♦ ♢ ♦ Kaitlyn ♦ ♢ ♦
♦ ♢ ♦ Past ♦ ♢ ♦
I sniff hard as we come to sit in the class. Our English teacher looks at me entering the classroom with red eyes, and she rushes over.
"Kaitlyn? What's wrong, sweetheart?" Ms Patel asks.
I look to the side, crossing my arms. "Nothing."
"Then why do you cry, honey?"
A tear escapes my eye.
"Kate?" I hear from behind me, and my heart explodes as I turn to see Xavier entering the classroom after me, his friends coming in afterwards. His eyes widen as he looks at me, and he rushes over. He cups my cheeks. "What happened?"
I blink my tears. My guardian angel. My best friend. My Xavier. He will never judge me. So I tell him, "Sandy pushed me during the break when you were playing with Seb," I bite my lip. "And then he tugged at my hair, saying that I look bad in ponytails."
"He did?" Xavier asks calmly.
"Xavier," Ms Patel says calmly. "Do not go after-"
But Xavier is taking my hand and walking out the class, our friends looking after us in shock. I suppress a blush. He always does this in front of everyone, takes my side no matter what. He protects me, and I have no doubt he will make Sandy pay.
We enter the other section of our sixth grade and spot Sandy laughing with his friends. Xavier tugs at my hand, and I am reluctant to cause a scene, but also thrilled to see him defend me. Like he always does.
"What did you say to her?" Xavier sneers.
Sandy's eyes go wide. "Nothing, Xavier. I promise."
"That's not what Kaity told me," Xavier cocks his head.
"Xavier," Ms Patel enters the classroom, Mr James following suit.
"You know, lying is a really bad thing?" Xavier asks nonchalantly.
"Xavier," Ms Patel warns.
Too late. Sandy is already clutching his cheek, crying after Xavier punched him. "You don't speak to her that way, idiot," he says. "None of you do," he announces to the whole class.
"Xavier," Mr James sighs. "Come to the office, now."
Xavy throws an arm around my shoulders and starts to walk out to a defeated looking Mr James. "You shouldn't punch people for me," I say.
"It's fun," he grins.
I shake my head. "You've already gotten into so much trouble this week."
He shrugs, "So what. They don't seem to understand you are not to be messed with. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe."
My heart flutters as I smile softly. "Promise?"
"Promise," he smiles back, lifting his hand to show me the bracelet I gave to him. Every time we promise something to each other, I write it in my journal. And every time we promise, Xavier shows me the bracelet to remind me he still wears it. I wear his bracelet too.
Just like we promised each other we would.
♦ ♢ ♦ Present ♦ ♢ ♦
I'm hit with that memory as Tadem and I pull into the driveway of Xavier's house, after being allowed past security.
It twists at my heart, as I think back on that memory. It had been the start of sixth grade, and Sandy was a new student. He'd had no idea about Xavier, and his famous 'protect Kaitlyn protocol', so he'd tried to pick on me. It didn't end well for him, obviously.
What hurts was his promise. No, our promise, to wear the bracelets we gave each other. When everything fell apart, he said he'd thrown mine out, breaking my heart. So I'd said the same, but I still have it. I have everything, still. I don't know why, but I could never let go of it, of our past.
We broke all our promises to each other. I remember, coming home one day and ripping those pages out of my journal and scrunching them up. And then I'd unscrunched the paper and cried, so hurt, so confused. Why would he have said anything bad about me? Was he trying to distance himself from everyone, after him mom?
Fuck...
If that's the case...
But no. Nobody can explain everything he said and did afterwards. He kept on needling, probing, pushing. So I started to push back, until the bridge between us was too great, we'd fall into a void if we took a step closer to each other.
Look at us now, though. In a grey pit with weird emotions at play. Because he'd definitely been playing me at the start of our ruse, but just now? That stutter? He only ever stuttered when he was nervous about something. And he was nervous about asking me to come over.
Tentative. Everything I seem to be feeling is so tentative, hesitant and shy toward Xavier. Like I'm scared to let him in again, to let him close, only to have more heartbreak.
Because I don't think I can survive Xavier.
He's been the one guy I've had by my side. Back then... and now. The things he's done recently, it feels like he's keeping his promises of keeping me safe. That day at the game, in biology, every time I was too flustered to face Dexter.
And it feels like I'd be betraying him if I let our past five years get between us right now, in this moment. Not when he seems to be reaching a tentative hand toward me.
I know we will have to talk about the past at some point, but today is not the day, even if Dexter provoking me has startled me a little.
Later, we will. I have a feeling we will talk. Because I need to know what happened.
♦ ♢ ♦ Xavier ♦ ♢ ♦
I get informed that Kaitlyn is at the house, in the kitchen. I won't lie, I thought she'd deny me, not wanting to come here to check on me.
