Kya & Xavier: It's Always Been You (Life As We Know It Book 1) (22 page)

“Bruh, don’t let that asshole define
you. You’re good peoples and you would never be who he is.”

“Easier said than done. No matter how
hard I try sometimes I’m a pro at messing up a good thing. It’s like I can’t
help.”

“Ky?”

“Yep, I swear it’s like I just can’t
get it right.”

“What’s to get right, bruh you’re
twenty? You’ve got a long way to go and a hell of a lot more to figure out.
Girls are just different. They can plan your whole wedding and tell you what
they’re going to name your two point five kids after your first kiss. That shit
is in their DNA.”

I laughed so loud it echoed
throughout the whole room. “True.”

“I’m just saying, you’ve got time and
that girl loves you like nobody’s business, she’s not going anywhere. Trust
me.”

“Dude you’re stupid.” I laughed.

“It’s true and you know it so don’t
sweat it too much. That’s like me and Toni, she got me on some settle down type
of stuff but It is what it is. I’m not buying engagement rings or anything but
Imma rock with her to see where it goes but it doesn’t mean that I won’t mess
up. I’ll just worry about that if or when it happens but for now I’m just
chillin’, no pressure no exceptions. Just chillin’, and I suggest you do the
same.”

“Easier said than done. You don’t
have any strikes against you with Toni but with me a Ky, I’m already on the
ledge. One more and trust me she’s sending me over.”

“I feel ya but when it all said and
done you can only be who you are and you can only do what you can do. Just
remember that. And with that, I’m getting my ass out of this ice box before
they have to amputate my legs. I don’t see how you do this.” Ethan stood up and
grabbed the towel that was folded over the side of the tin that he was sitting
in. I decided to stay in mine a few minutes so that I would be ready for the
game tomorrow. Every little bit helped.

Chapter 17

Kya Renee

It had been a few weeks since Xavier
had located his father and when he finally did take the time to contact him he
was actually glad that Xavier had reached out to him. He even invited us to
spend the weekend at his house but Xavier declined and said that he would stay
at a hotel since he I would be with him and he didn’t want to be disrespectful.
So we decided to make a weekend of it and the four of us me, Xavier, Ethan and
Toni were all going to Apex NC for the weekend so that Xavier could meet his
biological father.

I was currently in my dorm room with
Toni trying to finish packing so that we could meet the guys and hit the road
while Toni on the other hand was searching Instagram for dirt on our high
school classmates.

“Are you finished packing?”

               
I looked
on my shoulder towards Toni who was currently sitting in the center of my bed
scrolling through her iPad.

               
“Almost,
I just have a few more things to pack but I’m pretty much done.”

               
“I’m so
excited about this weekend. I finally get to chill with Zay for a whole weekend
without him having to leave for practice or a game. I swear basketball is worse
than a side chick.”

               
“Boo
basketball is his side chick.” Toni and I both laughed.

               
“Thank
goodness for family emergencies, no practice for two days.”

               
“That’s
cold Ky, what if someone died or something.”

               
“Girl nobody
died, their coach’s mother broke her hip.”

               
“I’m
just saying.” Toni said and then laughed.

               
Toni’s
phone vibrated on my desk and I could see that it was a message from Ant. The
guy she was with before she started kicking it with Ethan.

               
“Uh why
is Ant texting you?”
 
I turned around and
looked at Toni waiting for an answer but she jumped off my bed and picked up
her phone to read the message. “Hello.” I said still waiting.

               
“It’s
nothing.” She said, sent a reply and then dropped her phone on the bed. She
hopped back on my bed and then picked up her iPad again.

               
I wasn’t
buying it. “Come on Tee, don’t do anything stupid. You’ve gotta a good thing
going with Ethan.”

               
“I said
its nothing, don’t stress Ky.”

               
Her
phone vibrated again so she picked it up and then read the message. She
obviously forgot that I was in the room because she was grinning from ear to
ear.

               
I walked
over and snatched her phone out of her hand.

               
“What
the hell Ky.” She yelled and jumped up. She tried to snatch the phone back from
me but I turned my back to her, ran into my bathroom, slammed the door and
locked it.

               
“I just
want to see what nothing is.” I yelled through the bathroom door.

               
“Ky
that’s messed up.” Toni yelled back.

               
I
scrolled through the messages from Ant and immediately knew that Toni was
playing with fire. The two of them were going back and forth about what they
missed about each other and how he missed her lying next to him and night.
So much for its nothing
. I had to put a
stop to this before she did something stupid. Toni didn’t always make the best
decisions when it came to guys and I know I didn’t really have room to talk
because of my past with Xavier but at least I knew that he genuinely cared about
me. Not like this half behind thug wanna be that Toni had gotten caught up with.
Ant was bad news and even if he didn’t have anything to lose Toni sure did and
I wasn’t letting that happen.

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 heard 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 5
^th
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.