Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

"Right…things are sooo different now. Just…leave me alone Jack."

"Okay," he began stepping into her personal space and forcing her to look up at him. "So maybe things aren't completely different, but they have changed. So just let's get out of here. I don't want to see you get hurt."

He had moved his hand up so that it was cupping her cheek. Her watery brown eyes were looking up at him. How many times had she been in this similar position before? She couldn't even think about that right now. She was fighting off the alcohol induced hormones running rampant throughout her body. He shouldn't have talked about kissing her and then touched her the way he was doing. That just wasn't fair.

"It's too late for that Jack," she whispered stepping away from his comforting touch. "You've done more damage than anyone else ever could."

"Lex, come on. Stop talking like that. Let's just go."

The door swung back open revealing Bekah and Ramsey. Lexi quickly turned around to face away from the door and forcefully brushed away the tears that had seeped out of her eyes. She didn't need them seeing her this way. It was bad enough that Ramsey had almost seen her cry. She could do without Bekah having that advantage over her as well. Not to mention she had no idea what she looked like. Jack completely threw her emotions around. One minute she was on fire. The next she was near to tears. Back and forth. She knew one thing though. She couldn't be around him right now. It would surely end in disaster.

"Jack let's get out of here," Bekah said pulling him backwards away from Lexi.

She didn't exactly look pleased. Bekah shot Ramsey a disdainful look as she yanked on Jack's arm. Ramsey just smiled that perfect Country Club smile. Apparently, he had won out in the end.

"Lex, are you sure you're not coming?" Jack pleaded one last time.

"No, Ramsey's going to get her a hotel," Bekah told him practically dragging him away.

"Oh." He quickly composed himself. "I'll see you. Later," he said tilting his head at Ramsey after giving Lexi one last look and exiting with Bekah.

Lexi breathed out not having even realized she had been holding her breath. How had she let herself deal with his behavior for so long? She had such strong feelings for him and yet all they could seem to do was argue. God, it was so typical of him. She didn't know what to do. Her head was killing her already. She didn't even want to imagine her hangover tomorrow.

Luckily, Ramsey didn't seem to try to push his advantage. And when he glanced at her, he didn't ask all of the nagging questions he was dying to get answers for. Bekah had been just as secretive about the whole situation. Confirming, at least, that in some strange way, she was involved. His little sister had actually told him to just back off from the situation and Lexi. Though he could tell she was less vehemently concerned about the second demand…and more so with covering her ass.

Lexi wasn't sure if she was going to be able to keep up pretenses if Ramsey wanted to talk about what had happened. She certainly wasn't ready to spill her beans as she had proven when she had spoken with Bekah. There was no way she'd be able to talk to Ramsey. She was grateful when he smoothly requested her presence on the dance floor. As emotionally drained as she felt that definitely sounded like a better option than thinking about Jack anymore. Which is exactly what she did…stopped thinking about Jack and indulged a little bit more in the wonderful quantities of alcohol Ramsey was providing.

The next morning Lexi could feel her head splitting open. She couldn't even open her eyes. If she opened her eyes, she was certain the pain would be unbearable. She couldn't even think of anything besides the pain. What could she last remember about the previous night?

She had kissed Ramsey. Yeah that was pretty clear. And the nasty things that Jack had spat at her were still relatively clear in her mind. Though they didn't sting quite as much now that she was sober and had other much more physically painful things to deal with. Then her and Ramsey had danced and danced and danced. She didn't even know how long they had danced. From there things just sort of went fuzzy. Had she blacked out? She was pretty sure she hadn't blacked out since her twenty-first birthday, and the next morning she had had some twenty-one slash marks in black permanent marker on her wrist letting her know much she had had to drink. No way had she had that much last night.

Reluctantly, she blearily opened her eyes and found herself in a strangely meticulous bedroom. A very foreign bedroom. Definitely not a hotel room. Shit! This was not good. Hadn't Bekah said that Ramsey was going to check her into a hotel room? Not that it would have looked very good for him to check her into a hotel room in her condition. Don't hotels frown upon that? God, she had no idea. She'd never gotten herself into this situation.

She didn't want to face the truth. Maybe Jack had been right. She knew nothing about Ramsey other than that he came from money and was related to his girlfriend. If Jack couldn't even vouch for him, maybe he wasn't such a good guy after all.

She peered under the huge white down comforter and silky blue sheets to find that she was clothed in a pair of red plaid boxers and a white undershirt that was at least three times too big. Yeah, not even close to what she had been wearing last night. She rubbed her eyes vigorously hoping that maybe something else would come to her. Anything else. But she simply didn't remember what had happened or how she had ended up here in this strange place in some guy's oversized clothes.

Even before she lifted her head off of the enormous feather pillow, she knew it was a mistake. Spasms of pain shot throughout her entire body sending her sprawling back against the bed. The pain was all-consuming and instantly made her feel nauseous. If she had thought she had wanted to throw up last night, it was nothing compared to the desire she was having right now. But realizing she was in a strange person bedroom with no clue as to where a bathroom was, she lay back down and took several calming breaths before attempting to stand up again. Steadying herself on the dark wood footboard, she took a swift analysis of her surroundings. The room was plain, but she could tell that the furniture was high quality. A Macbook Pro sat unopened on the desk, but there were no cluttered stacks of papers or half full glasses like at her apartment. The walls were blank giving off a guest bedroom vibe, but something about the space convinced her otherwise. She couldn't put her finger on it. Then she glanced back at the bed. There weren't any throw pillows on the bed. She had noticed over the years that guest bedrooms always had useless throw pillows that most people neglected to place on beds they frequently slept on.