The Fighter

Chapter 8: What the Heck is Going On?

"Don't tell me the both of you know each other," my grandma said, her eyes switching back and forth between us, a sly glint across the surface of them.

Xavier smiled at me, before shifting his gaze to my grandma, which gave me that weird jumpy feeling not only in my stomach, but in my arms and chest.

Am I having a heart attack? What the heck is going on?

"We do, Mar," he said, putting his arm around her, which kind of hurt me. Here was this kid, calling my grandma 'Mar' as if he was best friends with her, meanwhile I hadn't seen her in months.

"This can't be the guy you wanted me to meet," I said, putting emphasis on the 'this' as I pointed accusatorially at Xavier.

Xavier wiggled his eyebrows at me. "So much more than you expected, huh?"

I rolled my eyes and he gave me his signature smirk. My grandma, however, was curling over with laughter. "That," she took a breath and wiped her eyes. "That was a good one, Xav."

Xav?

I crossed my arms, realizing that I had lost my grandma to the dark side. "Yeah, haha, that was really funny," I said, sarcasm oozing from my voice.

"So, I'll see you two later," Grandma said, ushering us toward the door.

It was then that I began to doubt my grandma's sanity. "Grandma, I'm not going to his house." I turned to her, who gave me a stone-faced expression.

Xavier began to laugh, grabbing his stomach. Even though I was annoyed with him, I couldn't stop the obnoxious curving of my lips that most people would call a smile.

"My mom's expecting someone, I'd be happy to take you instead, Mar."

Jerk. "Sounds good," I muttered.

"No, Sophie promised me, so she's going to go." She kissed me on the forehead and then she kissed Xavier on the cheek. "I'll see you darlings later," she said sweetly, opening the door and pushing us out.

"But, Grandma, you really can't expect me to go on a date with that kid who-" I watched as my last chance at freedom disappeared as Grandma slammed the door in my face.

"You know you want me," he said giving me the most cheesiest smile ever.

I narrowed my eyes at him and we basically had a stare down for a good minute before he looked away.

"Winna winna chicken dinna," I said.

He just kind of glanced at me though, with this unreadable expression.

Well this is awkward.

I began clearing my throat, but then I did that close-to-death choking on air thing because my spit went down the wrong throat tube. So I was basically hacking up a lung as he stood there and stared at me.

When my spit finally stopped choking me, I managed to mumble, "I am oh so excited for tonight." Xavier kept that weird expression and acted almost like he was day dreaming or something. I waved my hand in front of his face. "Hello!"

He blinked. "Huh?"

"What is wrong with you?" I said, walking down the steps and onto the sidewalk.

I could hear him step clumsily behind me. "I'm sorry, I couldn't concentrate with all that gunk on your face."

My hand raised up to my cheek immediately, realizing I hadn't taken off the makeup Grandma insisted she put on me. "Shut up."

He punched my shoulder. "Look, look someone's embarrassed." I elbowed him in the stomach. "Ow," he exclaimed, bending over.