Stupid, stupid hope had made me courageous enough to ask.
And I can't express how relieved I'd been when she'd said yes. Because right now, I need someone. I keep missing mom. That knife keeps twisting deeper and deeper, the more I hear Sofia or Kyla or Tiffany around the house. If mom had been here, they wouldn't be. Dad would still talk to me, not drown himself in work, still not having recovered from mom's passing. Zara would have chosen to stay in Florida to study, to stay close to family.
We'd been perfect. Mom, dad, Zara and I.
Dad was always the strict parent, and he'd trained Zara to be like him. Controlled and focused. I'd never been any of those things. And nobody would look at me without saying I was problematic, or that I was a pain in the ass to handle because of my nature. Except mom. She was my hero. She'd always accept me as I was, faults or no. And there was only ever one other person that truly accepted me for me.
Kaitlyn.
But they both left me at the same time.
And I've been lost ever since.
I stop my train of thoughts. Being with her during my migraine episode was... surreal. I couldn't really believe she'd come over without my calling. But let's be honest, she was always the caretaker. She couldn't bare bruises on my body, ever. She'd cry when I'd get into a fight, and would be the only person who'd put ointment on me. Because she'd promised to look after me.
So many promises were broken between her and I, so I have no fucking idea where to go or what to do with her.
I still haven't forgiven her for all that she did. But my feelings become conflicted when I peek at our present and see our past mixing together.
She's the same. Deep down, underneath all her facade, she'd never changed. A caring diva, I'd always call her. She'd call me a sweet troublemaker, but in her sort of way, where I never felt judged.
Until I did.
But how come my bad thoughts instantly go away when I see her in my kitchen, unloading some stuff from her bag?
She looks up to see me enter, and her eyes widen. "Where's your shirt?" She frowns.
I like that look in her eyes. "Didn't feel like wearing it," I smirk, watching a little blush creep on her cheeks.
She rolls her eyes. "You'll catch a cold."
"I'm burning up," I walk over and come to stand beside her, picking up some of the boxes of pop tarts she bought. Along with fruits.
She snatches the box from my hands, making me scowl. "No junk for you, until you eat some strawberries."
"I hate strawberries," I grumble.
"Too bad, isn't it?" She mocks. She gets one and holds it in front of my mouth. "Open up, little birdie," she sings.
I raise a brow.
"You opening that mouth and eating it, or should I shove it in?" She glares.
"That's what she said," I hear Kyla's smug voice coming into the kitchen. "Look at you two," she gags, her minion Tiffany coming in after.
Fuck these two.
To save Kaitlyn from embarrassment, I take the strawberry in my mouth, and lick her fingers along the ways.
Her blue eyes blink rapidly, that blush returning as she clamps her lips down.
"Another one, baby," I kiss her forehead as I take a seat at the island.
"Ew?" Tiffany makes a disgusted noise.
I smirk at her. "Why are you still here then? You got some weird kink of watching girlfriends feed their men?"
"The fuck, no!" Tiffany scowls as they continue to come in. Fuck's sake. I want these two gone. They will make my headache come back.
"What did you bring?" Kyla asks.
"Nothing for you," Kaitlyn surprises me by making a snide remark. My heart grows a fraction. I've got one more person on my side it feels like. The three mother-daughter viper team against one me doesn't feel like a total shit show right now.
Kyla glares at her. I drape my arm over Kate's shoulders and press her closer to my chest, her long brown hair tickling my skin in the best way possible. I feel goosebumps on her arms.
Fuck.
"You forget, you're in my house, bitch. You speak to me with respect," Kyla looks down her nose at Kaitlyn.
I grit my teeth, about to warn Kyla but Kaitlyn snorts. "Since when?"
The sisters jerk back. "Since five years, are you living under a rock? Everyone knows us," Tiffany says.
"And let me tell you a fun fact," Kaitlyn grins as she leans forward on the table. "I've been a part of this house for twelve years. And I'm dating your brother, whose house this originally belongs to, so let's not go there, shall we?"
"Step-brother," Kyla spits.
"And?" Kaitlyn raises a brow. "Still his house."
"What are you doing here?" I ask the sisters instead. As much as I enjoy Kaitlyn talking back to them, I don't want to talk about this anymore, or my head will start spinning.
"Where's your dad?" Tiffany asks, no doubt to ask him to go out shopping some stupid shit for them. Which he will probably have time for, but not to come and check up on me. It burns a little.
"Probably fucking his secretary," I shrug. Kaitlyn sneaks a little look at me, her expression shocked. I give her a rueful smile.
Kyla sneers. "That asshole."
"Like father, like son," Tiffany grits out.
