seven souls seven sins

chapter 43: outburst starburst

Xavier's pov:

As soon as she walked through that door I turned the opposite direction, towards the back entrance of the school. That's where Xander was. After a fight he usually goes there to smoke to relieve the adrenaline and pain. If anything he was definitely there. He has to be.

I need to talk to him.

I jog through the halls not wanting to waste anymore time. When I arrive, I spot Xander sitting on the steps with a cigarette in his hand. There's nobody around us as they're all in their classes. It's just us two. He doesn't see me yet but he can sense my presence. "You should be in class. " He mentions.

"You should be in class with me." I reply back and walk up to him.

I grab the burning cigarette in his hands and drop it to the floor. I stomp on it with my foot and crush it to dust. "Smoking kills." I say and sit beside him. "Smoking relieves stress." He responds back nonchalantly and reaches into his pocket for more. I swat away the packet from his hand and throw it down the steps.

"You're an ass." He mutters and looks down to the ground.

"The real asshole is Harper." I defend myself with the truth. "True that." He lets out a bitter laugh. "Want to talk about it?" I offer. He looks up to the horizon. "I don't know if I can." He admits with a wobbly voice and looks back down. I scoot closer towards him. We're touching shoulder to shoulder.

I watch him fiddle with his fingers.

His bruised and bloody knuckles look painful to watch. His face has an open wound that needs to be treated quickly or it will get infected. "You need medical attention Xander." I try to persuade. "No I don't." He immediately denies. "Yes you do. We can't have one of our best players be injured before the final next week."

"It's not gonna get infected, relax." He declares again.

"Yes it will. Doing nothing won't help it heal." I confront. "I'm not doing nothing. I'm letting mother nature work her magic." He replies back taking the piss. He's not being serious and I've had enough of it. "You need to take care of yourself man." I finally tell him. "You can't keep destroying yourself like this. It hurts to watch you suffer."

"OH YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT BEING HURT?" He suddenly snaps and rises to his feet.

"HARPER CAN PUNCH ME AS MANY TIMES AS HE EFFING WANTS BUT HE WONT KILL ME. WHAT KILLED ME WAS WHEN SHE LEFT. " He infuriatingly shouts. His hand reaches his nose bridge and rubs it in anger. He sighs and sits back down. "For fucks sake." He murmured to himself.

"Sorry." He apologised with a loud sigh.

I haven't seen Xander show this much emotion since he was 8. "Her leaving broke all of us." I admit and swing one arm over his shoulder. "You're not alone." I add hoping that he'll feel more comfortable. "It feels like it." He confesses. "You're not Xand. Besides, she's back now. You don't have to worry about her leaving ever again."

He's scared that she's going to leave.

"She won't even want to talk to me ever again after that stupid stunt that I pulled." He shamefully said. "I don't even know why I did that. I-I was just so overwhelmed with Nico's taunts and the way he acts with her that I took it out on her. I hated how she took his side." He pauses whilst his lip trembles. "There's something wrong with me and I don't know how to fix it Xav." He looks up to me with watery eyes.