Loneliness/Justice: An Aspects Prequel Read online

  Loneliness/Justice: An Aspects Prequel

  Aspects, Volume 0

  L.C. Mawson

  Published by L.C. Mawson, 2017.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  LONELINESS/JUSTICE: AN ASPECTS PREQUEL

  First edition. December 12, 2017.

  Copyright © 2017 L.C. Mawson.

  Written by L.C. Mawson.

  Also by L.C. Mawson

  Aspects

  Loneliness/Justice: An Aspects Prequel

  Castaway Heart

  Castaway Heart

  Castaway Soul

  Castaway Love

  Castaway Heart: The Complete Story

  Engineered Rebel

  Rebel

  Resist (Coming Soon)

  Freya Snow

  Hunt

  White

  Wings

  Oracle

  Witch

  Enhanced

  Reaper

  Trident

  Kingsguard

  Trapped

  The Freya Snow Pup Trilogy: Books 1-3

  Freya Snow Short Story Collection

  The Freya Snow Hammer Trilogy: Books 4-6

  Freya Snow - The Beginning: Books 1-6

  The Almosts Trilogy

  The Almosts

  The Damned

  The Almosts: The Complete Trilogy

  The Redeemed

  The Royal Cleaner

  Target

  Standalone

  The Complete Lady Ruth Constance Chapelstone Chronicles

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Also By L.C. Mawson

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Author’s Note

  Also By L.C. Mawson

  Chapter One

  Most people would consider spending their break between classes sitting in the corner of the playground, reading a book, to be incredibly boring, and perhaps a little pathetic.

  But for Lex, it was about the only bearable way to pass the time.

  At least it was, until a football hurtled directly into her face, smashing off her cheek and into the pages of her book, coating them with mud.

  The football rolled from the paper, back onto the rubber surface of the playground, and she looked up, over to the grass, to glare at whoever had kicked it her way.

  Unfortunately, there was no single target for the fury knotting her stomach and paralysing her throat. A group of boys, some of which she was sure she should recognise from class, all stared at her.

  Probably waiting for her to snap.

  She would be the first to admit that she had a short temper. Or perhaps it wasn’t short... Perhaps the other children simply spent more time winding her up than they did anyone else. Her theory was that anyone would snap as much as she did if treated the same way.

  She could feel tears begin to prick in her eyes, and she wanted nothing more than to grab the football and hurl it back at their stupid heads to see how they liked it.

  But she refused to give them the satisfaction this time. If she did respond, they would just laugh at her.

  They always laughed at her...

  One of the boys came over, and Lex immediately tensed, ready for him to start making jabs. He was about half a foot shorter than her, but she was sure that wouldn’t stop him. As he got closer, she realised that they had the same silver eyes, indicating their alien blood, though his hair was white-blond, a much rarer alien trait.

  He was hesitant in his approach, and that was almost worse. Was he scared of her?

  “I’m sorry,” he said as he picked up the ball. “We didn’t mean to kick it over here, I promise.”

  Lex was caught off-guard by the apology and wasn’t sure that she would know how to respond, even if she thought her throat was capable of making the requisite noises.

  One of the other boys came up, sneering at her. “Don’t bother, Wang Wei. Nobody makes friends with Lex. She’s a weirdo freak who prefers books to people.”

  Lex suppressed a sigh. He wasn’t technically wrong there, she just wished that his words hadn’t had so much bite to them.

  Lex expected Wang Wei to agree with his friend at that and leave her alone again.

  To her surprise, however, Wang Wei instead turned to his friend with a glare. “What did you just say about her?” he demanded as another boy walked up, and Lex had to blink, sure that she was seeing double for a moment before recognising the twins.

  She didn’t really pay attention to her classmates, but even she had found it difficult to miss the twins with white-blond hair.

  The boy who had been mean about Lex seemed caught off-guard by his friend’s reaction, shaking his head. “I... I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just... Everyone knows. She’s a freak.”

  It wasn’t Wang Wei who reacted this time, but his brother, who immediately stepped close to the other boy, as if about to hit him.

  Lex blinked in surprise. Were these boys really defending her?

  Why?

  “Say that about her one more time,” Wang Wei’s twin growled.

  He really was defending her, Lex realised.

  Wang Wei put a calming hand on his brother’s shoulder, before turning to the other boy with an icy glare. “What my brother means to say is that your comments are unwarranted and unnecessary and neither of us has any intention of remaining friends with a bully. Apologise to Lex, and if either of us hears you make such comments about her again, we won’t be friends with you anymore.”

  To Lex’s surprise, the boy turned to her and muttered, “I’m sorry,” before stalking off.

  Wang Wei frowned at the paltry attempt, while his brother growled again.

  “That wasn’t good enough,” the brother said.

