VII. Snapshot: You're The Worst
She hadn't wanted to come. Nothing about that was unusual for Lane, however the fact that Reggie finally convinced her to was in fact unusual. It was a party thrown every year before summer ended, the fact that Jason was still missing not yet known to be dead was only a small shadow on an otherwise good time.
Students milled in and out of the house carrying plastic cups and wide lazy smiles, a few held little baggies or striped straws in their greedy hands planning to make their own fun. Lane stood against a wall in the living room separate from the rest talking to a girl in her grade that Reggie didn't really know. The other girl was wearing tight jeans and a shirt that hung an inch above her waist and a shy unsure smile as she looked around the crowded slightly drunk room. And then a senior with a wolfish grin idled over, his eyes first set on Lane who shot him down without a word before turning to her less fair companion who was more eager to take his hand and 'go somewhere more quiet.'
Shaking his head Reggie made his way to her, wondering if he could coerce a dance out of her, but a hand on his arm had him turning. "Hey man," Liam, a broad-shouldered boy Lane's age, said with a wide not quiet nice smile. "You got anything?"
"What kinda time you looking for?" Reggie asked him.
His smile grew. "The kind you don't remember."
Reggie didn't think anything of it, he never did. He pulled a baggie out of his pocket, handed it to Liam with a knowing smirk, and then turned sidling up beside Lane. "You know when I said you should come I meant participate," he said standing with his back to the wall and his head turned to look down at her.
"That wasn't part of the agreement," she informed him in a bland manner.
It curled a smile on his mouth, and his gaze slipped past her face tracing the low cut of her dress that fell over the middle of her chest. She hadn't planned to wear a dress but he'd shown up at her empty house and took one look at her blouse and jeans before throwing her over his shoulder carrying to her room and tossed the first one he'd found in her closet at her. "You look nice," he told her quietly, lacking his usual cocksure façade. She had that effect on him.
"You always say that," she said without noticing. Or at least without seeming to.
He shrugged turning away from her, his gaze finding someone else. She was his age, more likely to fall for his advances, easier to make smile, half as pretty, and nowhere near as important.
So he turned back to Lane, prepared to tell her she always looked nice, to use this night as a reason for her to start looking his way. But she was looking up at him with her pale green eyes and a knowing half smile. "She's cute," Lane told him, watching his scoff of a laugh as he turned back to the girl across the room who'd noticed him looking at her and now smiled.
"Well if you insist," he said with his mouth spread in an almost forced smirk. And he walked away, throwing a sarcastic "don't go anywhere" over his shoulder because they both knew she wouldn't. He was disappointed, his chest flushed with her clear rejection, and that made his smug arrogance flare as he talked up a girl he really didn't care about.
It left Lane alone across a crowded room with a loud bass throbbing and she turned at someone coming up beside her to see Liam with a plastic cup held at his mouth as though he'd just taken a sip. "This party's kinda lame," he said leaning down so he wouldn't have to yell. They had a few classes together, had had a few classes together for years and no matter how much he smiled one thing remained – she was a frigid bitch. So he talked to her, the cup staying in his hand, until finally she smiled at something he said. And with her guard down he extended the beer in friendly offering.
He didn't know how long it'd been, long enough the girl he didn't even care to remember the name of had drunk too much and started feeling sick. Reggie turned looking for Lane and found the place she'd once stood empty. It took him a few tries asking where she was, getting the same surprised response that she was even there, before someone finally told him, "she didn't look good, I think she went to the bathroom."
Climbing the stairs he turned down the hall and threw the door to the bathroom open startling the couple who sat on the counter making out. "You seen Lane?" he asked not caring for either of their startled cries for him to get out. When they told him no he slammed the door after him and tried every closed door he found, all revealed people in the throes of it having forgotten to lock it. Except the master bedroom, he turned the handle but it wouldn't give.
The music was too loud, even with his ear pressed to the door he couldn't hear anything. There was no reason for him to be on the other side of the door not even knowing if Lane was behind it, she wasn't interested in him, she was probably into whoever had convinced her to come up, Reggie should be back downstairs looking for an easy lay. But it was Lane, and the fact that she'd never hook up at a party she didn't want to be at or casually be into anyone had something in his stomach churning until it soured.
It took two tries before the frame splintered from how he kicked it, and he looked to the bed seeing the way Liam leapt to his feet pulling his pants up. "Hey man," Liam said with a strained cagey-eyed smile, "we're having a good time."
Reggie's blazing eyes rose from where Lane lay limp on the bed to a now defensive Liam who was stepping forward. His mind was slow to catch up to the movements of his body but there was loud clap and suddenly Reggie found himself on top of Liam pummeling the crap out of his sick face, his nose bending under fists that kept hitting over and over. He wasn't gonna stop til he was dead.
He didn't hear the door he'd slammed shut being thrown open, didn't hear Archie yelling for him to stop. All he saw was red. Archie got his arms around Reggie and dragged him off the bloody unconscious boy, feeling Reggie jerking violently wanting to keep laying into him but Archie kept a firm grip and turned him around.
