by Zara Rivas
oOoOo
Xavier shuffled impatiently outside of a coffee shop as his sister paid for their drinks. He felt distinctly uncomfortable. It wasn't the cold air—far from it, considering spring seemed to be blowing through. It also wasn't being forced to work on some prestigious project with Lexington. He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and attempted to clear his head.
Emma walked out of the little shop and passed him a small cup. "Feel like walking around the square?"
He jerked his head in consent. The square was a small, picturesque setup of coffee shops, clothing stores, restaurants, and beautiful streets complete with plants and park benches in the center of town.
"Sounds fine to me."
"Why do you think the principal didn't call our parents?" she asked curiously, hugging her coffee cup for warmth.
"Maybe he just wanted to give me a chance to prove myself. I am the new kid," he reminded her.
"Yeah." She fell silent and they walked along the streets, watching the streetlights flicker on as the sun set.
"How was your date?" he asked abruptly, trying to break the silence. Things weren't usually awkward with them, but there seemed to be nothing really to talk about.
Her eyes crinkled as she smiled. "It was fun. He took me to play laser tag, of all things. Said he remembered me mentioning it a long time ago."
"Yeah. It was a nice follow-up to that awful date with the accounting major the day before. He must've been the most boring guy in existence. Seemed to think talking about logarithms would interest me," she said, shaking her head.
"Eugh."
"Tell me about it."
"What's laser tag guy's name?"
"Dominic. I went to high school with him. He's a cool guy."
They fell into silence again, this time more comfortably. Emma peered curiously into shop windows when they passed their warm glows, and Xavier sipped his coffee and watched the people on the street. He walked along in his own world for a while, not noticing when Emma halted suddenly.
"Hey," she called softly, and he backtracked at a slight jog. She stared into the window of a small 24-hour diner. "That's him."
"Dominic?"
"M-hmm."
Xavier looked in the diner window and started. Sloane was there, surrounded by three guys that resembled her in one way or another. She desperately tried to escape the grasp of the black-haired one who couldn't be much older than her, shrieking with laughter and writhing to escape. The other two were using the opportunity to mercilessly tickle her, lost in their own fits of laughter. One of them upset a cup of what looked like hot chocolate, and the liquid ran over the table and spilled onto the floor, but none of them paid any attention to it. Something was distinctly different about her, but he couldn't quite identify what.
"That's her," he said quietly.
"Her? Her who?" Emma had a puzzled look before understanding dawned on her face. "That's the girl you have to work with?"
"Yeah. Sloane."
Emma huffed out a slight laugh. "Well this should be interesting."
"Why do you say that?" Xavier asked, not taking his eyes off of the blissful family scene. Sloane managed to escape her captor's grasp and held another cup over his head, threatening to spill it if he came near her, as far as Xavier could tell.
"We're siblings, they're siblings," she pointed out. "I'm dating her brother, and my little brother is working with her. This might get weird."
Xavier shrugged, still transfixed. "I don't see how it could."
"Oh, I can think of a few ways it could," she teased. "Especially since you haven't taken your eyes off her and we've been standing here for at least two full minutes."
"Maybe," he replied, not really listening. His eyebrows furrowed and something slid into place. He knew what was different about Sloane: for once, she wasn't wearing a mask. She wasn't carefully rearranging her facial features into what she wanted everyone to see. She looked truly happy, and her happiness lit up her entire body, head to toe. It was positively infectious.
Emma waved her hand in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Xavier, Emma calling."
He pulled out of his reverie and turned towards her.
"Yeah?"
"Oh man," she whispered, smiling. She searched his face and he sensed a private joke.
"What?"
"Spaced out much?" She chucked her empty coffee cup into a nearby garbage can. "C'mon, little bro, let's leave before they look up and see us creeping on them."
Xavier walked after her, and passed by the door of the diner just as a middle-aged man walked out of it. He heard the tinkle of the bell and moved aside slightly so the man wouldn't run into him. Moving on, the sound of Sloane's exhilarated laughter followed him down the street, and privately he thought that though her teasing laughter was striking, her true laughter was much more beautiful.
oOoOo
The four of us spent the night in the living room, sprawled out over couches and covered in random blankets from various rooms. We stayed up most of the night watching movies, except we never really got down to paying attention to any of the films we put in on account of talking so much. I showed them the pictures from the latest school break-in and Blake howled with laughter, demanding copies of them to show his friends at university to prove that his kid sister carried on the Lexington legacy.
