Kim Noorda by Sarah Maingot is Paige
Xavier found himself alone at the table with Latitia. She really was hot. He totally got what JJ saw in her. It even crossed his mind to go for her himself, but that would be repeating history. It had been a pattern between him and his brother since they’d become old enough to care. But she wasn’t really his type – not really. And he didn’t plan on hanging around long enough at this school for his usual fights with JJ. Then Again … it was their ticket out of the last school.
“Will JJ be Okay?” Latitia asked, interrupting his thoughts.
Xavier looked at her with heavy lidded eyes and could hardly bother to reply. She was hooked already. “He’ll be fine,” he said on a bored exhale.
Latitia narrowed her eyes. “What’s the deal with you two?”
“Don’t worry about it … we’ll be out of your hair soon.” He wasn’t being particularly friendly, but it was easier than going into the whys and wherefores of who and what they were.
“We’re not stupid you know,” she said getting angry.
Girls like her were used to boys crawling all over her. Xavier just smiled and searched her face. “Aren’t you?” he said with a chuff of laughter. “And yet we’ve been here all of forty eight hours and JJ has you in the palm of his hand already.” He finished laughing as her face changed to outrage. It didn’t hurt to hamper JJ’s progress a little. But he wasn’t under any illusions. One or the other would have her; it was just a matter of time.
“You prick!” she growled furiously.
It any made him laugh harder.
At that point her brother Patrick came back from the counter with a tray of food and sat opposite him. Xavier smirked at Latitia, deciding to leave her alone a bit. It was boring tormenting her any way and his eyes strayed to the rest of the room.
The dinner hall was now full. Alexia had been a long time. “Was Alexia with you in the dinner queue?” Xavier said, suddenly sitting up straight alert in his chair.
His eyes went to Latita who was now smirking. “Well posh boy,” she said, her eyes glittering. “Looks like Dwayne and JJ are peas in a pod,” and widened her eyes in mock fright.
Xavier seethed. He hated that she was right. While he’d been busy tormenting her, Dwayne had used the opportunity to get Alexia away from him.
“Where has she gone?” he demanded, looking daggers at Patrick.
He just shrugged. “Dunno … probably gone down the High Street.” And he continued as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Well not in his world. Xavier’s brain raced. She was away from him, god knows where, with only a Human to protect her. He seethed again that his father could have done this to them.
“Whatsup?” Latitia said, clearly enjoying herself. “’fraid Dwayne ‘ll get his grubby palms on her?”
“Latitia!” Patrick said, with a look of apology directed at Xavier.
Latitia just smirked back into her chair satisfied that nothing more needed to be said.
“She’ll be fine. He’ll look after her.” Patrick said, looking him directly in the eye in all seriousness.
Xavier acknowledged him with a small nod, but he wasn’t happy at all.
Patrick finished eating and pushed his tray aside. “You know it would help us if we kind of knew what we were dealing with?”
Xavier studied the boy for a long moment. He was sincere enough, and probably a good kid. But he couldn’t handle the truth – not yet anyway. “Like what?” he said lightly, looking around him, knowing his avoidance would piss the boy off.
“Well for starters, you’re obviously not from round here?” Patrick said.
Xavier narrowed his eyes. “We’re not.”
“Where you from?”
Patrick was trying to be as up beat as he could to put him at ease, but Xavier was not comfortable with where the conversation would inevitably go. “Ireland.”
“Aaand!”
Xavier didn’t answer. Just gave him a blank look.
“Look … you’re living with us. You’ve obviously got a few bob – if the presents from your dad are anything to go by, and what was last night all about?”
Aaand there it was … Xavier sighed deeply. It was bloody typical that this shit was left down to him. Just as he was about to fall into the practiced spiel about JJ’s migraines when Patrick cut across him;
“Before you say a load of bollocks, lets cut the crap, okay? We all saw JJ did something to that bloke – don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful. Don’t you think it would be fairer, and safer to let us in on it a bit?”
