their current life crisis before investing in a new relationship. There was simply not enough of them to go around.
Danny left for his next round of away games, very wary of leaving Lacey on campus alone with Jo.
"Fuck—" Danny closed his eyes, he needed this so bad. Something safe, something known, a release.
"Mmm—" Archie hummed, choking a little when Danny bumped his tip against the back of Archie's throat.
"Pick it up, Yates. Let's go—" Danny grunted as he pistoned his hips back and forth, his cock buried deep down Archie's throat.
Archie moved his head faster, cupping his lips the way he knew Danny liked. He suctioned harder and massaged his balls.
"Miss me?" Danny said like the cocky asshole he knew he could be when he was with Archie.
Archie whimpered a little, Danny smirking that Archie couldn't form real words while his cock was stuffed in his mouth.
"Shut the fuck up." Danny said anyway.
Archie wrapped his hands around Danny's ass and pulled him in tighter, making himself gag. He recovered quickly and made up his misstep with a few good rapid catch-up sucks. Danny's hips stalled. Archie popped off him then, he knew how far he could take Danny before there was no turning back.
"No, no, you always stop right when it gets good." It was Danny's turn to whine.
"Lie down." Archie growled, wiping his mouth and fishing for a condom.
Archie sheathed himself and lubed up his whole heart that was lying before him in what he knew could likely be his last time with this perfect man.
"You here with me?" Archie asked hopefully, climbing up in between Danny's legs.
"You need this? Pound it." Danny said simply, pulling his own legs back to accommodate the girth of the quarterback's swollen stud.
Danny wrapped a hand around his own cock as Archie got to work. Archie's too rough slams serving as the momentum for Danny's hand to rub himself out while surrendering to whatever punishment Archie had for him.
Five long minutes later Archie convulsed, trapping Danny below as he slumped down on top of him and let out a string of expletives. Once he pulled out he noticed Danny still pulling at himself, his strokes erratic.
Archie pulled Danny's hands away to his frustration, he had been so close.
"It's always better with a friend." Archie said before he stuffed Danny back into his mouth.
Archie sucked him off until Danny's hands were tearing the sheets off the bed.
"I'm—" Danny finally let go.
Everything he had been fighting, everything he had been holding onto, passed through him and straight down Archie's throat. Freshman year spying on Jo, worrying about Regina, finding Lacey, getting Lacey, losing Lacey, Regina dying at the hands of the person he was trying to protect her from, Lacey being the new target and now, the gravity of his last time with Archie.
Archie collapsed next to Danny on the bed, both of them breathing hard. Their collective thoughts hung above them, heavy and dark.
"She gonna know about this?" Archie wondered out loud.
"Yes."
Archie closed his eyes briefly, the pain evident.
"Is there any chance?"
"I'm in love with her." Danny admitted.
Archie rubbed his face with his hands, "I know."
Even though she hadn't been anywhere, Lacey wore her wire every day and checked in with the detectives often.
"Danny comes back today." Phoebe said casually as she worked on her own school work.
Lacey leaned back from the canvas she was painting and sighed, "Damnit Phoebs, I was in the zone."
"You need to leave this room. You and Danny need to talk about all of this and I don't want to do your laundry again—just saying."
Phoebe was right. Lacey didn't want to give Jo access to create problems in her life, but by secluding herself she knew she wasn't really living at all.
Lacey set her palette down and slumped onto her bed. She was scared. She had refused her parents attempts at protecting her because, at her core, Lacey did not want to be controlled or consumed by anyone.
"Everyone thinks that I did this. I was hoping the police would find some evidence to arrest Jo by now without me having to get involved."
"The detectives told us to just go about our normal routines. No one is even talking about you anymore, not with Thanksgiving break coming up."
"I'm scared."
"Don't let this chick screw up everything you're working for. You applied to SU for a reason, after that, shit happens. I'm not going anywhere. I'll be with you, Danny will be with you—" Phoebe chucked his name in there too and watched for her reaction.
"Danny and I are taking a break."
"You two didn't even get started, you're really going to let her change your whole life like this?"
"I don't want anyone to have any piece of me right now—" Lacey's anxiety spiked, "I feel completely out of control."
"Lets do laundry together. Baby steps." Phoebe suggested, "It's not far away, there's cameras inside."
Lacey took a deep breath, "Okay, fine."
"What about Danny." Phoebe didn't phrase it as a question but more as a statement that needed to be said.
"Full disclosure?" Lacey cringed a little.
