The Atlas Of Love

- ten -

"I remember this J, I still do."

Nick nudged me with a grin plastered on his face, while mine was something close to an over-riped strawberry.

I cleared my throat. "You do? What brings you here?" My words were rushed.

Xander chuckled, walking inside. "I gotta say man. That sounded pretty good."

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked, fanning myself and gulping.

"When you guys started?" He sat down on my bed, beside Nick.

"Uh, half of the credit goes to you too, I guess. I mean, you wrote the whole thing and I, uh used it without your permission. I'm sorry." I stood up, not being able to face him anymore.

Okay, I know very well how it feels when someone else gets credit for something you had done. All the hardwork you put into just vanishes like that and becomes the other persons.

I know Xander wrote every word meaning them and put so much thought into it.

It felt wrong to work on it earlier and now that he's heard me singing it (that too without him knowing that a song was being composed out of the words he wrote), it felt too wrong.

This is so embarrassing. It's like being caught while plagiarising someone else's song while that someone is there to listen to it.

No, in this case, it was-- "You're welcome. You've done justice to whatever I wrote down that day, so thank you."

I turned around to look at him in confusion. "I wrote that for you anyway. It's yours to keep and yours to sing. The world would've never heard the magical words I wrote if it weren't for you anyway." He laughed.

And here I was over thinking the whole situation.

"Thank you Xander, thank you." I smiled, this time actually meaning it.

"Uh, guys? Am I invisible right now? Okay I'm leaving." Nick stated getting up from the bed.

Xander pulled him back down, the two of them starting a mini wrestle mania on my bed.

"Guys get off." I laughed, pushing them.

Kara and Madison might've heard us laughing too as they both walked in a few seconds later.

"Have you been watching WWE this whole time Jane?" Madison asked, her whole face lighting up at the sight of Xander playing like a kid.

"You caught me." I raised my hands, laughing.

"Ew. That was so lame." Nick muttered.

I sneakily shot him a death glare before getting back to laugh along with Madison.

We all went back down and watched one more movie before Nick and Kara left to attend to some sort of 'relationship-business' and Xander and Madison too got ready to leave.

They were all getting up from their seats when Xander asked to meet me in the hallway.

"Why? What is it?" I asked.

"J, please help me."

"What?" My eyebrows shot up in confusion.

"I need you to come with me. You know my mom better than anyone. You know how she reacts around any girl I bring home. I really need you to be there and keep the situation under control. Please! I don't want to freak Maddy out. Not yet, not this time."

As much as my mind wanted me to scream 'a-big-hell-to-the-no-boy' my heart kept telling me that he sounded really genuine and that I had to help him.

"Xander. Ugh, I really hate you right now." I grumbled.

"Thank you and I love you." He ruffled my hair, letting out a deep chuckle and running back out.

I ended up grabbing my coat and locking the door behind me as Xander, Madison and Dean waited for me.

8 seconds later, we were standing in front of Xander's door, waiting for his mother to open the door for us.

"Junhyeong-ah, what took you so long today?" Xander's mom opened up the door for us.

Yes. You heard it right.

"Oh, Jaein-ah! I haven't seen you in a while. Come on in." She smiled instantly when she noticed me.

And then her eyes shifted to Madison, who was standing behind me and then to Dean.

"Hi Mrs.Collins." Madison cleared her throat, sounding rather nervous.

"Hi, come on in." Xander's mom smiled, gesturing all of us to get inside.

Xander looked nervous, a look I hadn't seen on his face for a while and so did Madison.

"Jaein-ah, who's the new friend?" Xander's mom whispered, tugging on my arm.

"Girlfriend." I whispered back, giggling.

Xander's mom, my mom and I got along really well. Well I guess you can't really stop three Korean women living in a foreign country to bond well.

Xander's father was American but passed away when Xander was 7 and his mother had to raise him all alone since then.

Raising a 7 year old alone in a foreign country wasn't easy for her. Sometimes she and I would sit down and talk about everything she had to go through and have a good cry.

Xander never liked to see his mother cry and would scold me for having enough time to come over and talk about all that and just cry along with her.

We were all just smiling and settling down in their living room when we heard something hard colliding with the floor and breaking into pieces.

I turned to find Madison's pale face, shaking as she stood staring at the sight before her.

The now-broken antique vase which Xander's father gifted his mother on their second marriage anniversary was broken into tiny pieces.

I gasped, covering my mouth shut while Xander looked apologetic, shaking his head.

Dean just looked confused and amused.

"Omo!"

_____________

Hello once again. It's me. The author. Remember me?
I'm so sorry for the EXTREME delay in updating. There's no excuse this time.
My classes in my NEW school is starting tomorrow and everything has been chaotic this week (and the weeks before this too), anyhow I will try my very best to not let that meddle with my updating schedule and work harder.
Also, if any of y'all are like, really good at making new friends, slide into my dms.
;)
- m.