234's Lifelines

42. The Dress

Song: Fire N Gold - Bea Miller

"Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: 'you can not run away from weakness; you must fight it out... or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?'" - Lucas Scott One Tree Hill.

***

"I'm outside,"Lexis says to Hera sitting in his car outside his mums house and cuts the call.

Hera steps out after a couple of minutes. The driver gets out and opens the door for her. She steps into the passenger side seating next to him. She notices Maeve's absence.

She holds her bag tightly. She wasn't sure what to do or how to react after meeting Nathan and the argument she had with Lexis. She'd left Shakespeare with Jess too scared to have her around with another Black in town.

Lexis places a file in front of her face. She looks down at it and then at him before releasing her grasp from her bag and taking the file.

"Memorize as much as you can, you'll be meeting them with me at a dinner later tonight,"Lexis says.

"Dinner? What sort of dinner? I don't have fancy dinner clothes,"Hera says worried.

"Hence why we're headed to a designers office," Lexis says.

"Wait, is the press going to be there?"Hera says worried that it'd be broadcasted and get to Peter.

"No, it's a private dinner for the wedding anniversary of Senator Graham," Lexis explains making Hera relieved at the fact that there'd be no press.

She opens the file and looks at it.

"Are we still friends?"Lexis asks after a while breaking the silence.

Hera who had made no real progress on the file as she'd kept getting distracted by the man seated next to her raises her head and looks at him.

"Are you talking to me?"She asks.

"Are we, still friends?" He asks again looking at her.

Taken aback by the question, she takes a second to collect herself before asking,

"Are you still showing the video to four year olds?"

"And if I am?" He asks.

"Then we can't be friends," Hera says turning her attention back to the file in front of her.

Lexis grins and leans to the side. He traces his lips with his finger for a few seconds and pauses the motion.

"I guess I'm neither framing nor showing anyone the video," Lexis says.

"You're not?"Hera asks raising her head to look at him shocked at his statement.

"Why?"Hera asks confused.

"Would you rather I show it? Because if you'd rather I show the video to..."He says taking out his phone.

"No!"Hera says reaching out towards his hand in an attempt to stop him. He grins and holds her hand.

"But your father, how are you going to help him?"Hera asks furrowing her brow.

"By using my brains," He says. The corners of her mouth upturn.

"...with a little help from you of course,"He finishes leaning in.

The closeness of his face to hers alerts Hera of her current posture. She was leaned in to him with her right hand held by his left hand and her body halfway over his, her left hand to his right side trapping him.

She bites her lips and tries to lean away but Lexis doesn't let go of her hand.

A bump on the road causes her to fall against his chest. His chest vibrates as the sound of laughter escapes his lips.