This World's An Ugly Place

"What's the plan today?" Alex asked, sitting down beside me and looking between both Jack and I. It was the end of the day and we were in History class with the lovely Mrs. Red. Of course, there was still a few more minutes until the bell went off, thankfully, so we got to talk until then.

"Jack's house," I told him, continuing my doodle on my history notebook. I'd been scribbling through lyrics all day today trying to find a satisfying way to write a song, but I couldn't seem to keep my thoughts straight.

Alex raised an eyebrow at that. "Why Jack's?" he asked. It'd been about a week since the band practice, and every day Alex was progressively becoming more and more open with talking. He still had nightmares, but that was solved by me temporarily sleeping in his room with him.

"I need help writing song lyrics and his sister, Lexus, is good with this kind of stuff so I need to go visit her. You can game with Jack while we brain storm, if you want," I told him and he nodded his head.

"How do you know I don't already have plans?" Jack asked, crossing his arms on his chest.

I smirked. "Okay, Jack, do you have plans today?"

He pouted his bottom lip out at me. "N-No..."

I chuckled at that, turning back around in my seat. "Well, you do now."

***

"I swear to God if Mrs. Red says one more snotty remark to me," I growled under my breath as we walked out of History class. Of course, through the entire class the stupid teacher had to pick on me to read or answer some question.

Alex chuckled. "Maybe if you were focusing more..."

I playfully pushed him away. "Whatever, her lectures are the absolute worst, and you know it. Thank God finals are in a few days and we can get the hell out of this place."

"You can say that again!" Jack chanted, coming up in between Alex and I and slinging his arms around both of our shoulders. "Then it's summer break, baby!"

I shoved his arm off of me. "Yeah, and I can focus on my guitar and lyrics without any distractions."

"What about me?" Alex pouted.

"It's okay, you're not a distraction to me," Jack said, pulling him closer and I couldn't help but laugh at my stupid friends.

"Okay, maybe I can afford one distraction," I admitted.

"Aren't you all cute." My smile fell and Jack stiffened while Alex's expression was engulfed with confusion by our sudden serious behavior. I turned to see the devil herself standing in her red heels and a smirk across her face, her lips matching her shoes.

"God," Jack muttered under his breath and I puffed out my chest.

"What do you want?" I growled and she rested her weight on one of her hips.

The corners of her red lips tugged downwards. "Come on, Angelica, we don't need that kind of tone, now do we?"

"Screw off," I said, turning and walking away with Jack pulling Alex behind me.

"Is that anyway to talk to the owner's daughter of the venue you're playing at?" Mary's voice floated through the air and I felt my stomach drop.

I turned around slowly back to face her. "W-What?"

"Yeah, you know, that bar The Star Gazers are playing at...that's my dad's," she said, gazing down at her nails.

"So what?" I spat now, resting my hands on my hips.

"So, maybe you should show more kindness to me or I could convince my father to get a different band in that slot," she said, a smile growing on her face.

I chuckled darkly, narrowing my eyes. "And what exactly would you say to get us out?"
She went silent at that, her smile dropping.

"That's what I thought," I said under my breath, exchanging a look with Jack.

"You have a lot of talk for someone who doesn't even have a dad to go back home to," she spoke now and I felt my heart clench. "I mean, how sad it is to see two orphans walking around school thinking they can get away with anything they want."

"Stop talking," Jack said now, looking down at the ground.

"Oh? Did I strike a nerve? That's what happens when your parents go and kill themselves to get away from you," she said with a shrug and turning away, her heels clacking against the hallway floor.

"I'm going to kill her," I whispered, stepping forward towards the satisfyed girl.

I felt a hand grab my arm. "No," Alex spoke quietly. "She's not worth it."

"I'm going to kill her," I repeated, trying to shake Alex's hand off of my arm.

"No, Angel, come on." Alex's voice was soothing as he pulled me back towards him. I hadn't realized Jack had disappeared during our debate.

