Kya & Xavier: It's Always Been You (Life As We Know It Book 1) (8 page)

Leigh looked over at us and smiled as if requesting reassurance
from her big brother who nodded and smiled before she took off down the floor
to set up with her team.

When the final buzzer sounded Xavier stood up and waited
while his sister celebrated with her team and then had a brief talk with her
coach. His aunt was still in the stands chatting with some of the parents
undoubtedly about the scene that had occurred with Johnny.

It was a small town where everyone knew everyone which meant
that their family troubles were public knowledge.
 
After a few hugs and high fives Leigh ran
over and mildly tackled me. I loved her like she was my own little sister, I
mean hell she practically was. My years of entanglement with Xavier and granted
me access to a little sister and being an only child I welcomed that, I almost
needed it. Leigh had been a part of my life since she was eight years old and I
had watched her grow up so she was my family as much as she was Xavier’s.

“What are you doing here?” She asked with a huge grin on her
face.

“Your brother begged me to come and I felt sorry for him.”

“You know better than that.” He said.

“I'm kidding. You know I have to come support my hoop star
whenever I can.”

“Well I'm glad you're here.” She hugged me around the waist
with her left arm.

“I guess I'll just leave then.” Xavier pretended to walk away
but Leigh grabbed his arm.

“Nooooo. I'm glad you're here too.” Leigh jumped on her
brothers back and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck while he placed his
arms underneath her to hold her in place. “You feeding me?” She asked.

“You guys go ahead and I'll ride with Jaycee.” Xavier’s aunt
said as she came thumping down the bleachers. “Good game baby. You did real good
out there. Looking more and more like this one every day.” She patted Xavier on
the shoulder who was still holding his sister on his back even though she had
far out grown piggy back rides from him.

“Thanks auntie.” Leigh said and smiled.

“So what do you think about this little firecracker. I’m
thinking first round pick for the All-Star team.” Leigh’s coach walked up and
extended a hand towards Xavier. He shook it and smiled.”

“No doubt.” Xavier said.

“What about you? Season going well?”

“Not too bad, we had a slow start but we’re making up for
it.”

“Very good. This one here is working hard but she better
speed up that shot a little. I keep telling her they’ll block her every time if
she keeps waiting for the perfect release. Quick release.” He winked at Leigh.

“She’ll work on. Right?” Xavier leaned his head back towards
his sister.”

“Yes sir.” She said and half smiled at her coach.

“Glad to see you Xavier.”

“You too coach.”

“School tomorrow, don't keep her out late.” His aunt smiled
at him and then patted his shoulder one last time.

“We won't. We have to get back anyway.”

“Don't be a stranger.” She said and smiled at me. “You’re
welcome anytime baby, so don't wait on this one to come visit.” She said
nodding at Xavier

“Yes ma'am.” I said and then hugged her before she left.

“I see you tried to shine out there today. Four threes.”
Xavier said as he lowered his sister to the ground.

“I missed a free throw.” She mumbled.

“It's all good.” Xavier said not wanting to bring up the
situation that had occurred with Johnny.

She and Xavier didn’t really look a lot alike but you could
tell that they were related mostly because of the features that their mother
had passed down to them. They both had thin eyes and round faces but Xavier had
more of a caramel complexion while Leigh was darker more along the lines of a
Hershey kiss. Because of years of watching and studying her brother play she
acted just like him when it came to basketball though. The attitude, the
cockiness even down to the compression sleeves and leggings but when she wasn’t
on the court she was the complete opposite, extremely girly. It’s like she had
an alter ego the second she stepped on the court.

She was small for her age barely five feet and all of eighty
pounds but you would never know it the way she hit the court like her brother,
powerful and aggressive. She had a sort of natural beauty but was still too young
to appreciate her features. I teased Xavier all the time about how beautiful
she was going to be when she figured out what to do with it. She looked so much
more like her mother than Xavier did owning more of her Asian features than he
did. Aside from his curly hair and thin eyes you couldn’t really see it in him
but Leigh was Victoria in a smaller, darker version.

“So what's my surprise?” Leigh asked now impatiently grinning
from ear to ear.

“You'll see when we get to the Jeep.” He said and playfully yanked
one of the French braids that brushed her shoulder.

“Well let's go then.” She grabbed his hand tugging him
towards the gym door.

The three of us made our way out the school and to Xavier’s Jeep.
Leigh climbed in the back and threw her drawstring gym bag on the seat next to
her before she started looking around for any signs of a gift for her. Xavier
and I got in the front and he started the Jeep.

“Well?” Leigh asked impatiently.

“Well what?” Xavier teased to purposely wanting to annoy his
little sister.

“Zay, come on.” She whined, “What’d you bring me?”

“Hold on let me get this text.” He said and reached into his
pocket.

