young lies

chapter three - the dinner

bex and nick stand in the living room taking photos of items with potential value to send to sam and dorothy. nick is taking a photo of a mini statue from the mantle above the fire place and bex is taking one of the lamp on one of the end tables of the couch when they hear the front door open. both quickly dropping their items and stuffing their phones in their pockets.

nick and bexley turn with innocent smiles. "oh, hey." nick says. "how was your day?"

bexley looks to her friend with her eyebrows furrowed as does ed.

"what do you mean?" ed asks her.

"yeah. what do you mean?" bex looks at her and nick just shrugs.

"i don't know, isn't that like a standard question kids ask their dad?"

"maybe in 1955, but not my kids." he laughs, shaking his head.

"well, their loss." nick says.

ed drops his bag to the ground. "actually... to tell you the truth, i did. have quite a day. you see i'm a senior loan officer at a bank,"

"yeah, i'm so outta here." bexley mumbles and runs up the stairs.

reaching the top of the stairs she almost crashes into landon who is about to make his way downstairs.

"woah, sorry." she smiles. "i just had to get out of there, your dad started talking about banking."

he nods. "yeah, i do that a lot. the good old parent talk and run." they both laugh. "so, uh, how was your first day of school. you know after you already had your best class of the day first, with me."

"yeah, well i know how much fun it is spending time with me, so that's why it was probably so great for you, but personally it got beat second period." bex jokes.

landon puts his hand over his heart and fake winces. "damn, that hurt." they both laugh. he was about to talk again until bex's phone went off.

"oh, uh, sorry. hold that thought." as she looks at the screen her eyes widen and she looks back to landon. "i have to go, to call someone about, english homework?" she runs down the hall and he just sighs and continues down the stairs confused. he almost gets hit again when nick also comes flying up the stairs.

"oh hey-" he starts but she doesn't stop.

"sorry, have a call about math homework." she calls out from behind her.

he grows more confused at this and stops for a second before just shrugging and continuing down the stairs.

bex walks into nick and molly's room where jeremy stands. not far behind her, nick walks in as well, putting her phone in her pocket.

"oh, good. you guys got my text. so, what's y'all's real names?" he asks stepping towards them.

"bexley." she shrugs like he's stupid for asking.

"nicole patterson is my real name." nick says.

"then, uh, who's nicole masipag?" he asks holding up nicks id.

"that's also my name. after our parents died..." nick pauses sucking in a deep breath. bex walks closer to her and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. nick looks back and smiles gratefully as her as she grabs it and holds on to it. "i sometimes used our mom's last name. i don't know why. i guess i just wanted something to remember her by." she let's go of bexley's hand and holds it out for him to give her, her id back.

he looks past nick and to the other girl who is wiping fake tears from her eyes. he just crosses his arms and sucks in his lips.

when bexley looks up at him, she now looks angry. "what gives you the right to go through her stuff?" she asks him loudly.