The final note of the song sounded in her ears and the shower cut off. Lexi jumped from where she was standing, not expecting them to be timed together. She grabbed her clothes from his dresser and rushed into the guest bedroom. Scrambling into last night’s clothes, Lexi dashed for the exit. She didn’t want to be here when he got out. She didn’t trust herself enough not to succumb to his wiles.
Lexi hailed the first cab that she saw and had them whisk her to the airport. Flight time from JFK to Hartfield-Jackson was only two hours, and since Chyna was flying private jet it might even be less time. Lexi didn’t care how long she would have to wait. She couldn’t be around Jack right now. She needed her best friend. She needed Chyna to tell her that she was doing the right thing, because Lexi had never been good at that. And all she wanted to do was turn around and be back in Jack’s arms.
The cab stopped in front of the airport terminal. She threw some cash over the front of the seat and quickly exited the vehicle. The cabbie rolled the window down and called out to her. “Change?” She turned around and shook her head at him.
The wait was shorter than she had expected. She had passed the time sitting with her feet propped up across three chairs, listening to whatever was blaring through her earbuds, and people watching. New York was bad enough. She couldn’t believe what she had seen coming to and from an international airport. She shook her head at the remembered images and deposited the iPod back into her purse. Chyna had employed some poor sap to wheel her luggage through the airport for her. Lexi shouldn’t have expected anything less from her gorgeous friend. When Chyna caught sight of Lexi, her feet moved double time as she nearly ran in her rather impractical four inch heels to greet her best friend.
“Alexa, I’m so glad I’m here,” she squealed wrapping her arms around her neck.
“I’m glad you’re here too, Chyna,” Lexi told her.
“Let’s hope my town car is waiting,” Chyna stated grabbing Lexi’s hand and whisking her out of the airport.
A black town car was indeed waiting for Chyna’s arrival outside of the airport. After the baggage was secured in the trunk and the girls were in the backseat, the car whisked them away to the hotel in which Chyna already had a penthouse reserved in her name. Once the two were safely in the hotel accommodations, Chyna immediately went on a rampage. Lexi was only half listening to what she was saying as she stared in awe at the hotel room. She had seen impressive residences. Chyna obviously had a remarkable suite, but Lexi had been there so often she had become desensitized to its beauty. This place was completely different. Everything about the room was classy and elegant, drawn out in soft golden hues. An exquisite den area was set in dark oak and brown and cream suede. Through colossal double doors revealed a four-poster bed draped with an intricately detailed quilt comforter and at least a dozen throw pillows of varying shape and size. The sheer, gold-trimmed curtains opened to a sprawling balcony overlooking the city. From several dozen stories up, Lexi could really see the splendor of the place she had grown up.
Chyna cleared her throat. “Are you listening to me?” she asked grabbing Lexi’s wrist.
“Huh?” she asked turning away from the decorations to look at her friend.
“I was talking about what’s been going on with you,” Chyna told her unceremoniously.
“Yeah,” Lexi mumbled falling backwards in a large chair that she sank into on impact. “Things aren’t exactly going as planned.”
“You think?” Chyna asked sarcastically. “You were supposed to tell the girlfriend what happened between you two, and let that be the end of it. What about that was complicated?”
Lexi buried her face in her hands. “Everything,” she grumbled.
“No, it’s not. That’s what I was saying earlier. You get way too attached. Clean break is what you need. Just forget about him. Forget about whatever happened between you two. That’s what you were supposed to be doing here, Alexa. Tell me what happened to change that. I cannot fathom why you’d want to have anything to do with this scumbag again after what he did to you. I kind of want to go find him myself and cut off his you-know-what,” she exclaimed angrily. “He doesn’t actually deserve to have balls after everything that went down. I can’t believe I actually convinced you to come see him. I should have seen this coming. What was I thinking? He’s obviously the same pig-headed asshole he always was. He thinks he can waltz right in, take over your life, and leave you in pieces all over again. Well, I’m not having it alright? Do you hear me?”
“C, chill out. That’s not how it’s going to be.”
“You’re damn right that’s not how it’s going to be. Wanna know why? Because I’m not letting you near him again. I don’t care what you say, Alexa Mae.”
“You’ve got it all wrong,” Lexi said through her teeth.
“And you’re brainwashed by him,” she cried.
“I’m not brainwashed, alright?” Lexi yelled back. She stood forcefully and stared at her friend. “I know what happened with Jack, and I swore I would never let that happen to me again. I know what he is capable of, but it’s not going to happen this time.”
“I hope it’s not going to happen, because you’re not involved with him,” Chyna retorted staring back at her friend.
“I could have slept with him. I could have given myself up to him all over again. I could have torn down all the walls that I had placed around myself against him, but I didn’t. Do you know how hard it is to say no to him? No! How could you?” she cried, anger that she had bottled up threatening to overflow. She was even beginning to make wild accusations against her best friend…the one person in New York she told everything. Well…almost everything.
“Watch it,” Chyna warned.
“You are just given everything you want. You take everything that you want. You have no concept of what it means to say no to someone that you truly love, because you don’t love anyone,” Lexi uttered viciously.
Chyna’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Lexi growled. “You have a silver spoon shoved up your pretty little ass, and the world jumps at your beck and call. You’ve never loved anyone, because you’ve never put yourself out there to be loved. You just sleep with guy after guy after guy.”
Chyna’s jaw set at the accusation. “And you’re much better?” she asked shaking her head. “You do the same thing, but at least I know where I stand with them. You…you’re just using them, because you can’t have the one thing that you want. The one person that you want doesn’t want you, and you’re right, I don’t know what that’s like. Everyone wants me.”
“Yeah, they want to fuck you and be gone by the morning,” Lexi said maliciously.
“That’s better than wasting a life on someone who will always choose the other girl over you. I’d rather be in control, using them rather than have them use me, because that’s all he’s doing. He’s using you, and when he’s done, he’ll throw you out with the trash like he always has,” Chyna snarled letting her words cut straight through to Lexi’s core.
Lexi couldn’t believe what she had just said. Was this what Chyna had been holding back all those years? Was this what it was like to get the full blow of Chyna’s anger? Suddenly, Lexi felt like all the air had been sucked out of her body. Her chest was seizing up with the lack of oxygen, and her head was spinning in the oxygen deprived environment. She could feel her face lose its color as the blood flow weakened. She gasped out hoping to breathe in some precious oxygen, but nothing happened. Then she was in darkness.
*****
When Lexi finally began to stir, the first thing she noticed was that she was no longer in the same place. Her fingers spread apart as she felt the silky material caress her hand. Her eyes fluttered open as the reality that she was lying in the hotel bed came to her. She turned her head to look around and found that there was a crowd of people whispering inside the double doors. A searing pain shot through her head at the movement. She reached her hand up to her aching head. Her hand pushed into her tangled hair and found a large knot on the backside of her scalp. She groaned at the slight feel of her fingers brushing the spot.