Kya & Xavier: It's Always Been You (Life As We Know It Book 1)

by Mills, Charelle

  KYA & XAVIER

  Life As We Know It (Book I)

  It’s Always Been You

  A Novel By

  Charelle Mills

  Chapter 1

  Kya Renee

  “Stop frontin like you’re actually doing some work.” Xavier’s voice snuck up on me and flowed through my room like a freshly sprayed fragrance. In typical fashion I was so caught up in the book that I was reading that I hadn’t notice him until I heard his deep raspy voice which startled me causing me to immediately look up. He was standing in my doorway, hands deep in the pockets of his perfectly fitting dark denim distressed jeans, legs slightly bowed wearing a gray and blue t-shirt hoodie. Looking perfect as always. Shout out to Victoria and Johnny for creating such a work of art.

  Too bad he had an incurable case of chronic man-whore-itis. Jerk! I pulled off my glasses and fought back the urge to smile. He was cocky enough without any help from me even though he definitely had reason to be. I mean really just look at him. Perfection and he knew it! Mother Asian, father African American with a body that I’m pretty sure was illegal based on the trail of damage he caused to countless hearts mine not excluded and trust me, he knew it. I shook my head. “I think my 3.8 GPA is proof that I do more than just pretend to do work.”

  “Whatever man, and what I tell you ‘but leaving that main door open when you’re in here alone.”

  I controlled the urge to say something smart because I knew that it was pointless. He was overprotective, always had been and always would be. No sense in pretending that I had a say in it one way or the other. Something’s just weren’t up for debate with him.

  “Why are you here?” I asked. These random visits were making my life extremely complicated. How the heck am I ever going to move on with if you are always around? He had been here so many times in the last month that I was starting to wonder if he transferred from UNCG and enrolled at A&T. For him to have a so called girl he sure spent a lot of time with me.

  “I’m glad to see you too.” He said with a typical arrogance that seemed to be a permanent part of his personality. “And I missed you, so I thought I’d swing by for a minute.”

  “I think you got your campuses mixed up. Your girl is across town.

  “My girl is right here and you know it, so stop frontin’.” Oh god that smile. He looked me dead in my eyes with a smirk that basically dared me to challenge him. It amazed me how easily I could love and hate him all within the same thought.

  I laid down my History book so that I wouldn’t lose my spot, sat up and crossed my arms. “I haven’t been your girl in a long time and I’m sure Tori wouldn’t appreciate you saying that.” Trick! Simply saying her name infuriated me but it was required in order for me to make my point and besides I knew that it would irritate him which was my initial goal anyway.

  Xavier stepped inside my room like it was his own heck it practically was because he was in here enough. He sat on the foot of my extra-long dorm issued twin sized bed and laid back. At 6’4 Xavier was barely affected by the height of my bed the way that I was. It was almost waist high when I stood next to it thanks to the storage units built in underneath it. Housing’s answer to the lack of space in my tiny dorm room.

  My miniature sized dorm room was the proud owner of one dresser, a desk built into the wall and a twin bed that was about two feet too high for my height. Typically I would just hop onto it or use the turtle printed step stool that my mother had gotten me after we first toured the dorms during my senior year. Yes I’m nineteen and l have a mild obsession with turtles don’t judge. My mother was so excited that her only child was going to college so basically buying something for my dorm was her way of making it as she put it “more real” and since she obsessed about the fact that the beds were so high, hello turtle printed step stool.

  “Nah you know better than that. It’s always gonna be you and me Ky.” Yeah jerk if you’d ever get your crap together, talk is cheap is what I really wanted to say but settled on, “Are you high?”

  He smelled like a mixture of cologne that I was almost certain that I had brought for him and smoke of the non-cigarette variety. A smell that reminded me of high school and it brought back memories that I definitely did not want to revisit. Memories of Xavier drunk, high and sometimes both. Memories that caused the two of us more arguments and breakups than I cared to remember. I swear I hated him back then. I was glad that he had graduated from that phase of his life and I was hoping that he hadn’t decided that it was time for a reunion with those bad decisions and old ways. Thank goodness for random team drug testing.

  “Come on Ky, you know I’m done with that.” His voice slow, calm and steady. I loved that about him sadly and it’s one of the many reasons why he was still in my life. He had the power to change my mind about almost anything just by the way he said my name. He always had such a natural chill about him, the kind that most people would pay good money for but with him it was just who he was. No effort involved just Zay being Zay. He never really got overly excited about anything which also pissed me off more often than not because his emotions only had one level most of the time, nonexistent! Try having an argument with someone like that.

  “You sure ‘bout that?” I asked with a frown. “I smell it all over you.” And it’s making me feel nauseated. I pulled my legs from underneath my covers before I slid off the side of my bed. I picked up the fleece sweat pants that I had left in the center of my floor about an hour before my surprise visit. After which I stepped into them, then secured the drawstrings tightly around my waist but avoided looking at him because I could feel him watching me. It was as if his eyes were physically touching my body. As I moved past Xavier he reached for my hand and attempted to pull me towards him but I managed to avoid contact and then walked into my bathroom. Restraint Ky!