I woke up at around eleven in the morning, groggy and in an awkward position. My leg rested on the coffee table while my other rested on the couch, and my head spent the night on the arm of the couch, so my neck was a bit stiff. Finn's leg was tossed over mine, his head resting on the opposite armrest, and Blake and Dominic were passed out in the armchairs across from the couch. A tiny trilling noise came from somewhere, and I knew that was what woke me up. It seemed to be coming from somewhere under the pile of blankets on the floor, and I sleepily shoved them around until I felt my phone.
Blearily staring at it, I didn't recognize the number so I tossed it back on the floor and it fell silent. Nestling down into the couch in a more comfortable position, I closed my eyes again. And then the phone rang. Again. Muttering curses under my breath, I reached down and picked it up, flipping it open.
"What?" I snapped.
"You're charming in the morning," Sinclair huffed.
"Bite me," I said, hushing my tone when Finn stirred. I untangled myself from him and crept up the stairs.
"Very clever." I heard him clap his hands next to the phone.
"Did you have a reason for calling, or did you just want to annoy me to death?" I asked, voice dripping with fake sweetness.
"Did you forget about detention? Because I'm here, and the principal's here, and hmm. Something's missing," he said, pretending to think about it.
"Shit," I muttered, slumping against the wall.
"It's alright, Lexington, I told Hotchins about your family being in town. He says we can do the detention next Saturday."
"Oh thank God," I sighed, relieved. "Wait—we?"
"Yes," he said dryly, "apparently we're not allowed to do this detention separately.
"That's weird."
"You don't have to tell me twice." He sounded amused.
"Why did you tell him about my family being here?" I asked suspiciously.
He sighed. "Lexington, not everyone who pulls a joke on you wants to see you crash and burn. Ever heard of common kindness?"
"Not when it comes from someone who tries to make me mad every time he's around," I said, still wary.
"You did get me back for that, in my defense," he pointed out.
"I guess so." A pause hung in the air, and I shifted, slightly uncomfortable. "Well—"
"I—" he said at the same time. We both stopped talking. He finally said, "You go first."
I let out a breath. "Alright. I was going to say…thank you, I guess."
"Very sincere."
"Were you expecting a fruit basket?" I teased, stopping abruptly when I realized I was actually having a civil conversation with Xavier Sincl
air, and he wasn't pissing me off like he normally did. Sure, snarky seemed to be his default setting, but it didn't bother me so much.
"Naturally," he said easily, "with green apples. They're my favorite, you know."
"Noted." I rolled my eyes. "I'll be sure and throw one at your head on Monday."
"You wouldn't!" he mocked. "I saved your neck and this is how you repay me?"
"You're quite the drama queen, you know." I smiled.
"I can't help it. Comes from living with my sister."
"This wouldn't happen to be the sister that's dating my brother, would it?" I questioned, walking into my room and flopping down on the bed.
"How'd you know about that?"
"Sinclair, you can't see me rolling my eyes, so I'll just go ahead and tell you I'm doing it. Dominic tells me everything. Well," I amended, "most things. Besides, it can't be too much of a secret if you know about it."
"True," he conceded. We fell into a comfortable silence. I started to drift off to sleep again, surrounded by my soft pillows and blankets, until Sinclair jerked me awake again.
"Any ideas for the project yet?"
I mumbled something unintelligible into my pillow and he laughed. "What was that? Didn't quite catch it."
"You keep waking me up," I moaned. "It's not fair."
"I'm so glad our conversation takes a back-seat to sleep. It's eleven in the morning, it's about time to wake up anyway."
"Not for me. Not when I stayed up most of the night." I sat up so I'd be less likely to fall asleep. "I thought you weren't excited about the project?"
"It sounds like it could be interesting," he said casually.
"It is," I agreed. "It's really amazing, seeing the ideas people come up with. And it's fun to participate, if they choose you as one of the artists. Of course, for the two of us it's kind of a requirement now, but a lot of students would kill to be in our places right now."
"I'll be on the lookout for assassins, then," he said.
"You should be," I said seriously. "Last year some kid brought a chainsaw to school and tried to do me in."
We were both silent for a second before laughing.
"I'll keep that in mind, Lexington," he said, sounding amused. "But for now I have to go, I just wanted to tell you about detention."
"Oh, well, thanks again." I was surprised to find that I actually meant it.
"No problem," he said. "Bye then."
"Bye," I said, and shut my phone.
Maybe the project wouldn't be so tedious after all.
Chapter Seven
As great and fantastic as my weekend was, I knew something had to go wrong soon. It just seemed to be the way things went: good thing, good thing, good thing, awful thing. Blake ended up staying later than he normally would on Sunday, just to hang out with us. He said he didn't care how late he got home as long as he had a good time with us. We ended up lounging around Fours some more and annoying Mr. Elleson for the fun of it (although it never seemed to faze him).
