Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding #2)(47)
Author: K.A. Linde

"Please don’t feed me any bullshit," Bekah said tearing her attention away from Lexi.

Lexi quickly darted into the empty bathroom to change. Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have cared who saw her while changing. She had been doing gymnastics long enough to get rid of her inhibitions about changing in front of other people. Not to mention, she knew that she had a pretty rockin’ body from all the pilates and running she did back in New York. But still these were not normal circumstances, and she didn’t want to be judged by the girls in the other room. There was enough animosity between them that she didn’t feel comfortable displaying herself for their critique.

She quickly stripped out of her clothes and pulled Bekah’s outfit on. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and did a double take. The outfit was surprisingly flattering…and she really did fit perfectly into Parker’s outfit. She took a deep breath to calm herself. It was just clothing. It didn’t mean anything. It didn’t matter that they were almost exactly the same size and build. Those things didn’t matter right now. She would deal with the strangeness of the scenario at another time.

Amber and Kersey were helping Bekah into her dress as Lexi exited the bathroom. Maddie stood off to the side examining a white hairpiece that Lexi realized was a small veil. Lexi focused her attention back on Bekah. After finally having Amber close the zipper in the back, Bekah stood tall and brushed her hands against the silky pink material. Amber pulled a sash over her head that read Bachelorette in large, pink glitter letters. Maddie placed the veil on top of her head, and Bekah adjusted it so it wouldn’t come loose throughout the evening. Standing in front of the full length mirror, she swished her weight onto one hip and admired herself.

"Oh my God, Bekah, you look stunning," Amber crowed running up to stand next to her. Maddie quickly backed out of the way.

"So hot," Kersey cried at nearly the same time.

"You’re going to get soooo much attention tonight," Amber continued wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

"Definitely," Kersey agreed following Amber’s lead. Lexi watched the back and forth and felt like she had entered the movie Mean Girls.

"Well what do you think?" Bekah asked turning to face Maddie who had thus far been silent.

Maddie shrugged her small shoulders. "You know you look pretty, B."

"I know," Bekah said not taking her eyes from Maddie. "Just love your opinion, dear."

Lexi wasn’t sure what it was about the looks that passed between the girls that made it seem confrontational. Yet it was there. Of course, there was a long history between them and as she had realized long histories usually came with lots of secrets…and animosity. One thing was for sure though. Maddie did seem to be the most normal of the bunch. In a different world, if they hadn’t grown up together and Lexi had met her some other way, they could have been friends. She was going to stick close to her for the rest of the night for sure. Even though she knew that would probably only worsen her position with Bekah. Lexi didn’t particularly care though.

"Lex?" Bekah asked the word slipping off her tongue.

Lexi cringed at Jack’s pet name. She had tried to get over her distaste for the nickname so she could move on with her life. But hearing Bekah say it sounded pretty shitty. "Uh…yeah?" she asked realizing that she hadn’t said anything and all the girls were staring at her.

"What do you think?" Bekah purred smoothing out an invisible wrinkle.

Lexi examined her more closely. The pink silk clung neatly to her body. A cute sweetheart neck accentuated her best feature, but her very narrow h*ps were just as obvious. Luckily for her, her long legs were sculpted and tan. Yet she wouldn’t, no, couldn’t tell her any of that. Lexi didn’t care if she was pretty or not.

"That’s a dress," Lexi said after a second. She couldn’t help but be completely nondescript.

Amber furrowed her brow clearly understanding the statement. Just as she began to say something, Bekah smacked her on the shoulder as discreetly as possibly. "Thanks," Bekah said smiling brightly. "I love it."

All Lexi wanted to say was that it didn’t matter what Bekah was wearing because she was such a foul person. But if she was restraining her entourage, then Lexi could hold back for a night.

"Oh," Lexi said jumping at the vibrations coming from her phone resting on the counter next to her purse. Maddie reached it first yanking it off the counter and looking down at the screen. "Don’t," Lexi snapped reaching for the phone.

"Who’s this?" she cooed playfully.

"I’m sure its no one…or none of your business."

"I was expecting Ramsey," Maddie said her eyes snapping back up to Lexi.

"I really don’t like people touching my phone," Lexi muttered reaching out her hand. Old habits die hard. Her experience with Jack had made her perpetually terrified of people touching her phone…even when she had nothing to hide.

"Not so fast," Maddie said giggling and stepping away from Lexi. "Don’t you want to know who’s calling you?"

"Yes and if you’d hand it over," Lexi began. She had gone into panic mode by now. She had no idea who could be on the other line. She certainly had guesses none of which were too appealing with present company.

"Well I wanna know who it is Maddie. You’re keepin’ us all guessin’," Amber drawled taking a few steps closer to Maddie in hopes of getting a look.

"Now, now, now…you know the rules of the game," she said holding the phone close to her chest. "If you get it right, then you get the prize."

"That’s not fair," mousy Kersey mumbled. "We don’t know Lexi like we know each other and you’ve already taken Ramsey’s name off the list."

"I didn’t say it was fair, but rules are rules," Maddie said a sly twinkle in her eye.

