monsters | riverdale

The Ides of March

✿

The next night, the dance floor at La Bonne Nuit is out of sight because the place is crowded with people. Mickey being one of them as she twirls to the music.

Veronica is sitting at the bar, taking a sip from her flask. She sees her sister coming toward her and smiles, "At least you look happy."

"Where's Archie?" Mickey asks. He was here when she left Veronica a few minutes ago.

"He has to go to the construction site early, so he called it a night." She pouts. "Is Jug coming?"

"No," Mickey takes the seat next to Veronica. "He's writing an entirely new novel." The bartender sets a Coke in front of her and she accepts gratefully.

Veronica whines, "I just want to have fun!"

She looks at the familiar flask in Veronica's hand. If she looked on the bottom, she's sure it would be engraved with a heart because it's Mickey's old one. "I can see that. Does that have anything to do with daddy and our closer than ever future?"

"Both actually, but I don't want to talk about it." Veronica stands up and holds out her hand, "Can we just dance?"

Mickey takes a long sip of her drink before taking Veronica's hand and following her back onto the dance floor.

✿

Wednesday morning, Mickey, FP, Jughead, and Betty have gathered to talk about Jughead's new hurdle. He's been accused of plagiarizing and the proof that he didn't is on his old laptop—which has been stolen.

Jughead's leaning against the refrigerator in his kitchen with his arms folded. "Mr. DuPont is turning out to be worse than any of the villains in his precious Baxter Brothers series. It's clear he wants me expelled."

FP says, "You can't let your name be tarnished, Jug. Hell, it's my name. It's our family name." FP leans on the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"If I let my reputation be destroyed by a baseless accusation, my career as a writer is going to be over before it even begins," Jughead worries. He is silently kicking himself for thinking he could play fire with fire with the Stonies. Now his future is in danger.

Betty assures him, "There's no way that's happening, Jug."

"How do you know?"

Mickey says, "I think I have an idea."

✿

On Thursday morning, the Stonies enter the seminar room. All chatter between them ceases when they see Jughead, Mickey, and a strange man already inside.

The strange man is the person who will be performing Jughead's lie detector test so that Jughead can be vindicated. She knows all of his classmates know Jughead's innocent because they're the ones framing him, but it only matters to convince DuPoint. They're going to show the results to him.

Donna crosses her arms. "Jones. And Mickey. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"We know Jonathan's lying about writing On Featherless Wings. You stole that from Jughead," Mickey accuses them.

Jughead adds, "And we know that one or all of you stole my laptop and are conspiring against me, so we're here to prove it."

Jonathan chuckles superiorly. "With a lie detector test? Okay. Well, I refuse to participate in this charade." He leaves.

Mickey waits until Jughead is sitting down and being connected to the machine. Then she says, "You can all can watch while Jughead takes the test."