seven souls seven sins

chapter 76: alone, not lonely

Xavier's pov:

"I'm going to miss your help around here." Auntie Anne pats my back after I helped reinstall her refrigerator. "And I'm going to miss your delicious aracajé." I hug my Aunty back and we make our way back to the living room where majority of us are situated. It's all of us and Uncle Joe in his chair whilst Nat and the girls are upstairs.

Doing whatever girly things females do.

Vincent checks his watch and signals that it's time to go. As we all say goodbye, the girls come down but I feel a tense sensation within the atmosphere. Jaz asks Nat to help pack some food home with her mama and papa so it leaves just us and the two girls in the sitting room.

She smiles as they turn the corner but when they're gone she returns to her normal posture and faces us.

"We need to talk." She states in a serious tone. Cassie appears behind her and nods along to Jasmine's statement. "Talk about what?" Adrien folds his arms. They step closer towards us and glance at each other before speaking. "Amor doesn't seem like herself." Cassie states.

We all freeze at her sentence.

"She seems quieter than last month, is something bothering her?" Jaz flicks a glance at Vincent who looks guilty as shit. "Yeah she seems off." Cassie adds on and flicks her fresh golden locks behind her. "Off how?" It was a trick question. We all knew how, we witnessed it everyday for the past month.

A month of pure torture.

Cassie's hazy voice snaps me out of my daze. "She barely spoke and even if she did it was only for a brief minute." They were lucky, we haven't heard her voice all week and it's a Friday. "What did she speak about?" The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could realise. I needed something, anything, an update about Tash. Cassie continues.

"All she spoke about was an upcoming track championship and that her boyf-" She tops herself and covers her mouth.

A pit forms in my stomach, we all heard that. Cassie stills and peers over to Jasmine who looks as pale as a ghost. "And that her boyfriend..?" Chase urges the girls to continue with a stern facade. They glance at each other before continuing in a lower tone. "He's not real." Jaz tries to cover her sister's tracks. A bitter laugh is uttered from Vincent as he closes the distance between them.

"You're a smart girl Jasmine, I'm sure you know better than to lie." He whispers into her ear, loud enough for us to hear.

Her brows furrowed at his audacity and she steps back looking Vincent up and down. "Talk to me like that again." She squares up to him. "I told you it was a mistake so suck it the fuck up and move on." Her stern hardens at my eldest brother. "Get out of my house." She walks away with her sister and grabs Nat to go too.

Whatever sister bond they have must be impenetrable.

As we walk out Xander asks the dooming question. "So who's riding with Natasha?" His words send mere ripples throughout our bodies. Plan 12 also consisted a full vehicle reorder which meant different positions per car ride. If all of us were travelling using two cars, then Nat has to be in the one with the least amount of people.

Meaning that 5 of us have to squish into one whilst her and a lucky bastard get to share a car for the 3 hour journey home.

I crossed my fingers that I was the one to drive her home. Please. Please. Please. I haven't heard her voice all week, I need to. It's the one sound that I've been craving to hear. "Leo, you take the wheel." Vincent gives him the key to his car and the rest of us squeeze together into Chase's truck. Leo trails off first and we follow shortly after.