  “I was around it so it's probably in my clothes.” I guess he felt the need to explain after I pulled away assuming that it was because of his smoke filled clothes. He lifted his shirt, sniffed it and then frowned.

  “Well it's strong.” I said over my shoulder before I placed my hands on the sink in front of me and took a deep breath. Our so called friendship was too complicated. He was forever crossing lines that didn’t need to be crossed if we were to remain just friends and showing up here all the time was definitely one of those lines. I starred at my image in the mirror and surveyed my reflection like I had never seen it before. Large dark brown coils fell around my face and down the back of my neck thick and crinkled from the braid out that I had recently performed on my hair. I had been natural for almost three years and was finally starting to see some length and curl patterns that I was happy with. Unfortunately what I thought would be easier to maintain proved to be more work than my perm had ever been.

  My round eyes were so dark that they looked black set into my caramel colored skin, which was smooth and flawless. I had become mildly obsessed with skin care the minute that I became aware that puberty had introduced itself into my life. I refused to be a typical pimply faced teenaged cliché. I picked up a floral printed head band off the counter and pulled it over my head and then around my neck before I brought it back up and then slide it past my hairline to hold my hair off from around my face. I took a deep breath then sighed.

  “Whatcha doing in here?” Xavier asked now standing in the doorway behind me. I looked at our reflection in the mirror. I wasn’t exactly tall for a girl at 5’5 which made Xavier tower over me at 6’4. I surveyed his round face and thin eyes courtesy of Victoria’s Asian heritage trying to find a reason to dislike him. No such luck! He had jus
t gotten his hair cut because the sides were neat and low around his ears while the half curled half twisted mass that sprouted from the top and sides of his head was in a sort of messy but controlled type of chaos. When he stopped looking at me and noticed his own reflection in the mirror he reached up and grabbed a small piece of his hair and began rolling it with his fingers.

  “Why are you here Xavier?” I turned to face him and then leaned back onto the counter with my arms folded defensively.

  “Why do you keep asking me that?”

  “Because you haven’t answered yet.”

  “You want me to leave?” He asked with a smug grin on his face that I was all too familiar with. He knew the answer before he opened his mouth to ask the question but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of making it easy.

  “Depends on why you’re here.” I attempted to move past him but he stepped in front of me so I took a step back. “Do you mind?” I asked with a slight bit of irritation even though I didn't really know why. I was actually glad to see him but I refused to let him know it.

  “So you don’t wanna be close to me now, it’s like that?”

  “It’s not about what I want, it’s about what your girl wants.” I said this time managing to make it past him. I hopped onto my bed and sat Indian style before pulling my burnt orange and brown comforter up over my legs. Xavier was right behind me but stopped at my dresser. He started picking up random items that he had a million times before so I knew that he was avoiding my last comment. He was surveying every item that he picked up as if it were the first time he had ever seen it before returning it back to its original location, simply to annoy me.

  “Why do you always do that?” He asked. “Every time I ask you anything you always have to bring up somebody that’s irrelevant.”

  “Just because you keep forgetting that you have a girlfriend doesn't mean that I do too. Does she even know where you are?”

  “I see you got jokes, you know that nobody keeps tabs on me.”

  Preaching to the choir homie! I didn’t say anything I just laughed sarcastically.

  “Come on Ky, are we really gonna do this and I told you she’s not my girlfriend?”

  …and here we go. “Do what Zay?” I said with enough attitude to let him know that I wasn't in the mood. I knew exactly what he was talking about, I just didn’t care. If he was going to have a girlfriend, sideline, sex buddy hell whatever she was then I reserved the right to remind him every time he acted like he couldn’t remember that very important little detail.

  “This, Ky. Don’t play you know what I mean.” His voice was calm but I could tell that he was getting irritated and honestly I didn't care. I had earned that right to be pissed about it.

  “What I know is that your girl darn sure would lose it if she knew that you were here in my dorm at 11:30 at night. Hell she’d flip out if she knew that you were here no matter what time it was.”

  “So now you care what she thinks.” He asked hinting around to the countless number of times that he had been in my room recently doing more than just talking. He sat on the end of my bed, leaned back and reached over his head to place his hand on my knee.

  “Honestly she’s irrelevant but I just don’t have time to be dealing with another one of your pissed off groupies because if she shows up here looking for you I promise she’s going to be more worried about me than I am about her.”

  “There you go, always tripping about the wrong thing.”

  “Well excuse me if I don’t want to be caught in the middle of your bullshit life…..again.” I said feeling a slightly offended.

  Xavier’s phone rang which stopped him from responding to my sarcastic remark. Instead he reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out his phone. After a quick glance at the screen he sent the call straight to voicemail. A few seconds later it rang again so he did the same thing and when the third call came through he decided to answer. I picked up my book and pretended to begin reading even though I had absolutely no interest in what was on the page that I was staring at. I assumed the calls were from Tori who was probably looking for him.

