Fallout
Chapter 54
Written by: Karen
Sami tried her best to keep the conversation lively; she didn't want Lexie to be upset over Knox taking his leave with that girl. She was fairly certain that Kristen had called the girl a slut when she and Knox had been walking away from the bonfire they had all been sitting around.
Sami did her part to draw Lexie into talking with them by mentioning the horseback riding they had done earlier in the day. Kristen even spoke of when they used to have horses in the stables at the mansion, but Stefano had declared if they didn't have time to take care of them, they wouldn't be able keep horses year round.
Sami was hoping it would be enough to keep Lexie distracted where she would forget about Knox, but even with the talk of the fun things they had done and would do throughout the rest of spring break, she could tell Lexie's thoughts weren't with them at all. Sami could only imagine what Lexie was thinking about at the moment. If it had been EJ off with another girl, she would be completely crushed. Thank god EJ was sitting across from her and hopefully later on they would be able to sneak away from the party where they could be by themselves.
Lexie tried not to let Knox's absence from the party bother her, but it had been over fifteen minutes since he had announced rather crassly that he was going to go to the restroom. Damn that teeny bopper girl who had immediately offered to accompany him back to the beach house. Lexie wasn't sure of her name, but she knew exactly why the girl had gone with Knox.
It shouldn't bother her, hell Knox had been with lots of girls from their high school and surrounding ones too if all the rumors about him and his sexual exploits were true. He had told her though not to believe everything she heard. That it was all bullshit people made up about him.
He had asked her if she could see the real him and she thought she had the night of Philip's party even if she hadn't been very receptive to his advances. But that next morning before the wreck had occurred, she was sure she had seen the real Knox. The guy who knew how to cook, the one who had been so sweet to her and when he had kissed her, she had almost swooned right there at his feet and she had truly liked being around him.
The wreck changed everything though and she hadn't been able to reach him since then. Could he still be upset about her hesitation to go out with him? If she could have done it over she would have immediately agreed to go on a date with him.
Ever since then he had done his best to avoid her, and it hurt her deeply, more than she had ever expected it to do. Maybe she shouldn't have taken him for granted all those years in high school, but she'd been afraid to let her feelings show.
She had thought if she had paid attention to Brandon, it would make Knox jealous, but if anything it showed her how uninterested Knox was in her. She needed to quit being such an idiot about him. Of course Knox wasn't interested in her, she was such a prude, hell it wouldn't surprise her if he was having sex right now with that other girl in their freaking beach house.
The mere thought of Knox probably screwing some other random girl was enough for Lexie to get up from the chair Knox had been sitting in earlier. Since it was apparent that Knox wasn't coming back anytime soon, she went over to where Kristen and Nikki were tossing back tequila shots like they were water.
"I want to try one of those," Lexie pointed to the shot Kristen had poised ready to knock back while Nikki held the sliced lime prepped to squirt it in her mouth.
Even though she had licked the salt off her hand, Kristen stopped midway with her shot of tequila, "You've got to be fucking kidding me Lex. You never drink hard liquor and this is the hard stuff. I stole this bottle of AsomBroso out of the locked liquor cabinet."
Lexie stood her ground with Kristen, refusing to back down from her even if she had never drank a drop of tequila in her life. "Then I suggest if you want me to play dumb whenever Father asks what happened to his expensive bottle of tequila you better serve me up a shot."
"If you really want to do the shot you need to lick your skin on the side between your thumb and first finger," Nikki told her since Lexie seemed bound and determined to take a shot.
Lexie did as Nikki said, "Now what?"
Kristen rolled her eyes at Lexie, "You lick the salt off of your hand, take this shot glass, quickly toss it back and then Nikki will squirt the lime into your mouth."
Lexie concentrated as she listened to the steps Kristen and Nikki had provided her and nodded her head, "Okay, I'm ready."
"When you have a hell of a hangover tomorrow, don't blame me," Kristen stated after Lexie had the salt poured over her the place she had daintily licked. "Damn Lexie, you don't even lick it right."
Lexie proceeded to lick the small amount of salt she had put on her hand, "Shut up and give me that shot!"
Reluctantly Kristen handed over her the shot glass she had intended to drink herself and Lexie momentarily held it in between her thumb and fingers of her other hand trying to gain her courage to go ahead and do the shot. She did the shot quickly as Kristen had suggested and then Nikki squirted the lime slice in her mouth afterwards.
