Ethan wasn’t perfect but he was a good guy and from what I could tell he really cared about Toni. What I also knew was that Ethan wasn’t the type to play around. He was sort of like Xavier when it came to the women in his life. Extremely protective and unwilling to share so I knew for sure that if he thought for one second that Toni was messing with someone else he would be done. I opened the door and Toni was sitting at the foot of my bed waiting for me. I stepped out and handed her the phone.
“You know I love you but Tee you’re messing up.”
“I know, but I promise you it’s nothing.”
“If Ethan read those text would he think it was nothing?”
“I swear its nothing, I haven’t been with him or anything. It’s just text.”
“Hey you’re grown. Isn’t that what you always tell me?” I said and went back to packing my bag.
“It’s stupid I know but I saw him and we started talking and he text me but it’s really nothing. I’m not feeling him like that anymore.”
“Here’s my two cents whether you want it or no, Ethan’s a good guy and I know he’s not a wanna be thug kind of guy like you’re use to but trust me he’s so much better for you than any of them will ever be. He cares about you Tee and he is not the type to put up with someone who’s unsure about what they want so if you feel anything for him at all and you don’t wanna mess up a good thing then let that go. It’s not worth it.”
“What is wrong with me?” Toni yelled and threw her hands up.
“Well I can think of a million things but for the purpose of this conversation I’ll just say that you my dear are addicted to bad boys, fake or not.”
“Look who’s talking. Zay is as bad as it gets”
“Xavier is definitely not a bad boy.”
“He most definitely is boo.”
“How do you figure that?” I asked now curious about how she came to that conclusion.
“He may not come from the streets but he definitely has it in him. Your man is a thug boo. He’s just a preppy thug so he’s undercover with it.”
I laughed, “You are so dumb that it’s not even funny. Xavier is definitely not a thug, bad boy or whatever you want to call it.”
“Let’s test that theory?” Toni picked up her phone and began searching for something.
“What are you doing?”
“Urban dictionary boo.”
“Oh lord not urban dictionary.” I laughed.
“Yes boo, let’s see.” She began reading, “bad boy, he’s independent and willful, does what he wants when he wants, he doesn’t follow trends, they follow him, he often looks scruffy but hip. He’s not looking for trouble but there’s a sense of danger about him. For this reason and more his irresistible to women. Boom, that’s your man girl. Okay now let’s see thug hmmm”, she paused and stared at her phone. “Alright a true thug means you haven’t had it good your whole life and you intend to change that. You don’t take shit from anyone, and stand up for your friends and don’t let them take shit from anyone. I rest my case. Urban Dictionary has spoken.”
“First of all that’s half the guys we know including Ethan and second of all those are just words.”
“Correction boo, Ethan’s preppy behind is far from a bad boy, he’s just old school with all that the man’s in charge crap and as for Zay just ask all the people who have crossed him how dangerous he is. People don’t mess with him like that because they know better. I’m sure Ty has some insight on that.”
“Ty deserved what he got by being dumb enough to throw us in Zay’s face and girl Ethan is just a real man and you’re use to little boys baby girl.” I smiled at her in a way that said game, set, and match. I win.
“Whatever, you just face that fact that you’re in love with a bad boy no matter how much you try to deny it. His hard headed hateful behind is as rugged and dangerous as they come and that’s why you can’t get enough so you, boo are more like me than you think.” The smirk on her face told me that she right so I let it go.
“You just stay away from Ant before you force Ethan to show you his bad boy side. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“Now let me finish packing so that we can get out of here on time. I want every second of every minute of this weekend to be put to good use.”
“You want every second of every minute of this weekend to be turned out by your bad boy.”
“There’s no help for you. Get out of my room and go finish packing. I just can’t with you.” I threw a sweater at her.
“I guess that’s my cue.” She slid off my bed. “I know when I’m not wanted.” She said pretending to pout and then left my room.
I swear I love my best friend. I just hope she gets her head on right about this Ant and Ethan thing. I can’t handle any complications right now.
Xavier Lee
We had a few hours before it was time to hit the road and I was done packing so I decided to finish some math homework until Kya and Toni got here but quickly gave up when my mind kept wondering about the weekend. It wasn’t like I was nervous about meeting my real father but I did feel kind of uneasy about it. I had talked to him several times on the phone to make arrangements for the weekend and he seemed pretty cool but being around him would be a whole other story.
How was I supposed to be okay with the man that walked out on me and my mother and left me in the hands of man that hated everything about me? He had even offered to let us stay at his house for the weekend but I declined since there would be four of us and honestly it would feel weird being there in his home like that without really having a relationship with him.