“Zay pleeaassse.” She pleaded.

“Hey how did your phone get in here?”
 
He asked when he pulled his hand out of his
pocket holding a brand new IPhone with a pink case on it. He gently tossed it
back to her and she caught it in her lap with both of her hands.

“Is this mine?” She screeched “Thank you, thank you, thank
you.” She yelled after which she sat up, leaned forward until she reached the
back of his seat and then wrapped her arms around it. She kissed her brother on
the cheek before she fell back and immediately began exploring her new phone.

“You're welcome and you better take care of it.” Xavier said
pleased that his surprise met her approval.

“I will. I promise. How did you get it activated without me
knowing? I bet this is why mine wasn't working earlier.” Leigh dug through her
gym bag searching for her old phone that had been dropped so many times that
the screen was being held together for dear life with a screen protector.

“I just called and they did it.”

“You're the best Zay. I love you.”

“You better.” He said jokingly but Leigh ignored him because
she was too busy with her new phone.

After we had pizza at Dave and Busters an Adam’s family
tradition which always lead to an arcade basketball shootout between the two of
them.
 
Xavier drove us back to their aunt’s
house so that we could be on our way back to school. When we reached the
townhouse we both got out to say our goodbyes to Leigh.

“I’m coming to stay with you soon.” Leigh said to me. “Don’t
they let people stay overnight in your dorms?” She asked.

“Yeah just let me know when and I can come get you if big
head won’t bring you.”

“I don’t know if you’re ready for college life.” Xavier said
to his little sister.

“I got this.” She said sarcastically.

“That’s right, let the girls handle this.” I added.

“I’m the final word so if I say she can’t, then she won’t.”
He pulled Leigh towards him as if staking claim to her but she pulled away and
rolled her eyes at him.

“Whatever man, don’t worry about him. You just tell me when
you want to come and I got you.” I said ignoring his failed attempt at being a
parental figure.

“Thanks Ky.” Leigh said and then stuck her tongue out at her
brother.

My phone rang so I hugged Leigh before I left the two of them
standing there and stepped away but was still close enough to hear them talking.

“Can’t you get an apartment so that I can come stay with you
until you finish school?” Leigh asked her brother.

“Maybe next year but you need to stay here. You’ve got school
and basketball. You’ll have to find a whole new team if you move and you don’t
want that.”

“I know but I’ll be in high school soon and I don’t really
wanna be here anymore. I miss you.” She sounded like she was on the verge of
breaking out into tears. I glanced at her and could tell that her whole mood
changed.

“It’s not that bad and you can see me anytime you want. Just
call me and I’ll be here when I can. Besides you don’t want to leave auntie all
alone, she would miss you too much.” He lifted her chin to see her face because
she was staring at the ground. “Okay?”

“Okay.” She mumbled “Do I have to keep seeing him?”

I thought about how the courts had given custody of the two
of them to his aunt but the mandated weekend supervised visits for Johnny. Xavier
was twenty now so he didn’t have to see him but Leigh did even though most of
the time he didn’t show up and when he did she sat there and refused to talk to
him. In her eyes Xavier was her brother, her father and everything else she
needed so there was no point in trying with Johnny.

“One more year. Just hang in there. Your birthday will be
here before you know it.” He said and then hugged her.

“Not soon enough, I miss mom.”

“I do too.” He hugged her tighter. “Go ahead inside so that I
can get back. Ill text you later, Okay?”

“Okay.” She forced smile and then made her way up the stairs
while he watched and when she opened the door she held up her phone and yelled,
“Thank’s Zay,” before she disappeared inside the house. I got in the Jeep but
he stood there for a minute just watching the door. I could tell he hated
leaving her but he also knew that he couldn’t do anything about it at least not
right now.

“She Okay?’ I asked when he got in and began to back out the
driveway.

“She wants me to get an apartment so that she can come live
with me?”

“Your dad?” I asked and he gave me the nastiest look because
I said dad instead of Johnny.

It took him a minute but he finally answered. “Yeah.”

“She’ll be alright.”

“I know. It just pisses me off. I don’t have to deal with him
but she does and it’s not fair.”

“How much longer?”

“One more year.”

Xavier was quiet and I could tell that he was deep in thought
so I just left him alone and listened to the radio until he was ready to talk.

Xavier Lee

I could see Kya watching me out the corner of my eye but I
just kept my eyes on the road. I needed a minute to get my head right. I hated
leaving my sister because it meant that Johnny had access to her without me
there to protect her. As far as I knew he had never put his hands on her but he
hand embarrassed her more times than she deserved just like he had done today.
I knew from experience that sometimes that hurt worse than anything he could do
to her physically. I had been on the receiving end of both and the broken bones
and bruise eventfully healed but my friends never seemed to forget the
embarrassment that I suffered when Jonny was at his best. The memories were
like a wound that would never heal because every time I felt like I was over it
someone would find it necessary to help me relive it over and over again.