  Wang Wei nodded. “No, it wasn’t. But attacking him won’t do any good, and you know Ma will be upset if you get detention again.”

  That seemed to deflate his brother, and so Wang Wei turned back to Lex. “I’m sorry about all this,” he said. “I’m Wang Wei, and this is my brother, Zhang Wei. Do you want to come and play with us? Or maybe I should take you to the nurse... Are you hurt?”

  Lex just stared at him. No one ever asked her to play with them. “You don’t have to pretend that you want to play with me just to be nice,” she eventually said, having decided that that was the most logical explanation for his offer.

  Wang Wei frowned. “That wasn’t what I was doing,” he assured her.

  She shook her head, not believing him.

  Wang Wei turned back to his brother, handing him the ball. “Go ahead and play without me.”

  Zhang Wei nodded, before running after the rest of their friends.

  Lex just watched Wang Wei warily as he came to sit next to her.

  “So, what are you reading?” he asked.

  She continued to stare, sure that this was some kind of trick or trap. “A book,” she said sharply, having no patience for whatever game he was playing.

  He hesitated for a moment before asking, “What’s it called?”

  She frowned. “Are you incapable of reading? The title is right on the cover. Which is facing you.”

  He frowned at her comment before asking, “Would you prefer it if I went away?”

  “I would prefer it if you would stop playing whatever game it is you’re playing. I’m tired of trying
to keep up with all of these tricks. It’s not fair. I don’t know how I’m supposed to follow...” Her voice began to crack and her throat stung. She cursed herself for being so pathetic, quickly looking away.

  “I’m not playing a game,” Wang Wei assured her. “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Everyone does that,” she spat. “Every time I think that they don’t...”

  “I truly mean it,” he repeated. “I’m asking about your book because I want to get to know you, which includes asking about things that you like.”

  Lex frowned. “No one wants to get to know me,” she told him with certainty. “Even if they think they do, they quickly realise that they’re wrong. Didn’t you hear your friend? I’m a freak. Not worth getting to know...”

  “I don’t believe that’s true.”

  “I don’t believe it’s true either, but everyone else does. At what point do enough people believe a lie that it becomes the truth?”

  “Never,” Wang Wei said firmly. “If it’s not the truth, then it is never true.”

  Lex smiled a little at that. “I think you may be the only person who believes that.”

  “Apart from you?”

  She nodded.

  “Then that’s enough people for it to remain the truth. How about you tell me about your book, and I will decide for myself whether or not I think you’re worth getting to know.”

  Lex hesitated for a moment, though her thoughts were interrupted by a throb in the centre of her face. “Actually, I think I might need that trip to the nurse...”

  “Then I’ll go with you and make sure you’re okay.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I want to,” he told her firmly, and she nodded before allowing him to accompany her.

  He stayed with her the entire time, and as she felt a growing warmth at his presence, she could have almost cursed her naivete. She had been down this road before, dozens of times, and she knew where it ended, and yet she couldn’t help but put her heart on the line one last time, just in case...

  Chapter Two

  Lex never went to school dances.

  She’d gone once, when she was around six or seven, when it was just a bunch of kids running around the school hall with balloons, and it had been hell.

  She had ended up crying in the toilets, tearing her hair out as the noise beat against her skull.

  Now, at fourteen, she was finally trying again.

  After all, Wang Wei had asked her to go, and she didn’t want to disappoint him or his brother by refusing to go with them. Not when the twins were her only friends.

  So, after years of avoiding dances, she was now dressed in a simple black dress, with a little makeup and her hair pinned up in a fancy silver clip.

  “You look beautiful,” her mother told her as she came down the stairs. “Your hair turned out really well.”

  Lex smiled, trying to ignore the twinge of annoyance. Her mother had spent hours tugging at her hair to get it to behave, and Lex had hated every second of it. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just wear it loose like always. It was too thick for anything else, but she was lucky that it tended to look nice, with a slight curl, with just a brush run through it.

  Thankfully, the doorbell rang before Lex had to respond.

  Her mother opened the door to reveal Wang Wei standing there. Lex craned her head to see his brother standing a few steps behind. She supposed it made sense. Wang Wei tended to be better at talking to adults.

  “Lau tài tai,” Wang Wei greeted. “Is Lex there?”

  Her mother nodded as Lex approached.

  “Hi!” Lex said before turning to her mother. “Bye.”

  “Wait,” her mother said quickly, causing Lex to stop before she got more than a single step out of the house. “What about pictures?”

  Lex suppressed a sigh. She didn’t mind having her picture taken, but she was already nervous. She didn’t think waiting would make it any better...

  “Fine,” she said, turning to let her mother quickly take a picture.

  Wang Wei was apparently caught off-guard, not knowing what to do with the camera. His befuddlement was almost cute.