  “What?”

  Uh oh, trouble in paradise. He sounded irritated. Which explained why he was here....time to be nosy.

  “I’m busy.”

  “Don't worry about all that.”

  “Who says I am.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “I gotta go and stop calling me. I told you I’m not in the mood right now.”

  I could hear a female voice but I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

  “Yeah whatever.”

  “I’m not about to argue with you, I’m out.”

  Whoever he was talking to had to be insane to let him dismiss them like that. He knew better than to talk to me like that whether we were together or not!

  Xavier ended the call and then turned his phone on silent before he stood up placed it on my desk. He stepped out of the loosely laced Nikes that he was wearing, then pulled off his hoodie and tossed it onto the chair that was sitting in front of my desk exposing a plain gray t-shirt with Spartans printed on it.

  “Umm excuse you, what are you doing?” I asked although I already knew the answer. As usual he had no intentions to leave anytime soon. No surprise there. I knew that was his plan the second that I saw him standing in my doorway. The two of us had repeated this scenario too many times before. Xavier showed up late at night got comfortable and settled in for an overnight stay. Which by the way would put my parents in an early grave if they knew anything about it.

  I was far from a virgin because Xavier and I had crossed that bridge years ago but as far as my parents were concerned their philosophy was out of site out of mind. I was totally okay with that as long as it kept them from asking me questions that I knew neither of them wanted to know the answers to. Especially my dad. Oh god he would die.

  Most of the time nights like these had often led to sex but for the past month or so it was mostly just about late night conversations and reruns of our favorite shows. I could tell that he missed being around me just as much as I missed being around him but that stupid male ego wouldn’t let him admit it. I can’t say it really bothered me though because it made it a lot easier to keep things between us a little more defined. If that was even possible. No matter what we had gone through in the past all and all he was my best friend and I couldn’t imagine him not being around as much as he was.

  “Can I chill for a minute?” He asked rhetorically because I knew that he wasn’t actually waiting for my approval.

  “Sounds like you've got somewhere else to be.” I said referring to his call to see if he was going to release any details.

  “Let me worry about that and it doesn’t matter because you know you want me to stay.” He was right I did but I wasn’t going to tell him that so instead I just said, “Not with you smelling like a club.”

  “Is my stuff still in here?” Xavier asked as he opened my closet door.

  “It’s up there.” I pointed to a navy duffle bag that I kept for him. Inside were clothes that he had left in my room over time.

  “You want me to shower?” He asked as he reached for the bag.

  “If you're staying then yes. You're not laying in my bed smelling like that.”

  He started digging through the bag and pulled out a pair of basketball shorts and a ch pair of boxer briefs with a thick burgundy waist band.

  “Where’s my OKC shirt?”

  “It’s in my drawer.”

  “So I guess that means you did miss me.” He said with a smirk.

  “No it means I was too lazy to put it with the rest of your stuff so it ended up in my drawer.”

  “Yeah whatever.” He said and laughed. “You had one of those nights where you missed me but you were too stubborn to call so you just slept in my shirt. I know you.”

  Xavier wasn’t far off from the truth but I had too much pride to admit it so instead I just fired back with, “You’re really
feeling yourself.”

  He just laughed arrogantly picked up his clothes and tossed them over his shoulder.

  “You can join me if you want.” He said on his way to the bathroom without turning to look back at me.

  “Nah, I’ll let you have that.”

  A few minutes later the door to the bathroom shut. When I could hear the water running I reached under my covers and searched for my cellphone. No luck so I lifted the comforter and threw it back to get a better look. After I still couldn’t locate it I pulled the pillows from behind me and finally found it. After I shoved the pillows behind my back again I immediately called my best friend Toni.

  “Sup Tee you busy?”

  “Just watching a movie with Ant what’s up and why are you whispering?” She asked.

  “Zay is here. He’s in the shower and you’re spending an awful lot of time over there for Ant to just be a situation.”

  “So much for you not going there anymore and Ant’s still just a situation. Girl I can’t be tying myself down with titles. You know I’m looking for my future husband.”

  “I’m not going there!” I insisted defensively. I hated that she knew me so well. “He just showed up like he always does and that situation thinks you’re committed to him. Is he right there with you?”

  “No, he’s in hall talking to one of his boys and sweetie, if he’s in your bed, you will be going there so stop frontin’ like you’re not getting it in tonight and let me worry about Ant.”

  “Trust me when I say the only thing I’ll be getting in tonight is a good night’s sleep. You should have more faith in me.”

  “I have all the faith in the world but there are two things that I’m certain of and that is one, you have no control filters when it comes to Zay and two, he knows that even more than I do.”

  “Girl I know, but we are friends right now, that's it and he has a girl.”

  “He has a girl and yet he still manages to spend more time in our dorm than hers.”

  “Just friends Toni. That's it, just friends.” I said, even though I knew that there was no point in trying to convince her.