Kya & Xavier: It's Always Been You (Life As We Know It Book 1) (10 page)

Xavier used his legs to turn the chair towards his desk. He
pulled the draw open, picked up his extremely shattered phone and handed it to
me.

“This is why I haven't talked to you. We were playing
football in the hall last week and it fell out of my pocket. It won't even turn
on and I told you that we’ve had out of town games so I haven't been get
another one yet.”

I twisted the shattered phone in my hands and immediately
felt bad.

“When I told you I wanted another chance I meant it. I'm not
gonna always say and do the right things but this time I'm really trying.
You've got this kinda stuff all figured out, you always have but I'm still
working on it. You just gotta be patient Ky.”

I still didn't say anything so he did. “Are we good?”

“Yeah.” Was all I could get out.

“You don't sound like it.”

“We're good.” I said before I relaxed and leaned back into
him.

“So are we done with all these tears then.” He smiled and
then slide his finger down my nose knowing that it would aggravate me.

Someone knocked on Xavier’s door and then stuck their head
in. “Aye bruh we're about to order pizza, you in?”

Xavier looked up at me. “You want pizza?” I nodded yes.

“One large half pepperoni half cheese.” Xavier said to Chaz.

“Hold up so I can get my wallet.” Xavier said.

I stood up followed by Xavier who reached into his back pocket
of his jeans and pulled out his wallet. He opened it and handed Chaz some
money.

“You want change?” Chaz asked.

“Nah put it with the rest.”

“Good because I'm broke.” Chaz said and laughed.

“How are you always trying to eat but never have any money?”
Xavier asked.

“I'm a business man bruh, always searching for
opportunities.” I laughed because he reminded me of Toni when he said that.

Chaz winked at me and pulled the door shut. Xavier locked it
walked over to me since I had decided to take his place in his computer chair. He
reached for my hands, pulled me to my feet and then kissed me. He lifted my sweatshirt
and then pulled it over my head while I raised her arms to help him. He dropped
it on the floor reached over his shoulder to pull off his shirt and the dropped
it on top of my sweatshirt before he stepped backwards toward his bed pulling
me with him.

“So since we're good can we finish what we started earlier?”

“You mean what you started.” I said.

He had a sly grin on his face and then laughed “Whatever, let’s
just agree to disagree.”

Xavier Lee

I hated extended practices because we really didn’t do
anything productive. It was just an excuse for coach to make us run which was
dumb because at this point in the season, if you didn’t have it you weren’t
going to get it. Thank goodness I was in decent shape because it really didn’t faze
me but some of the team was struggling to keep up, especially Davis. We had
been running the same plays for about an hour straight. Coach made sure that he
kept a steady flow of players rotating in and out the entire time so none of us
really got a chance to rest. This time even I was struggling because for the first
time in a long time Ky actually stayed up late with me so I running on empty
with sleep.

“Alright guys, lets run this one more time with some
intensity and that’s it for today.” Coach yelled from the stands.

“42” I yelled and began dribbling the ball. I didn't move
until James a freshman who was guarding me actually stepped towards me. I held
the ball in front of me at chest level and the pushed it out towards him,
teasing him because he knew he couldn't take it from me before I sent a strong
bounce pass to trey who was out wide clapping his hands asking for the ball. As
soon as I let it go I took off in the opposite direction and ran straight down
the paint and then held my hands up as if I was expecting the ball. Trey
dribbled and then faked like he was sending it to me but instead threw it to
Davis who stepped out wide down low and then with one good bounce of the ball
went up strong sending the ball through the net slapping the corner of the
backboard.

“Yeah be a man about yours.” Trey yelled and then pointed at
Davis

“You know how I do.” Davis yelled back.

“Alright guys bus leaves at 2:00 tomorrow, locker room by 12:00
don't make me come looking for you! Zay break it down.” Coach said and then
began writing something on his clipboard.

