| The Boy Next Door |

C H A P T E R T E N

The next day I sat in class next to Xavier. He was resting his hand on my thigh as always.
"Who is that guy next to Maria?",he asked me looking out the window. One could literally feel the tension between them. They were yelling at each other.
I earned a lot of glares from the back of the class and whispered as quite as I could:" Her On -Off -Boi David."
"Ah, gattina before I forget ", he purred into my ear. "Today my best friend will come in this class. He may be handsome, but not as handsome as me. And he will never give you the pleasure I give you , so don't even think about it." "I'll do what I want! It's not that we're a couple or so."
"That can change soon vita mia."
Before I could give a smart-ass reply Mr. Berger came into the classroom.
"Hello class, today we will greet a belated student. When school started he had problems coming to America from Italy, but now he is here and that's all what matters. Please welcome Christian."
Behind him was a handsome boy. I heard all the gurls and some boys sigh. He had  brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a leather jacket and blue jeans. To be honest he reminded me of Francessco Lachowski with blue eyes and damn he almost looked as good as Xavier.
I saw Maria sneaking behind Christian over to her place next to me.
"Oh, hello Ms Verini so you decided to come to class?", Mr Berger snarled.
Maria turned red and sat down to my right.
"Ok, Christian please choose a seat because we are starting with our chemistry lesson."
Christian headed to the empty place next to Mary. I saw her glaring at him and guys if stares could kill, he'd be as dead as a snail in paris on your plate. He and Xavier shook hands. "Eyo bro what's up? You fine?"
  Before Xavier could reply Mr Berger started talking.
"Ok class for this semester we will be doing group projects, which will make up 60% of your grade", he opened the blackboard sides revealing our names neatly written next to three other name of people in the class.
I searched for my name. Yasmine surprisingly (AN.: not surprisingly) stood next to Maria, Xavier and Christian.
"Now please gather in your groups and  pick a project out of the box"
I didn't even have to stand up since Xavier was on my left and Mary and Christian on my right.
Mr Berger held the box in front of me. I reach into the box and pull out a paper. I open it and my partners lean over.
"Hand warmers?", Maria gives Mr Berger a Wtf-kind of look.
"Yes, thermal chemistry. And I expect a great project from you",Mr Berger wanders back to the front of the class and shouts over the mumbles and complaints:"Now start working on your projects good luck, you'll need it." The last part he whispers. I raise my eyebrow.
"Ok, just to make one thing straight I don't want to work with Christoph or whoever you are and yes we will get an A. I swear Christian if you even dare to say anything wrong ,i'll kill you!" Whoa. What has gotten into her?
"Aha and what will a smurf like you do?", he laughs.
"Oh, you don't want to ...". "Maria chill. What's up with you. Ok guys we first need to set a date and a place for when we will meet for the project. I think we should go over to Marys at 3pm. Is that ok?", I give her a questioning look.
She crosses her arms in front of her chest:"Ok , but does this cow have to come with us?"
"Yeah the cow will and you are also giving the cow a nice view up here", Christian giggles and Maria blushes as she notices her crossed arms pushed her breasts up.

After school I waited for Xavier in front of his car. Yeah he also has a brand new Lambo I never saw. This guy has a lot of secrets and i'm slowly learning everything about him.
I felt two hands on my shoulders. My first instinct was to grab the arms, pull them close to me and throw the person over my shoulder.
"Auuuuch, gattina doesn't like to play I see", he groaned in pain.
"Oh my good are you ok?", I sat next to him and inspected his body. To all the girls out there. First hit a guy and then act worried. It's a good excuse to touch his body. Thank me later.
"Babe if you want to play nurse and touch me you just have to ask", he winks at me and I roll my eyes. He gets up, takes my hand and walks us to his car .

