Beyond Our Lies

s i x t e e n

As I took Xander near the back of the store where the spray paint was at, I saw all the boys looking at completely different things. They all had a look of awe on their faces and it made my heart swell.

I glanced at Xander who was wearing the exact same expression. "Do all you guys like to do something relating to art?"

He shrugged, "I mean kind of. I like spray paint, Elijah uses resin for making rolling trays and shit like that, Oliver likes to draw, and Alex is terrible at everything related to art so he's probably looking for shit he could blow up."

I nodded and laughed quietly at the thought of Alex rummaging through this place to find items to burn. We were one aisle away from the spray paint and the stencils when I bumped into someone. "Oh shoot, i'm sorry!" I quickly apologized as I tumbled into Xander. He steadied me by placing his hands on my waist however he didn't let go.

"Juniper? What are you doing back here?" I spun my head quickly to the sound of that voice. There stood Delilah. She was one of my nicer classmates when I used to live here but I just sort of distanced myself before we moved and never talked to her again.

"Oh shit, hi! Andy didn't tell me you were here." I smiled and gave her a quick wave.

A smile fell upon her cherry red lips, "Yeah I was just getting my little sister some more paint. It was so good to see you though, I felt like I haven't heard your voice in like 50 years." Delilah's twisted her bright hazel hair around her finger as she talked.

"I know right. I kind of miss this place." We both nodded in agreement. Then, Delilah stared at Xander and a faint blush appeared. Um what the fuck? Glancing at Xander, I saw him with his natural menacing glare on his face and I softly smiled. Looking back at Delilah, I introduced him. "This is Xander. One of my friends from my new town."

He didn't even greet her as she shyly waved and I rolled my eyes. It was clear he was still putting up his front. "Well we got to go but it was really nice seeing you. I'll text you sometime." I gave her a quick hug and pulled Xander's arm to follow me.

Before we made it down the aisle, Delilah spoke one last time. "Hey I don't know how long you're staying but it's a Saturday, you know what that means." She smirked and walked off, most likely to find Andy.

I dramatically sighed, "Fuck."

Xander, who was bent down looking at colors, glanced up at me for a quick second. "What's on Saturdays?"

I bent down next to him, not wanting to stand. "If the football team wins their game, everyone hangs out at the mall during the day on Saturday and at night they all go to Eric's house to party." He hummed in response, obviously not paying attention to what I just said but I didn't mind in the slightest. He looked as if he was in his own little world.

I figured they'd all get a ton of items so I went to get a cart. When I got back, he was still crouched down, his eyes flickering over the different brands. I've gotten used to doing this with Jace but it was always the most boring part. Sighing, I climbed into the cart and sat there staring at the murals on the ceiling. "Xander, can I use your phone really quick?" I questioned and he gave it to me, not even giving me a second glance.

I grinned and got onto his camera. I didn't want to sabotage him or anything like that, I would feel extremely bad but I did want to take a fuckton of selfies and leave his camera roll full of my lovely face. And that's exactly what I did for the next multiple minutes, taking random ass selfies and giggling to myself.

After a while, he was finally done and set his supplies all around me since I was still in the cart. "Okay, let's to find the dumbasses," he sighed and I chuckled while giving him his phone as he pushed me around the aisles.