𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝒾𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 // BL

𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴. (𝘟𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝)

"Hey....Xavier."

Xavier cringed at the way she pronounced his name. Everyone else always called him 'EX-avier.' She said the whole word together smoothly, in a way that sounded more like "Zavier."

"Stephanie I....hey." His voice sounded foreign and awkward to him, just like it had sounded in high school. "Do you need something?"

He could practically feel her flinch from the other end of the phone at his cold tone. "Actually yes um....' he could feel her fumble with the phone from the other end. 'I wanted to talk to you."

He crossed his arms, not in aggression, but in a tired kind of impatience. "Well you're talking to me now so, what is it you need to say?"

She paused for a moment, hesitant on the other end.

"I want to talk to you in person....Do you still work Mondays?"

He nodded numbly, still in absolute shock that any of this was real. After a moment of waiting for her response, he remembered that she couldn't see him nodding from the other end of the phone. "Yes I do."

"Could we talk in a few weeks....maybe at around like 3? I won't be here for long."

"I work a long day. Thats smack in the middle of my shift."

Although he knew Stephanie was a reasonable, calm person, her voice sounded urgent as she pleaded with him. "Please, can't you just slip out real quick?"

He was feeling annoyed, but he couldn't help but feel a little worried about her tone. She's never sounded like this to me before.

Making his voice as gentle as he could despite his coldness, he said,

"Steph, you know I can't just leave like that. Chloes already covered tons of shifts for me, I won't make her take over anymore."

He could hear a slam. It sounded as though Stephanie had just pounded her fist into the wall. "Look Xavier, I know that what I did was wrong, and I'm only trying to fix it." Her voice was tight, like she was a balloon that could pop at any second.

"You know you meant....' he quickly changed his mind, not wanting to seem hostile "mean the world to me.... but why would you just leave like that?"

"Xavier." There it was again, that 'Zavier' "please just take the time to hear me out."

He narrowed his eyes. "You think we still have a chance?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a very long time. With a deep reluctant breath, Xavier asked,

"When....where can I meet you?"

***

Xavier was letting his fingers run over the handle of his mug nervously.

"And....after I asked her if we could just meet that day, that's when you walked in. I'm thorry, I didn't even think about how that would thound. and.....to be honest I'm just thoe confused."

Xavier could feel Kace's eyes on him as he massaged his face, wincing as his hand came in contact with his nose. The injury looked even uglier in the light of the cafe. They had gotten quite a few stares when they walked in, and a waitress had shakily offered him a tissue.

he had the tissues stuffed into his nose, making his voice congested.

"I'm thorry about all thith." he said with a huge sniff. Kace forced the smile twitching on his face to look more polite.