  Lex by no means considered herself a professional, but she had picked up a couple of modelling jobs over the summer. She had wanted some extra pocket money, and while she might struggle with social interaction, she certainly had nothing to complain about in the looks department.

  Whether that made her attempts at social interaction easier or more difficult, she couldn’t say.

  People probably gave some of her oddities a pass because of her looks, but they also gained her more attention that she would rather not have to deal with. Especially from boys. Boys who would bully her one minute, and then try and flirt with her the next...

  It was too confusing for her, and she would rather that they just didn’t talk to her at all.

  After her mother had taken enough photos, she finally let them go.

  “Don’t stay out too late,” she said to Lex with a smile.

  Lex just glared back at her. She had already said that she likely wouldn’t stay out long, given her previous experiences with dances. They were all crowds and loud noises, neither of which she did well with.

  Was her mother being deliberately obtuse?

  She hated when she did that...

  Her mother seemed to ignore the glare, however, continuing to smile as she closed the door and left Lex with the twins.

  “Sorry about her,” Lex said as they headed down the street. The school wasn’t too far to walk. “She shouldn’t have insisted on the pictures.”

  Wang Wei shrugged. “I didn’t mind,” he said. “I can’t fault her for wanting to take pictures of you when you look so nice.”

  Lex sighed. “It’s not like she doesn’t already have pictures of me in nice dresses,” she figured.

  Lex frowned a little as she realised that Zhang Wei hadn’t said anything to her yet. She looked over her shoulder, only to see that he was deliberately walking a few paces behind them.

  Why?

  Was he not feeling well? Or was there some reason why he didn’t want to talk to her?

  She bit her lip a little. She knew that she should try to draw him into the conversation. That was the polite thing to do, right? And maybe he just felt as if no one had invited him into the talking. She felt that way sometimes, and it wasn’t nice.

  She just wished that she was better at conversation...

  “Did you beat Malifcan?” Lex asked, turning to show that she was talking to Zhang Wei.

  Zhang Wei seemed surprised by the question. “I, um... Yeah. I stayed up most of last night to do it, but I managed it.”

  Wang Wei frowned. “Malifcan?”

  “A bad guy in that fantasy video game Lex leant me,” Zhang Wei quickly told his brother.

  “Oh...”

  Lex bit her lip again. She hadn’t meant to exclude Wang Wei, she just...

  She just wanted everything to go smoothly between the three of them.

  Not that it was usually hard. She had never seen siblings as close as Wang Wei and Zhang Wei. And they had accepted her into that closeness as if she belonged.

  Only, tonight, something was different between them. Out of place.

  Had they had a fight or something?

  She tasted blood in her mouth and realised that she had worn away the skin of her lower lip.

  If something was going on between the twins, she had no idea how to fix it, and the thought of being caught in the middle made her nauseous.

  Before she could think about it too much, however, they arrived at the school.

  Lex stuck close to Wang Wei, allowing him to handle getting them into the dance. He knew how to do things like that, where she just panicked.

  Lex felt her lungs seize up as they made their way through the familiar halls of the school and through to the assembly hall. The hall was filled with bodies that were unrecognisable in the dark as lights flashed across the
hall in a variety of lights, flashing so quickly that Lex felt as if she might throw up. The floor vibrated with the force of the noise coming from the speakers, making her feel faint.

  But they were there to have fun. It was supposed to be a nice time. So, she grit her teeth, determined not to ruin this.

  She felt an arm go around her back, holding her close to Wang Wei’s side. Tight enough to calm her.

  She smiled. Wang Wei had tried to hug her once, and she had had to explain to him that she hated being held like that. She’d expected him to take offence, but he had just asked how she had liked to be held instead.

  No one had ever asked that before.

  Not even her own parents.

  They just didn’t touch her. It was... lonely, to never be touched because no one could ever bother themselves to learn how.

  Wang Wei had lessened that ache, and she had no idea how she had survived before him.

  “Care to dance?” he asked, shouting to be heard over the noise.

  “Are you sure you want to be seen dancing with me? People might think that we’re... you know... I know that people give you bother just for being friends with me. I wouldn’t want to make it worse.”

  She dared to glance up at him when he didn’t respond, only to see that he was giving her an indecipherable look.

  She turned away, unable to keep his gaze.

  “They can think what they want,” he eventually said. “Now, would you like to dance?”

  She found herself nodding. She wasn’t even sure that she knew how to dance, but she found herself willing to find out if Wang Wei was the one holding her hand.

  He led her over to the dancefloor before turning to face her, with just a tiny amount of space left between them. Her breath caught in her throat as she realised that their noses were just inches away, and she was sure that her heart stopped in her chest as he moved his hands to her waist, holding her close.

  Gods, this boy is going to kill me, she thought, her face going red as she found herself gripped by the urge to close that tiny gap and press her lips to his.