CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RAIN

"Princess."

We both sit up on the bed and freeze. It's still dark outside, my father shouldn't even be in the house now.

"Daddy?" I call out while Xavier looks around for his clothes. He doesn't dare move.

"You don't have to get up sweetie, I came home for a quick change of clothes and wanted to let you know. I'm leaving but I'll be home tonight okay?"

"Okay, daddy. Love you."

"I love you too, I left something in the microwave for you to take to lunch. They had this party at the construction site yesterday. You know what? I'll tell you all about it when I come home tonight. Go back to sleep."

I listen to his footsteps fade as he enters the living room and then the door opens and closes. Once we hear his car drive away, Xavier exhales and falls back on the bed.

"That was scary." He says.

His tone and the fear I imagine on his face, makes me laugh.

"You think my near heart attack is funny?" He asks.

"A little yeah."

I fall back on the bed with my shoulders still shaking from laughing so much.

"Your dad loves you very much." He says all of a sudden.

"Yeah, doesn't yours?"

He doesn't reply to my question, just continues his line of thought.

"I used to wonder why he was never home for you and thought you were some broken girl who only has one parent who doesn't even love her. But that's not true is it? He even thinks about you when you're not there."

"Xavier, are you okay?" I ask.

His voice has a sadness to it that's making me uncomfortable. He turns and cradles me in his arms.

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep."

I nod and he kisses my forehead. I try not to bring to his attention that were cuddling. This is dangerous, Rain. I should bring it to his notice and end the butterflies starting to converge in my tommy, but I don't. I close my eyes and fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.

When I wake up, he's gone. I stretch on the bed and stand up to prepare for school. I look at my reading table and remember the homework I couldn't finish because of Xavier. I take a seat and open it to try and get through it before school.

I open the book and I'm shocked at what I'm seeing, the questions have been solved on a piece of paper and tucked in. There's a sticky note attached to the piece of paper.

'Don’t be late to school'. It says.

I try to fight the smile but it spreads across my face. He really didn't have to do this for me.

There's a bounce in my step when I walk into art class. This is the only class I share with Eva and she immediately notices my wide smile.

"You look so happy this morning, what is up?"

"Nothing, I'm just happy."

She looks at me suspiciously and shakes her head.

"You're lying but I'll leave it alone."

"Thank you."

"No, don't thank me. Thank whatever is the cause of your joy. You've been glowing since the third week of school and I love to see it."

I giggle and focus on the portrait I'm making of an 18th century jester. I feel good this morning and nothing is going to ruin it.

I have one more class before lunch and I meet Greg at his locker.

"Have you gotten your dress?" He asks.

"No, but I plan to get it tomorrow."

I really shouldn't be cutting it that close but I had to work extra shifts to get enough money to buy the dress. Dad did offer to give me some money but I refused. He's working himself in and out to buy a car and pay for college, I'm not adding this to his load.

"Great." He says.

He turns me to face him and moves closer. To anyone watching, it looks like he wants to kiss me. I look around and relax when I don't find Xavier anywhere. He’ll only turn this to mean that Greg likes me.

"Look I know you want to buy your dress yourself but please listen to my proposal."

I did want to buy the dress myself but after looking at the prices of decent dresses to wear to a literal ball full of snobby rich kids, I'm down to listen to him. I just don't want to make it dad's problem.

"So some the basketball players are taking their girlfriends shopping this afternoon so they can coordinate outfits and I was hoping you'd come with us. Don't worry about where or how much, I'll handle it."

Coordinate dresses with annoying cheerleaders? That sounds like a nightmare.

"You look scared. I promise it's not going to be scary. You won't be wearing the same colors. I said that the wrong way."

"I'm not your girlfriend,” I blurt out.

He stops and steps back. "Yeah, of course not." He says slowly.

"I'm sorry I said it like that. It's just you're not my boyfriend or a basketball player, why are we doing this?"

He folds his arms and his voice takes a defensive edge.

"They're my friends and I was lucky enough to be the only non-basketball person going with them. It's okay if you don't want to go. I'm sorry I brought it up."

He's not meeting my eye. Did I hurt him? He sounded so excited to tell me about this idea. I swallow hard, knowing that I'm going to regret the next words out of my mouth.

"I'll go with you. Let's coordinate some clothes."

I do a dumb fake cheer routine and he laughs.

"Thanks, you're going to have so much fun."

I doubt it. He hugs me and runs off to tell his friends that we'll be joining them while I walk slowly to doom, thinking about all the ways this would be a bad idea.

I'm still thinking as I walk into the cafeteria and take a seat at the table, not really paying anyone attention.

A few minutes later, Eva nudges me and I snap back to reality.

"Uh oh, looks like Lacey is out of the game for real."

"What?" I ask, confused.

She nods to Xavier's table and I look there to see that a girl is on his laps and he's smiling at her. I don't feel jealous, that stampede in the pit of my stomach is concern. We did start having sex without protection. I don't want to end up with some STI.

"That's Sapphire. She so nice, I wonder what she's doing with him. He'll chew her up and spit her out." Eva says.

"I heard he's taking her to founders’ ball. Lacey almost had a heart attack this morning when she heard." Chad says.

I like Chad, Chad has all the gossip. I keep looking at the table but he doesn't turn to look at me. After a while, I caution myself. You're just hooking up, if he does something nice for you once in a while, it doesn't mean anything.