CHAPTER THREE
"Lexi, do you actually want something?" I asked eventually, turning my gaze from the window and looking straight at her. Her expression was smug, although the superior air was ruined by the shock of the faces around her that I'd actually spoken.
"Nothing much," she assured me. "I'm just wondering what you did to your hair."
"I haven't done anything to my hair," I told her in a monotone.
"Not recently," she allowed, stroking her lengthy, auburn locks as she spoke. "But I sort of imagined you as one of those people who wouldn't dare to cut it. You strike me as someone who'd fit long hair."
"And?" I asked, already bored with the conversation. It wasn't as if my hair style was a new thing - I'd worn it this way since I arrived. I will admit that it's near-nonexistent length caused a stir when I first got here, but I assumed everyone would have gotten over that, seeing as it was four years ago. "Is there anything in particular you want?"
"How did you end up with such a boy cut?"
I rolled my eyes and looked away again. "Because I haven't heard that before."
She laughed and high, squeaky laugh and turned away, her group following and echoing the atrocious sound. Yes, there was literally only a few inches of my hair that I hadn't cropped off when I'd first read my parent's advert, but it didn't lose its sandy colour. It was long enough to frame my face and give me a fringe. It's not as if it was an army cut or anything; I could push it back, even if it wasn't long enough for a ponytail. To me, it was just one less thing to worry about. When you're running the last thing you want is to have your hair flying everywhere and whipping in the wind.
"You are one strange girl, you know that?" Conner said to me as he walked in. I looked at him, although I didn't voice my obvious question. "You scream your head off when Calix or I say something not even slightly offensive, but when Lexi tries her best to be rude to you, you just turn away."
I shrugged. "I figure, if she gets bored, she won't do it. She gets bored if I don't answer back, it's hardly rocket science. The difference is, I know that you won't drop the subject if I don't answer, and it'll only take longer. Besides, if the best Lexi can do is insult my hair, she has a long way to go before I even consider her worthy of a reply."
"You spoke to her thirty seconds ago," he pointed out.
I shrugged. "I decided that she might have come up with something more original. I thought I'd give her the chance to get it off her chest. It's just that sometimes, people don't wait for me to ask before they tell me what's on their minds." It was obvious from my tone who I was implying.
"It seems like an unfair judgement to me," he said, smiling his angelic smile.
"Yeah, well...How many people are waiting outside the door now?" I asked, trying to remember that there were certain things that needed to be kept secret between us. It was so tempting just to reach out to him; just to touch him. But even something as simple as that could ruin everything between us; if it became public, who knew what Calix would think. He probably already suspected something, but he didn't want to test his theory.
He shrugged, a little uncomfortable. "About half a dozen. But most of them are there for Calix and not you."
I noticed the way his tone twisted slightly at the end. I looked over to him, and then to Calix, waiting patiently at the other end of the room. "And I suppose you're one of them?"
He smiled slightly and shrugged again, turning away from me.
I just looked back to the window, watching the beams of sunlight filter through the trees outside. I had my arms folded across my chest and I tuned out the murmurs around me. I'd been in this room before, but only occasionally, and only when Calix wanted to talk about something he classed as important. He'd stopped using this room with me lately because this was one of the few rooms that didn't automatically have a lock installed on the door.
