The Badboy's Secret

XIV Lies, Lies, Lies

Short one this week. Enjoy. Working on a good chapter (Chapter 16). See the end for next release date!!! THE ABOVE PIC IS WHAT I IMAGINE KAT (LEXA'S SCHOOL FRIEND) TO LOOK LIKE (Kristen Stewart).

I told a lie. It was nothing really. Actually, I told a few. They aren't the worst lies I've told but they had to be close. It started this morning. I got out of bed for school, as normal. I've tried to make my appearance acceptable again. I was feeling brave. Brave and confident like I used to be. I almost leaped out of bed, excited to see my friends and glad I had gotten up to speed with all my schoolwork last night. I slid on some new ripped white denim jeans I bought and matched them with a grey t-shirt and oversized blue denim jacket. I even put mascara on and straightened my mess of golden hair. I look presentable. Nice, even. If only the day could have been as good as my outfit.

***

I had gotten to school and had an uneventful morning. I'd taken down pages of notes for Chemistry and survived an old, slow, ancient teacher I have for History. Some of the things I've already learned while some of them weren't in the curriculum in Sydney so it's been tough to catch up but I finally felt like I'd done it. Despite my first two lessons going well, the third did not. It was English. Of course. I walked in early and took my normal seat at the back. I could tell that today everyone was noticing my sudden swap of hoodies to ripped white jeans. Archie wasn't there. He rarely comes to English for some reason. The lesson went fine until Mr Brighton had to leave the class to answer a call from his wife. And guess who walked in at that moment? Archibald Parker of course. He strode in, eyes red from whatever he'd been smoking, hair tousled messily on top of his head. He was in tracksuit pants with a crinkled blue shirt I'd never seen him wear. Blue doesn't suit him. It doesn't match the green of his eyes. Everyone has their eyes on him now. He's the centre of attention; the Badboy gone mad. I've heard the gossip; "Archie Parker's gone off the rails", "He's absolutely mad", "Where's he getting the weed in this small town", "Do you think it's because of that thing Serena posted on Facebook", "He's probably soooo embarrassed like have you seen Lexa Fox these days? She's only been here a couple of months and she looks like a train wreck". I'd been mad at first at what they'd been saying. It's old news now though. At least I missed the outrage that followed the party that week I went to Sydney. For whatever reason, maybe because he was stoned or maybe because he looked particularly angry today, he sat in the seat in front of mine. It was silent. Out of the corner of my eye I could see every single head in the class turned towards us. Archie noticed too and addressed the problem in his angry badboy style.

"What're you looking at freaks?" he snarled and they all turned around back to their groups, pretending to have their own conversations. I could see them glancing back at us though. I cowered down in my seat. I swore to never speak to him again and I sure as hell wasn't letting him speak to me then. I pretended to work on my essay, writing down random words related to Macbeth on my notepad.

"Fox," he growled. I pretended to ignore him. "Alexis," he repeated.

"It's Lexa please Archie," I replied though not daring to look up into his eyes.

"You miss me don't you Alexis?" I could feel his smirk without even looking.

"Go away Archie," I said on the verge of tears. I didn't want to have to look at him and remember all the events and memories from the past few weeks.

"Listen to me Fox, I need to talk to you and you're going to have to listen," he said forcefully.

"Can't we do this some other time?" I replied, frantic to not have to confront him here in front of everyone.

"You miss me. Admit it Lexa." I can feel his eyes boring into the top of my head.

"No, I don't Archie." I knew it was the wrong thing to say. It was a lie. I did, I do miss him. Whatever we had together for some reason I am oddly drawn to him. That was the first lie I told that day.