"All ears."
"Do you think Danny is on the right side of all this?"
Phoebe stared blankly at Lacey as if someone had pressed pause on the world. Is this really where Lacey's mind had gone? Her level of paranoia surrounding this whole situation had revealed itself and Phoebe was more concerned for her friend than ever.
"I feel that Danny leads with his heart. I have no doubts that he is exactly who he says he is. Lacey, it's time to get back to your life—"
"She killed someone! Two weeks ago! For no reason!"
Lacey fell back and let her emotions go for the first time since this insane thing started. She cried for the wasted effort she had put in to try and make her double major work. She cried because she felt like she had no choices of her own right now. She cried because she was made to doubt Danny and his intentions.
Phoebe climbed onto Lacey's bed and squirmed in beside her, "This sucks, Lace. I'm scared too. We'll get through this, okay? I'm telling you, things change. Don't block out everyone. Not all of us are plotting against you."
Lacey wiped her face on her sleeves, still too emotional to talk. Phoebe laid there for a while until Lacey's chest stopped heaving. She rolled out of bed and started pulling together her laundry. Lacey begrudgingly sat up and watched.
"Are you going now?"
"We. We're going now. C'mon—" Phoebe threw Lacey's laundry bag at her.
Phoebe bobbed happily alongside her roommate as the pair waded carefully through the throngs of fellow classmates. As they reached the edge of campus Lacey looked at the laundromat that loomed ahead.
The entire front of the building had floor to ceiling glass windows, that was a plus, she thought to herself. At least other people could watch as Jo killed her. They hauled themselves inside and took up some washers right by the front doors. As Lacey turned to press the start button on the washer, the bell attached to the top of the door chimed.
Lacey was frozen with fear. She wanted to turn around and face who she was sure was Jo coming to find her, but at the same time, maybe it would be better to die without seeing it coming first. Phoebe noticed Lacey freeze in place.
"Hey, hey, it was someone else. Someone left, okay? Jesus Lacey."
"I can't live like this—"
The door chimed again and this time, Phoebe froze. Lacey could feel her energy change and somehow found the strength to turn her head. It was Jo.
"Hey guys." Jo said like they were old friends.
Something about being face to face with Jo switched something in Lacey. She was no longer protected in her seclusion bubble, so the only thing left for her to do was handle this fucking mess. To survive.
"Hey." Lacey greeted exactly as one would while doing mundane chores.
Jo leaned in for a quick hug. Lacey decided to keep up the act and hugged her back.
"You ever coming back to class?" Jo asked.
"Yeah, it's been a crazy couple weeks but I'll be back."
"Crazy, yeah." Jo chuckled.
Phoebe finally melted enough to fiddle with the change machine, pretending to do things as she normally would.
"Danny comes back today, right?" Jo set herself up at the washer next to them and stuffed her clothes inside.
Lacey shrugged, "I really don't know." She lied.
"You don't know when your own boyfriend is supposed to be back?" Jo challenged.
"Boyfriend? Who said that?"
"Danny's not your boyfriend?" Jo squinted a little.
"No. Danny's way too much of a whore for me." Lacey huffed out a laugh, her adrenaline was pumping, "We're just friends. Who said he was my boyfriend?"
"Regina."
"Well that explains it. Regina used to say a lot of things about me that weren't true. That problem is solved now though, isn't it?" Lacey smirked.
"I guess so. Kind of a savage way to think about it Lacey, jeez—" Jo said, no longer making eye contact.
"So what's up with you and Danny anyway?" Lacey asked as if it were the most interesting topic ever.
Lacey slid herself up to sit on top of the washer and hoped Jo would accept the change of subject.
"We're also just friends." Jo did the same.
"Yeah, but like, you wanna hit that, don't you?"
"I'm not really his type."
"Everyone is Danny's type." Phoebe contributed sarcastically out the side of her mouth as she flipped through some well-worn cosmo that had been in the laundromat since 1997.
"He's not into me."
"Jo, that wasn't the question." Lacey raised her eyebrows.
Jo bit her lip, her cheeks turning a deeper pink, "I have always wanted him."
"Have you ever asked him out?" Lacey wanted to scream.
"I would have, but you've seen him, everyone wants him. I never stood a chance—"
"Oh and you think I do?"
Jo scoffed like the answer was obvious, "Are you kidding? You're perfect."
"Have more confidence, you should ask him." Lacey shrugged.
"Have you two slept together?" Jo asked, her eyes now warm and curious.