His slow enraged mind suddenly slammed into focus as it came back around to Lane. "Alright," he told Archie trying to shrug him off him. "I'm calm, alright." All he needed was a little give and he shoved Archie back before he moved to the bed. Pulling her dress down Reggie knelt over her brushing the hair out of her face.
"No," her soft not even half-lucid voice croaked as her drug-weakened arms tried pushing at him, turning her tearstained face way.
"Hey," he said softly as he grabbed her, feeling her pulling away from him. "It's me, Lane, it's me." He held her arms against his chest feeling her still as she blinked up at him, recognizing him. His name was a broken breath and he nodded. "I got you," he told her, feeling her slowly relax against him. Getting his arms around her he lifted her from the bed and waited feeling her hands around his shoulders as she held him. With his face bent to hers he told her again, "I got you."
…
Her head was foggy and throbbing when she woke, opening her swollen eyes with no memory of why she would've been crying. Rolling over she hesitated waiting first for the world to stop spinning and then to question why her hips were sore. Her last memory was Reggie going after some girl, and now she was awake with a bad taste in her mouth.
Blinking the water from her eyes she noticed Reggie sitting on the floor next to her with his back to the bed, his head fallen to one side.
He jerked awake from her shoving him and he turned rubbing one eye with his hair stuck up in every direction. "How you feeling?" was all he could think to ask. She looked hung over but not upset.
"What happened?" she asked instead, feeling like something had. Something bad. She felt like she wanted to be sick.
She didn't remember, it left him with telling her the truth. He didn't think he could look her in the eye and tell her what he let happen, that he'd been the one to give Liam the drugs. This was his fault, and he didn't know how to tell her that. So he settled with a partial truth, one that'd hurt her less. "Some asshole tried something, but I got him."
The clouds were too thick in her head for her to think that through all the way, but she was lucid enough to realize she'd been drugged. It was like the world had dropped out from under her and she didn't know if she was floating or falling, or what end was up and whether she even wanted to get up. "What happened?" she asked again, seeing something in his dark eyes that looked like guilt.
"I got him," he told her again finding it hard to look at her impossibly wide eyes. "You're good."
She didn't believe him, his face looked too pained when normally he only knew how to look like a smug asshole. Her stomach was churning. But she reached for his hand gently running her thumb over his heavily bruised knuckles, a wordless thank you was all she could manage. "I'm gonna take a shower," she said slinging her legs over the side of the bed and sitting up.
"You okay?" he asked reaching a hand to her shoulder at her heavy wince.
She shook her head and swallowed the lump in her throat. "I got really dizzy," she answered, and it was a lie. She was sore in a way she shouldn't have been, in a way she couldn't deny.
Climbing out of bed she ambled slowly to the bathroom down the hall, she pulled her dress over her head and stepped into the shower before it'd even had the chance to get warm. While Reggie made his way downstairs Lane stood with her arms held to her bruised chest and her broken face upturned to the spray to hide from the bruises littered along her thighs.
It took her a long time to pull herself back together, long enough the water had run cold. But eventually the crying stopped, just like the pain would eventually stop. At least that's what she told herself. Wearing a baggy shirt and sweatpants Lane found Reggie sitting hunched over the kitchen table, and with a quiet sniff she sat in the chair beside him.
He looked at the side of her face not knowing what he was supposed to do or why she always made him like this, but he could tell from how red the skin around her eyes were that she'd been crying. And because he was him what he ended up saying was, "you know I always said I'd take you to bed."
Her brows drew tight together and she turned to him with a severe frown. "You're the worst," she told him in firm stony tone.
And he raised a shoulder feeling a smirk curling on his mouth. "It's why you love me Laney, cause you're a terrible person too." He watched as she blinked at him for several long seconds before a laugh escaped her, it was nothing more than a breath of air passing from her lips but it was a laugh all the same and it was all she was ready for. "Come on," he said climbing to his feet, "lets get something to eat."
Deciding she could at least do that she nodded and stood with him, giving a quiet okay as she headed to the door.
"You want me to hold your hand?" Reggie teased intertwining their fingers, and laughing at the way she pulled away from him only to come back and smack him.
She grumbled throwing the door open. "I hate you."
"Aw Laney," he cooed slinging an arm over her thin shoulders, "I hate you too."
With a huff she rolled her eyes shoving him away, seeing the gleam of his teeth as he smiled and feeling her own faint one tugging at her mouth. And it felt normal, or at least she felt like she could be.
I decided not to do Reggie's thoughts on Lane's relationship with Sweet Pea, as I originally said, because I have plans for Lane and Reggie in season three that will actually address some of that. Not romantic, that is not happening in this story. So this really is meant to showcase how Lane and Reggie were before she left, and just how guilty he felt for what happened to her.
Not really a sneak peek, but through discussion with AFANAFAN, I came up with the idea of an AU to Tower Over Me where Lane is a witch and hails from Greendale. I would make this it's own story, and there would be a tie-in to the Sabrina series, however that would come later. But it gives me something else to do while I watch as much of season three as I can to get an idea of where to go in Tower Over Me.
I have now posted that, if anyone's interested, it is called Witchcraft On her Lips.