We were sitting on velvet chairs in a cute coffee shop right in front of the huge windows, with a view of the busy street. It felt cosy in here. With Xavier. The shop belonged to a good friend of him, Pablo. He was a old man and lived with his wife in the back of the shop. Pablo was one of the kindest persons i've ever met.
He walked over to us holding my tea and cake and Xaviers black coffee.
"Ahhh, Xavier mio figlio how are you? Oh and is this bella ragazza your girlfriend?"
"Ciao Pablo. This is Yasmine. Tell me how is your wife doing?"
Pablo handed us our orders: "Oh she's happy, but she only has a few years if not months to live. I am doing everything to help her. But she'll be fine. I'll tell her, her favourite boy was here." He left us with a sad smile.
"Xavier what's with his wife?"
"Gattina, Lola has some sort of illness, which can only be treated with an expensive operation. Since I was 5 years old Pablo and Lola treated me like their own son. I am trying to pay for her operation, but they always refuse. They want to pay it themselves."
" But we have to do something! Please promise me that we will soon visit them. Maybe I can persuade them."
"Of course gattina, I promise."
I was sipping on my peppermint tea and we were sharing a piece of red velvet cake.
"So mi amore tell me something about you."
"Well my name is Yasmine, I live next to.."
"Babe, not that", he takes my hand,"tell me about your favourite things your dreams your deepest desires." He licked his lips.
"OK.., I couldn't control myself when he did this, my favourite colour is forest green and purple." I look deep into his eyes.
"I love chocolate and nutella over everything. After school I want to be a rich successful business lady and own companies. I maybe want to marry and get kids someday , on that imma not that sure. My real parents died in a car crash when I was six. I never told anyone, but you and Maria."
I felt my eyes watering. You know this moment you are about to cry but are trying to hold it?
Yeah, it was this moment.
Xavier came closer to me and pressed my hand:"I'm so sorry tesoro."
"It's okay. My new parents are the greatest one can have.Ah and we should go Maria and Christian are already waiting for us." I lied. I know I lied. I could never forget it. The images always appeared when I slept. Xavier looked at me. I know he knew I was lying. But he didn't say anything.
Suddenly the windows behind us exploded. Xavier pulled me under the table.
Three men in black suits appeared. They were all holding two guns each.
"Where is he?", the bald one said. They shooted around and I heard glass and walls being shattered. The people around us were screaming, baby's were crying and their mothers were begging for mercy.
The tall man walked over to old Pablo:" Where is De Luca old man. Tell me or i'll kill you here in front of these bastards!" Pablo was so shocked he couldn't open his mouth. The man took his gun and smashed it on Pablos head.
"Ok that's enough ", Xavier took out a gun from his jeans and crawled from under the table. I closed my eyes and heard him shooting. I opened my eyes and Saw Xavier running to me in a rain if shoots. He pulled me by my hand and ran out if the broken window. As fast as we could we sprinted to his car and he starts racing away from the shop. I heard the men right behind us. They were still shooting. Xavier abruptly took a right. Trying to shake off the men. I looked behind us. For a moment I couldn't see them. "Xavier what the fuck is happening?" " Gattina I'll tell you later. "
" The guys are still behind us Xavier do something!", I cried out.
He was way over the speed limit. My fingers dug into the leather seats. I prayed that we may survive this.
We were on an empty road the black range rover was a huge distance behind us.
"Babe listen. I am going to park the car in front of the forest. If you look in the back seat you'll find dolls who look like us and a can of petrol and matches. Put the dolls on the seats i'll spread the petrol and lit the fire, then run into the forest. You understand?", he gave me a worried but uplifting smile.
I reached to the backseat and pulled out a doll that looked like a true copy of Xavier and one of me."I don't have to mention how fucking creepy that is? I don't want. to know what you did with my doll.."
He smirked:" Oh gattina , i'm not that pathetic to use a doll ,when I have the perfect human being next to me. I swear later i gonna fuck the shit out of you."
I blushed. "Perfect?"
Even in these situations he had the guts to talk about fucking. This guy was kind of ... different. But no, he is like every guy just fucking if he wants to impress me he has a long way to go.
Xavier parked the car and went outside to spread the petrol. I placed the dolls and got tf out of the car. He lit the matches and threw them on the car. "Yo that shit looks real", I admired the sight.
" Yasmine?", Xavier dragged me into the forest. I didn't see anything but him. And the blurry trees next to me. It felt like a whole hour when we finally stopped and sat behind a tree. Xavier closed protectively closed his arms around me. He was literally two head taller than me. I laid against his chest. His fast heart beat started to decrease. I could stand her all day. This was the perfect moment. I never would hug any other guy. But with Xavier it felt so.. different. WRINGGG WRINGGG BITCH TEA TO SPILL.Only one person has deserved this special ringtone. Of course Maria had to destroy the moment.
I opened my phone :" YASMINE? WHEREAREYOUAREYOUOKWHOISWITHYOUIMSOWORRIED?"
I looked up to Xavier. He raised his eyebrow. Even he heard it.
"I'm in the forest with the boy next door."