Closer

Chapter one

Xavier Sinclaire is objectively attractive, in a way that is hard to ignore for a lot of women and even most men, but for me, it was easy. When I was accepted into NYU my first reaction was absolute, utter shock. I wanted to throw up my arms and scream at the top of my lungs until it filtered through my closed bedroom door and down the hall to my mom, who would graciously join in. I just couldn't. Instead, I sat with a hung jaw and the blue light of my laptop illuminating my face where the acceptance letter was pulled up on the screen in my email.

My second reaction, after far too long of sitting frozen for me to admit, was fear. How could I possibly leave everyone I know and love and move a thousand miles away to one of the largest, chaotic cities where I knew absolutely no one? It was a dream that was a mere possibility only a few moments before. Now it was quite literally a bittersweet moment on the verge of becoming a nightmare. The more I had thought about it, the more I was inching toward a closer, less dreamy school in Florida. UF was a great school, not NYU, but a lot more comfortable.

Fortunately, my mom refused to let me settle out of fear. Instead, she practically packed my bags for me and pushed me in the direction I needed to go. North. Mothers and mother figures had a way of doing that. It's not like I didn't know she was also afraid. She was pushing her only child away from her too and that was not an easy feat, considering I was all she had, but she thought of me and my future more than herself. And I could not be more thankful.

During my first week, I met Xavier, and I was swooning. He was quite literally the most attractive guy I had laid my eyes on and the first person to really speak to me. It was almost like he could see how out of my element I felt and made It his mission to make me feel more at home, and he did. He became my best friend that year and the initial attraction I had to him was replaced by unconditional love. At school he was my family, my home away from home and after each visit back to Florida I knew that my sadness at having to leave my mom again would quickly be eased with excitement to see him.

Now we were coming up on our Thanksgiving break as juniors and a last-minute phone call changed all my plans for the holidays.

"Xavier." I muttered into the phone once he picked up on the other end.

"Avery, I'm literally twenty feet away from you. We live together. Why are you calling me on the phone?" he asked amusingly.

"I'm in the bath and my mom just called." I told him, still leaving out why I'm calling for dramatic purposes and the fact that I was still processing the information.

"Okay. And?"

I could tell he was wracking his brain with why I was calling him about my mom calling me. So, I blurted it out. "She is literally canceling plans with me because she has a new boyfriend and says she is doing thanksgiving with him as a chance to meet his family."

"Why do you sound so disgusted? That is totally understandable." What wasn't understandable was how calm he was, and like, whose side was he on, anyways?

"My mom is bailing on her only daughter to go hangout with a guy I haven't even met, meanwhile I will be stuck at campus eating ramen noodles and vending machine snacks for my thanksgiving dinner. This is supposed to be a family holiday but instead my mom is ditching me and you're jetting off to whatever picturesque town you grew up in that harbors all the good-looking men in this world. I'm genuinely afraid to be alone and miserable on a national holiday," I rambled passionately into the mic on my phone, no longer internally freaking out to myself but externally to Xavier, who was way too quiet.

After a long pause and me waiting patiently for him to care about my wellbeing, he finally said something, "Why don't you just come with me? I can buy a ticket tonight so I can make sure we get seats next to each other on the plane and we can leave on Friday after your class."