"She-"

"Angel," he said, wrapping his arms around me. I felt my legs grow wobbly underneath me as I leaned into his chest. My eyes were watering but I refused to cry; not right here. "Trust me, it isn't worth it," he whispered into my hair as I breathed in his scent on his shirt. "You only have to make it for a few more days; you'll get through it."

I nodded my head, weakly hugging him closer to me.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah," I said shakily, gently pulling away from Alex to look up at him. "Thanks.."

A small smile appeared on his face. "No problem."

***

"Lexus, this is way too hard for me," I complained as I buried my face into one of her bed's pillows. My notebook was sprawled out beside me and my older cousin was leaning over her dresser and reapplying her eyeliner.

"It gets easier," she said in a monotone, clearly used to my dramatic performances. After Alex calmed me down from the Mary incident, we went back to the car to find Jack already there. He was bitter about the entire act but calmed down once we reached the house and him and Alex were off in his room doing who knows what.

"That's helpful," I muttered and she chuckled at that. Lexus was like the older sister I always wanted, she even had her own record deal. She went by the stage name as "Lexus Amanda" which, incidentally, was bother her first and middle name. Her band, which currently is only herself as the singer, is Blacklisted Me.

"Hey, don't be a crab," she said, catching my eyes in the mirror as a smile spread on her face. "What happened with school today?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Don't pull that with me, I know something happened by the way Jack was acting when you first got here." She turned around to face me now, leaning her hips against the dresser behind her.

I blew out a sigh and sat up, reaching for my notebook and dragging it closer. "We just had an incident with Mary is all."

Lexus' eyes narrowed. "What did she say?"

"Well, she knows how to hit a nerve so what do you think?" I said, looking down at hands.

"That little prick," she growled. "Did you beat the crap out of her?" she asked, her tone completely serious.

I looked up at her and couldn't contain my laughter at that; Lexus was probably where I got all my violent tendencies from. "No! I mean, I wanted to but Alex stopped me..."

Her eyes brightened at that. "Speaking of Alex, what do you think about him?" she asked, walking over to the queen bed and sitting down beside me.

A smile spread across my face. "I-I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

"Cut the crap and spill!" Lexus said with a giggle, leaning forward. She loved hearing about my boy-related things since, well, I usually didn't have anything to talk about with that.

"I mean, he's kind of hot and funny and...sweet," I said, my eyes wandering up to the ceiling.

"So I guess you have a crush?"

A blush creeped its way into my face. "No! We're just friends and I'm just a comfort pillow for him in all this mess..." I trailed off.

"Whatever, you dig him," Lexus concluded. "How much time do you guys spend together?"

I shrugged. "Kind of the entire day..."

Lexus let out a triumphant cry. "Called it! You guys will make the cutest babies."

There was a pounding on the wall and both Lexus and I jumped at the sudden sound.

"You know, we can hear everything you guys are saying!" Jack hollered from the room over.

My mouth dropped open and Lexus mirrored my actions. For some reason I forgot Jack's bedroom was right beside hers and their walls were paper thin and I had ignored the fact that his room was quiet at the moment.

Lexus let out a giggle and I covered my face with her pillow as my face turned an even darker shade of pink.

"I guess the cats out of the bag," she said, catching her breath.

"You're such a life ruiner!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," she said, not even bothering to hide the smile on her face. "But I still think he should've let you beat up Mary."

I took the pillow and smacked her arm.

"What? Heaven knows we all belong way down below anyways," she defended, standing up and walking towards her bedroom door.

"Wait! What about my lyrics?" I asked and she paused mid stride.

"I can't write the song for you. The lyrics will come to you, you just have to get inspired."

"Inspired?" I repeated.

She nodded her head. "Just think of something, or someone, and think about how they influence you. Then, try to write that down with a tune. It'll go from there," she said with a wink.

Notes

And there's an introduction to Lexus! You guys dig Jack's older sister? c;