“Yeah.” I laid my hand on her thigh and glided it across her skin which made her shiver a little.
“Okay.” She said and then pecked my lips. “I need to go change and get my books. I can study on the way.”
“Alright let me get dressed then we can swing by your dorm and then head out.”
She jumped up. “I'm hungry, what's in your fridge?”
“I have no idea. You how Chaz rolls. Probably nothing.”
“I going to check.” She said and smiled.
“You better put some pants on first.” I said and looked at her like she had lost her mind standing there in one of my t-shirts with nothing under it. She knew I didn't play around like that. My boys and I were close but not that damn close.
“I know that smart one.” She said and then rolled her eyes at me. I hope you know me better than that.”
“Just saying.” I grabbed her hand to pull her back towards me and then held on to the back of her thighs while she stood in front of me. “This right here, is for my eyes and hands only.”
She pulled away and then picked up her jeans off the floor from last night. “Maybe.” She said and then stuck her tongue out at me.
“Keep playing.” I said and then stood up.
“Who says I'm playing.” She said and then opened my door.
“You better be.” I yelled as she disappeared into our living room.
---------
Two hours later we were in my jeep about ten minutes from my aunt’s condo. Ky had fallen asleep after attempting to read a dissertation for her Psychology class. She tried reading it out loud to me but gave up when I kept interrupting her with silly questions about it and after trying to suffer through it quietly on her own her eyes eventually closed while her head gently tilted towards the passenger side window.
When I pulled up along the curb at my aunt’s house and turned off my jeep Ky’s eyes popped open and she turned my way with a confused look on her face. She yawned and then stretched.
“We're here already.”
I laughed “Already?”
“I guess I wasn't much company.” She said as she leaned over to put on the Toms that she kicked off before we even pulled out of the parking lot of her dorm.
“Forever alone.” I teased.
“That’s why love me.” She smiled.
“Maybe.”
“Good try but that only works when I do it.”
We both got out, walked up the front steps to get to the front door. I was behind Kya who was dressed in dark gray leggings which fit in all the right places and a matching red and gray sweater that was pulling my mind completely away from what I was here to do. When we reached the front door I stood close behind her and pressed my body firmly against hers.
“How about we go see if my room looks the same.” I said and then kisses her on the neck.
“That's definitely not happening in the middle of the day with your aunt and sister in the house.”
“Don't act like you haven't been down before.” I said and then reached around her to check the door to see if it was unlocked, which it was. She elbowed me forgetting about my injury so when I flinched she turned her head and frowned, “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” She said and then touched my side before we stepped inside.
”Leigh jumped up off the sofa, ran up to Kya and wrapped her long thin arms around her.
“Well hello to you too.” I said to my little sister.
She let go of Ky and the grinned at me before initiating a bear hug. “I missed you too.” She said
“I sure can't tell” I said and then swiped my hand across the fluffy ponytail she was sporting.
She grabbed Kya’s hand and led her to the living room and the two of them ignored me as they began a session of girl talk.
“Where's auntie.” I looked at Leigh who was clearly more interested in Kya than me at the moment.
“She's upstairs in her room. Folding clothes I think.” She said without even stopping to look at me so I made my way around the corner and up the stairs towards my aunt’s room.
I knocked and then pushed the door open where I found my aunt sitting in her red canvas arm hair surrounded by piles of towels and two large rectangular whicker laundry baskets.
“Hey baby, did you just get here.” She said and then smiled.
I stepped inside, walked over to her leaned down and gave her a hug before I kissed her cheek.
“Yes ma'am, we just got here.”
“We, did you bring someone with you?”
“Yes ma'am Kya is downstairs with Leigh.”
“That’s nice. Looks like you guys are doing well.”
“We are.” I didn't want to talk about Kya though so I decided to jump right in “I saw Johnny last night.”
“Where?” She asked with a concerned look.
“He came to my game.”
“How did that go?”
“You already know how it went. He told me what an ungrateful fuck up I was.”
“Xavier.” She said sternly with a disapproving stare because of my language.
“Sorry.”
“mmhmm.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure anything.” She said and smiled softly.
“Is he…” I paused not really sure why.
“Is he what Xavier?”
“Is he really my father?”
The look on her face gave me the answer that I was looking for but she spoke anyway. “Why would you ask that?” She asked softly.
“He told me he wasn't.”
“He raised you but no baby, he's not your father.”
“Why didn't my mother tell me?”
“It’s complicated and your mother struggled with that decision for a long time but she felt like she was doing the best thing for you. Your father didn't want anything to do with your mother after he found out about you so she did the only thing she could do and stayed with Johnny. He took her back and raised you as his own.”
