Work Text:
“ You're so boring, Lex”
Lexi looked up from her laptop, the cursor on her blank document had been blinking at her for almost the entire lunch period. She had just been hit with a wave of inspiration on what she was hoping would be her debut novel, when suddenly Cassie piped up from the other side of the table. Lexi figured that Cassie was still pissed from that morning when Lexi discovered that Cassie had taken Lexi`s wet clothes out of the dryer so she could have a warm towel after her shower, and Lexi had called her… some creative names to say the least.
In retaliation, Cassie had berated her the entire way to school and apparently wasn't done yet.
“ What?” Lexi asked leaning back in her seat “ I'm boring? I'm just sitting here, what do you want me to do?”
Cassie put her tube of lip gloss back in her purse, knitted her fingers together, and rested her chin on top of her freshly manicured hands. “ I mean like, you only go to parties to babysit either me or Rue.”
Cassie`s smirk oozed condescending energy.
“ So I don't really vibe with house parties. I don`t know if that actually makes me boring”
Lexi looked around the lunch table for help, but Kat and Maddy were engrossed in a video blaring from Kat`s phone, BB was cheerfully painting her nails with her headphones in gone to the world, Rue was playing with her hoodie strings eyes hooded, and Jules had been in the bathroom for almost twenty minutes.
The only one looking at her was Cassie and Lexie really wished she would knock it off.
“ Face it Lexi” Cassie leaned forward slightly “ You.Are.Boring”
Rue suddenly looked up with a quickness that was rare for her these days.
“ Actually Cass, in case you forgot, Lexi is currently dating a known fucking drug dealer so… maybe boring isn`t exactly what we should call her”
Lexi let a small smile creep onto her face. Rue was a lot of things, a loyal friend was one of them.
But Cassie was not deterred. She dug out a compact to check her newly applied lip gloss.
“ So she's screwing Fez. Big deal. That's all she's got”
Lexi let the roundabout insult roll off her back. Fez didn't care about what Cassie had to say about him, and Lexi didn't care about Cassie`s opinion about their relationship.
Rue gave a small chuckle and pushed her tray away so it skidded to the middle of the table.
“ Watch it Cass” She warned
“ It's fine Rue, doesn`t bug me”
“Look,” Cassie said, feigning sweetness. “ All I'm saying is you could stand to be a little more spontaneous.”
Lexi thought about that for a minute. Maybe a risk was exactly what she needed to push her further in her writing. It's not like Cassie would hurt her. Maybe it was time to shed her good-girl persona. At least for an hour or two.
Lexi met Cassie`s eyes and raised an eyebrow. “ What did you have in mind?”
_
The vinyl chair Lexi was sitting in was cold and slightly damp from where the receptionist had wiped it down. Her leg shook wildly and she wrung her hands for the fourth time in five minutes. She looked to the other side of the room and found Cassie sitting on a small counter playing with Snapchat filters.
The room looked a bit like a doctor's office but instead of an eye chart and a selection of instruments on the wall, there was a collection of black and white prints of different animals that looked to be made out of smoke. The lights overhead were bright and the room smelled like harsh disinfectant.
Lexi looked toward the closed door again in anticipation for her piercer, Maggie, to walk in. When Cassie said that she dared Lexi to get a belly button piercing, Lexi almost laughed. Almost. The serious look on Cassie’s face made Lexi bite her tongue.
Four hours later Lexi was sitting in a piercing studio trying not to look as nervous as she felt.
Suddenly the door opened and a small woman covered in tattoos and piercings walked into the room wheeling a small cart in behind her.
“ Hello,” The woman greeted gently “ I’m Maggie I’ll be piercing you this afternoon. If you could roll your shirt up and lay back we can get started”
Numbly Lexi pulled her shirt up to her ribs and sat properly on the chair so she was staring at the door. Lexi’s hands were shaking so bad she tucked them under her thigh so no one would see.
