Anything But That

Chapter 4

"Wait here." Lydia told her green-eyed companion when they got to her bedroom, before disappearing into her ensuite bathroom - the only ensuite in the house, actually. She had to fight Jake for ages to get this room. Seconds later, she emerged, walking over to the vanity and plugging a hairdryer next to a mirror, motioning for him to sit down and do dry his hair, then went back into the bathroom in pursuit of hairspray.

Reece took this as an opportunity to suss out her room from his perch on the vanity chair. Turning the hairdryer on and looking at the reflection in the mirror, his gaze swept across a stack of CD's, a neat timetable stuck to a closet door, a pile of dirty clothes and a bra hung over the back of a chair (which he turned away from quickly, blushing) and a dry-erase board that appeared to be a homework checklist.

And then he spotted it; the famed cork board.

It was massive, with large, bold, wording in baby blue along the top, spelling out 'Lydia Evgeniya Taylor's Wall of Memes.

Memes of every kind imaginable were pinned to the board, from Pepe to Jay Versace to Brendon Urie's forehead. It was truly a sight to behold.

The blonde boy couldn't really read them because he was still sat, drying his hair, but when Lydia came back into the room, clutching some hairspray that looked about a million years old triumphantly, he pointed and gave his approval. "That," he declared, "Is a masterpiece."

Lydia laughed softly and gave him a proud smile. "It is, isn't it?"

She watched as he combed his hair back with his fingers, applying a constant stream of spray into it. "This makes me smell like a girl!" he complained, but didn't stop teasing it into his hair.

"Stop moaning, at least it overpowers the stench of beer." the blue-eyed girl said with a roll of her eyes. "Why did you have beer in your hair, anyway?"

Reece looked away, the smile dripping away from his face like melted wax. "It's not... it doesn't matter." he said quietly, shaking his head.

The younger of the two furrowed her eyebrows. "Believe it or not, that noise that came out of your mouth bore uncanny resemblance to a fib." she informed him.

The boy looked up at her from underneath his eyelashes. After a brief moment of silence , during which Lydia began to regret her brash words, a tear dropped from his eye, so subtly it almost escaped the girl's notice, wiped away as if it was a harsh reminder of its cause.

"I got in a fight with someone. About my girlfriend." He breathed at last, quietly. "Although, I guess now she's my ex-girlfriend." a laugh escaped from his pink lips, but it was devoid of humour, instead laced with anger, and below that, sorrow.

"Oh, Reece." Lydia sighed, reaching out and wrapping her hands around his. "Are you okay?"

At the touch, he seemed to fall apart, visibly slouching. "No." he grunted. Then, he straightened up again, releasing a huff of breath. "Actually," he corrected himself, "I'm fine. I didn't need her anyway."

He stood, his hair looking as hardened as his resolve, and stormed out.

And that's how Lydia found herself, chasing a near stranger around, through her own house.

***

"Blake!"

The brunette boy turned to see the blue-eyed girl sprinting towards him at full pelt.

"Lydia? What's wrong?" he asked. He was stood with George, the other member of the trio, and the blonde boy surprisingly looked just as sober as his brown-haired friend.

"Reece. He... he ran off somewhere, and he was in a bit of a fragile state of mind, and I'm worried about what he might do, you need to help me find him... I just- I just want to make sure he's okay."