Xavier immediately drove straight back to his house as soon as he dropped an elated Enya home. The boy quickly sends Jest a text saying that he couldn't come over to the restaurant the two were supposed to visit. To his surprise, his friend didn't call to yell at him for breaking a promise or send him dozens of text messages all exclaiming his anger from the broken promise.
Weird, the boy thinks but decided to not dwell on it. Jest might be busy with another one of his girls at the moment.
The boy sighed deeply as his head dropped on the steering wheel. The collision hurt more than he expected, making his grip on the wheel tighten. However, it was not only due to the sudden pain he felt but also due to remembering what his best friend said earlier.
Xavier checked his bag if he still had a pack of cigarettes inside and growled in frustration when there was none. He had a sudden thought to drive to a nearby convenience store but decided not to when he realized he did not want to see the talkative cashier at that store.
The girl behind the cashier always asks for his number despite the many times that he refused. It's not worth it, the boy thinks as he instead drummed his fingers in the wheel to distract himself from the impulse to buy and light up a cigarette from all the frustration.
The boy gritted his teeth when he remembered how he said yes to Enya's challenge. It was obvious how he doted on her, but he can't believe how easily she made him agree to what she wanted. He knew how much the girl hated Rei, but he can't believe that she was willing to stoop that low just for academic rivalry.
It's even worse that Xavier was looking forward to it. The boy was excited and angry at the same time. He's never been interested in Rei before but with the steady increase of Enya's anger towards the boy, he somehow caught the attention of Xavier with how he would always win the arguments between him and Enya, whether it be a personal matter or purely-academics related.
"Fuck," Xavier lets out a grunt. He grabbed his phone from the passenger seat and checked whether he had notifications.
A text message from Enya saying she needs help with the Calculus assignment. The boy decided to text her back later after he reads Jest's.
[Jest: Yo, do you know a guy with blonde (dyed) hair brown eyes cute smile, and a small body]
The text that his friend sent him was completely unrelated to the restaurant issue. Xavier frowns at this and immediately texts back:
[Xavier: How am I supposed to know a guy with blonde hair? Is he American?]
The boy inhaled deeply as his thoughts once again wandered to a familiar pale-skinned boy who has no idea what was coming his way. How would Xavier even start making the boy fall in love with him? He wondered if he can make Enya stop the plan completely but he knew the chances of her agreeing with him is very low and he'd rather not listen to her rant again about why the plan had to succeed.
Xavier fought the urge to laugh at himself. He's scolding his best friend mentally when he agreed to her challenge and was even excited about doing it.
After a few minutes of just staring into nothing, the boy finally decided to walk out of his car and go inside the house. He removes his shoes and was immediately greeted by their family butler who offered to take him to the living room. Xavier was about to agree when he noticed that a familiar pair of sandals were on the doormat alongside two other pairs, next to it is obviously owned by a child. The tall boy grimaces upon realizing that his older sister Miranda and her family have visited again.
He decided to lean against the front door and opted to stay there for a while. He knew that entering the living room would simply be suicide, as he did not want to sit down next to his father as the older man berates his sister's choices once again.
It was true that Xavier did not like his sister's family, but he had never been downright rude to them. He had always opted to ignore them as most of their other relatives do, especially during family reunions, which would always end with Miranda being the talk of the town and her husband and their child being shunned by everyone as they stay in one corner.
"Miranda,"
Xavier could almost see his father sitting with his cane in between his legs. The old man used a cane these days even if he had no difficulty walking and even jogs daily without avail. Nicolo, Xavier's older brother, tells him that it's just to add drama and the emphasize the fact that he can buy useless, expensive things and no one can tell him not to.
"Father," Miranda greets their father with a weak voice. The boy heard her older sister's husband greet the old man as well, and lastly, their child with a smaller voice.
The youngest of the three children made his way slowly to the living room despite his inner thoughts shouting at him to stop. However, he knew well that it was inevitable that his father would not be aware of his son's arrival and despite disliking being present during another one of his sister and father's arguments, Xavier had no choice.
As soon as he made his appearance known, the old man in the middle of the room cocked his head to the side to beckon his son to sit next to him in another new chair the old man had bought just yesterday for he wanted a new color theme for their house's living room. Xavier wanted to complain about the unnecessary spending of money but he knew it would not change his father's stubbornness.
The moment the boy sat down on the chair, his dark blue eyes drifted to his sister's child, who looked no more than five. The clothes the child was wearing looked older than she is, and she even looked more frail and unhealthy up close.
Miranda's husband was sitting the farthest away from the old man. The man was trying to hide the fact that he was lighting a cigarette but it was quite obvious with the way he was hunching down to hide it, and the smoke that followed after. Xavier, despite being a smoker himself, did not even try to hide his disapproval. Despite his immense smoking habits, he never smokes inside closed spaces or whenever there were nearby people.
"Father, I--"
"Boy, is your brain that useless that it does not occur to you not to smoke inside or near my property?"