“She cheated on him?” I asked trying to piece it all together
“It’s not that simple. My brother isn't the easiest person to deal with. They got married young and he just couldn't figure out how to be a husband. Your mother loved him so much that she really thought that she could save him from himself but he drank all the time and moved around from woman to woman and it broke her. I blame our father for that, Johnny learned from him and it’s all he knew. When your mother decided that he would never change she made up her mind to leave and she did. She met your father who was in college at the time. He was a ball player just like you and he thought the world of Victoria; your mother fell fast and hard.”
My aunt looked at me and smiled before she continued.
“She didn't tell him that she was married and when he found out on top of the fact that she was pregnant with you he just couldn't handle it. So she came back and my brother and well he never really forgave her. No matter how many women he had been with he just couldn't get over the fact that your mother loved another man and had his baby. He tried to beat you out of her but you hung in there and I suppose that's why he was such a monster to you all of your life. You reminded him that he was never man enough to have your mother’s heart. I loved your mother and I tried to get her to leave him so many times but she never would and after Leigh was born she gave up. She drank to escape and eventually she finally did, God bless her soul.”
I stared at my aunt trying to figure out which emotion was stronger, the relief I felt knowing that I was not a part of him, the hatred I felt for the years he abused me and my mother, or the disappointment I felt knowing that my father gave up and let us go. I had a crushing feeling in my chest and it made me feel weak. My emotions never really controlled me but right now they consumed me and it just made me feel weak.
“Do you know him?”
“Your father?” She asked.
“Yeah.”
She stood up, walked to her closet and then a few minutes later handed me an envelo
pe.
I opened it and looked inside and found a photo of a guy with his arms around a much younger, happier version of my mother. I felt like I was looking at a picture of myself when I stared at his face and my mother looked so comfortable and free. There was I smile on her face that I rarely ever saw but faintly remembered. I also found a letter inside that she had written to my father confessing her love and apologizing for not telling him about her past and begging him to give her another chance.
“She never gave it to him.” My aunt said “I wish she would have. Maybe things would have been different.”
There were also deposit slips with large amounts of cash with my aunt’s name on them. I held them up as if requesting an explanation.
“He took care of you financially but he eventually got married and had a family of his own so he always paid in cash which I deposited for your mother so that my brother wouldn't know. It's how she was able to pay for the policy that she left for you and Leigh.
I just sat there silently. Everything I knew about my life was a lie and I wasn't sure what to do with that. I needed time to figure that out.
Chapter 15
Kya Renee
It was Monday afternoon and I hadn’t seen Xavier since he brought me back to my dorm on Saturday when we returned from our trip home to talk to his aunt about Johnny. We had a few phone and text conversations but nothing really serious. After finding about his real father, I tried to give him space figuring he needed some time to process everything but I was supposed to stay with him tonight. He had an out of town game that was only an hour away so asked me if I would stay and wait for him to get back. Tuesday was the only day that neither of us had early class so we usually alternated staying at each other’s dorms on Monday nights. Since they had a game his coach wouldn’t have morning conditioning so we could actually sleep in and not be stressed about class or practice. I figured that they were either on the road already or close to leaving so I called to make sure he hadn’t forgotten to leave his dorm key with Chaz so that I could get into his room.
“I’m not playing don’t eat my food.” Xavier yelled to someone when he answered my call. It was loud, I could hear music playing with a bunch of yelling and conversation in the background.
“Sorry about that, sup?”
“You must still be in the locker room?” I asked after hearing all the noise in the background
“Yeah, we’re about to leave, you still staying with me tonight right?”
“Nah, I got a better offer.” I teased.
“You got jokes.”
“Who says I’m joking.”
“You better be.” He said sounding like a parent.
“I…”
Xavier cut me off “Ethan, keep James away from my food before I have to knock his childish ass out.”
“Sorry, let me go they’re acting stupid in here right now, Chaz has my key. I’ll text you when I get on the bus.”
“Okay.” I said, there was no point in trying to talk to him right now because I knew from experience that we would keep getting interrupted. I ended the call and heard Toni come in so I decided to go see what she was up to.
When I walked into the living room Toni was standing in the doorway holding it open talking to Kelly who was in the process of asking for a ride somewhere.
“Girl me and Ky are about to head to the mall.” She glanced at me as if warning me to back her up. “I’m sorry girl.”
“Okay well let me know when you get back then. I can go later.” Kelly said and then turned to walk away.
Toni let the door close, locked it before she looked at me and rolled her eyes. “I swear, that girl needs to get a car, quick and in a hurry.” She said then then dropped her purse, book bag and oversized binder on the couch and then plopped down next to it.
“So you’re buying me pizza at the mall?” I said and laughed. I fell back onto the sofa across from Toni, pulled my legs up and let them fall to the side as I leaned back.
“Boo, I’ll buy you the whole dang mall if it means that I don’t have to deal with her mooching behind.”
“What’s the move for tonight?”
“Depends on what kind of mood Ethan is in when they get back tonight.”
“Yeah, I’m supposed to be staying with Zay tonight.”
