The first week of rehearsals with the definite cast had been an eye-opening experience, a part of her could still not believe her words were being acted out by other people, and that most of them made full commitment towards keeping her vision. She was specially shocked and very impressed with Ethan's work, the vulnerability and effort he put onto the character she had written was out of this world, and she would forever be grateful.
The play had a long way to go, but she felt going in the right direction, and very confident. Normally she would keep all her excitement for achievements to herself, her mother and Cassie had already too much on their plate, so she felt weird expressing her excitement over something as trivial as school or a play, it was enough for them to know she was doing fine, besides she still didn't know how her family would react to her "fiction".
Howd it go?
Lexi was in English class when she got his text, and probably for the first time she joined the rest of her classmates by ignoring the teacher and focusing on her phone instead. She probably looked ridiculous smiling like a little kid, but ever since their morning interaction, Fez had made sure to text and support her. Lexi sent him two full length paragraphs with details of the whole week.
He wasn't a particular "chatty texter" not that she had expected him to be, but he always read her extensive texts, it was actually him who encouraged her to type everything her mind came up with.
Ur gonna get sick if u keep it all to urself. He typed one day after she spent whole 10 minutes typing and then discarded the whole paragraph, she thought he wouldn't notice...
It was all nonsense.
Yo Lexi u could be sending shit like math and Id still be at the edge of my seat.
Red in the face, completely blushing. If her mother hadn't been in the same room, she would have probably grinned and laughed like an idiot.
And so, every time she felt like talking, she immediately went to Fez, and he would do the same; sent her a text sharing a comment about some movie he'd seen or a very trivial thing about his day, his drug dealer persona was completely separated from him.
you been with Rue? He typed suddenly changing the subject.
Her heart skipped a bit, she hadn't, but it wasn't like the two hanged out a lot, she respected her friend's choice to be with her girlfriend instead of her, but still felt guilty for not being more present.
Is she okay?
Idk. Imma check on her.
Lexi asked him to let her know when Rue answered.
A few hours later, she was laying down on her bed doing some light homework while Cassie was doing hers from across the room.
Lexi's phone began ringing and she was about to not accept it when she noticed it was from Fez...like a legit phone call. Perfect, everything was fine, why was she getting nervous? It's not like she had to prepare herself before making or taking call.
"You don't gotta overthink, Lexi" Fake Fez called from her couch.
Lexi looked over at Cass, she wore earbuds and didn't seem to be able to hear anything.
"Hi?" She answered, her eyes still on her sister, definitely not hearing a thing except from top volume music.
"Hey" real Fez called softly "my phone's acting out so I called, hope that's okay"
"It's great" Not like she wasn't biting her nails, she stopped.
"Good. Hey, Rue finally answered. She said she's coming, is she still with Jewel?"
"Jules?" Lexi asked confused "I guess? We haven't really talked. Did she sound okay? The last time they broke up wasn't good for her"
Fez sighed; she could almost hear how worried he was. "Yeah, I know. Yo, maybe you should come to...hang and shit, Rue could use a friend"
"Like to your house?" She asked, like honestly what the fuck, why had she made it sound like it was a big deal? They were friends...
Fake Fez now sat next to her, smoking, he gave her a thumbs up, she rolled her eyes and shooshed him away.
"Yeah" he answered right away "not cause of Rue though, I mean yeah cause of Rue, but she don't gotta be here, she is tough, but you can hang fucking anytime really."
"Sure" she found herself agreeing, was he... nervous too? She smiled.
"Cool, it'd be cool if you couldn't though, not like cool as if I didn't want you to come, cause shit you could live here if you want. Well shit not like for real, unless like you needed help or some shit, or even just wanna hang or study or-"
"Fez" she stopped him softly before he kept on going about it "I'll be there"
He muttered and okay and gave her his address.
Lexi fixed her hair and already worn make up but forced herself to not do any major changes on her appearance, she would not let herself overthink about how she looked, or what he'd think about, or what they would talk about or didn't, tonight she'd only be herself hanging with very dear friends.
Ash opened the door, completely neutral and an almost annoyed expression.
"Hi!" She greeted a bit too excited, gosh. "I'm Lexi"
The boy sighed and stepped aside so she could come in "No shit"
Rue was already laying on one of the couches. "Heeeey, wait why are you here?"
"Why is anyone here" Ash muttered high enough so everyone knew how he felt about his home being slowly invaded.
"She's my friend" Fez called from behind her, he was coming from the kitchen and carried a pizza box.
The two shared small smiles before sitting down on the free couch.
"Weird...huh" Rue muttered but shrugged "feels like some sort of intervention"
"You could use one" Ash called from the kitchen, gosh he was the king of passive aggressiveness.
Rue seemed even more miserable now "Perfect, just what I needed"
"This isn't a fucking intervention" Fez stopped her "I hadn't seen you in a while, and I wanted to hang with Lexi too, that's all"
"Yeah" she agreed nervously and tried to be more convincing "I didn't even know you where gonna be here"
"You two must be pretty close, huh?" Rue didn't seem convinced but not upset either.
"New Year's Eve party" Lexi explained "and umm... Fez has been helping me with the play"
"Oklahoma?"
"The musical?" Fez asked confused.
"No" she chuckled remembering the whole conversation she had with the girls in the bathroom "there was some confusion about the name, but no, I despise the Oklahoma musical"
"Me too" Fez agreed "when Ash was a kid he was obsessed with that shit, I fucking hated that movie"
"Fucking liar" Ash yelled from one of the rooms.
He laughed and lit up a blunt "He fucking knew all the songs"
Lexi laughed and relaxed on the couch, he seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself too.
"Oklahoma has no fucking chance against your masterpiece, Lexi Howard" he smiled to her.
A warmth filled her body, and she could swear his eyes where brighter than the last time she'd seen them. As an overthinker it came to mind that their interactions on the phone would never come to play face to face, they'd talked over Ney Year's party, but she was still prepared for the bad case scenario.
But hanging out in his house? On his couch? She hadn't gotten there yet; she was full on improvising now.
"Okay then" Rue finally said, her detective face on "I believe you, no intervention"
Lexi and Fez turned to her, suddenly remembering she was there too, their friend reached out for a slice of pizza.
"Where's Faye?" Rue asked between bites.