 
              
Thinking
about it made me miss my mother even more, she always seemed to fix the
disasters that Jonny created. It had been almost four years since she died but
it still didn’t seem real for me most of the time. There were some days that I
felt like I could just pick up the phone and call her. I half expected her to
be there on the other end of the line like nothing had ever happened but then
it would hit me that she really was really gone. I hated Johnny because it was
his fault and that was something that I would never forgive him for. Chronic
liver disease, all because she drank way too much to escape her life with him.
He hurt me to hurt her and it broke her more than the cheating on her ever
could.

Johnny knew that the worse thing he could do to a son was to
take away his ability to protect his mother just like the easiest way for him
to break her was to abuse her son. He would put his hands on her in a violent
rage and then smile at me as if he were daring me to do something about. Every
time I tried he would prove to me how weak and useless I was against him and
the more he hurt me the more he broke her. I didn’t understand how someone
could find so much pleasure in someone else’s pain.

Alcohol was my mother’s therapy, it allowed her to survive if
that’s what you can call it. It was funny to me how different they were when
the alcohol took over. Johnny was violent and a tyrant while my mother was
sullen and depressed. Even as a kid I understood what the alcohol did to both
of them which caused me to be angry and bitter. You would think that seeing how
it affected their lives would have kept me away from it but oddly enough it
made me want it more. Maybe because it was always around me and it just seemed
like the thing to do but either way I could drink with the best of them when I
wanted to.

After my mother died I felt lost for a while. It was like I
couldn’t get it together and everything in my life was spinning out of control.
I drank and got high all the time, only went to school enough to be able to
play ball and skated through with grades that were just barely passing. In fact
the only thing that kept me from totally losing it was Kya and my sister. Leigh
needed me, she had lost our mother and I wasn’t going to let her lose me too.
She was too young to have to feel so alone.

As for Ky, she refused to let me destroy myself not matter
how hard I tried and she put up with way more than she should have. That’s how
I knew she loved me because if the tables had been turned I honestly don’t know
that I could have dealt with all of the things that I put her through. I looked
over at her and she smiled at me the way she always did when she was worried but
trying to keep it from me so I just started rambling. I didn’t know why but I
just needed to get it out.

“I remember the first time Johnny ever put his hands one me.”
I said without turning to look at her. “I was ten years old and goofing off in
the house with a basketball. I made the tragic mistake of knocking his brand
new bottle of vodka off the counter. It hit the floor, the glass shattered and
Vodka spilled everywhere. There was a look of sheer panic in my mother’s face
as she grabbed a dish towel and immediately began cleaning it up and when tried
to help her she screamed at me to just leave it alone and go to my room. Back
then I never understood that she was trying to keep me out of his way. Keeping
me from him was the only way that she knew to protect me from him. He
immediately came rushing into the kitchen yelling about that damn bottle of
Vodka and my mother tried her best to take the blame for it but he saw the
basketball and knew that it was my fault. He grabbed me by my shoulders yanked
me from the floor and all I remember is hitting the wall. I could hear my
mother pleading with him as he went on a rant about how none of us appreciated
all the hard work he did for our family and all he wanted was to enjoy a simple
drink after work without one of us ruining it for him.
We ruined things for
him. What a damn joke.”

“I hate what he does to you.” She said barley loud enough for
me to hear her. “It makes you so hateful.”

“Hell yeah he makes me hateful and you of all people should
know why. You’ve been there Ky, you’ve seen the black eyes and broken bones.
How would I not be?”

“I know, I’m not saying you don’t deserve to be.”

“You’re damn right. For Christmas one year I got a broken rib
because the stores were closed and he ran out of Vodka, my freshman year he
broke my jaw, my sophomore year he broke two of my fingers. I’d say that’s more
than enough reason for me to be hateful.” I could that tell I was raising my
voice and I didn’t mean too but she was right about one thing and that was
Johnny truly did make me hateful. Just thinking about him was causing me to lose
control.

“I know that Xavier, I just think you give him so much power
over your life. It’s like he controls a small part of you and you don’t even
know it. Look at you right now, you’re so angry that you can barely control it.
I just hate what that does to you. That’s all I’m saying.” Her voice was shaky
like she was struggling to get the words out.

“Fuck him!” I yelled so loud that I was sure it startled her.
I could tell that she didn’t know what to say so she didn’t say anything at all
for the rest of the ride back to her dorms. I was angry and didn’t want to take
it out on her so I just left things like they were. For the first time ever I
saw fear in her eyes when she looked at me and as much as it killed me to be
the cause of it, I just couldn’t let go of the anger.
I didn’t know how.