Chapter 3

~Lexi~

" Thank you, " I say to the flight attendant as I de-board the plane and walk out into the airport. Even though there's an AC in the building I can feel change in the atmosphere in a new state. OR maybe that's just me, trying to make this place as different as possible fro. where I was coming from. I follow the signs towards the luggage pickup where Luke and I agreed to meet the day before.

I finally got the carousel that was assigned to my flight and sent him a text telling him which one I'm at before looking up and waiting to see my bags come around the track.

All of a sudden I feel a pair of arms wrap around me and before I know I'm being lifted off the ground by my smiling cousin.

" Lexi! It's so good to see you," he says once he puts me down, " you look so different yet nothing seems to have changed about you."

"Yep same old me," I say with a smile, " short, smart, and still able to kick your ass."

" Well last time I saw you, every waking minute you were boxing so I'm honestly not surprised."

Boxing. One of my guilty pleasures along with pizza and brownie sundaes. I stopped though. Because of Tyler.

His screams surrounded me. " Why are you boxing? Do you think I'm not good enough for you? That I can't protect you? Maybe you should just leave and go fuck a girl is you wanna be a man so bad!"

I had wanted to shout back so bad. Tel him and his outdated gender constructs to go suck it but I never did. No matter how strong I got physically I still felt controlled by him. Never again.

" Hey Lex," Luke said, grabbing my attention, " which bags are yours again? Sarah's waiting in the car right now so I don't get a ticket. The fast we can get out of here the better"

I turn and look at him quizzically, "You never told me that you and Sarah were that serious. Bringing a girl to the airport at seven in the morning is in my book is some 'I'm gonna marry this chick' type behavior Mr. Luke."

He smiled sheepishly and didn't meet my eyes when he said, " Yeah. I really love her Lex, I think she's the one for me," he paused before looking at me, " I want you guys to get to know each other while you're here so she agreed to come pick you up with em and show you around."

" Of course," I say with a smile, " My cousin's girlfriend is just the person I need to share all our childhood memories with."

Luke's eyes widened in shock as I said that. " You wouldn't do that to your favorite cousin."

" My only cousin," I say, "As you bet your high paying, low effort job I would." Luke was in college for business in sports and had a part time job helping the football team as a manager. He got paid to basically hang out with his friends and fill out the occasional spreadsheet. I was secretly jealous that he got paid to hang out with his friends on a football field for four hours a day, but I would never say that to his face. Before he could defend his job and all the work that he supposedly did, I turn around and make my way towards the luggage after seeing my bags.

" Are you gonna help, or stand there pretending you're pretty?"

Rolling his eyes and mumbling under his breath he follows me and grabs one of my bags while I grab the other.

I follow him as he leads the way back to where he parked. By the time I see his silver four runner parked I'm out of breath from trying not to lose him in the crowd of the airport.

" What's wrong Lexi? I might have to require some running from you if you're breathing that heavy from a short walk."

" Haha, very funny," I say, still breathing heavier than normal," you seem to be forgetting that I'm only five two, while you're six three or something." I stand back to try and see if he had grown or I had somehow shrunk since last year when I heard a voice calling out from the direction of Luke's car.

" Lexi! Is that you? You look great girl, it's so good to see you!"

I turn around to be engulfed in a hug from who I'm assuming is Sarah. I've only met her a couple times when Luke face timed her when he visited, but from what interaction I've had she is super nice. If she can make my grumpy cousin say he's in love I know she must be amazing.

" Hi Sarah," I say as she lets go of me and steps back, "It's great to finally meet you in person. I've heard all about you from Luke."

" Luke talks about me?"

" Oh all the time girl," I say knowing that it'll embarrass my cousin, " Three minutes into seeing him he was all 'Sarah this-' and 'Sarah that-. If you didn't seem so amazing it would've gotten old really quick, but Luke just kept on going and going-"

" Okay that's enough," Luke interjects. His face was turning bright red and he looked like he wanted to kill me, " How about we get in the car quietly and on the way to your new house we can get some breakfast."

As soon as he mentioned food my stomach growled. The last thing I ate was some pretzels before I fell asleep more than five hours ago.

" Say less dearest cousin," I say as I open the door and climb into the back of his car.

The drive is quite aside from some music playing from the radio before Sarah turns to look at me.

"So, why'd you decide to come over here for the summer?"

I take a moment to consider her question and think of the most truthful answer I could give.

"Back home I wasn't feeling the best and getting out of bad situations, so my parents and I agreed that a change in my surroundings could help get me out of my funk."

She smiles at me and says, " I'm glad that you're getting out of whatever you've gone through. It takes so much for a person to try and grow from their past. You just making the effort shows how strong you are."

I nod suddenly emotional. Everyone's told me that I'll get through it, but no one's ever told me that I'm strong, which surprisingly was something I needed to hear.

Ten minutes later we pull up to a drive through and Luke turns around to ask me what I want to eat. I pick a glazed donut, egg and cheese croissant and an iced coffee. You could never go wrong with a classic glazed, egg and cheese is hard to mess up, and I never liked hot drinks. When you get them they're too hot to drink then you put it down to cool, forget about it and end up drinking nasty lukewarm coffee. I'd rather have mine started off iced and just have to deal with it getting watered down, thank you very much.

He pays and all of a sudden starts asking about my pans for the summer. Give the hungry girl food then ask them a million questions. Genius dude. Genius. Luckily, most of his questions are yes or no so I just grunt in response according to how I feel about it. As we get closer to the house however he asks me a question that caused me to choke on my croissant.

" So are you gonna pull a basic teen girl and have what they call a 'hot girl summer'?"

" What", I say drinking some coffee, " where the hell did you hear that from?"

" Just because I'm out of my teens, doesn't mean I don't have access to social media Lex."

" Right," I say sarcastically, " to answer your question, no. I will not be having a 'hot girl summer' as you said. This summer I'm focusing on me and becoming friends and only friends with more people."

" You tell 'em girl," Sarah says, "You don't need no man to make you happy. They're kinda overrated anyways."

" Heyy," Luck complains, " I'm not overrated. I'm perfectly scored. I'm like one of those products you see online that after you read the reviews, you feel comfortable in purchasing the product."

Sarah and I both stare at him before bursting out laughing.

" You laugh now, but don't come crying to me when you want tickets to a game for free."

I attempt to stifle my laughter after that even though he and I both know he would never say no.