Suddenly Maggie was in Lexie’s line of sight. Maggie had two instruments in her hand that were clearly for piercing. She wiped a wet cotton ball over Lexi’s navel. It smelled like alcohol. Lexie vaguely heard her ask if she was ready. Lexi only nodded and felt cold as Maggie clamped her skin with a big pair of tweezers with a hole in the middle of them. Lexi looked away after that. Her heart was beating out of her chest. Cassie was laughing at something on her phone. She almost said stop. After all, this was so unlike her. Letting Cassie get under her skin so quickly. Letting Cassie talk her into something so crazy ( at least for her) with no second thought, no fight at all. Lexi almost called everything off, tell Cassie to fuck off, tell her that she doesn’t need a fucking piercing to be interesting.
But then it happened.
The only way to describe the feeling would be a violent pinch Lexi felt mostly in her head that faded into a faint buzz- like the beginning of a headache.
Lexi quickly wiped away a wayward tear off her cheek and looked down. A small silver barbell gleamed up at her.
“ Okay,” Maggie beamed “All done”
Lexi listened as Maggie talked her through cleaning her piercing then left the room. Lexi just sat. She wasn’t upset. She was simply processing her feelings.
Cassie finally got off the counter “ Wow,” she drawled “ You actually did it”
Lexi finally stood up and walked over to the full-length mirror. The piercing was red but not swollen. Lexi smiled.
“ Yeah, I did it”
_
Lexi’s tennis shoes scratched against the sidewalk. The air was cool and she breathed deep.
The pain in her abdomen was a dull hum
Cassie offered to take her home but Lexi shook her head and started walking. She knew exactly where she was going; she just underestimated how long it would take to get there.
By the time she arrived at Fez’s front door, it was dark, the wind was biting through her cropped jean jacket, and she had blisters on each heel. Ashtray opened the door and immediately yelled for Fez. Lexi didn’t think her teeth were chattering that bad.
Fez traded Ashtray for his place in front of the door and tugged Lexi inside.
“ Fuck baby,” He said softly rubbing his hands up and down Lexi’s arms once she had shed her jacket “ You’re freezing”
“ Yeah I um, I walked…kinda far. I’m fine though”
Fez lead Lexi over to the couch and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders
“ You walked? From where?”
Lexi took a deep breath and rocked up onto her tiptoes. “ well I kinda accepted a dare”
Fez raised an eyebrow “ A dare? Okay I'm listening”
Lexi stood still as she recounted the day's events
By the time she was done, Fez had a small smile on his lips.
“ You got pierced, Lex? That's fuckin badass. Lemme see”
Lexi blushed and before she could talk herself out of it, she pulled her shirt up. Fez`s face was kinda unreadable, prompting Lexi to look at her piercing as if when she did it would be horribly infected. It looked fine though, better than fine even. Most of the redness had even gone away.
“ Do you hate it?” She asked, voice smaller than she wanted.
“No, not at all”
He wore a strange little half-smile on his face. It eased some of Lexi’s worries like it always did.
Fez moved over on the couch so he was sitting in front of where she was standing. He reached over and curled his fingers through her belt loops and tugged her until she was straddling his lap.
Lexi bit her lip as Fez used both hands to push her shirt up until his fingertips were brushing against her bra. She shivered and slipped her hands into his hair.
Lexi jumped when she felt his warm breath on her stomach. She scraped her blunt nails over his scalp gently to anchor herself when suddenly she felt Fez place a soft kiss on her skin right above the piercing. He let his lips linger a few sweet seconds.
Fez lifted his head and looked up at Lexi and it took everything in her not to melt into a puddle.
“ You look so fucking sexy Lex,” he said now pressing a kiss to her ribs.
Lexi giggled and he smiled.
“ Does it still hurt?” He asked gently
“ No, not at all. Why?” She wondered, cocking her head a bit
His smile broke into a grin “ Just thought I would ask”
So maybe Cassie is right about some things, and maybe Lexi would thank her for her sage advice at some point. But at the moment she was too busy squealing over Fez tossing her over his shoulder and carrying her off to his room.