Miranda's eyes widened. Xavier heard his sister's husband cough loudly, probably choking on the smoke. His older sister immediately started soothing her husband by massaging his back. Their child looked at them with an impassive look on her face. Xavier wondered if the situation was worse when the family was at their house. The old man grimaced and clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Pathetic,"
Xavier decided to look somewhere else instead of the pathetic situation in front of him and noticed that his oldest sibling was present and was leaning across the door that lead to the kitchen, but choose to remain silent and instead just watch the situation in front of him unfold with a grin on his face.
Upon realizing that his younger brother noticed him, Nicolo's grin that was a mixture of both mockery and pretentiousness widened.
It was something the older boy was quite good at.
"Nicolo." The old man suddenly calls out.
The older brother groaned loudly but still made his way towards his family with his hands behind his head. He made it obvious that he could not care less about the situation still unfolding.
He sat beside Xavier and placed his arm on his younger brother's shoulder. "How's school, little brother?"
Xavier tried to push his older brother's arm away subtly but it remained there. Xavier decided to ignore it and instead answer Nicolo, "Nothing interesting."
"No girls who save you from falling down the stairs and end up proposing to you a week later just to ensure she'll get a part of your booming inheritance?"
Xavier's eyes met with his sister's. She immediately looks away. Despite how harsh the statement was, it was exactly how the only girl of the three Ortega siblings met her current husband. Xavier could still remember how excited his older sister was when she told him all about it. Unfortunately, their father heard them talking and he immediately told his daughter to stop seeing him because it was obvious that the boy had an ulterior motive.
However, his daughter did not listen to him and she ended up pregnant within three months of being in a relationship with the man. Their father immediately cut all ties with her and removed her from the heirs of his huge fortune.
Nicolo's eyes drifted from his younger brother and then to his younger sister, who was already starting to tear up with how they were treating her. Unluckily for the woman, their father doesn't mind if any of his children cried. The old man would actually think that he was doing a better job at parenting whenever his children did.
Miranda only seemed to be more pathetic that she already was with her actions.
Her sister's tears made the oldest of the siblings roll his eyes. "How pathetic have you become Miranda! Crying in front of our dear old father just for money? What's the use of your husband? Oh," Nicolo pretends to think for a while and grins mockingly at his sister's husband. "I forgot! He's jobless and penniless!"
Nicolo stood up from his seat and walks toward Miranda. He crouched down to her level and grins in a devilish manner, as if Miranda's state makes him even happier. "How sad," He even pats her in the head. "I did tell you he's worth nothing,"
The oldest sibling looks at his sister's husband and silently dared him to talk. He doesn't. He never does because he knows he can never talk in the presence of his wife's father, and especially in the presence of Nicolo, who despises every fibre of his entire being.
"Now look at you, pregnant once again with no steady income!"
The sudden revelation of his eldest child made the old man stand up from his seat angrily.
"So this is why you have decided to visit," He shakes his head. "Disgusting,"
Miranda's husband was about to say something but Nicolo beat the man to it by punching him in the face enough for him to fall to the floor as he clutched his bleeding lip and nose.
"Grant!" The woman immediately goes to her husband's side and wipes the bleeding using a handkerchief.
Nicolo shook his head at the scene. Xavier remained silent as he always did whenever their family had a reunion just like this.
The child of his sister was still seated down, tears blurring the child's sight. Upon realizing that her uncle was looking at her, she wiped her tears straight away.
"We are never coming back here!" Miranda's husband yells, his hand still holding on to the handkerchief Miranda gave him for his bleeding nose.
Nicolo was immediately near the man and kneed him in the groin. Miranda shrieks and pushes Nicolo away with tears falling across her cheeks. The old man was just watching the scene unfold, making no action to defend his only daughter from his eldest child.
The husband of his sister's husband was barely able to walk as they left the house. Contrary to what Xavier thought, their father made his grandchild stay before she could ride the run down car that Miranda bought with her salary.
Miranda attempted to pull her child inside the car but the child refused by shaking her head. Since her husband was still grumbling about the pain from being punched by Nicolo, she had no choice but to let her child stay.
The old man made the child stay at her mother's former room which was beside Xavier's. The child ate dinner as if she did not eat for days. Their father did not mind the child's lack of table manners and instead told the butler to prepare the child a bath. The child's eyes sparkled in a childish manner when she saw a new set of clothing that her grandfather put on her bed as she was taking a bath.
The old man wanted to be the one to tuck the child in but Nicolo told him that Xavier should do it since both of them were already tired from what happened earlier.
Nicolo winked at his younger brother, implying that he was not tired, instead, he's simply going to a newly opened club owned by his friend, Tate.
Xavier did not disagree with the decision and tucked his niece in her bed after the child finished dressing up. Before the child fell into a deep and relaxed slumber, she whispered gently to her uncle that her name was Tanya.
It was Xavier's deceased mother's name.