We all leaned in and pilled our hands together and I began
the breakdown while everyone else joined in:

“WHO ARE
WE….SPARTANS….WHO ARE WE….SPARTANS….SPARTANS BREAK IT DOWN….ONE TEAM, ONE WIN!”

“Aye bruh, you going to the Sigma party tonight?” Ethan asked.

I doubt it. I'm probably just chilling and you better not
either because if coach finds out that's your ass bruh.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking I might fall through there for a minute
and that’s about it.”

“Alright now, you know your girl is gonna be on some extra stuff,
you know Toni is crazy.”

“Man you know I don’t roll like that. She calls no shots
here.” Ethan bragged.

“She might not call any shots but don’t put it past her to
send some your way.” I said and laughed.

“She’s not that crazy.” Ethan said. “But for real I’m just
chillin’ so she has nothing to be crazy about.”

“Bruh do they ever need a reason?” I asked and held my hands
up.

“True.” He said and laughed “It’s all good though. She knows
I got her.”

“Aye what you do is on you, just know that girls can smell a
mess up a mile away so think before you leap.”

“I feel ya.”

When I got back to my dorm the living room was full of people
and they were all around the TV watching Chaz and some dude that I didn’t know
playing a game of Madden. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with people so I grabbed
a soda and then went straight to my room. I laid on the floor because I was
still sweaty from practice and too lazy to shower. My body ached all over and
as much as I hated taking ice baths I was way overdue for one. It helped with
recovery after games and practices but it was pure torture. Since I had some
downtime I decided to call my sister to check in, I hadn’t talk to her in a
minute.

“What’s up dork?” I said when she answered.

“You’re a math geek and you’re calling me a dork.” She fired
back.

“Being smart doesn't make you a dork, being lame does.” I
said jokingly.

“Well if I'm a dork, then you’re a dork because I’m just like
you.”

“I don't know if you should tell people that.” I said and
then laughed.

“Well it's true and I'm proud of it too.” She said
confidently.

“Then I guess we’re just a couple of dorks.”

“When are you coming home, I miss you?”

“I miss you too and I don’t know yet. I’ll have to see but it
will definitely be a soon okay.”

“That’s not fair.” she whined.

“Life isn’t fair baby girl.”

“I just want you to come home.” She pouted.

“I know and I will soon. I just don’t want to make you a
promise that I can’t keep, okay?” I tried to make her feel better.

“Okay.”

“So how was your last game? Auntie told me you won so let me
get those stats.”

She perked up a little. “I hit five three and one of them was
about two feet outside of the three point line. I went to the line three times
and made all six.”

“Aye, that’s what’s up. You keep it up and you’ll be shooting
from half court before you know it.”

“I hope so. I’ve been practicing and I’m getting close.” She
said cheerfully.

“That’s good work hard and get better. You been working on a
quicker shot?”

“Yep, it’s better, coach even said so.”

“That’s what’s up.”

“Where’s Kya is she with you?”

“Nah, I might see her later though.”

“I’m glad that you are together again. You’re happy when
you’re with her.”

I laughed at the fact that my thirteen year old sister was
giving me advice about my relationship. “And how do you figure that?”

“Because you are. I can just tell and I like Ky, she’s like
my big sister and….” She paused for a minute “and since moms not here...” She
said softly.

“I know baby girl. I miss her too.”

“Auntie told me that she named me Leigh and you Lee so that
we would always have a part of her. Do you believe that?”

“Yes I do, because it true. She told me herself, Xavier Lee,
Leigh Alexandria and Victoria Leigh.
 
We’re
all connected forever, no matter what so she’s always with you and so am I,
Okay?”

“Okay.”

“And besides, what do you need a sister for when you have the
best big brother in the whole wide world.” I said referring back to her comment
about Ky trying to lighten the mood.

“You’re okay.” She teased “But Ky knows girl stuff and you
don’t.”

“I know girl stuff.”

“You don’t know how to be a girl genius, you just know how to
be with girls.”