“Good then we can stay here. What’s up with him anyway? Ethan said they haven’t talked much lately.”
“Girl you wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”
“What’s up?” She asked now really curious.
“Do not tell anyone, not even Ethan. I don’t know if he wants anyone to know.” I glared at Toni with a treating look.
“Girl this is me.”
“Exactly.”
“I won’t tell, I promise.” She said now eagerly awaiting my intel.
“Johnny is not his real dad.”
“Shut up for real?”
“For real.”
“Hell, he should be happy about that. If I was him I’d want everybody to know.” Toni said because she knew all about Xavier’s history.
“I know right. He came to the game Friday and was waiting for him when we walked out. They argued about something, I’m not sure what because I was in the car but anyway it ended with Johnny telling Zay that he wasn’t his real father.”
“What did Zay do?”
“Frist he tried to break his jaw.” I laughed pleased at the memory of Xavier hitting Johnny. "Then we just left, but you know we went home Saturday and his aunt told him the truth. His mom left Johnny for a while got pregnant by another dude but when that dude found out that she was married and pregnant with Zay and he left. So she went back to Johnny.”
“He never knew that?”
“Nope his mom never told him.”
“So what about his real dad? Does he know who he is?”
“Yeah, his aunt gave him a picture with his name and an old address on the back and some other stuff.”
“So is he going to try and find him?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t really said anything about it since he found out.”
“He should, anybody has to be better than that jerk he thought was his dad all these years.”
“I know, that’s what I was thinking but I don’t want to push. So I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
“Girl, that’s some Lifetime Movie kind of stuff.” Toni said and laughed.
“You’re dumb.” I said and laughed also.
“So are we hitting the mall up for real or not?”
“I guess so, since you made me an accessory to your lie.” I said.
“You’re changing right?” Toni said and checked out my outfit. I was currently wearing a pair of Xavier’s dorm pants that literally swallowed, a sweatshirt and knitted slippers.
“Nope, take me as I am.”
“Or not.” Toni said with a grin.
“No love.” I said and stood up. “No love.”
“It’s all love, that’s why I’m not letting you leave here looking homeless.”
“Give me a minute to change and then we can go.” I said and then disappeared into my room.
-----
When I pulled up at Xavier’s dorm the parking lot was pretty full so I had to park a few rows out. I decided to leave my clothes in the car and just took my laptop and book bag so that I could try to get some work done while I was waiting on him to get back. It was just after eight and I wasn’t expecting him to get there before ten which meant that I had a few hours to work on my research paper.
As soon as I reached to the entrance and pulled the door and it was locked so I peered inside to see if I could find someone to let me in but the security station was empty and there were only two people in the lobby. They were on the sofa watching TV which was so far from door that I didn’t think they would hear me knocking and their backs were too me. I pulled out my phone not sure why because everyone I knew was on the basketball team and I just realized that I didn’t have Chaz’s number. Crap! I
was stuck and didn’t have anybody to call. I turned to head back to my car not really sure what I was going to do until I heard someone open the door. I turned to see a girl I didn’t know coming out.
“Hey will you hold that door for me.” I yelled and then quickly moved in her direction.
She smiled, caught the door and waited for me to get to it.
“Thanks.” I said and returned a smile.
“No prob.” She said and then walked towards the parking lot.
My book bag was heavy so I decided to take the elevator and when I got to Xavier’s dorm room the door was propped open with all the lights on. There was no sign of Chaz so I placed my laptop on the kitchen counter and then dumped my purse and book bag on the sofa before I went to check Chaz’s room to see if he was in there.
I knocked but didn’t get an answer and it was quite so I figured that he was out. Since the main door was propped open so I figured that he was probably in someone else’s room. I grabbed my laptop, turned on the TV, got comfortable on the sofa and started working on my research paper. About forty five minutes later I could hear voices in the hallway moving towards Xavier’s dorm.
“What’s up? How long have you been here?” Chaz asked when he stepped inside, his cubby face hidden with his long wavy jet black hair which he pulled back and tucked behind his ear.
“Not long.” I smiled.
“This is Charity.” He said nodding to the short thin girl that was standing next to him. She gave me a fake smile and then looked down at her phone. She didn’t seem happy that I was there.
“This is Xavier’s girlfriend.” Chaz explained sensing the tension and assuming that it was from the fact that Charity didn’t know why another girl was waiting in his dorm room.
Her mood changed immediately and she smiled this time a little more friendly, “So you’re Kya?” she asked and then walked over to sit on the sofa opposite of me.
I gave Chaz a strange look wondering why she felt the need to express that she had heard about me which forced him to explain again but this time to me, “I told her I had to get back to give you Zay’s key.” He pulled Xavier’s lanyard from around his neck and handed it to me.
Kya & Xavier: It's Always Been You (Life As We Know It Book 1) Page 18