"Um…that’s my phone. I don’t want it involved in any game," Lexi said stepping even closer.

"Come on Lexi, you heard the rules on the way here," Maddie said shaking her finger at her.

Lexi didn’t have it in her to mention that she’d been entirely excluded from all conversations in the limo. She just shook her head helplessly realizing she wasn’t getting her phone anytime soon. At least not anything short of tackling her and wrangling it free from her grasp. She was starting to see how Maddie fit in.

"B show her the list," Maddie directed pointing out their purses.

"Yeah Lex," Bekah snapped obviously enjoying what was going on. She produced a sheet of white paper with a list of instructions on them. "This is how I’m keeping my bachelorette party exciting. Ten things to do before the end of the night. And look you’ve helped start us out with number six," she said pointing her manicured finger over the rule.

Lexi snatched the paper from her hands and read the rule. Steal someone’s cell when it rings. If bride, answer the phone and pretend to be the other person. Otherwise make others guess the name. Whoever guesses it right, gets to call them back. If no one guesses right, then the whole group calls them back on speaker. Retry until you get a guy.

"You should be glad it wasn’t Ramsey," Maddie said wiggling her eyebrows up and down at Bekah.

"Oh gross," Bekah said making a gagging noise. "I’ll leave that to you."

Lexi turned to face Maddie realizing what had just been said. Maddie had been with Ramsey at some point. Great. Just what she needed to know before spending the night with these four girls. She couldn’t believe he had been with her when the first time he’d pointed them out he had seemed to be annoyed with them and their groupthink mentality. She didn’t even want to contemplate the fact that Maddie had been part of the reason why he was annoyed. There was too much there…

"Oh woops Lexi…did you not know that?" Bekah asked playing coy.

"Bekah," Maddie snapped. "I’d rather not be reminded of the time you tried to kill me. Can we move on to the game please? You still have to guess."

Bekah’s blue eyes were rimmed with anger at the change in subject. Some part of her must have not been expecting Maddie to change the subject so easily. "Ok M," she growled. Kersey put a comforting hand on Bekah’s arm as if to remind her of where they were and who was around. Bekah took a deep breath. "Is it a guy?"

"This isn’t twenty questions," Maddie replied raising one eyebrow.

"Fine, Chyna. That’s your friends name right?" Bekah questioned turning on Lexi. She just nodded kind of amazed that Bekah remembered that from a year ago.

"Nope not Chyna," Maddie said glancing down at the name again. "I don’t think anyone’s going to get this."

"Wait," Lexi cried. "Do I get a guess?"

"After everyone else, but you still have to call the person back. Otherwise, we call on speaker," Maddie warned.

If Lexi had been terrified before, it was nothing compared to how she was feeling now. With the sea of people that called her greatly dwindling, her fears intensified. Whatever else this list entailed, she was sure it wasn’t a good thing.

"Kersey, do you have a guess?" Maddie asked.

"Um…I don’t know. Her parents?"

"Her parents really Kers?" Bekah asked rolling her eyes.

"What? I don’t know her," she said getting quieter and less confident as she went.

"No Kers it’s not her parents," Maddie replied sighing and turning her attention to Amber. "Your guess?"

Amber eyed Lexi up and down. Her look was judgmental as if she was taking stock of her. Lexi didn’t know her, but her eyes made her look almost deceptive. Not that any of them seemed unintelligent, but there was something about Amber that seemed more intuitive…like she just understood things and said things that others wouldn’t.

"My guess is Jack," she finally said to Maddie.

Bekah looked up at Amber and glared. She certainly didn’t like the idea of that. She thought that she had gotten rid of any lingering feelings between them. There shouldn’t be a reason for Jack Howard to be calling Lexi only a few nights before he was to be married. Then again it didn’t make sense for him to sleep with her before he proposed, to corner her behind the weeping willow, or to let her be present at his bachelor party. There were a lot of things Jack shouldn’t do that he did anyway.

But for her own sake, Lexi hoped it wasn’t Jack. That wouldn’t be an easy thing to explain away and Amber would get to call him. The girls didn’t care that she hadn’t agreed to any rules. They would go ahead and do it anyway.

"Well Maddie, is it Jack?" Bekah asked a hitch in her voice.

Maddie smiled as she stared at the room full of anticipation. "Is that your final answer?" she sing-songed.

Amber smirked triumphantly. "Of course."

"Well sorry, no Jack Howard tonight," she said unexpectedly.

A collective sigh of relief echoed throughout the room. Only Amber looked perturbed that she hadn’t been spot on. "Ok Lexi, you have the last shot. Tell me who called you."

Lexi sighed hating not having control of the situation. The most obvious answers were out of the way. No Jack, Ramsey, Chyna or her parents. Who else had been calling her recently? She couldn’t think of anyone else. Work would call, but she had been gone for nearly a month. She didn’t really have any other close friends that she kept up with on a regular basis. She wracked her mind knowing this moment was really important. She had to get this right. She didn’t want Bekah to know anything else about her life. Whoever was on that other line wasn’t someone she wanted to share with anyone in this room.