He was married and had two other children so I had a brother, a sister and apparently his wife was expecting their third child soon. Honestly I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that since it had always been just me and Leigh and I wasn’t really expecting a readymade family. Leigh was my family and I didn’t know if I was prepared to add anyone else. I could guarantee that she wouldn’t be thrilled about the idea of having to share me with another family, which was why I made my aunt promise me that she wouldn’t tell Leigh anything about this situation. No sense in getting her all upset about something that might end badly anyway so I decided that for now it was best if she didn’t know.
Apparently all my life my real father had only been fifteen miles away from me but never once took the time to let me know that he existed. I was having trouble with that because I just didn’t understand how he could have moved on so easily. It was as if I had never existed. What kind of man does that? Probably someone that I would not want in my life anyway.
It made me think about the whole pregnancy thing with Tori, if it had worked out that she was truly pregnant then I knew I would have been there for my kid. I might not have wanted anything to do with her but I knew for sure that I would have been there for my kid. It’s just what you do. I really had no expectations but I did at least want to hear his side of the story because there had to be a reason why he just walked away and never looked back.
“I left my bags in my car. It didn’t make sense to bring them in since we would be leaving soon. You can just put them in your Jeep when we get ready to leave.” Kya said cheerfully when she walked into my room and then sat down on my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck.
I leaned back in my computer chair and placed my arms around her waist to keep her balanced on my legs.
“Whatcha doing?” she asked looking over at the math problems that I hadn’t made any progress with and then frowned. English was her thing. She could write papers and stories for days but put some math in front of her and she literally shut down.
“Trying to finish this homework before we leave.”
“Are you excited?”
“About?”
She frowned. “Spending the whole weekend with me.”
“Always.”
She leaned back into my chest and I kissed her neck. “Good.” She said happy again. “Have you talked to your dad today?” When I he
ard the word dad it immediately made me think about the asshole who raised me but I knew that she wasn’t talking about him.
“Not really, I just told him that I would text him when we checked in.”
“So what’s the plan for tonight? He has a game right?”
“Yeah, his team plays at seven.” His team had an out of town game but we decided to just stay the weekend to get away from here and chill until I we were scheduled to meet at his house for lunch on Sunday.
“So that means you’re all mine tonight?”
“We don’t have to wait until tonight.” I said and then slide my hand up the side of her thigh and then under the sweater that she was wearing.
Her body flinched when she felt my hand against her skin but she ignored me and kept talking.
“Are you nervous?”
“About what?” I knew what she was asking.
“Meeting him.” Kill the mood then.
“Nah, not really.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s your dad, I mean like your real dad and he might not like me.”
“And?”
“And, I don’t know it’s just weird.”
“You worry too much and his vote doesn’t count. Let’s get Ethan and Toni so that we can hit the road.”
After we had every bodies bags packed in the back of my Jeep we hit the road. We spent almost the entire ride to Apex joking on each other, with the radio blasting so it seemed like it took us no time at all to get there. When we pulled into the circular drive of the hotel Ethan got out to go check us in because his parents had made the reservations for us since neither of us were old enough to do it on our own. They had offered to pay but I insisted on taking care of the bill for the room that Ky and I were staying in so when Ethan returned with the keys I handed him cash for ours.
“You know my parents aren’t going to take this.” Ethan said as he looked down at the money that I was trying to give him.
“Then you keep it.” I said and he shook his head but he eventually accepted it. He knew that I wasn’t big letting people do things for me. It always made me feel obligated and I didn’t ever want people to have that kind of control over me. I rarely ever accepted anything from anybody and had pretty much always been that way. I worked all through high school to make sure I had the things I needed because my so called father could have cared less about anything associated with me or my needs and after my mother died I just couldn’t bring myself to use the trust money because it made it more real that she wasn’t around anymore. I didn’t really matter though because the more I could do for myself the less I had to be disappointed by Johnny.
“We’re in the back on the 5th floor so they said you can park on the side and we can go in that way”. I pulled around to the side of the building, everyone got out and I opened the rear of my Jeep which was packed full mainly because of the girls. Ethan and I each had one bag since we were only staying one night.
“You do know we’re going home tomorrow.” I said looking down and the three bags that Kya had packed. Two oversized floral printed quilted duffel bags and one that was half the size of the other two.
“Hey you can never be too prepared.” She said and then picked up the smaller one of the three followed by Toni who also offered minimal help by grabbing the smallest of her two bags.
We made our way through the side entrance and then down the long brightly light hallway until we reached the elevator. The brushed nickel doors were perfectly shinned with the appearance that they had never been touched before. Toni pressed the button on the wall with the up arrow on it and the doors immediately opened and we all piled in. Ethan and I struggling to carry our one bag along with the girls who had five between the two of them.
When we finally reached our rooms which were located directly across from one other, opened the doors and retreated into our private spaces to get settled. Our room was a suite which and a separate bedroom adjacent to what would be considered a living area which housed two overstuffed burgundy sofas, a cherry wood desk that was too larger for the space that it was in and a flat screen TV hanging on the wall that had to be at least a 52 inch. I dropped all of our bags about two feet away from the door, found my way to one of the sofas and fell back into it. Kya had elected to check out the rest of our suite.
