Coming to Terms ✔️

12: The First Kiss

I went on a date with Charlie after Xavier went home.

It wasn't anything special, just breakfast. He kissed me in the driveway like he always did. I wasn't even surprised when I found Xavier sitting on my porch swing with his camera. We hadn't made plans but I guess he wanted to squeeze in a lot of last minute shots. There was only a week and a half until he needed to start editing, so he needed all the footage he could get.

"Hey," I said.

When we woke up, he seemed off. I offered him a cup of coffee but he declined, not really saying much as he got dressed and left. I wished he would just say what he was thinking for once.

"Let's just do this," he mumbled, standing up and walking towards me. So he was back to grumpy Xavier for the day. Good to know in advance.

My mom was home today and cleaning up the kitchen. I walked in and greeted her, letting her know Xavier was here. He was polite and friendly with her, but I could tell he wanted to run away. We went up to my room and I made myself presentable for the camera.

I turned to him just as he finished setting up. "Talk about how sleep and a routine is important," he said, and I think I liked bossy Xavier. "I wrote some key points for you."

I took a flash card from him, looking it over. It never ceased to impress me how thorough he was. "Okay," I sat in front of the camera and waited for my cue to start. We went through it relatively quickly since there wasn't much you could say about adequate amounts of sleep.

Afterwards I was just scrolling on my phone while Xavier looked over the footage. Everyone was posting pictures at a concert just out of town. "Do you go to concerts?" I asked, trying to make small talk.

"Yeah," he said shortly.

"Have you been to a lot?"

"No."

I was getting annoyed. He'd been grumpy since this morning for no reason. "We could go see something–"

"Why don't you just ask Charles?" Xavier mumbled, scrubbing through the video with his chin in his hand.

I stopped scrolling through my phone, placing it face down on my bed. "Why are you acting like that?" I snapped, silently demanding Xavier look at me. He didn't, just glared quietly at his camera screen.

This only made me more agitated. I stood up, forgetting about the project. Now I was only mad. Just when me and Xavier were starting to get along, he was acting like a baby and giving an attitude where it doesn't belong. I was sick of this game.

"I'm fucking talking to you," I said brusquely. "I'm tired of it being so weird around you, like I have to be careful or you're gonna' suddenly stop talking. What the fuck is that about, de León?"

Xavier just sat there, leaning back in his chair as my head blew off my shoulders. "I don't know what you mean," he shrugged, standing up as well to close up his tripod. "I'm fine, don't know about you."

"No, you're not."

I watched as he went over to get his discarded shoes by my door. I leaned against the wall and just bored holes into Xavier's skull.

However, he wouldn't let up on this unbothered facade. "You should just chill out, for real," he warned, finally sparing me a glance but pausing mysteriously.

He laid eyes on me and sighed. I held my ground and kept the staring contest going, not sure what he was even thinking about. This was turning out to be the longest month of my life and though my time with Xavier was increasingly more on my own terms rather than obligatory,  this shady attitude he kept up was having me at my wits end.