I woke up on Monday morning to a thunderstorm: one of the really good, loud, hard-downpour types. I always liked waking up like this, with the house dark and flaring up slightly when lightning struck somewhere, the crash of thunder having a soporific effect on me. I meandered into the kitchen and Dominic was already there, having coffee with Finn. They both glanced warily up at me, and I knew something was up. My skin prickled uncomfortably and I narrowed my eyes at them.
"Are you going to try and keep whatever you look edgy about a secret, or are you going to tell me?" I asked, feigning a light tone as I grabbed a box of cereal from the pantry.
Silence met my query, and I knew they were probably having a silent argument behind me about whether or not I needed to know. Dominic cleared his throat and I heard somebody grunt softly at getting elbowed, most likely.
"You're going to find out anyway," Dominic sighed. "I have to leave for a few days."
I brightened considerably. That wasn't so bad, I was alright at holding down the fort on my own whenever he needed to get away.
"Sweet. Where you going?" I poured a ridiculous amount of milk over my cereal and started crunching it down, staring across the island inquisitively at him. He still looked distinctly uncomfortable.
The rain sloshing against the windows in uneven waves was the only sound besides my chewing, and I set my spoon down.
"Nic, spit it out," I said, wary.
"I have to go see Logan." He said it all in a rush, like it was a bad taste he wanted to rid his mouth of.
I felt my face contort with disgust. "Why?"
"He says he wants to plan his…arrival."
"Wants to do damage control before he even gets here, more like," Finn said condescendingly. Thunder crashed and we all jumped slightly.
"Damage control?" I asked.
Dominic nodded. "He thinks you're going to…disappear when he shows up."
I shook my head angrily. "I wouldn't do that. I might not be little miss pleasant when he gets here, but I wouldn't just pull a vanishing act."
"This time," Dominic amended softly. Uncertainty jolted through me and I remembered the last time my father came to town. I felt like such a different person that I didn't even associate my reactions then with my reactions now.
I nodded jerkily. "This time." I pushed away my cereal bowl with my forefinger, suddenly not hungry at all. "So, what, couldn't I just promise to stay here and then you wouldn't have to go?"
"That's not the only reason for the meeting. That's just the dumbest one," Finn cut in, taking a huge gulp of coffee like his life depended on caffeine. I reached across and snatched his cup from him, taking a sip and savoring the taste. He swiped it back with a grin.
"So what are the…smart…reasons for it?"
"He wants to plan this whole dinner party thing he wants to have when he gets here," Dominic said, shrugging. "And the whole family dinner. And sleeping arrangements."
"Yeah, I figured he'd want to stay here." I finally slid onto a stool and put my elbows on the counter, resting my head in my hands. Lightning crashed somewhere right outside our house, accompanied by a huge, crackling BOOM that rattled the windows. The power flickered out and the only illumination came from the lightning.
"I hope that didn't just fry my cell phone," Finn muttered, tossing back the rest of his coffee.
"Yeah, mine's charging too," I agreed. I turned back to Dominic in the dark. "So when are you leaving?"
"This afternoon."
"How are you going to be able to keep up with university and everything?" A crease appeared between my eyebrows. "I mean, seriously, he can't make you fail a class because he wants to throw a bitch fit about his perfect little party."
"Some of my classes only have assignments due once a week and I'm a little ahead, so I'm just going to turn them in now. My other classes, I'll just talk to the professors."
"Well, good luck with father dearest." I scowled.
"Thanks," he muttered. He stood abruptly and walked out of the kitchen.
"You know it's bad when Nic gets irritated," Finn commented. I nodded; Dominic was the most even-tempered out of all the Lexingtons, and dealing with Logan snapped him faster than anyone else ever did. I could sympathize with that.
I picked up my bowl and tossed it in the sink, full of cereal and all, and accidentally bumped into another kitchen stool in the dark.
"Are you staying here while Nic's gone or going back to the dorm?" I asked, not meeting his eyes. At the mention of Logan my mood took a distinct plunge, and I could feel the gloom settling into my daily rhythm.
"The dorm, probably. But you know I'm always a phone call away." He prodded my side with a finger and a small smile twitched at my lips.
"Yeah, I know."
Mondays have a bad reputation for a reason.
oOoOo
My phone died not long after I got upstairs to get ready for class. I'd only plugged it in when I woke up that morning, and the power didn't come on for the rest of the mornin
g. I had no battery-powered clocks in my room or elsewhere in the house so I misjudged the time and ended up being late to school.
"Nice of you to join us, Miss Lexington," my government teacher remarked snidely when I walked in, slightly frazzled from seeing all the empty halls.