"We're all on the edge of madness; deep down, darkness is within all of us and we're on guard constantly trying to avoid losing control."
In which Mickey Lodge has a few skeletons in her closet.
{COMPLETED WITH ALL SEASONS + epilogue}
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The garage door opens the next morning. Archie walks in and his eyes move from Jughead, who is fast asleep on the floor, to Mickey.
She looks down at herself and then at Jughead and realizes what it looks like. It's exactly what it looks like, but she doesn't want Archie to know that. She presses her finger to her lips, gesturing to Jughead, and then leads Archie outside of the garage.
"What the hell, Mickey?!" Archie roars in disbelief. "You're half naked!"
The morning chill hits her legs because all she's wearing is Jughead's flannel. "Archie, it's not like that," she lies. "I came to see how he was doing last night and we just talked. I crashed here just to make sure he was okay."
Doubt still plays on his face.
"For God's sake," Mickey huffs, "he's on the floor." Truth be told, Jughead is only on the floor because the couch was too small for the both of them to sleep on. It was barely big enough to do other things.
Archie studies her and decides to trust her word. "Fine. We're gonna go meet my Mom to talk about FP, so wake him up. And, Mick? Put on some pants."
She watches him go into the house through the backdoor. When the coast is clear, she goes back into the garage. Quietly, she pulls on her clothes from last night.
"Sneaking out?" Jughead sits up, using his elbows as support.
"I should go before Archie thinks something happened." Mickey squats down and pecks him on the lips. "We're good, right? I know people get weird after their first time, but...no big deal, right?"
"'No big deal?'" he repeats.
"I just mean that even though that was my first time, I'm good—more than good! Are you?"
He pulls his bottom lip in between his teeth and nods. "We'll talk later."
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That morning, Mickey went home, showered, and went to run errands. When she returned home in the afternoon, she walked in on Veronica and Archie looking pretty cozy.
Archie began telling Mickey about suspicions he has about Joaquin.
Mickey was tasked with calling Kevin and getting him to get Joaquin over to Archie's for a little interrogation.
At Archie's, Joaquin is put in the hot seat as Archie starts off with some pretty heavy accusations. "We know FP used his call from jail to get in touch with you."