Lexie's eyes watered slightly, but she grinned after completing the task. "I want another one!"
EJ had watched the exchange between Kristen, Lexie and Nikki and wondered what in the hell was Kristen allowing Lexie to do. His eldest sister rarely if ever, had drunk liquor, and to begin with tequila shots, it was a recipe for disaster.
"Kristen, do not let Lexie have another shot," EJ stated succinctly while Sami approached the trio of girls right behind him.
"I can do another one if I want to EJ," Lexie touted as she licked her hand a bit sloppier this time around and motioned for Nikki to salt her down.
"Lexie, you don't need to do any more though," EJ stressed as he tried to reach for the bottle of tequila but Kristen stood in his way. "It won't hit you until later on. Right now you may seem to feel like you can handle it, but..."
Kristen immediately on the defensive if it meant arguing with EJ. "If Lexie wants to take tequila shots then let her."
Nikki spied Sami behind EJ, "Oh girlfriend you have to do some shots with us too!"
EJ looked at Sami questioningly, but didn't say anything to her whether or not to do a shot of tequila. Sami wanted to have full control of her facilities since later on tonight she was certain she and EJ would be having sex and she wanted to remember everything about this night.
"I'll just do one," Sami conceded which made Nikki squeal with glee.
"I knew you wouldn't wuss out on us!" Nikki claimed as Sami readied to take a shot.
"I'll do one too," EJ decided to take one shot because this was the good tequila his father never let them take even a sip of the expensive liquor.
"Thank god you aren't a wuss," Kristen smirked as EJ prepped to take a shot hoping with his participation Lexie wouldn't want to do anymore, but he was wrong. As soon as he and Sami had taken their shots Lexie was clamoring for more.
EJ shook his head; Lexie didn't have a clue on how tequila would affect a person. He only hoped she wouldn't get alcohol poisoning from trying to drink away her sorrows over that jackass Knox Preston.
Knox drained the rest of the contents of the bottle of vodka he had pilfered from the liquor cabinet and he still couldn't stop thinking about Lexie. She had looked beautiful all day and then tonight when he had seen her make her entrance to the beach party it had taken all of his strength not to go to her, to ask her for forgiveness, to plead if need be, because he wanted to be with her.
He hated acting like he couldn't stand to be around her, but what else was he supposed to do? What if the next time he hurt her even worse than she had when they had been involved in the car wreck together?
Then he rationalized to himself, it was too much to risk. He needed to keep acting like a jerk to keep her away from him. Lexie was special, she wasn't like the other girls he had ever been with, and she was in a class by herself. But he had made a vow to stay away from her.
He only had a few more months left of high school before they graduated and now he doubted he would get accepted into any of the major colleges he had applied for since he had broken his fucking wrist. He wasn't an idiot; in fact he was in the top ten of his graduating class. Yet the hopes of obtaining at least a partial if not total athletic scholarship to offset the costs of his dream colleges of Harvard or Notre Dame suddenly seemed like a pipe dream.
His family wasn't poor, but they didn't have mega bucks either. He wouldn't put the financial burden upon his parents if he did get accepted into either one of the prestigious schools he wanted to attend. Also the fact that Lexie had applied to both these schools wasn't lost on him either.
Fuck, he probably be stuck going to Salem University and while it wasn't a bad school, it wasn't the college he had dreamed about attending. He debated whether or not to go back downstairs to get another bottle of vodka or bourbon. He wasn't near drunk enough to get those damn thoughts of Lexie out of him mind.
Six more tequila shots later Lexie was primed for a fight and she knew exactly who she was going to pick a fight with, none other than that obnoxious ass Knox Preston. Plus, she was probably going to tell that skanky ho that left with him to get the hell out of her beach house.
Lexie declared she was heading back to the beach house for a few minutes and Brandon immediately offered to escort her back. Nikki warned him not to try anything with Sami's new sister, which only made him mad. He wasn't going to allow his younger bratty sister tell him what he could and could not do especially when she was well on the way to being three sheets to the wind drunk herself.
It also hadn't helped that Brandon had been drinking beer along with having a few tequila shots. Lexie thanked him profusely for taking the time to walk back with her. She was bewildered as to why she was slightly stumbling as they made the slow progression back up to the brightly lit beach house.
