[It's been like two weeks, and mostly it's okay because he's not thinking about it, but then sometimes when not exhausted to the point of passing out, all he can do is lie there staring at the ceiling and remembering the look on Reggie's face as he slid down to the floor. And admittedly, how long it has been. And how close they'd come.
Basically, he's dyin' here.
So after cracking open the fridge and making his way through all the alcoholic soda left in the house, on one particularly restless night where all attempts at, uh, self-administered relief only served to exacerbate the issue...
[ Over the past two weeks Reggie too has determinedly not been thinking about it, a practiced habit for him whenever things don't just go as planned (by whatever definition) but also should probably never have happened in the first place. An embarrassing, impulsive lapse in judgement even by Reggie's standards-- even by his usual drunk standards, although he had gone extra hard during the party.
Yet another reason Reggie had the luxury not to remember that night as clearly compared to Archie, although he did mostly remember enough. No matter how much he can deliberately or otherwise put the incident out of mind, things have been somewhat awkward between him and Archie since, regardless of however well Reggie has worked on bouncing back as if nothing ever happened.
He's in bed but also not asleep, laying on his blankets, so it's only within moments of Archie knocking that Reggie opens the door vaguely impatiently. ]
Dude, it's like the middle of the--
[ His irritation dissolves, realizing pretty quickly how drunk Archie is.
It might occur to Reggie that in the future, it's better to turn their drinks as they drink them rather in advance so they're not left with a fridge that's 95% full of alcohol. Tonight, however, all Reggie thinks is This isn't good. He hesitates, then says: ]
hey fyi i can't drive the morning carpool to the porter anymore because i guess i live in dechima now but i hope you still booze up my coffee at work anyway
[ left in archie and reggie's mailbox is an envelope for them with a handpainted invitation inside: ]
[ written on the back of the invitation is a gps location in the shenandoah valley and a comment: Not that you guys don't already know, but you won't see the house at first, since the wards are fully up. When you get close enough, you'll see the gate; the wards are set to let you through. ]
Hey, it's Iris. The freelance reporter from the Heropa paper? :)
I know I took a while getting my sources together, but I've got a draft I want you and Archie to look over. What and where would be a good time to meet up?
[Anyway, Archie sends off a selfie in what is clearly the christmas decorations section of a store, wearing this and grinning. Very pleased with himself. Very flirty!!!]
[ It's been a couple of days since Betty told him and ever since then he's been deep in indecision about whether or not he should do something about this, if he should talk to Reggie or just keep this knowledge for a rainy day. How much of an asshole does he want to be? Then again, being an asshole is partially the reason why he didn't talk to Archie before he disappeared and there's like three of them here that even know Riverdale and although it'd be so easy to avoid Reggie for the rest of eternity, Betty doesn't and that makes the whole thing awkward and-
He types and deletes a dozen times before settling on: ]
[ When Reggie sees Jughead's name in his inbox he's not really sure what to expect-- despite their open animosity (or at best, hostile tolerance) toward each other, that was usually reserved just for in-person stand offs, and even then only sometimes. Texting each other? Not so much. But--
At the same time, given the timing, he can maybe guess what this might be about. But if he's right, then the actual contents of the message somehow end up surprising him even more than they might have otherwise. He'd sort of been dreading Jughead finding out, if only because... well, Reggie's not entirely sure why. Because it's awkward? ]
[Terrible decision #823, made while tipsy and unbearably tired:] So I hear "Netflix and chill" just means "sex with a movie on".
Feel like Netflix and chill? [This is partly a lie, she has a CD player and a physical copy instead of Netflix, but she's at least getting the hang of 2010s slang.]
[ Derek Hale is a lot of things. Sure, he might not be "sensible". He might not be ""capable of experiencing basic foresight"". He might not be """generally just chill and fun to be around""" or """"the kind of guy who respects personal boundaries which is kind of hypocritical and shitty given how much time he spends telling people to leave him alone because he wants his space"""". Sure. Sure. However,
However. He's good at picking locks? He's good at breaking them, at least. Reggie's house wasn't difficult to find and the latch on his window wasn't hard to snap in half, so climbing into his bedroom was easy enough. The moon's out and Reggie isn't home yet, but Derek's spent a solid half hour now just sitting on the edge of his bed, having gotten bored of idly rifling through his shit as if he owns the place. When Reggie gets home and turns on the light, there's just a big, scary dude sitting with his arms crossed over his chest and his biceps popping hard riiight there on the edge of his mattress. The dude does not say hello. ]
Reggie opens the door, his dog Moose following by his feet; Moose has been acting a little "off" ever since Reggie's been home, but Reggie hasn't thought too much of it yet, hasn't really even had time to considering he's still in the middle of taking his jacket off when he finds Derek in his room.
It isn't very hard, either, for him to figure out who this is-- you don't tend forget conversations about breaking into bedrooms that quickly.
Derek probably would have found a lot of typical teenage boy shit laying around -- sports equipment and magazines, porn, clothes smelling of a few different people besides Reggie (Archie Andrews and Veronica Sawyer, to be more specific), textbooks, hair (& hygiene) products, DVDs, etc. -- the room itself is not especially tidy, but it's not quite a disaster area either. The room of someone who used to live with someone tidier and now lives alone, so a lot of stuff just gets dropped on the floor or a chair and stays there until it's needed.
Reggie shuts the door with his foot, aiming to keep his voice as cold and even as possible: ]
Page 1 of 2