I tried not to read too much into that even though I knew
that Leigh had a front row seat to my past no matter how careful I was about
trying to keep it away from her. Unfortunately I couldn’t stop the random
visits from pissed off females who thought that showing up at my house would
somehow change my mind about how insignificant they were to me.

“I know everything, you should never doubt me.” I said not
really wanting to have a conversation about my past. “And what do you mean by ‘okay’
anyway, it doesn’t get any better than me?”

“You’re okay.” She laughed.

“Just okay? That just hurt my feelings. I’m hanging up now so
that I can go cry, how’s that for girls stuff?” I laughed.

“I'm kidding, I’m kidding.” She was really laughing now. “You’re
the best big brother in the whole wide universe.”

“Now that’s more like it. Well I’ve gotta go baby girl. I’ll
talk to you tomorrow.”

“Tell Kya I said hi.” She said sarcastically.

“Bye dork, I love you.”

“I love you too Zay.”

Chapter 7

Kya Renee

“Hey mom.” I said cheerfully after I placed my call on speaker
since I was in the process of combing my hair out so that I could wash it. I
answered optimistically hoping that we could survive a conversation without her
making me feel like I wasn’t worthy of her approval.

“I haven’t talked to you so I figured I’d call and see how
things were going.” My mother said.

“Everything’s good. I just have a lot of work to do.”

“Are your classes getting tough?”

“Not really tough it’s just that I have a paper due in like
every class and a test in Psychology every other day.”

“It takes discipline but you will survive.” She said
robotically.

“I know. I just wish that each of my professors would realize
that I have more than just their class.”

“Welcome to the real word honey. You just have to find a way
to make it work.”

“I know. I am. It’s just frustrating
.” I don’t know why I even try. You don’t really care as long as the
end result is a GPA worth bragging to your colleagues about.

“So how are things with you and Xavier?”

“Good I guess.”
Why did
I ever tell her that we were back together?

“That doesn’t sound too positive.” My mother said sounding a
little unsettled. “Are you sure that you really want to deal with that again.”
Good lord please don’t start.

“I don’t know, I’m just kind of day by day when it comes to
him but things are straight right now.”
I
lied. No sense in setting off alarms.

“Well just be careful. Don’t put too much into it until you
really know where his head’s at.”
Translation,
he’s not worth your time and not polished enough for me to discuss over tea
with the who’s who of our tiny little irrelevant town.

“I won’t.”

“Kya, I’m serious. You guys have a bad habit of bringing out
the worst in each other.”

“I know, I’m just chilling right now.” I said shortly.

My mother and I had a decent relationship but I generally
tried to keep her as far away from my relationship with Xavier as I could. She
wasn’t really his biggest fan but most of it was because she was a family court
lawyer and she saw a lot of cases that involved alcoholic or abusive parents
and she had to deal with the children that were affected by it. She just
couldn’t separate him from her case kids so in her eyes he was always damaged goods.

Also living in a small town didn’t help much because everyone
know his family history and her reputation was far more important than the good
that I saw in Xavier. It just wasn’t proper for her child to be caught up with
a guy whose family history was less than respectable. I didn’t really care
about any of that because as far as I was concerned Xavier’s parents did not
define him anymore than mother defined me.
 
She and I were completely different and our
views on things like Xavier and his family were at constant conflict.
You can’t help who you love and my heart had
already made its choice.

My mother was all about image and I was a lawyer’s kid so I
was supposed to behave a certain way and date a certain type of guy. Xavier did
not fit the plan that my mother had laid out for my life and she had never been
shy about letting me know that every chance she got. I knew that my mother
loved me but sometimes it really felt like that love was contingent on whether
or not I made decisions about my life that she approved of.

“Just be careful is all I ask. I know you care about him but
that doesn’t mean that he’s the best thing for you. I would rather you stay
focused on school right now. If it’s meant to be it will be so don’t try to
force a fit.”