Brandon tried his best to keep Lexie from falling and he had to admit he liked her leaning on him while they walked together. She was also laughing and her laughter was contagious as Brandon joined along in her mirth.
When they finally made it to the beach house Lexie was ready to thank Brandon and then shoo him on his merry way. She really needed to speak with Knox and she'd be damned if he would ignore her anymore tonight.
Crossing the threshold from the patio to enter in at the French doors Lexie tripped and Brandon was quick to prevent her from falling in the floor. She giggled even more while Brandon steadied her into a standing position again.
Then she saw him, Knox at the bar about to take an entire bottle of liquor with him and her laughter instantly ceased.
"Well, well, well, guess someone is getting lucky tonight," Knox snidely remarked as he was trying to figure out a way to escape the room. It had taken so much effort not to engage in a fight with Brandon earlier, and now Knox's anger had increased tenfold seeing him with Lexie.
Damn it, Lexie was pure perfection, the complete package of beauty, brains and class and here that dude from California was going to be with her and not him. He was pissed and aching for a fight.
"Don't trash talk Lexie, I just walked her up from the beach," Brandon defended his reason for being with Lexie even if he did in fact want to spend the rest of the evening in her company.
"Lexie sweetheart, don't be naïve, it's obvious you're drunk and Braden is going to take advantage of you."
"It's Brandon," he stressed the pronunciation of his name, but Knox waved a hand in the air to dismiss him altogether.
"I really don't give a fuck what your name is, but you need to back off from Lexie."
Lexie rolled her eyes at Knox, "Like you give a damn about me, hell I could walk around naked and you wouldn't even look twice in my direction."
"Lexie, just let me walk you to your bedroom so you can sleep this off," Brandon suggested to her, but she shook her head.
"I can get there myself," Lexie announced as she pointed to the way she and Brandon had walked in together on a few minutes earlier.
Knox added, "Yeah she doesn't need you to help her walk to her fucking bedroom."
"Knox, stop being an ass," Lexie pushed off from Brandon almost falling in the process but she righted herself before she fell flat on her face.
Brandon was ready to pull Lexie back into his grasp while he commented, "Knox quit acting like a prick, oh wait, and you're not acting at all. You are a huge prick."
Knox took one hand and grabbed his package, "You wish you had something like this. Dream on Cali boy."
Brandon tensed up ready to punch Knox, but Lexie placed a hand on Brandon to show him the way to the door as if he had already forgotten. "Thanks Brandon for walking me up from the beach, but I've got it from here."
Brandon questioned her worriedly, "Are you sure Lexie?"
"No problem, go have a good time with everyone," Lexie was already tottering off away from both of the guys.
"Well if you need me, just call. I'll come right back."
Knox rolled his eyes, this Brandon dude was such a douche. He hoped he would leave and finally Knox got his wish as Brandon began to walk out the door. Then it hit him, now he was all alone with Lexie and that wasn't supposed to be part of his plan.
"Well it's been real Lex, but I've got to get back to my bedroom." He started to turn to go up the stairs and had almost made it back to his room when he felt her right on his heels.
"Oh hell no, you don't steal my father's liquor and then bring it up to your room with that little hussy you brought back with you from the beach."
"I'm not stealing anything; remember I'm a guest of your father's this week. May I also remind you it is none of your damn business who I fuck or where I fuck or how much I fuck!"
"Not in my beach house," Lexie pushed past Knox to enter his bedroom ready to yank that skanky girl's hair out by the roots, but to her surprise no one else was in Knox's bedroom.
"Expecting to find someone in here with me?" Knox asked with a chuckle as he opened up the new bottle of bourbon he had found and took a swig of it.
Lexie narrowed her eyes as she attempted to put her hands on her hips. "Where is she?"
"Lexie get the hell out of my bedroom."
"No, you can't make me do anything I don't want to do."
"Wanna bet on that Ice Queen?"
"I've told you before that isn't my name!" Lexie advanced upon him ready to strike him with her balled up fists.
"I'll call you anything I damn well please," Knox began ready to bodily escort her out of his bedroom, but when he touched her Lexie launched herself into his arms instead.
Knox realized a moment too late he was royally fucked. How was he ever going to get her out of his bedroom now?
