The next morning was the gloomiest of any Lexi had witnessed since moving to New York. Snow had fallen the night before, and in typical city fashion, the streets had been cleared of the white flurries by daybreak. Brown slush took its place on the sidewalks and gutters creating a hazardous environment for any who traversed the city. Dreary, charcoal clouds covered the sky casting a depressing aura across the metropolitan area. A heavy fog mixed with the ever increasing quantities of pollution hanging thick in the morning air.
Under these conditions, most normal people would have avoided leaving their apartment at all costs on a Saturday morning. Lexi was not one of those people. She thought she had switched off the alarm set for finals, but it still managed to go off at eight in the morning. Her sleep had been restless and no matter how hard she tried to go back to sleep, it would not come to her. Instead, she made the mistake of pulling on a t-shirt, black track suit, and running sneakers to take a brisk jog around the park before the city livened up.
The wind viciously whipped her hair around her face, cutting across her delicate skin and stinging her eyes. Tears streamed from her eyes as she sprinted the last leg of her run before exiting Washington Square Park. She doubled over clutching her hands to her ribs as her breath came out in spurts. The wintry air filled her lungs causing her to wheeze in pain at the assault. Her heart was still working overdrive thumping away in her chest from the physical exertion. She attempted to wiggle her toes which felt near frozen in her soggy socks and snow-coated tennis shoes. The movement was painful as life came back into her lower extremities.
She straightened brushing her hair out of her face. The gloves she wore hardly kept the cold from reaching her fingers. Now that she had stopped jogging, the sweat she had built up was settling onto her skin making her entire body shiver. The wind picked up in velocity pushing and pulling her the rest of the way to her apartment building. She stumbled into the high-arched enclosure letting the wind break past her. A low whistle could be heard as it rushed through the streets. Lexi was just happy that she was out of that. She didn’t know what she had been thinking going on a run with the weather in such precarious conditions.
Well, that wasn’t true. She knew the real reason for her early morning jog. The message from Jack kept replaying in her head, and despite herself, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She knew that she should be reasonable. He probably went through another rejection and wallowed in his own pity. It had happened frequently enough, and she knew he shouldn’t get worked up about it, but he had gotten worked up about it. She could tell from the tone of his voice that he was upset.
All she wanted to do was be there for him.
She wrapped her arms around herself as she strode past the security guard. He recognized her and waved, not even checking for her identification card. She was lost in her thoughts as she took the stairs back to her apartment.
Lexi knew that she wasn’t Jack’s girlfriend. They weren’t officially together or anything. They had made that perfectly clear in the beginning.
Yet, something was nagging in the back of her mind. When he had been threatening Clark, he had claimed they were together. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that they were automatically going to jump into something that they were unaccustomed to. She knew how they worked, and thus far, it had worked out surprisingly well. But it was a step in the right direction. If he could speak about them being a couple, even if it was out of blind jealously, then she saw that as a positive.
Her teeth were chattering as she slid into her dorm room. She clenched and unclenched her fingers hoping to accelerate the blood flow. Sliding her gloves off Lexi brought her hands to her mouth and blew on them as she rubbed them together.
“Where have you been?” Lexi heard someone call anxiously from a bedroom.
Startled from warming herself up, she glanced up and saw Rachelle silhouetted in the doorway. “I went for a run.”
Rachelle peeked back through her window as if to confirm that it was, in fact, miserable outside. “In this weather?” she asked condescendingly.
“Uh…yeah. I needed to clear my head.”
“Did it work?”
“Not really. I’m kind of frozen,” she told her a chill running down her back at the mention of the cold.
“You Southerners,” she scoffed, “this isn’t cold.”
“Feels pretty cold to me,” Lexi said wrapping her arms around her body.
“Whatever. Why didn’t you take your cell phone with you?” she asked disapprovingly.
Lexi cringed realizing that she had forgotten her cell. She knew when she was out in the city, especially when she was alone, that she should have it with her, but she hated carrying it with her when she was running. She felt weighed down by technology. But Rachelle was looking at her expectantly. “Uh, yeah, sorry. I guess I forgot it.”
“Yeah, I know. It has been ringing off the hook all morning...on loud,” she grumbled crossing her arms over her chest.
Lexi gulped, taking a sideways look towards her room as if her phone was going to start ringing again at any moment. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
“You should call Jack back. I finally had to answer and tell him I’d give you the message, but that you weren’t home.”
“You told him I wasn’t home?” she squeaked.
“What was I supposed to do? You weren’t in your room. Your phone was still on your desk. Your purse was missing. You had to be somewhere. I told him you were out. What’s the big deal?” Rachelle asked.
Lexi groaned. “My purse is missing? Great, just great. What a fantastic morning.”
“Just call him back,” she said slamming her door angrily.
Lexi sighed and trudged into her room. All she wanted to was shower. She did not want to have to deal with this right now.
She glanced around noticing that her purse was still exactly where she had left it safely tucked under her desk. Rachelle must have missed it when she answered the phone. Lexi breathed out a sigh of relief that nothing had happened to her purse. She unplugged her phone from where she had left it charging the night before and turned it on. Eight missed calls showed up on the phone and she had four text messages, and that was before Rachelle had gotten to her phone to turn it off.
Even though all she wanted to do was take a shower and not think about anything, she reluctantly opened the phone and dialed Jack’s number. As she waited, she peeled of her running jacket and hung it on a hook on the back of her door. Her t-shirt came off next followed by the black, long-sleeve, Under Armour shirt. Her track pants hung low on her hips and her black sports bra hugged tight against her chest.
“Lex,” Jack breathed into the phone, “where have you been? I’ve been calling all morning.”
“Yeah, Rachelle told me. Sorry about that.”
“What were you doing? Who were you with?” he asked accusing her with every word.
“I was out for a run.”
“In this weather?”
She wanted to curse. Why was it so hard to believe that she would go out for a run when it was nasty outside? She needed to clear her head. It wasn’t the end of the world. That didn’t give everyone the right to accuse her of anything. “Yeah.”
“Right.”
“What? Do you not believe me?” she asked, her earlier anxieties making her jumpy.
“Sure, I believe you. If you say so.”
“Why don’t you sound like you believe me?” Her voice couldn’t hide the hint of annoyance at his tone. He was the one who had dipped out of the party, and then left a sketchy voicemail telling her not to come over to be with him. She should be the one accusing him of not being around.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He had a rough night with the job interview. He was probably just irritated with that. There was no need for her to make it worse for him. “I’m sorry. It was just a rough night.”