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Cliff Parker

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It was almost immediately apparent that Lexi wasn't okay. Her body language and tone were enough evidence for Cliff, but in a matter of seconds, tears began to fall and that made it more than obvious. The cause of all of this was clearly Logan, and although he hated seeing her this upset, he was still secretly glad that he had pushed Logan towards Hana. If he could hurt Lexi this badly, when they weren't anything anymore, there was no telling what harm he could do if they actually got back together. The happiness was short lived though, because as she began to rant about how horrible Logan was, Cliff knew that Lexi's feelings for his friend were stronger than he imagined. Hours ago, it seemed like she had moved on but if Logan could come back so suddenly and instantly send her to a crying mess, it was unlikely that she had ever really gotten over him to begin with.

"Come on, Lexi. It's alright," he pleaded, reaching out to comfort her. He hated seeing her cry to a point where it actually caused a physical pain in his chest. She was like his little sister and whenever she was upset, he felt like it was his responsibility to fix it. He instinctively wanted to knock Logan out, just for causing this reaction, but there was no justification behind that since he was the one who had egged it on. He couldn't get another word out before she got up, ending the conversation with the demand that Logan stay away from her no matter what. Fair enough. That was exactly what Cliff wanted anyway.

He considered chasing after her to comfort her, but he didn't think there was anything left to say. He hoped this was going to be enough to show Lexi Logan's true colors, and if so, he figured that it might just be better to let it play out. If Logan was back for good, which was hard to say considering his track record, then Lexi was going to need to realize that he wasn't ever going to be the person she wanted him to be. While he did think that this was going to be necessary eventually, he wished he hadn't gotten himself tangled in the web. On the outside, he really hadn't done anything wrong - all he did was introduce the two, but Cliff was close enough to Logan to know that he didn't want to chat with her over pizza. He knew it, and that was why he had introduced them in the first place.

With an audible sigh, he rested his head against the back of the couch that he had moved onto to sit with Lexi. Senior year was already proving to be too exhausting for him, and it was only day one. He figured that it would be best to lay low for the remainder of the night. Lexi would undoubtedly be taken care of by Annelise and he would feel to guilty to stand around and watch her sob about something that he provoked. After a few minutes of solitude, he pulled his phone out to text Lex, but found that he had replied to him about his earlier text minutes ago.

To: Lex Manning
Close... Benson. Where are you? Don't say with that Hana chick bc that whose tongue is probably down his throat rn.

Cliff wasn't as concerned about Lex's whereabouts as he was curious, and he was ready to get up and go find him himself when Katherine approached. She was clearly out of it as she carelessly threw herself onto the couch opposite to him. There was no 'hello' or acknowledgment of any sort, even though they were the only two in the section. He narrowed an eyebrow as he studied her expression, but his frown twisted upwards a bit when he realized that she was apparently wasted. He had seen her in similar states frequently and it was dark enough where he couldn't notice how irregularly pale she looked tonight.

His smile turned into a cheeky grin as she remained leaning back with her eyes closed for a good few minutes. He liked Katherine. She was demanding and spoiled rotten, but he always found her to be amusing. Her very frequent wasted nights were no exception. She was the type of girl who had to go big- there was no drinking to get tipsy with her, only to black out. When she finally came through, she still didn't acknowledge him until after requesting chicken fingers from a passing staff member. "And water, please," he added to their order. Her request for chicken fingers was pretty random and Cliff strongly doubted that the lounge even served that type of stuff, but the woman hurried away, so he supposed that they would find a way to make it happen. "When do you not drink too much?" he chuckled.

There was a part of him that wanted to confide in Katherine about his role in Logan's whereabouts, but he wasn't sure if Katherine actually hated Hana enough to support him on this one. What he did to her was pretty low, and although he didn't know the girl enough to feel an alliance, he still knew it was wrong. No one deserved to be taken advantage of by Logan. He just would rather it be her than Lexi. Katherine was probably drunk enough to not remember any of it tomorrow morning, but he still kept his mouth shut. Just in case.

The waitress returned with the two waters first. Cliff chugged his fairly quickly and pushed Katherine's closer to her. "Here, drink some. You're going to have a bad hangover tomorrow if you don't start hydrating," he advised. She would probably be sick all morning anyway, but maybe it'd help a little. If he couldn't directly help Lexi tonight, he would at least help Katherine.