"Here" Rue handed her a small and old gift box "it's probably not as expensive, but…"
They sat in the living room, her mom and Gia cooking in the kitchen while Rue and Lexi finished setting the table.
Lexi frowned and opened the little box, inside a beautiful gold chain. "Rue…"
"It was a birthday gift from my dad. I figured a family heirloom can only be paid with another" her friend explained slowly "Your mom's earrings, I can't get them back, but I hope you take the chain"
"No" she refused gently "The earrings were a gift from my grandma, mom only kept them to be nice."
"Lexi-" Rue began
"Just swear you won't ever do that again. That's enough payment" She smiled
Rue hugged her, it had been a while since Rue had reached out to her, both emotionally and physically. All those years drifting away from each other had been awkward and painful, Lexi could only talk from her experience, but even if she saw Rue from afar bonding with others, Lexi could always tell when she was lonely. With their arms around each other, she felt that tension and silence clearing the air.
They went into Rue's bedroom after dinner, they had a lot of catching up to do.
Rue told her absolutely everything, not being clean since ever (not that it surprised her tbh, everyone could tell she looked like shit) all the stuff between her and Jules, the newly addition of Elliot into her life, and how she had said horrible things to Jules but felt no regrets whatsoever.
"I mean you've been carrying those resentments for a while now" Lexi comforted her "it's only understandable that you suddenly lashed out that way but doesn't mean you actually want her out of your life. You needed to let her know she hurt you"
"I dunno Lex, I felt something breaking in both of us" Rue sighed and shook her head "I don't wanna talk about her anymore. What's up with you? How's the play? What's new?"
Lexi cleared her throat, should she tell her about Fez? Perhaps some other time.
"The play is coming very soon" she announced "I expect you to be there, it's uhh…it's gonna be a bit surprising to say the least, but it's fun"
"I'm sure it's gonna be good" she assured her "by the way, you still hanging out with Fez? Cause how that happened?"
She could feel her cheeks turning red and a silly smile invade her face, so much for being discreet.
Rue arched her eyebrows and began rambling "Wait, why are you?...do you? Nah, don't...Wait, does he...? Oh my God, Lexi!"
"You can't tell anyone" she stopped her "swear you won't tell anyone, Rue?"
"Okay" she promised and chuckled "I knew I felt a weird vibe between you, can't believe you have a thing going on"
Fuck it. Her friend was back, and she deserved to be able to tell her.
"We, ummm... we're actually dating" Lexi let out, she sounded like such an inexperienced child. Fuck it. She was happy and could be a bit ridiculous.
"NO FUCKING WAY. Shit, I can totally see it now, you two are the most noble people I know, like I know he sells drugs and shit, I would know haha, but that's not the point. Point is I can't believe you two are compatible, but it also could not make more sense. Oh, Fez won't hear the end of this, I'm gonna annoy him so fucking much" Rue's excitement began to come down "Ummm... I actually have to give him a call, and umm apologize"
"He knows" Lexi assured her "he's been asking about you, I've taken the liberty of updating him, if that's okay"
"No, yeah, it's great. Thank you, Lex. I still need to talk with him though, and ummm... how's Cassie?"
Rue felt somehow responsible for having exposed Cassie, but she felt even more responsible for doing it the way she did. It hadn't been to force her to come to her senses or to help Maddy, she just did it to hurt someone the way she was hurt.
Lexi couldn't blame her, Cassie had gotten the consequences of her actions, and somehow was completely fine, so she decided to give her the so much space she craved. Cassie knew where her home was, she'd come back when she wanted to.
When Lexi arrived home, she expected to find her mother drunk or asleep, instead, Suze was up and sober.
"Hey, baby" her mother greeted her with a kiss, far more attention than she'd given her in so long "how's Rue?"
"She's clean, apologized for everything and ummm... I think we're friends again" Lexi confessed. Usually, she would have never shared that information with her mother or anyone, but she was glad she was being listened to, as if the secondary character (herself) was getting her own spin-off.
Her mother's soft and gentle fingers brushed her cheek and hair, something she would normally do with Cassie when she was feeling bad about something, or when they had been younger.
"Between all that shit with your father, and well everything going on with Cassie, I..." Suze began "I realize that you've been carrying too much by yourself, and that I need to own that shit too. What do you say, honey? Wanna switch roles again? I'll be the responsible adult this time"
Lexi felt a knot in her throat, ugly crying crawling from inside her subconsciousness, why was she crying so much?
She threw her arms around her mother, they hugged for what felt like hours, and somehow, she could have stayed longer.
Xxxxx
Lexi wore Fez's green sweater to school. It was completely oblivious to the rest, but this was her way of announcing and professing her love for him to the world and saying, "I literally want you, Fezco, to be with me everywhere". Plus, she'd be seeing him later that day, and by some corny and silly reason, she really wanted him to see that she took him everywhere she went.
She saw Maddy back in school and offered her a small smile, Maddy returned it, on the outside she seemed completely normal, but the spark in her eyes wasn't there anymore... she was glad Kat and Jules were by her side.
On Rue's request, she would not tell them she'd have seen her in person, but she still let Jules know that Rue was safe and sound in the comfort of her home and family.
It was frustrating, not being able to comfort Maddy or Cassie. Not that Cassie needed to be comforted, but her brain had gone fucking insane, being with Nate was just going to keep on ruining her.
During a bathroom break she opened her phone and received a picture of Ash devouring the souffle leftovers from last night.
Legit just said he loves u. Fez typed.
She chuckled.
"Is that your guy?" Kat asked approaching her.
Lexi put away her phone "Umm… yeah something like that"
Kat smiled mischievously "I'm really curious about what's your type. Is he older?"
Lexi went red, was Kat legit asking her if she had daddy issues?
"Umm a bit older" she confessed.
Wait, did she have daddy issues? No, no, no, no.
Kat laughed and as she walked away, she added "All I can say is do better than us"
Ethan had mentioned he and Kat had broken up, he was really sad and disappointed, but promised to use all of that into the play, and he was honestly amazing. Kat on the other hand seemed fine, like, way too fine. Probably not the best person to offer her some advice, but at least she knew for certain that she'd actually do better.
"You're seeing somebody?" Cassie appeared from one of the stalls "since when?"
Oh, shit.
"A little while now" she answered, this was not the way she expected to be approached by her sister.
"Were you ever going to tell me?" Cassie seemed hurt. Oh, right cause her not telling her about her love life was far worse than Cassie leaving the house. The audacity.
"Were you ever going to care?" Lexi shot back.
"I'm going through a lot!" Cassie shrieked. The image of emotional stability.
"So is literally everyone!" She took a deep breath and composed herself "I don't want to fight, okay? I just wish you…just come back"
Her sister's expression softened, but her eyes began drowning in anxiety tears. Soon enough she left her standing in the middle of the bathroom. Well, that had definitely gone great.