Xavier laughed and wearily shook his head. He actually liked this kid – and he didn’t take to people that easily. “What ever you think it is, you’re wrong, okay.” He sighed worn out. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
He flashed a warning look at Latitia. “You have nothing to fear as long as you don’t piss us off.”
“Who, JJ you mean?” Patrick said.
“Any of us.” Xavier directed his look straight at Latitia so she got the point – hoping she would join the dots.
Latitia narrowed her eyes. “Dwayne,” she said, more to herself.
Xavier raised his eyebrows in surprise. “She’s cleverer than she looks.”
With impeccable timing, Dwayne and Alexia walked back into the dinner hall. Xavier checked his watch just as the bell rang. They’d been out for the whole of lunch. Where the hell have you been? He projected after standing up and roughly grabbing her wrist.
OW! Out to lunch, she glared back at him.
They glared at each other inches apart.
You went off on your own to the middle of god knows where. Have you taken leave off your senses?
It’s okay, Xav, I was with Dwayne. And she raised her arm showing she still held onto Dwayne’s hand.
He laughed out loud at the ludicrousness of the situation.
The other three were watching them closely with their mouths open.
“You all saw that, right?” Patrick said, to his brother and sister.
Latitia and Dwayne both nodded.
Xavier sagged. Shit! In his anger he had just had a telepathic conversation so obvious that the three Johnsons, who were already majorly suspicious, had clearly seen and worked it out.
The second bell sounded saving him. He tutted loudly and yanked her away from them by the wrist he still held. Nice one, Alexia!
What did I do? She whined.
Xavier took a quick glance over his shoulder to see the three gob smacked Johnsons standing shoulder to shoulder watching them go. They needed to get out of there.
“Oops!”
Not paying any attention to where he was going, he slammed straight into a girl. Not just any girl, but the one that stuck in his memory from yesterday.
Her tray with dirty plates and cups clattered to the floor. Alexia tutted and took the opportunity to skulk off. Deciding to let her go, he bent down and helped the girl pick up the pieces.
She looked him straight in the eyes then. They were big and blue and honest, but something in them told him she was sad – no more than that, dissatisfied, determined and strong. Never had he had such a powerful impression from a human before, not with only the slightest touch.
Picking up the last broken piece, he made sure his finger touched hers. Yes, it confirmed in one second everything he’d just thought.
She snatched her hand away from his as if she’d got a static shock from him. Then she looked embarrassed. Her peachy clear pale face went a rose pink, and looked beautiful against the blond of her hair tied back in a neat ponytail. She wore no make up at all, he noticed. She didn’t need it. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice gone suddenly croaky.
They slowly stood and he put the piece of cutlery in his hand on her tray.
As soon as he spoke, Paige felt her cheeks go red again. This close he was the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. Like model beautiful times a hundred. Those green eyes that were so green they didn’t look real. Soft black curls of hair reaching his shoulder. Literally no one wore their hair like that – not around here any way. And his uniform, up close, she could see it was the right colour – navy blue like everyone else’s, but the cut, the material, and the buttons, to a girl whose mum moonlighted as a seamstress, made it clear they were hand made. The boy looked like he walked out of the pages of vogue or something. And she knew, she bought it whenever she could just to see how the other half lived.
And when he spoke, he voice was raspy and so well spoken she almost swooned.
“That’s okay,” she heard herself saying after way too long. Then felt idiotic when she flushed red again.
“Here,” he said, passing her what looked like a real square hanky.
A little confused at first, she realised to her horror, when he pointed at the front of her cream coloured top, a trail of ketchup all down the front of it.
She nearly died a thousand deaths; she was so embarrassed in front of this demi-god, vision of beauty. It didn’t matter that it was his fault that it had happened in the first place, all she could think about was that he could see her like this, and needed to get away from him as fast as she could.
Instead of taking his hanky, she side-stepped around him and slammed her tray down on a table. Then ran out of the room, barely containing her tears before she escaped the burn of his eyes in her back.
Copyright T Stedman 2016