Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

"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.

"Goddamnit Lexi!" he yelled turning around in place and visibly tensing at her words. He looked as if he were about to throw something across the room. "I already talked to Jack!"

Lexi froze in place. He had talked to Jack? She couldn't believe it. He had gone to Jack after she left in the morning which is why it had taken him longer to get here. Jack had told him everything to save his own skin. Lexi meant nothing to him. She just wanted to cry. Why wouldn't he have at least warned her that he had spoken to Clark. Unless of course she really did mean nothing to him. Everything he claimed to feel for her had just fallen away when he had been confronted by her angry boyfriend…his angry friend.

"You talked to Jack?" she whispered.

"Yes, he told me everything."

"Everything?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes."

"But nothing happened," she said attempting to stick to her story.

"Lexi," he began shaking his head. "I already talked to Jack. Don't give me that. Now I don't want to believe him, but I need to hear the truth from you," he said facing her cowering figure. "So tell me what happened between you and Jack."

Lexi gulped even harder this time fear glistening in her eyes. She realized that she was compulsively threading hair behind her ears from anxiety. She'd never wanted things to turn out this way, but somewhere along the way everything had been flipped upside down. How could she tell Clark what had happened between her and Jack? If she just blurted out the facts, it would make her look bad. Worse than she actually was, but if she left something out that Jack had divulged he would know she was lying and hiding things from him. It was the prisoner's dilemma she had learned about in school. Except there was no winning side to giving away any information. "We slept together."

"You slept with him?" Clark asked hardly containing his disbelief. She nodded. "When?"

"May."

He did the math in his head. "Almost eight months ago?" he cried. "When did you have time? We were together all month."

She choked back tears before answering him honestly. "It was at the beach house."

"Are you f**king joking me? While I was asleep in the same house. Has it happened since then?" Lexi sighed heavily and shook her head no. "I don't believe you. You mean to tell me that you f**ked eight months ago and it hasn't happened once since then."