Lexi's Love & War

Chapter 9

Isaac left his lecture in a good mood. He'd just learned that he had achieved an 89 on his Intro to Money & Banking mid-term after having feared that he'd failed it horribly. He had studied for a couple of weeks beforehand but had still worried about not doing well. So to know that his studying had paid off after all left him all smiles. He knew he could now lift that burden off his shoulders and actually enjoy Reading Week, which was now fast approaching. He spontaneously decided to celebrate the success of his mid-term by buying a treat at The Bean's Knees.

He entered the coffee shop, got in the small line and then ordered a few minutes later. Just as he grabbed his coffee and chocolate chip cookie, he spotted Lexi sitting alone in a corner of the café. She was sipping a latte while typing away on her laptop— nothing he hadn't seen before. She also had in white earbuds, so Isaac knew that calling her name wasn't going to get her attention. Instead, he approached her table and waved one hand in front of her face. That startled Lexi, but she composed herself and closed her laptop in an instant. Isaac noticed that she was blushing as she took her earbuds out and shoved them into her purse.

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

"No, it's fine," Lexi dismissed. "I'm sorry for kissing you at that dumb party. I know I already said it once, but I also wanted to apologize to your face. I'm also sorry I didn't do it sooner."

"Thank you. But like I said before, I'm not mad about it."

"Yeah, but I feel so stupid! It was such an idiotic thing to do. I should've known better."

"You were drunk."

"That's not the best excuse for what went down. It explains why I kissed you in the first place, but that doesn't make it okay. The kiss meant nothing whatsoever. I hope you believe me when I say that."

Isaac chuckled. "Lexi, please don't beat yourself up over it. I believe you, and I agree that it meant nothing. I promise I'm not upset with you."

"Well...alright," Lexi relented, pausing to let out a nervous laugh. "I'm glad you're not upset."

"Of course I'm not upset. Surprised? Sure. But again, it's not anything to worry about," Isaac insisted.

"At least Cassie doesn't know that we kissed," Lexi remarked. "But she did see us go into your bedroom together at the party. It was fun to have to tell her how that happened."

"You too?"

"Wait— she asked you about it?!"

"You're surprised?"

Lexi mused this for a moment. "Yeah, I guess I shouldn't be. Anyways, she confronted me in the hallway of my apartment as I was leaving to get groceries. I told her that some guy was all over me and that I tried to get him off. You saw what was going on and told the guy to get the fuck away from me. I also told Cassie that you took me to your room to see if I was okay, and that was that. I think my story caught her off guard 'cause she seemed like she wanted to ream me out over what she'd seen. But all of a sudden, my explanation ruined her plans. She was like, 'I guess that happened,' and left. I figured she wouldn't believe me, but whatever."

"She texted me the day after the party," Isaac revealed. "She basically said that she'd seen us going into my room and had asked you about it She told me a small version of what you just said before asking if it was true. I told her that it was and added that had that happened to her or any other girl, I would've done the exact same thing. Then she texted back with, 'Fine, I guess Lexi was telling the truth.' I never heard from her for the rest of the night, which is pretty surprising."

"It seems like we told her the exact same thing."

"Yeah, pretty much."

Lexi exhaled a sigh of relief. "Thank God. It's bad enough that she saw us go into your room together. But if she had seen me kiss you...I don't wanna know how she would've reacted to that."

"It would've been ugly, that's for sure. She still wants me to get back with her, you know."

"I figured as much."

"Oh, yeah? What gave that away?"

"When she pulled you aside and kissed you a month ago, back when all of us were at your house watching movies."

Isaac scoffed. "I forgot about that."

"I didn't," Lexi pointed out. "She's got some nerve, that's for sure."

"No shit. I've told Cassie time and time again that I don't want to be with her anymore. I know we'll never work as a couple— it's harsh, but it's the truth. But she can't seem to accept it and I don't know why."

"Denial is a powerful thing," Lexi laughed.

Isaac stifled a chuckle. "Jesus, that was harsh!"

"Am I wrong, though?"

"Probably not."

"Thought so. All joking aside, if you ever need help dealing with Cassie's bullshit, please don't hesitate to ask. I don't know how to help, but I'm sure I could do something. Just say the word and I'll come running, okay?"

"Thanks, Lexi." Isaac paused to soften his smile. "You're way too nice to me."

"Consider it yet another apology for me kissing you," Lexi explained.

"Well, thanks. I hope I didn't interrupt anything important that you were doing just now. I'm sorry if I did."

"It's okay, you didn't. I was just working on something that's not due for a couple of weeks. I'm always ahead of myself, you know."

"Yeah, I already knew that."

The two shared a laugh before carrying on a pleasant conversation about their respective classes and Reading Week. It wasn't anything interesting or long, but it was still nice to catch up every now and again. When Isaac had to leave about half an hour later to get to his next class on time, his small smile had finally stretched from ear to ear.