Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding #1)(77)

"Where are you?"

"What are you doing?"

"You didn't come home. I'm freaking out."

"Have you spoken with Clark, because he keeps calling me."

"LEXI, what do I tell him?"

"What if he shows up at the apartment? Can't you just get back here?"

Lexi sighed heavily when she reached the end of the messages a hard knot forming in her stomach. This couldn't be good. Clark would never call Olivia unless it was important. Maybe something had happened while he was home. She wasn't sure, but she figured she should get home sooner rather than later.

"I've got to get going. Something's going on with Clark. I'm not sure what, but I have to head out," Lexi told Jack as she changed out of his t-shirt.

"Alright well let me know what you find out," he said kissing her briefly on the forehead before she darted out of the house.

Olivia was pacing the living room absently strumming her guitar when Lexi walked throught the door. She looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. As if she actually had been sick when she left Chamber the night before.

"Where the f**k have you been?" Olivia squealed before Lexi could say a word. She placed her guitar in its stand and stared at Lexi angrily. "Clark kept calling and texting saying that you weren't answering your phone, and that you weren't responding to any of his messages. What did you expect me to tell him?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't expect this to happen. I had a few too many drinks last night and ended up sleeping at Jack's place," she told her. Most of what she had said was true.

"I figured as much, but I wasn't about to tell him that. He would have come back and barged into Jack's apartment without notice."

"He could have. It's not like we were doing anything," Lexi lied biting her lip at Olivia's frustration.

Olivia snorted. "Suuuure. In either case, I finally picked up and told him that you were fine and just passed out in your room from drinking last night. I'm surprised he isn't over here yet. You should definitely call him."

"I'm not sure why you are so frantic," Lexi commented.

"Because I'm lying for you. I don't mind, but you can at least confide in me," Olivia cried. "I'm your best friend and you can't even tell me the truth. You're a different person than you were when we first knew each other. I think some of that has to do with Jack, and I'd really like to be clued in."

"For the last time, there is nothing going on between me and Jack," Lexi said storming into her room and leaving Olivia hovering at her door.

"If that's the case, then why didn't he just bring you home last night? Huh?"

"Because he'd been drinking too and he lives closer to downtown," she said the lie coming out easier this time. She couldn't even count how many she had made by now. They all seemed to be running together.

Olivia seemed to just let it go from there. There was no point in trying to argue with Lexi when she was in this state.

She pulled out her phone again and texted a message to Clark, "Sorry. I passed out last night from drinking. Hope you're not worried."

Then typed out one to Jack. "Made it safe. No need to worry."

After several hours of silence from Clark, Lexi was beginning to get worried. If he had been so frantic earlier, why wasn't he returning her message now? It was very strange indeed. Just when she was about to send him another message, a knock on the door sounded from the living room. When Lexi got up, Olivia was standing there with the door open talking to Clark.

"Hey, I was just wondering about you," Lexi said smiling brightly.

"We need to talk," Clark said walking into her bedroom without another word.

Olivia looked at her anxiously as Lexi followed him into her room her smile dropping fom her face. "I got all your messages."

"Then you know what this is about?" he asked in a very serious tone.

Lexi's stomach knotted together and she could hear her blood pounding away in her ears. This wasn't about something that had happened when he had been home. No. Judging by the way he was looking at her, she could tell. He knew. She had no idea how he knew, but he did. He hadn't touched her. He had barely looked at her. And those lone looks had been ones of disgust. Not the loving tender looks she normally received from her boyfriend.

"I'm not sure," she answered tentatively.

"Don't do that Lexi."

"Do what?"

"Lie to me anymore. Just don't lie. Okay? Can we just go through this one goddamn conversation without you lying to me?" he asked running his hand through his shaggy black hair a couple times before resting his green eyes back on her.

"Uh yeah sure."

"So just tell me what happened with you and Jack."

She stared at him anxiously holding her hands in place so she wouldn't be tempted to mess with her hair. Everyone kept pointing out that little habit to her, and this would be the worst time for it. "What about me and Jack?" she asked gulping hard.

"Lexi please!" he said his breathe quickening. "Just don't lie to me."

"I'm not sure what you want me to say."

"Just the truth."

"There's nothing going on between me and Jack." She had said the words so often that even she sometimes believed them when they rolled off her tongue.