Lexi's In A New City

Chapter 14

Tuesday morning rolled around faster than Lexi had hoped. She got up early and left her room to make a cup of coffee and some breakfast. She entered the kitchen to see Nikita already up, scribbling down notes from her laptop in the living room. Her roommate glanced up with a small smile moments later.

"Morning."

"Good morning. Are you still catching up on schoolwork?"

Nikita nodded with a grim expression. "Unfortunately. What are you up to?"

"I have class this morning— the one I have with Isaac," Lexi revealed. She ended up flashing her roommate a similar look.

"Oh, boy."

"What do you mean, 'Oh boy,'?"

"You guys still aren't talking, right?"

Lexi bit her lip. "Well...yeah. I was trying to keep my distance because of Cassie's jealousy. But I think doing that was a huge mistake. Isaac didn't do anything wrong, yet I was mad at Isaac because of it. That was so stupid of me."

Nikita mused this for a moment. "Yeah, that actually makes sense. I was wrong to tell you to stay away from him. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, you were just trying to help." Lexi paused to sit in the living room with her coffee and breakfast. "I need to clear the air with him, though. I know he's mad at me."

"He probably is, so it's good that you wanna fix things. I know he'll want to resolve this," Nikita said.

Lexi kept that thought in mind as she and Nikita quickly caught up on what they did during Reading Week. Once her roommate left for class a few minutes later, she returned to her room to finish getting ready for the day. She headed to class a little later than normal, but still with plenty of time to make it in time.

When Lexi arrived at the lecture hall, she saw that Isaac was already sitting in his regular seat. She relaxed her growing nerves before boldly sitting right beside him like nothing was wrong. Isaac looked at her with a slight jump.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Isaac shrugged. "It's fine." He then pretended to be absorbed with his laptop. That gesture stung, but Lexi had somewhat expected it.

I need to give him a bit of time to think, she thought. She'd ignored his calls and texts for so long and their last face-to-face conversation had ended on bad terms, so he was understandably pissed off. Rather than try to explain herself, she prepared for class and tried to focus on this week's lecture.

Throughout the lecture, Lexi could see in her peripheral vision that Isaac glanced in her direction occasionally. Her skin crawled as guilt filled her from head to toe with each bewildered expression. She regretted not trying to fix things between them prior to Reading Week, but there was no point in dwelling on it. All she could do was try and focus on the rest of the lecture before she could make her next move.

The professor somehow managed to drag the class out, ending her lecture just a few minutes before 11AM. Once she dismissed the case, Lexi gently nudged Isaac to get his attention.

"Look, we really need to talk. Could you please join me for lunch?"

"I don't have anything to say," Isaac dismissed with a frown.

"Can you please let me explain myself? If you don't ever want to talk to me again afterwards, I'll keep my distance. I promise," Lexi begged.

Isaac hesitated, but he nodded. "Fine."

The pair promptly left the lecture hall and headed off to the cafeteria. They each bought some food before finding a table away from most other students. Lexi took a small deep breath before she finally spoke up.

"I owe you an explanation and an apology."

Isaac scoffed as his frown deepened. "That's one way of putting it."

Lexi bit her lip at the harsh words. "I didn't want to do that, you know. But after Cassie confronted me at my dorm, I was scared that if she found out that I even looked in your direction, she would lose her shit on me again. I can tell that you hate the drama as much as I do. So, I decided to cut off all contact with you to please Cassie. I never wanted to upset either of you, but I guess I'm shitty at making both of you happy. If I hang out with you, Cassie's pissed off. But then if I ignore you, you're pissed off."

"You feel like you can't win either way."

"Exactly! I've thought about everything for quite a while, and I feel like shit for ignoring you as long as I have. You really didn't deserve that bullshit. I fucked up, okay? I'm sorry...I truly am. I understand if you don't believe me, but I want you to know that I'm open to staying friends. I'll just try harder to get along with Cassie, or at least be respectful."

By this point, tears had brimmed Lexi's blue-green eyes. She hadn't meant to— they'd appeared as she spoke. Luckily, it wasn't hard for her to keep them at bay. She didn't want to lose her composure and cry because she knew it would look fake or like she was fishing for sympathy. She took a deep breath to calm down as Isaac carefully considered everything said.

"So, you only ignored me because of Cassie?"

"Yes, but I ended up hurting you as a result. I'm sorry, Isaac. I really do enjoy spending time with you. You've always been nice to me, and yet I had to go act like a complete bitch."

After what felt like forever, Isaac nodded. His frown even disappeared. "Thank you, Lexi. I appreciate your apology. You weren't being a complete bitch— that's a bit harsh to say. You were rude, sure, but not a bitch."

"Thank you. Can we...please try to be friends again? God, that came out weird, but I don't know how else to phrase it."

Isaac laughed. "It's alright, I get what you mean. I do accept your apology. Let's just put all this bullshit behind us, okay?"

"Absolutely. That's all I want more than anything," Lexi confessed.

"As for Cassie," Isaac continued, "she and I talked during Reading Week 'cause we had another fight."

"Oh, no. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's all good now. But I realized that Cassie's biggest issue is that she worries over everything, and that includes wondering whether I'm being faithful or not. She's trying to work on calming down and trusting me. She thought that I was the problem, not you. I think she wasn't too sure who to trust at first, to be honest. I'm hoping for the best because she was sincere about promising to not worry about it anymore. It's gonna take some time, though; I can already tell."

"Well, I'm gonna give her the chance to prove that she's working on that. I hope you understand."

"I do, and I respect that. But thank you for your apology, Lexi. I seriously appreciate it. I'm really glad that we're talking again."

Lexi grinned with content. "Believe me, so am I."