Lexy Andrews

A Kiss Before Dying

"Archie?" A voice called.

Everyone in the waiting room turned to face the doorway, already knowing who the voice belonged to.

"Oh thank God!" She let out a sigh of relief.

As Lexy Andrews, Archie's sister, entered the hospital, it became abundantly clear to everyone that she had absolutely no idea why her brother was there. The silence was deafening. Reggie glanced over at Archie, who had a look of fear and sadness on his face.

"I was worried sick." Lexy stood in front of Archie. "You never came home last night, dad was gone when I woke up and neither of you were answering your phones. I've been walking around town for the past hour looking for you guys until I saw the truck outside here."

The aide in the room suddenly felt heavy as she spoke. Everyone stole glances at one another, waiting for Lexy to realize what was going on or waiting for someone else to break the news to her.

"Wait..." She furrowed her brows. "Why are you here? And where's dad?" She looked at everyone around her. "Why is the whole town here? And why are they all looking at me like they know something I don't?"

Her now hard eyes were trained on Archie as she anxiously waited for an answer. But he kept his gaze planted firmly on the ground however, wishing it would open up and swallow him whole so he wouldn't have to deliver this news to his sister. He knew it would break her.

"Archie, what's going on?" She urged, growing more and more impatient by the second.

He decided he just had to put her out of her misery and cleared his throat.

"Lexy... this morning dad asked me to meet him at Pop's. While we were there... I went to the bathroom and... and when I came out..."

Archie's voice was shaking and tears were threatening to spill from his eyes. Lexy was already shaking her head at the thought of something bad happening to her dad.

"There was a man wearing a hood. He had a gun." Archie continued. "Dad was shot, Lexy."

Lexy's breathing sped up. Her eyes grew wide and she was worried her legs would give out at any moment. She looked at everyone staring at her and shook her head.

"I can't be here." She mumbled, making a b-line for the exit.

"Wait Lexy please!" Archie begged as he ran towards her. He took hold of her arms and spun her away from the door.

"You can't leave me here alone. You don't know how to deal with this? Neither do I. We have to stay strong together. Right now it's all we got." He said.

She tried to slow down her shakey breaths so not to sound like she was going to cry. Lexy never cried. She wanted to say something to her brother. Anything to make him feel just a little bit better.

"I'm not ready to lose him." Was all that came to mind.

Archie sighed and wrapped his arms around her tightly and she pressed her forehead against his shoulder.

"Me neither, Lex." He whispered.

***

Lexy sat in a chair in the waiting room, her eyes focused on nothing in particular on the floor. She was fiddling with a coin when someone approached her.

"Hey Little A." Reggie greeted her.

Little A was the nickname Reggie had given her meaning 'Little Andrews', a play on the size difference between her and her brother. And only Reggie got to call her that.

His voice was a lot warmer than usual. This warmth to his voice was something he only ever really used when he was with Lexy. They had a special bond. And Reggie knew he was a better person when he was around Lexy. But then again, anyone in the town could say that.