The Damaged -RIVERDALE-DISCONTINUED

FOURTY ONE

"Come on, Betty, don't be such a wallflower. You're boyfriendless for the night! Have some fun!" Veronica said, irritated by the fact that Betty was being such a downer.
Everyone else was having fun and dancing, while the blonde had sat in her seat the entire night judging them.
"Like you, you mean?" Betty retorted, knowing that she had to follow the Black Hoods demands and cut the Latina our of her life, "I was gonna say you're making a fool out of yourself. Acting like some privileged, shallow, airhead party girl."
The rest of the teens had stopped dancing and were now paying attention to the two best friends, none of them able to ignore the tension rising in the air. Well, almost none of them.
Manic, who was still slung over Nick and doped up, barely payed the tiff any attention.
Veronica chuckled bitterly, "excuse me?"
"Yeah. I mean, it's all recycled banter and plunging necklines and throwing shade to distract us from the fact that there's really nothing going on underneath-"
"Betty, what the hell are you saying?"
"What we're all thinking," Betty was standing now, "the only reason Veronica hangs out with us is circumstance. She's not our friend."
Betty paused, her heart sinking with every passing moment.
"The minute someone from her trashy past shows up, she starts using us for drugs or music or distraction," Betty pointed to the barely aware redhead still sat on Nick's lap, "and why should we be surprised. Like father, like daughter, right?"
Veronica finally reached her breaking point.
"You better shut it down, Betty" she seethed, a glare settling on her face.
"Or what, Veronica? You'll have your dad put a hit on me?" Betty knew her next words would be the end of her friendship with Veronica, "or maybe you'll do it yourself, because you may have fooled all of them, but not me. Try to reform all you want, but you're a bad person, Veronica. You'll always be a bad person."
"Why don't you just go then, if I'm such a monster?"
Betty left at those words, tears visible as she fled.
"Veronica" Archie spoke softly.
"I'm fine," Veronica said stiffly.
"Obviously she's not." Manic muttered, chuckling lazily.
"What?" Veronica said, noticing the look on her boyfriend's face, "you wanna go after her, be my guest. But I'll be damned if I'm chasing Betty down after that—whatever it was. In fact, Reggie? Turn the music up, will you?"
Archie stared in disbelief as the drugged up teens continued to party, Manic even going as far to let out a cheer as the music turned back on before going back to making out with Nick St.Clair.

As the night dwindled to an end and five of the six remaining teens came down from their high, everyone noticed that Manic was so doped up that she could barely walk.
Nick suggested letting the redhead stay the night, to sleep off the high before going home in the morning, but that idea was quickly shut down by Cheryl.
The other redhead was not keen on letting her friend stay the night with some guy they barely knew when she was so messed up. So, with the help of Reggie, Cheryl dragged Manic to her car and drove her to Thornhill Manor.
Once there, Cheryl managed to get Madelyn into her bedroom at the manor before retiring to her own room.

The next morning when Madelyn awoke she was extremely confused.
She barely remembered the night before, the memories blurry after Nick handed her the third stick of Jingle Jangle.
Groggily climbing out of bed, she stumbled to Cheryl's room, where the other redhead was in the process of doing her makeup.
Cheryl saw Manic from her mirror and turned to face her, a giant grin on her face.
"Someone had fun last night," she snickered.
Manic groaned before flopping onto Cheryl's bed.
"What the hell happened? I don't remember anything at all."
Cheryl kept her worry to herself at that statement, busying herself with applying her iconic red lipstick before answering.
"Let's just say somebody had a little too much JJ last night, and someone else had a little too much of you."
Manic jolted up, her eyes wide.
"I fucked someone?" She asked worriedly. As much as she was confused, and slightly angry, with her situation with Sweet Pea, she would never want to do something as awful as sleep with someone while in a somewhat relationship.
"God no, do you think I'd let you go that far while being that doped up? You just had a very hot, and long, lip locking with Nick St.Clair. You guys were all over each other, it actually was a hit nauseating. Luckily, I followed through with our little plan, though."
"Cheryl! You did not do what I think you did! Oh my god, he's going to hate me now." Manic cried out, worry flooding her features.
Cheryl's smugness deflated at Madelyn's reaction.
"I'm sure he doesn't," Cheryl said, nervous that her best friend would hate her if he did.
Madelyn hurried her face into the bed once more, letting out a muffled scream, and sat up once more.
She paused for a moment before scurrying off the bed, rushing out of the room.
"Wait, Maddie, where are you going!"
"I need to go talk to him, before he hates me completely!" Maddie yelled, rushing to her room and changing into a pair of high-waisted skinny jeans, a white colored cropped tank top, an army green bomber jacket, and white heels.
Cheryl watched from her door as her friend rushed past, down the staircase, and out the front door with worry.
She could only hope everything went well.

When Madelyn pulled into the Whyte Wyrm only to notice the lack of Sweet Pea's bike, she was disappointed.
She knew she was working with a slight chance when she came to the bar, but where else would the hotheaded serpent be?
From what she knew, he hated be home, and school wasn't in session either. The only other place he spent his time was the bar, so where was he?