All For Not

Page 88

"Hey, Morella, Can we talk real quick?" Turning I waited, my books heavy and pinching into the skin of my arms, "Xavier."

"You've been ignoring me again," I blinked, unsure of what to say, "I apologize if it seemed that way, I've only been focusing on classes..." He didn't believe me, that much was clear in the way he looked at me, "is it because of the kiss?"

"I'm not avoiding you Xavier," his deadpanned stair had prevented me from moving, "yes. You are. I know it because you do it constantly, you can't just do that to people." My brows curl in on my t-zone, ignoring people wasn't something I did often, most of the time I truly forget about socializing because I'm still not used to it.

"You're one to talk Thorpe..." His lip twitched upwards at his last name but I continued on, "it takes communication to keep up socially interacting with each other but you seem to forget that I naturally am quiet. Even Enid understands that I am unused to all of this talking, and yet you confuse my silence with being a bad person."

"I never said you were a bad person," I stopped him, quickly snipping back his words to a conclusion so I could finish for him, "Your tone proves otherwise. Besides, I may be transitioning into the social aspect of Nevermore with Enid's help but communication still goes both ways."

My words didn't phase him exactly, it was more so of he didn't know what to say to that, "it still doesn't change the fact you're ignoring me now." I sighed heavily, "I'm not ignoring you," he smiled, a faux one as he kept on, "yes, you are and I wanna know why? Is it because I kissed you in the shed?"

"Like I said-" he stopped me, grabbing onto my forearm, "is it Kent?"

"Is what Kent?" He moved his free arm about, wildly gesturing behind him as he spoke up, "is he telling you to stay away from me and shit?" Frowning I shake my head, not confused or upset with his tone but starting to realize something was wrong with this situation in its entirety, "no, he's not. I was focusing on class so I didn't speak to you."

"Was it the kiss? It was, wasn't it? Otherwise you wouldn't have just completely ditched me like this?" Now I was confused, my brain trying to thoroughly rack through my thoughts and put the peices together in a flurry as I stepped back a bit trying to create distance between him and I, a look in his eyes I hadn't seen before, "I didn't ditch you, and considering you and Kent are the only references I have for the action I wouldn't say it was good or bad for a kiss."

It wasn't good and it wasn't bad, but the kiss in the shed was off, like he was at this moment. I realized upon inspection though, the tone and the slight haze in his eyes was the exact same as it was in the shed. But it wasn't like this at any other time.

"So it was bad," my brows furrowed aggressively and I contemplated walking away, "are your ears malfunctioning, Thorpe?" As soon as the words left me my books dropped to the tiled flooring, the smack in the deserted hallway as they crashed into the ground, extremely loud as it seemingly echoed.

His kiss was a surprise as he stepped me back up against the wall with a bit of a forceful shove, it was more of a shock than anything as my eyes widened, burning bright as I looked at him. The smacking of shoes against the floor seemed foreign as Xavier was pulled off suddenly, thrown up against the adjacent wall with force.

My hand lifted, touching my lip and pulling back, a finger tinged with a sheen of red from my newly split lip. Looking back up I see Ajax closer than I'd ever been to him before, he was holding onto my shoulders and saying my name before he turned around and I saw the back of his head. His beanie moved away from my sight as he moved quickly, grabbing and pulling Kent away from Xavier, off of him.

I couldn't exactly register anything, but I could see the faintly beginning trail of blood starting to drip from Xavier's nose. It was clear Kent had hit him as the boy was pulled back from Xavier as he slid down the wall, smacking the stonework with the palm of his hand and looking at the other two, saying something distantly, "what the fuck man?!"

Standing there I watched the rest of it, Xavier reaching up to grasp his nose, clear eyed. Kent being pushed back into the corridor as a door opened and a voice spoke from my other side, a small distance away, a thick accent in the voice, "what's all this noise?"

My feet finally picked up, moving me forward to touch Xavier's wrist, pulling his hand from his face for a peak of worry before stepping back and looking towards Kent as the tennis instructor moved before the bleeding boy.

Kent's eyes were yellow and the clicking was intense as Ajax held him back, but I could tell how his eyes moved between Xavier and I, even as the teacher helped the teen up and took him away, sentencing Kent and Ajax to the office while telling me to get to class after checking me over.

Instead of following orders I moved away from my spot in the corridor, moving towards Kent where Ajax stopped me, he looked at me and shook his head before pulling the siren away and turning him around. I watched him push him down the hall as I swallowed, unsure of what to do as my hands clenched and un-clenched, the feeling of my talons growing and snapping into the skin of my palms before they retracted.

Left alone in the hall, I stood there, alone and internally lost. Until Enid appeared that is, the blonde she wolf walked around the corner, Ajax and Kent had gone, her face filled with confusion and worry until she spotted me and she rushed over grabbing at my hands, blood dripping down my fingertips.

"Was I in the wrong Enid?"

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I have done the Xavier scenes a specific way and have added more Kent in case of a possible recast for Xavier next season or if they toss the character entirely. In either case, I will be able to add him in, either with his own story line or to give him a proper send off in the case of deleting him from the show or recasting, but we will see when we get there if we keep him in long term.

We'll just have to be strong everyone and have faith in the show that they'll make it good enough to continue writing for.