“Okay.” I said hoping that she would get the hint and let it
go.

“So when are you coming home for Christmas?”

“My last exam is on the eighth so sometime after that.”

“Good, I can’t wait to see you.”

“Me too. I need a break and you’ll be stuck with me for almost
a month. Are you ready for that?” I asked.

“Of course. I have a pile of dishes already waiting on you.”

“Not funny. Keep it up and I’ll just stay here instead.”

“I’m not worried about that. You wouldn’t miss a chance to
come home and aggravate your father.” Her indirect way of saying that she knew
my excitement about coming home for winter break had little to do with her.

“True. Well I gotta go. I’ll talk to you soon. I’m about to
wash my hair.”

“Alright honey, take care and I love you.”

“Love you too.”

I stood up, walked into my bathroom, parted my hair down the
middle and then pulled half of it into a ponytail before I began combing
through my thick curly locks. Once I was satisfied I pulled it into a ponytail
and then freed the other side so that I could repeated the process. When I was finished
I had two oversized curly puffs extending from each side of my head. I leaned
close to the mirror to check out the waves that I saw caused by my loose curl
patterns. I cleaned up the hair that had fallen all over my counter, flushed it
down the toilet and turned on my shower. The water at our dorms got extremely
hot just like I liked it. I dashed in my room to grab two towels one for my
body, the other for my hair and then stepped in the shower. About thirty
minutes I had a head full of tight soaked curls, a body that smelled like
mango-coconut and Xavier sitting on my bed.

“Looks like I made it just in time.” Xavier said when I
stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in an oversized pink towel.

“I thought you had late practice.” I said ignoring his
comment about me not being dressed.

“I do.”

Xavier was sitting on the side of my bed phone in hand in the
process of texting someone. When he was done he dropped it on the bed, stood up
and moved towards me. I was standing in front of my closet with the door wide
open trying to figure out what to wear so my back was to him.
 
He wrapped his arms around my waist and
kissed the back of my neck first and then my shoulder.

“I don’t know why you’re looking in there. This works right
here.” He said and gently tugged on the sides of the towel that I had wrapped
around me.

“Mmhmm I bet.” I said before pushed a section of clothes to
the side and then pulled a pair of jeans off of one of my hangers.

Xavier laughed before he sat down on my bed and picked up his
phone. I grabbed a thong out of my draw, slide it on up under my towel and then
did the same with my jeans. I searched through my draw again until I located
the matching bra. I turned my back towards Xavier, dropped my towel, hooked it and
then adjusted it around my chest before I pulled the straps up.

He wasn’t paying attention to me because he was reading
something on his phone. I grabbed a royal blue A&T t-shirt out of my drawer
and pulled it over my head before I hopped onto the bed next to him. I caught a
glimpse of his phone before he locked the screen and realized he was reading a
message from Tori. I decided not to say anything because I wasn’t in the mood
for an argument and things had been really good between us for the past couple
weeks so I figured it wasn’t worth the energy.

“When are you done with your exams?” I asked.

“I only have one and it’s on the third. Why what’s up?” He
asked and then picked up one of my pillows, propped it under his head and then
leaned back and began twisting a piece of his hair.

“How do you only have one final?” I asked.

“Cause I got it like that.” He said jokingly.

“Seriously?”

“I took mine early because we have games but I still have to
take one for Trig.”

“I was about to say.”

“Say what, that you jelly of that baller’s life.”

“Whatever man. Are you going to wait for me before you head
home so I can ride with you? That way I don't have to drive?”

“When you talking about leaving?”

“My last one is on the eighth so we can leave after that.”

“I only get to go
home for a week because we play at home on the 20th and then Greenville on the
28th.” He said.

"So when are
you going back?"

"I have to be
back on 14
^th
for the game on the 20
^th
. I'm going home
after that game and then I have to be back at school on the 26
^th
."

"Dang that's
our whole Christmas break." I said disappointed. I had expected us to
spend our winter break together. It was stuff like this that made me hate that
fact that he was an athlete.