“Come look at this bedroom.” The excitement in her voice made me laugh because she sounded like a little kid.
“In a minute that drive wore me out.” I said not quite ready to move yet, even though I was intrigued about the idea of checking out the bedroom with her.
I felt her arms around my neck and then her face pressed against mine. “This room is nice.” I looked at our residence for the next twenty four hours and agreed. It was pretty nice which I had expected based on the cost and since Ethan’s parents had made the reservations for us I assumed that the accommodations would be top notch.
“Come sit down.” I said tilting my head back to look at her but she ignored my request and chose to walk over to the balcony instead. I watched her from behind as she reached up to pull open the thick burgundy drapery that covered the French doors before she fumbled with the lock and then pushed them open letting in a rush of cold air. Her navy legging were making me regret my decision to not check out the bedroom with her a few minutes ago the way that they were hugging her body. A few seconds later she stepped back inside and pulled the doors closed again before she secured the lock.
“It’s freezing out there.” She wrapped her arms around her body and rubbed her shoulders before she joined me on the sofa. She sat down next to me but immediately fell into my side with her 110 pound being no comparison to my 160. “So what are we going to do for the next few hours?” I pulled my arm from behind her and placed it around her shoulder causing her to sink deeper into my body.
“Do you have to ask?”
“Is there ever a time when you’re not thinking about sex?”
“When I’m sleep but then I’m probably dreaming about it so nah.”
She elbowed me in my ribs.
“It’s your fault.” I said.
“How do you figure that?”
I pinched her thigh and gently lifted her leggings and then let go. “You stop wearing stuff like this and I might be able to think about other stuff.”
“You just need to learn self-control.”
“Trust me I have control.” I said and lifted her hand and then let it fall in my lap. “You don’t feel anything do you? That’s control.”
“Whatever.” She said and then laughed. She pulled her body away from mine, stood up, straddled my legs and leaned towards me placing her hands on my chest. “You still have everything under control?”
“I’m good.” I lied. I could feel the pressure building.
“What about now.” She pulled her knees up on the sofa to move herself closer to me before she placed her hands on the back of my neck. She let her lips graze the side of my face and then kissed my neck. That’s a wrap.
“Never mind she said with a smug look on her face “Well hello there. There’s my answer right there.” She looked down at my lap.
“First of all don’t stat something that you’re not willing to finish and second you used excessive force so it doesn’t count.”
“Hey control is control no matter what the circumstances are.” She said with a huge grin on her face but before I could take advantage of our current situation someone knocked on the door and she slide away from me while I adjusted myself. She looked over her shoulder at me and then smiled before she pulled the door open.
“So what are we doing?” Toni said as she entered our room and then landed on the sofa adjacent to the one that I was sitting on followed by Ethan. I glanced down at my lap just to make sure nothing was visible my but my jeans hide my situation enough that I wasn’t concerned.
“Chillin’ I guess.” I said.
“I need to eat.” Ethan said.
“What’s near
here?” Kya asked and before I could say anything she cut her eyes at me, “And no Chipotle.”
“I wasn’t even going to say that.” She sat down next to me angled her body with back was pressed against my shoulder so that she was facing Toni. She pulled her legs up onto the sofa and then crossed them at the ankles.
“We can order pizza and then go out somewhere tonight.” Ethan looked at me “We’re not seeing your dad until tomorrow right?”
“Yeah I guess I need to let him know that we’re here.” I said and then reached into my pocked for my phone. Kya glanced back at my pants and then smiled so I nudged her with my shoulder before I unlocked my screen and started typing a text to my dad. When I was done I dropped my phone in my lap but it started vibrating so I glanced down at the screen and realized that he had called me instead of replying to my text. I picked up my phone to answer and then stood up causing to Ky to fall over in my absence.
“Hello, Xavier. You’ll have to forgive me but I’m a little old school when it comes to communicating.” He laughed nervously.
“Its fine, I just wanted to let you know that we made it.” I walked into the bedroom and sat down on the bed, not really sure why but I just felt the sudden urge to speak privately.
“I’m really glad that you guys were able to come I just wish that you would have stayed here at the house with us. We have plenty of room but I understand.” Plenty of room I wondered what his house was like if he had plenty of room to accommodate four more people. Even assuming that Ky and I would share a room while Ethan and Toni did the same that’s still two extra rooms.
“It just seemed better if we stayed here but I appreciate it.”
“Well will you at least let me pay for your stay and your friends also? I really don’t mind at all.”
“We’ve got it covered but thank you.” I said wondering why he was trying so hard.
Kya & Xavier: It's Always Been You (Life As We Know It Book 1) Page 21