I raise a brow, that burning sensation returning in my chest as I start to think of mom. How I'm like her, not my dad. And the need to retaliate hits me deeper today. Usually I'd stay quiet, but I can't right now. "Sofia married him for his money, not his attention, sweetheart."
Tiffany growls. "Don't insinuate that about mom."
"That she's a gold digger?" I raise a brow. "I'm not insinuating anything. Only telling you the truth."
"Wow," Kyla smiles. "Your mother must have been a true bitch to raise a son like you."
My heart stops.
Kaitlyn pushes off the counter, and I can't help but look at her, my heart racing at the comment Kyla just made. I can't do anything but watch as Kaitlyn rounds the corner of the table, and slaps Kyla hard across the face.
I'm rendered speechless.
I couldn't have raised a hand. But Kaitlyn just did.
For me.
"You speak of Helen like that one more time," Kaitlyn says quietly. "And I'll put you six feet under. I don't give a fuck who you are. Or where the fuck you come from. You speak of Xavier's mom like that again, and I'll dig your grave with my bare hands, you hear me?"
Kyla cups her cheek in shock. Tiffany's jaw is open. But I don't care. Kate just defended mom. For me.
A hint of a headache comes back, but my heart is getting beat up pretty hard over here, not knowing what to do.
"I don't know what your problem is," Kaitlyn still has that murderous expression on her beautiful face. "But I don't appreciate it when you talk to Xavier that way. I don't know you, you don't know me, but I'll make one thing clear. I don't take well to people taking bad about people I care about. And you've done all of it. Xavier, his dad, his mom. One more word out of your mouth, and I'll forget that I'm supposed to be a daughter of two lawyers."
"Who is-" I hear Sofia, and bile races up my throat when I realize I'm not wearing a shirt. She comes into the kitchen and her eyes go immediately to my bare skin. She's never made a move on me, but her eyes grate at my skin. She's either looking at me like a thirsty teenager, or looking at me like I belong to the rat colony down in the sewers.
I don't understand her. Nor do I want to. I hate her for more that one reason.
♦ ♢ ♦ Kaitlyn ♦ ♢ ♦
A woman who I can only assume is these bitches' mom, comes into the room. And I don't miss the way her eyes linger on Xavier's bare chest, his abs.
Disgust like no other takes hold in the bottom of my stomach. Along with heartache for Xavier. He's had to deal with this all on his own? So much hostility in his own home? With nobody to protect him? By the way he was talking about his dad, they don't share a good relationship. And his step sisters aren't worth his energy. His step mom is... oh god, I can't stand him in the same room as her. She's married to his father. And yet is looking at him like she wants to...
I lock my jaw and get away from the stunned sisters. I wanted to slap that bitch again, but not now, when I need to protect Xavier.
"Hey," I walk back to him quickly and shove my purse against his chest, shielding him for those eyes but looking like the diva that I am.
Xavier's eyes are ice cold, but not toward me. He looks at me with a barely concealed expression that's filled with gratitude. I don't need that from him. I only need to protect him, and I will. I start putting all the shit I bough back in the bag and seal it shut. "You're carrying it for me," I smirk, lifting the mood. I can't stand the terse silence.
"But I'm in pain," he pouts nonetheless, playing along.
"You are a pain," I clarify. "In my ass."
"Anal?" He whispers, and I choke on air. He gives me a breathtaking grin before getting off the stool.
I feel heat on my face. "Just... get the fuck into your room already," I grumble.
"Who are you?" The woman asks, her expression condescending.
"Good evening, Ma'am. I'm Kaitlyn. Xavier's girlfriend," I smile. I don't know if introducing myself as his girlfriend is the right course of action here, but it's the only course of action that will work.
Wait. What if his dad and Zara find out?
Fuck.
What if mom and dad find out?
Double fuck.
Later. Think of this later.
"Girlfriend," her eyes widen. "Xavier," she says in mock hurt. "Why wouldn't you tell me?"
"It's new for the both of us," I answer instead, not wanting Xavier to talk to her right now. "And I'd like to get to know him better," I smile suggestively at Xavier. "Alone," I add.
His eyes fill up with humor as he nods. "Yeah, I'd like to make her practice saying my name so we both get to know what it sounds like out her mouth," and my entire body burns up. Holy shit.
I shove at his back, making him move toward the stairs. "It was nice meeting you guys," I say over my shoulder and Xavier chuckles as I push him up the steps. "You're insufferable," I grunt.
"You like me that way, Sharpie," I hear his mocking smile.
I huff, still pushing at his back.
Maybe I do like him that way.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I'll be writing more scenes from the past. I think this was good in adding depth to their friendship. Anyways, it's all building up to the confession ;)