"I know so
you better act right while I'm gone.” He said and pulled me back towards him
but I immediately sat back up.

"My hair is still wet and I'm not the one
with behavioral issues. You just make sure the only people that are in your
dorm are Chaz, Trey and Ethan."

"So you want
me to chill at my hoes cribs instead of bringing them to mine."

I punched Xavier
in the thigh as hard as I could. He grabbed his leg, sat up and laughed "Chill
ky I was just kidding. That shit hurt." He said rubbing the spot where I
hit him.

 
"Keep playing." I said.

"Oh so you
tough now." He said and grabbed me around the waist and then rolled me
onto my back. He pinned my arms down above my head and smiled at me.

"I got you
handled." I said and then began to try and wiggle my hands free to get
away but it was pointless.

"I think you
got that wrong." He said with a grin.

"You better
let me go."

"Or
what?"

"You know
what." I said and laughed.

"It's like
that?"

"Just
saying."

"Try to hold
out if you want but you'll break before I do." He said.

"You're
crazy." I said and this time I laughed really hard. "Now move so I
can finish drying my hair."

I pulled one of my
hands free and dug my fingers into his side which made him jump because he was
super ticklish.

"You better
be glad I love you." He said and then let me go.

I stood up and ran
my fingers through my half dry hair. "No you better be glad I love
you."

"Whatever
punk. Hurry up so we can go eat. A brother is running on empty."

"Chill man.
You're always hungry." I rolled my eyes.

"It takes a
lot to keep all this running." He pointed to his body.

"You're dumb."
I said and then walked into the bathroom to begin the process of so called
defining my curls and about thirty minutes later I emerged wearing a bright
yellow headband pushed back just past my hair line with the rest of my hair pulled
back into a neat curly ponytail that sprouted from the back of my head at the
nape of my neck.

 
Xavier was on his back with his left forearm
resting across his forehead. I could hear his slow steady breathing so I
figured he had fallen asleep.

I walked back into
my bathroom and picked up the plastic orange trash can, carried it into the
kitchen and stepped on the black handle to lift the lid before I emptied mine
into it. I heard voices in Toni’s room but the door was closed so I walked over
to it and then knocked but I didn’t wait for a reply before I opened it.

“What’s up boo?”
Toni said when she looked up and saw me. She was sitting on her bed with Ethan
who was leaning back against the wall with his long legs hanging off the side.

“What are you two
up to?” I asked.

“Chilling. You
know how we do.” Ethan said and extended a closed fist in the air towards me
expecting a fist bump so I stepped towards him and gave one. “I see my boy is
in there knocked out. What did you do to him?”

“I didn’t do
anything to him, he’s just lazy.”

“She took four
hours to do this.” Xavier said as he yanked the back of my ponytail and then
jumped back expecting me to hit him.

“It was like
thirty minutes so shut up.” I said and cut my eyes at him.

When he felt like
he was free from retaliation Xavier walked up behind me and placed his chin on
top of my head but I still gently elbowed him in the ribs.

“So can we go eat
now?” He asked.

“What’s the move?”
Ethan said.

“Chipotle!” Xavier
said as if anyone really had to ask.

I held my head
back to look up at him, “How are you not sick of that place?”

“Chipotle is
life.”

“I’m down.” Ethan
said.

“Who’s driving?”
Toni said.

“I will. Let’s
go.” Xavier said.

The four of us
left the dorms and piled into Xavier’s Jeep. He and I in the front with Ethan
and Toni in the back. When we got to Chipotle it was busy as always so the Toni
and I found table connected to a booth while the guys ordered and when everyone
had their food we settled into our meals and conversation. We laughed and joked
for about an hour and then headed back to the dorms. Ethan left with Xavier for
practice leaving me and Toni free for some much needed girl time. It had been
awhile since it was just the two of us so we got comfy in Toni's room for some
Netflix and girl talk.