Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

"He lied to me about Danielle. Then, swore he would never lie to me again. And to this day, I don't think he ever has," Lexi said wistfully.

"But I thought you said your relationship was full of lies."

This time Lexi did look Bekah directly into her naively, innocent eyes to answer her, "It was. We just lied to everyone else."

Lexi was pretty sure that after that last statement, she would never meet the personable Bekah again. The two stared stonily at each other for a few moments before breaking eye contact and uneasily sipping on their beverages.

Finally, Bekah broke the silence. "So what happened next?"

"Uh…when?" Lexi asked surprised that the girl was even still talking to her.

"After he lied to you about Danielle."

"I refused to talk to him again for some time. But after he broke up with Danielle, he came looking for me hoping that I would forgive him. And I didn't at first."

Bekah nodded. "He'd lied to you. That must have been hard. He's never done that to me."

Lexi blushed not really wanting to correct the girl. She had been in town less than a day and already Jack had lied to Bekah because of her. Wow, things weren't that different. "Well…yeah. It's just this time around I had a boyfriend. When I told Jack about him, he didn't care. He pretty much persuaded me to come to his house and seduced me." Lexi heard the faint gasp that escaped Bekah's mouth, but she continued on. "I broke up with my boyfriend shortly after that. Mostly out of guilt."

"But you said you and Jack weren't together?" Bekah asked her stony gaze still not wavering. Lexi could tell she was getting more and more reserved and withdrawn. She wasn't sure how much she should actually reveal to this girl, and Bekah looked to be having the same idea.

"No. We weren't. I just couldn't talk to him after that. I had really strong feelings for Jack, and they scared me. Made me do things that I normally wouldn't. Made me act in ways that I…couldn't control." Lexi glanced up at Bekah to see her nodding along.

"I know what you mean," Bekah whispered.

Lexi hardly believed her. Bekah was another Danielle…another Kate. Everything they had was normal and expected. There was no way that she could have even a semblance of understanding as to what she had gone through. "The lying really got to me. I was terrible at it. Jack wasn't." Lexi knew she was reminding her about the lying just to be cruel. She wanted Bekah to ask Jack questions about it. She wanted to make her uncomfortable. She just couldn't stand the idea of sharing a feeling with this girl. It just felt wrong. Left her idea of Jack tainted and she wouldn't stand for it. "He didn't understand why I wasn't okay with lying to my boyfriend, when he thought we were so perfect for each other. When he thought that there would never be another girl as amazing as me," Lexi added spitefully.

Bekah's blue eyes met Lexi's, and the understanding that had been there only seconds before was replaced by the deep loathing Lexi had seen the last time lying had been brought up.

"Well if isn't my two favorite girls," Jack said coming up to them seemingly out of nowhere. He could tell that in his absence things hadn't exactly gone over so well. Bekah looked more pissed than he had ever seen her. Actually, this might be the first time he had ever really seen Bekah angry. He knew Lexi had a strange effect on people, but he hadn't considered what kind of toll that would take on Bekah. Lexi looked like she would rather be anywhere else right then. The tension in the atmosphere could be cut with a dull butter knife. He wasn't sure what he had just walked into, but it couldn't be good.

Bekah glared up at him as the last words left his tongue. Lexi just smiled weakly not entirely sure how to take that statement.

"Uh…I brought your suitcase," he told Lexi off-hand, attempting to make conversation. "I thought we could just go to Bekah's before the party tonight, and you could change there. Her place is just right around the corner."

Lexi arched one-eyebrow in disbelief. He actually believed that she was going to go to this party? After the disastrous conversation with Bekah and the embarrassing confrontation with Ramsey, there was no way she ever wanted to hang out with these two again. "Oh, well I'm not going."

Jack opened his mouth to protest, but Bekah got there first. "What do you mean you're not going? You already said that you would go."

"Well no, I never actually said that. Everything was just kind of decided for me," she reminded him. The events of that afternoon had transpired so quickly that Lexi hadn't even had time to decline the party invitation.

"But he assumes you'll be there," Bekah told her.

Lexi wasn't sure why Bekah was trying to get her to go to this thing. She obviously didn't like her, and that was just fine with Lexi. All Lexi really wanted right then was an extra-large New York style pizza, sweatpants, and endless hours of super sappy chick flicks. "Well, he'll just have to get over it. I can't make it."

"What do you have to do?" Jack asked.

"Family."

"Aren't you spending the rest of the week with them?" he continued to probe her.

"Well…yeah."

"Then you can come out for just one night with us," Bekah told her, standing and possessively entwining her fingers with Jack's.

Lexi thought she might vomit at the sight. Her stomach was rolling and she didn't like it. She just needed to get away. She needed to get away right then.

Something was up with Bekah, and Lexi knew it. This girl couldn't be everything she acted like she was. Her emotions were all over the charts. She took every statement as if it were a personal blow against her. And Lexi was just trying to be honest! Well, so maybe she was telling the truth a little too blunt, because this girl got under her skin. But who cares? As soon as she had met Bekah, Lexi knew that this couldn't be the girl that Jack was going to marry. He just could not be with her. The sweet and innocent act that her looks conveyed only went skin deep and Jack could do better. He had dated her after all.

With all these thoughts rolling around in her head, Lexi knew that the best thing for her would be to get away as soon as possible. She didn't want to do anything to sabotage their relationship. If Jack had wanted Lexi, then he would have called her sometime in the past year and a half. But he hadn't. And Lexi had to deal with that fact. She had to deal with knowing that he hadn't chosen her. He didn't want her.