"I don't talk about that stuff."
"That's a yes." Jo laughed.
"Right?" Phoebe giggled too, trying to joke and seem like a real friend.
"Whatever." Lacey smiled and shook her head.
"What's he like?" Jo was almost salivating, unable to keep her body still.
"No regrets, I guess." Lacey shrugged.
"How many times?"
"Okay, don't be creepy." Lacey scowled.
"What? I'm just curious—"
Phoebe tossed the magazine, "Shit me too."
"More than once, you creepy bitches." Lacey conceded.
"You're really not together?"
"No, and Regina's such a bitch for spreading lies about me. I'm glad she offed herself—" Lacey said under her breath, her face twisted up like she just smelled something awful.
"You heard it was suicide?" Phoebe asked Lacey, clearly shocked.
"Yeah—the jump rope? She hung herself." Lacey stated matter-of-factly.
"Regina didn't kill herself." Jo snarled like Lacey had just told her the world was ending.
"What did you hear?" Lacey asked honestly.
"Yeah, you live there, was it some sort of accident?" Phoebe piggy-backed.
"Oh yeah, Phoebs, Regina just accidentally hung herself with a jump rope." Lacey mocked her roommate, they were in this role play, hard.
"Regina was murdered." Jo was growing increasingly more annoyed with their banter.
"How do you know? I haven't heard them say anything about the cause yet." Lacey's eyes pierced through Jo's now.
"You're really happy she's gone?" Jo asked Lacey, sneaking a look around the laundromat.
Lacey's fear came back, was this really it? She tried to keep her breathing even.
"Hell yes. I know what it's like to watch Danny travel with these hard-body cheerleaders and you're stuck here not getting laid by someone who looks like he does, who's as sweet as he is. Regina flaunted it, shoved it down my throat. I couldn't stand her." Lacey felt like a total asshole.
"What about you?" Jo tipped her chin up at Phoebe.
"She never even bothered to learn my name. I know I have no chance with Danny, so to be a total cunt like that for no reason—" Phoebe shook her head.
"I killed her." Jo confessed, her eyes now wild, electric, like she had been dying to tell someone.
Lacey's face naturally shifted into shock. Hearing anyone confess to murdering someone, even when you already knew, was hard to hear.
"Wait, what?!" Lacey could feel her heart rate zoom, she was nauseous.
Lacey knew that this was what the detectives were looking for, but she might as well keep going with it and get all there was to get.
Jo shook her head no and stared at some random spot on the floor. She began rubbing her hands up and down her thighs, still sitting atop the washer.
"It was just like you said, she knew how bad I wanted him. She took every opportunity to tell me details about their sex life, how big he is and how often he made her come." Jo's face turned to sheer fury.
"Jesus, Jo, what did you do?!" Lacey asked, intrigued and completely horrified.
"Regina came home early from practice, she was upset. I asked her what was wrong this time. She got pissy with me like she doesn't constantly have fucking drama. She decided she'd take the opportunity to dig into me. She went into how Danny said that you two were together now and how I'd never get him and how lucky she was to at least be able to say she rode his dick more than I ever would. I fucking lost it." Jo's eyes locked onto Lacey's then, "I'm tired of all you sluts just using him. I was his first friend! He should have been with me!"
"I think you need to calm down." Phoebe tried to break Jo's psychotic spell on Lacey and divert her attention.
"How'd you do it?" Lacey tried, where were the fucking cops?
Phoebe stepped up closer to Jo, ready if she decided to snap and grab Lacey. Jo smiled like she was recalling a fond childhood memory, Lacey got goosebumps.
"I told her how I would think about her and Danny fucking sometimes. I made her uncomfortable at that point and she turned away from me. So I grabbed one of the jump ropes from the bin of shit by our door and just wrapped it around her neck from behind and dragged her to her room."
"Stop." Lacey wasn't strong enough for this.
"She tried so hard to pull the rope away, but she couldn't. I watched her panic, it was amazing. I told her she was going to die. I kept twisting the rope until she stopped moving. I could feel her dying. Her eyes turned red." Jo smiled bigger, so proud of herself.
"I said stop!" Lacey said louder, why the fuck weren't the cops here yet?!
Jo giggled, "You think I'm stupid?"
Lacey didn't answer.
"You think I don't know you're a fucking snitch?"
Lacey pulled at the side of her shirt, the mic wire was disconnected from the receiver. She looked up at Jo in shock. The hug.
"My father is the chief of police." Jo winked.