The Classix

(OLD) Chapter 30 (for those with app complications)

Note: So apparently Wattpad glitched and named chapter 30 "untitled part 41" and many people couldn't access it. So I'm posting it again in hopes that those who can't access it will be able to find it now. You never know with technology, man.

emeray

    "How about a party?"

    "A party?"

    Lex looks at Cartney with confusion, and I can't blame her. The very origin of this question was off to begin with: Approaching her bedroom, Cartney and I came to Lex with the explicit intentions of inviting her to something, anything. We wore expressions so resolute to this objective that when she opened the door, she jumped back like a rabbit when she saw us. Afraid we might bite her.

    Since my meeting with Norax yesterday, I've felt a indescribable amount of guilt regarding the way I've been treating Lex. I tossed and turned all night thinking about my short replies, my blatant avoidance. A part of me had been assuming that after everything that happened on the Onward Train set, she must've been like Chapter's member Elle––not a fan, per se, but a skeptic trying to weed out our secrets. To hear from Norax that this is actually not the case, and that I've been icing out someone who looks up to me . . . I'm just genuinely surprised that Lex hasn't released a nasty review of my character to every tabloid in Delicatum by now.

    That being said, her opinion is a virtue. If I can change her mind about me after ignoring her for weeks on end, maybe then I'd be able to change the world's mind about me after the obvious impending breakup between Cartney and I. Plus, it would do well to put me on Norax's good side again. Just remembering the way she told me how disappointed she was in me makes me want to curl up into a ball and never reemerge.

    This morning I decided to take the first step to winning Lex's trust once more. And what better way is there to make her feel so incredibly included than bringing her into my boyfriend's and my plans?

    This took Cartney by surprise when he arrived at the Hideaway this afternoon, a fresh batch of flowers in tow.

    "You want to invite her to a party? With us?" he asked.

    "Well, yeah," I said.

    "But we're an exclusive duo, Ray. We've spent weeks establishing this persona. Hell, we've even made our own bodyguards walk a little further away from us so we can solely be together."

    "I need Lex to like me, Cartney."

    "What for? So she can go off and tell the world about how nice we are and make them like us again?" He puckered his face, sour. "That's a death sentence. Look at these poppies I brought you––they represent death."

    "We don't even know that for sure."

    "DEFED doesn't bluff, Ray."

    I crossed my arms over my chest, searching for a good explanation. Cartney, just like Till and Chapter, has expressed to me his inherent dislike toward Norax. She, in his words, gives him the creeps. I could say the same some days, but other days––other days she's still the one person who told me I meant something. My mom ran away, and Norax ran to me. And yes, she changed me, and she pushed me into contracts, but she ran to me, and there aren't too many people who can say the same.

    It's difficult to explain the dynamics of it to myself most of the time, much less to anybody else.

    "She's not going to suddenly make us the most loved couple in Delicatum after one night," I assured him. "If anything, she's going to realize how awful it is to be around us and give the world the inside scoop about it."