Xavier

31

I offered him an ear and he took it. He went on about his grandmother and what it was like to grow up only seeing her a couple weeks out of the year. The tiredness that i felt before had long since gone.

"This is so bad." He said suddenly after a long pause. "What?" I asked.

"This...this conversation. It's far from professional or appropriate." He sighed. "It doesn't feel like it."

"I know."

His voice came out as a whisper when he replied. "But I just...I just couldn't bring myself to call anyone else. And I know you're probably tired of hearing my sob story and you probably think I'm pathetic. Hopefully i don't remember this conversation."

"I don't think that. I'm glad that you even felt like I'd be a good person to call while you're feeling down. You can call me any time you need to talk. It'd be Just between us."

"Just between us?"

"Yeah. Me and You as Xavier and Luna. Not Professor Nixon and a student."

:::

I hadn't realized at the time but I was sort of making a covenant. One that only Xavier and I would be able to understand. It was pushing the bounds of professionalism but in that moment I genuinely didn't care. I didn't care because I meant it.

The following morning I got up in a fairly okay mood. Before going to do anything else I sent Xavier a message asking how he was feeling.

"Are you sure you have to go back so soon?" Mom asked. "Yeah mom, I have to get back and start preparing for a finals. My first one is in a few days." I sighed.

"I'm going to keep you in my prayers and hope you pass. Make sure you tell Nadia I said good luck."

"Okay, I love y'all." I said goodbye to my family for another five minutes before I heard Nadia beeping outside.

I grabbed my bag and made my way outside. Much to my dismay Nadia still had the same poor attitude. I wasn't in any mood to feed into her so i popped in my earphones and turned my attention to my phone. I intended to do so until we got back.

As I scrolled through tik tok a message from Xavier displayed at the top of my screen.

'Doing okay...sorry about last night'

I sighed heavily as I began to text him back.

'No need to be sorry. I meant what I said.'

From there he went on to ask me when I was coming back to campus. Apparently His grandmother had in fact passed in the early hours of the morning. He was doing okay despite everything but he wouldn't be back to campus for another week.

He needed me to be able to keep everything organized while he was gone and I didn't hesitate to agree. I texted with him the bulk of the ride trying to be sure he was okay. By the time we got back to our apartment my conversation with Xavier still wasn't over.

I pushed my phone into my pocket and gathered my things and followed a few feet behind Nadia into the apartment. When we got inside she went straight into her room and didn't say anything. I shrugged and did the same.

I chalked it up to her being in one of her usual moods. I would've just asked but as childish as it may sound, I held off because she was being rude.

I decided I'd leave her alone and then try and ask what her problem was later. I started on my laundry and cleaning the apartment in the mean time.

We'd been home nearly eight whole hours before I even heard the sound of her voice. When I was sure she was actually up and I wasn't hearing things I decided to go knock on her door.

After a couple seconds she swung the door open with a bored look on her face. "Yes."

"I wanted to talk."

"About what? I have things to do." She said as if she were in a rush to get the conversation over with. I furrowed my eyebrows and blinked a few times. "Nothing never mind."

I doubted that she had anything else to say but even if she did I didn't give her a chance to speak. I just walked away and went into my room.

Whatever her issue was she'd have to figure it out on her own for now. Absolutely nothing that I can recall has happened that would prompt her attitude. She was acting funny since the party. I didn't think it could be because I left cause she was being weird before that.

Whatever it was she needed to just come out and say it. I hated passive aggressive behavior like this. Especially when, to me, it seemed unwarranted.