Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

Connor quickly took their orders exclaiming about the drinks being on the house. Bekah got right back to business. "So, I don't really know where to begin with you, to be honest."

Lexi didn't know what that meant.

"I had a plan when I talked to Danielle and Kate."

Lexi rolled her eyes and then let them wander around the shop. She had completely tuned out what Bekah was saying. It's not like she really wanted to talk about this. She just wanted to get things out of the way.

"Did you hear me?" Bekah asked, touching Lexi's arm lightly.

"Oh I'm sorry I spaced out."

"I just asked how many serious boyfriends have you had?"

Lexi blushed slightly. "Well two since high school." Hearing the words out loud really made Lexi want to crawl into a hole. She hadn't really thought about the fact that she hadn't had a serious boyfriend in so long. Sure, she had dated, and she had been in strictly uh…sexual relationships, but she didn't count those. So her measly number still stood at two. Two guys in six years. Pathetic.

"So one other than Jack," Bekah asked lacing her fingers together.

Lexi swiftly glanced up trying to read Bekah's expression. Was this girl clueless? "Um…no. Jack and I were never together."

Bekah narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Well you already met the two serious girlfriends Jack had: Danielle and Kate."

"Right," she said leaning forward in her chair, "But you guys were together. I mean I talked to Kate."

Lexi sighed. "I wouldn't believe everything Kate told you."

Bekah twirled her earring contemplating what Lexi had just told her. "I realize Kate is probably biased to a degree. But she said that you guys were together so I just took her word for that. I'm sorry."

"I'm not sure why you're sorry. You claim to know nothing about me. And anyway, it's an easy thing to misconstrue. You heard the conversation I had with Krista. I haven't seen her in years, and she thought Jack and I were together if not now then at some point. But it simply isn't the case."

Connor appeared with their drinks. After another round of flirtation, they continued their conversation. "Okay. So you and Jack weren't together."

"Nope."

"Okay well I guess that clears up why he didn't tell me about you," she said under her breath. Lexi decided to just pretend like she was deaf. "So how did ya'll meet?"

Lexi desperately shoved her hair behind her ears. She hadn't thought that a simple question could seem so difficult...so terrifying. All along she had the notion that talking about her relationship with Jack would be easy. But so much of what they had gone through had been covered up and hidden for so long, the thought of peeling back the layers and revealing it to somehow else all of a sudden constricted her. She gasped and reached out for her coffee, realizing for the umpteenth time that morning that she was desperate for the stuff. Even worse was that she was just as desperate for something stronger...eh...much stronger.

"Sorry," Lexi said smiling weakly. "I haven't really talked about Jack to anyone in a long time. Our uh...situation wasn't exactly healthy, to put it politely."

"What do you mean by that?" Bekah asked sipping on her chai tea.

"The reason we were never together was because every time we tried, things or uh...people," she said averting her eyes, "just kept getting in our way. For the longest time, I thought that Jack and I really were going to end up together." She could feel her skin warming with embarrassment at the statement. "But some shit went down between us, and we just stopped talking. Pretty much end of story. I'm not sure what else you want to know," Lexi stated bitterly.

Lexi could feel Bekah's piercing gaze evaluating her. It wasn't a comfortable look, and the silence that followed was even worse. "Okay well I get that you guys aren't together and haven't been for quite some time. I mean, I'd at least surmised that much," she said giggling. "Jack and I have been together for a year and a half, and he's never mentioned you before.""Not that he would," Lexi said under her breath.

If Lexi had thought the last look she had received from Bekah was uncomfortable, it had nothing on the look she was giving her after that comment. "Excuse me?"

Lexi sighed heavily. Should she tell her? Of course, she had come down to Atlanta to talk to this girl, might as well start from the beginning and with the truth for once. Slowly, pulling back the first layer of their relationship, Lexi began, "Well you asked first how we met. We met at a coffee shop, similar to this actually, where he worked for some time in college. I didn't find out for nearly two months that he had a girlfriend. And Danielle never found out about me," Lexi said bluntly. Bekah's jaw dropped slightly. Whatever she had been expecting, that wasn't it. Not even close. "So when you say that you had never heard about me, I wouldn't take it for granted that was because we hadn't spoken that whole time."

Lexi hated admitting all of that stuff, but the girl had asked for the truth. She might as well be frank with her. Some people were good at sports. Some people were good at school. Some people were good at working. While some people were good at commitment, Jack was good at avoiding commitment. Honestly, Jack had always best at lying.

"So, you're saying that you guys have spoken or...done more than speak since we've been together?" Bekah asked suddenly, getting choked up at the thought.

"Uh...no," Lexi said awkwardly. She hadn't really meant to imply that. "I honestly haven't spoken with Jack since he left New York. Well, up until he called me about you."

"Well then, what kind of point were you making?" Bekah asked angrily.

Lexi shook her head a couple times, and then pushed her hair behind her ears before continuing. "I wasn't making a point about your relationship. You wanted to know about the type of relationship I had with Jack. So, I was telling you. It was one filled with lies."

"Lies?" Bekah's blue eyes were glittering with wonder. Lexi was pretty certain that her interviews with Danielle and Kate had been exceedingly dull compared to the dirt Lexi was sending her way. Then again, Danielle and Kate had had perfectly normal...ish...relationships with Jack. They had flirted, dated, and broken up like normal couples. They had had normal emotional responses to situations, and had gone through relatively normal cycles of development. Nothing about Jack and Lexi had ever been normal.