THIRTY.
❛ LONG LOST, NEVER FORGOTTEN. ❜

              Her hands were shaking as she approached the door and hesitantly knocked. She had been preparing what to say on the walk over here but it seemed all thoughts went out the window the second Veronica opened the door.

          The other brunette frowned in confusion, wondering why Lexi had showed up unexpectedly. But before she could say anything, Betty appeared by her side and gaped, "Lexi? What are you doing here?"

          Taking a deep breath, Lexi tried to summon her thoughts together into a coherent sentence before she caught a glimpse of movement over Betty's shoulder. Then all sense of intelligence seemed to leave her as she took in the sight of the other girl.

          "Lexi," The figure behind Betty moved forward with a wide smile.

          "Hey Pol," the brunette greeted, returning the smile.

"Betty, invite her in." Polly glanced at her little sister before ushering the Hale inside Veronica's apartment.

Stepping inside, Lexi ignored the questioning gaze of Betty and sighed in content as Polly pulled her into a long hug.

Despite their lack of contact or closeness in the beginning of their 'friendship', they had grown to find comfort in one another — especially when Polly had no one else to confide in about her and Jason's plan to escape, whereas Jason had both his twin and his best friend to talk to.

          So Lexi, uncharacteristically, invited the blonde out to the movies every time Jason was out being a drug mule for the Serpents.

Polly, of course, had been suspicious about the first invite. The Cooper girl still hadn't gotten over her fear of the brunette after the girl threatened her at the drive in when Polly had unintentionally witnessed a Serpent talking to Lexi and the casual mention of Lexi doing drugs on the Southside came up.

But once Jason had reassured her that Lexi wasn't planning on murdering her and hiding her body in a ditch somewhere, Polly had went and actually enjoyed the brunette's company.

After that, the two became friends and Polly finally had someone other than Jason to talk about the baby and escape plan with.

Taking a step back, Lexi's eyes quickly flickered down to the baby bump that she had felt in the hug. "You're getting fat."

Polly chuckled as they both ignored the confused frowns on Veronica and Betty's faces. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to call a pregnant lady fat?"

"No, they said never call a pregnant lady crazy." Lexi smirked as she looked away from Jason's little legacy. "But dully noted."

"How did you know I was here?" Polly asked curiously as she led her into the living room to have a seat on the couch.

"Cheryl called me," Lexi shrugged, looking around the room at all the lush interior and couldn't help but to think about her crappy run down living room.

Although, she had to admit it was a nice change from being over at the Blossom's whose mansion was styled like something out of a Bram Stoker movie with all the vintage portraits and victorian vibes. Not that she'd been allowed back into the house after Jason's funeral — Penelope had forbidden Cheryl to invite her over after Cheryl's 'show of dramatics'.

"Um, do you want something to drink?" Veronica offered, noticing how fidgety Lexi had became.

Lexi shook her head and tried to smile politely but it felt more like a grimace. Her nerves were bundling again as she came to realise she was going to have to spill a few more of Jason's secrets at the look on Betty's face. "No, thanks anyway though."

"I'm sorry, am I missing something? I didn't know you two even knew each other?" Betty narrowed her eyes at the two across from her.

"Lexi was Jason's best friend, Betty. Of course, I knew her," Polly smiled at Betty's expression but the suspicion only worsened.

The Hale bit her lip as she avoided Betty's gaze for the time being, trying to buy herself as much time as she needed to figure out what to say. Betty looked away from her sister to Lexi before huffing, "That explains how you know each other, but since when are you friends?"

"When Jason was out delivering drugs for the biker gang, Lexi would take me to the movies to soothe my nerves," the older Cooper explained honestly.

"Polly!" Lexi snapped, eyes wide with shock.

She couldn't understand how Polly could just blurt everything out like that while Lexi had been tongue tied around basically everyone when Jason was brought into the mix. Here she was going through hell with Cheryl for refusing to admit all of Jason's dirty little secrets and Polly had just spilled them like she was reciting the headline of the newspaper.

"It's okay, Lexi." Polly reassured, placing her hands on top of Lexi's. "We can tell them. I already let the Sheriff know about Jason's involvement with the Serpents."

But Lexi didn't feel very convinced, nor did her nerves ease with Polly's touch. She felt guilty having all of Jason's sins being laid bare for all the town to see. Not to mention, she was trying to protect the Serpents and Polly had more or less sent them to the chopping block.

"Wait," Veronica scrunched her eyebrows together as she looked between them before settling her gaze on Lexi. "You knew about Jason delivering drugs."

"Who do you think helped Jason get in contact with the Serpents?" Polly retorted causing Lexi's eyes to widen.

"Polly, stop it," she warned as she slipped her hand out of Polly's grasp, not liking how loose lipped the blonde was being.

Polly frowned, not understanding why the brunette was trying to cling on to the secrets when there was no reason to hide them anymore. Jason was dead, it didn't matter what he did or what he was going to do anymore.

"Why didn't you tell Sheriff Keller after Jason was murdered?" Veronica asked sharply.

Lexi was beginning to think coming here was a mistake. It was starting to feel more like an interrogation and she was the one on trial. "I-I couldn't. I made a promise to Jason to keep his secrets and I'm not going to break that promise to him."

"Jason's dead, Lexi." Betty began softly, touching the tears building behind Lexi's eyes. "He isn't here so you can stop protecting him now."

Her hands ran through her messy locks as she ducked her head and rested her head on her arms. She couldn't believe how south this visit had went, although she realised she should have expected it. Betty was in detective mode again and Lexi didn't think she was going to be able to leave without severing ties with someone or outing Jason and the Serpents to them.

"Is there anything else your hiding for him?" Veronica tried before Lexi sniffed and quickly lulled herself back together as she straightened her back again.

"No."

Veronica leaned back in her seat, seemingly satisfied by Lexi's answer but Betty squinted her hpeyes at her in slight suspicion. The blonde was starting to think she didn' really know anything about Lexi at all and that unnerved her. What else could the Hale be hiding for her dead best friend. "Are you sure 'cause you can tell us. There's no reason for you to lie, Lexi."

Lexi refrained a bitter smile from making it's way onto her face and instead feigned a look of regret. Betty wanted a culprit but Lexi was only willing to give her a victim. "I'm sure. I'm sorry for keeping it all to myself. I thought I was doing right by Jason. Please, don't tell the Sheriff I knew. Please, Betty? My brother could lose his job over this, not knowing his little sister was withholding information from the police. Me and Cole would go into foster care."

"Betty, maybe we shouldn't tell the Sheriff," Veronica said softly, seeing the tears build in Lexi's eyes agin — only this time she was playing on them.

Betty blinked, her hard gaze melting like ice to water. "I'm sorry, Lexi. We won't tell Keller."

Lexi sniffled again, wiping away a tear before it could fall. "Thank you, all of you."

Polly wrapped an arm around her shoulder to console her but this time as Lexi leaned into her touch, she couldn't help but to want to get as far away as possible from all three of them. She wanted to go home. She wanted to lock herself away in her room or get Cheryl and move to the Southside where she felt safe from all the accusations, but she knew Cheryl would never go for it.

But then again, Lexi had a role to play up here on the Northside.

          The role of the victim it was in that moment, surrounded by three girls she had wrapped under her finger by merely showing fake but real emotion. She needed people to believe she was weaker than she really was. They needed to believe she would never lie to them.

          She had to protect the Serpents from the Northside and she had to protect her friends from finding out too much of the truth. All the while, she had to make sure Jason's real killer was dealt with in whatever way fate saw fit.

          For those reasons alone, she didn't think she'd ever make it out of this godforsaken town.