Smiling Politely

Lexi wandered into college the next morning in a slight daze. She couldn’t believe the lies Nicole and Eva had told Josh, well she could a little bit but the fact that they actually did it still surprised her.

“Hey love,” smiled her friend Aimee when she entered the large art studio.

“Hey,” Lexi returned the greeting half-heartedly.

“Everything alright?”

Lexi just raised an eyebrow and before she knew it she spilled everything about the last few days. When she was done she took a deep breath and perched on the edge of a paint stained table.

“Bloody hell,” breathed Aimee, “Why would they do that? How are things with Josh now?”

“I think we both realise that we weren’t going to be some great romance and have cooled it. Neither of us have actually said it but its kind of a given after I practically told him that yes, I still love Matt. And Eva and Nicole… fuck knows why they lied like that, jealousy maybe? But come on, what’s there to be jealous of?”

Aimee nodded, “I know they can be bitchy but to outright lie to your boyfriend like that it’s just nasty and spiteful.”

Lexi shrugged and pulled her bag onto the table next to her and dug around in it to find a sketchbook, “I guess their lives really are just that boring.”

“Who’s lives are boring?” came a voice from behind them. Nicole’s voice.

Lexi hated confrontation, it was the main reason she was a big fan of running away but she had no where to go now and to be honest it wasn’t her that was in the wrong this time, “Yours,” she swiveled towards the large doorway the duo were now filling.

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Eva asked, sticking her nose in the air, the light glinting off the piercing in it that didn’t suit her pretty face.

“Josh told me what you said to him,” Lexi crossed her arms over her chest, “Why would you do that?”

“What did we supposedly say?” Nicole mirrored her actions.

“A lot of crap about how I go from band boy to band boy and you told him about Matt!”

“If he’s your boyfriend then he should have known about your ex,” Eva spat, “And its true, aren’t all your ex’s in bands?”

Lexi stood up and turned to fully face her ‘friend’, “Yes by coincidence, both of them are in bands and yes, both of them are drummers. None of which is your business.”

“We’re your friends, that makes it our business,” Nicole’s face screwed up as she tried to argue her point.

Lexi almost laughed out loud, “Friends don’t do this to each other. I saw the way your little eyes lit up when you found out Josh and the boys were in a band. Is that all a boy needs to do for you to be interested, play an instrument and drive around in a grotty old van? Or is it the shiny laminate that catches your attention?”

Aimee bit her lip to stop the grin that threatened to split her face, Nicole and Eva had been getting too big for their already rather large boots and a dressing down was exactly what they needed.

“Not much to say for yourselves now, eh?” Lexi shoved her sketchbook in her bag and slung it over her shoulder, suddenly not in the right frame of mind to do anything productive, she turned to Aimee, “Can you tell the lecturer I’ve got a tummy bug or something? I’ll call you later to get the notes.”

Without another word she stormed past Nicole and Eva, who still looked a little dumbfounded that someone had talked back to them, and her rage carried her to the lifts and out of the building towards the train station. When she got there she dropped down on the scuffed metal bench and let what had just happened wash over her. Suddenly all her angry energy was gone and she felt exhausted, she didn’t know where to go now. She couldn’t go back to college and she didn’t want to go back to the flat, work was out of the question. So she slid her phone out of her cardigan pocket and dialed a number she could recite in her sleep, “Mum, you at home?”