CHAPTER 14: UNINVITED

✦ 𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐓 ✦

I closed my bedroom door behind me, leaning my back against the heavy wood for a long second.

I tossed the gray hoodie onto the back of my desk chair, pulled off my shirt, and changed into a pair of soft sweatpants before crawling into bed. As I laid there staring up at the dark ceiling, the image of Xavier kneeling over me in the dark flashed across my mind. I could still feel the sudden weight of his body pressing me into the floorboards and the crazy, erratic pace of his heartbeat against my palm.

I shook my head, pulling the blanket up to my chin.

He's impossible to understand, I thought, letting out a quiet sigh into the cool dark. One second he was punching a hole in the drywall upstairs, and the next he was handing me my laundry in the kitchen with a totally straight face, acting like nothing had happened.

I turned onto my side, buried my face in the pillow, and closed my eyes, forcing myself to stop overthinking every little detail. Within ten minutes, the exhaustion caught up with me, and I was fast asleep.

By eight the next morning, everything in the house was back to normal. Suspiciously normal.

When I walked downstairs into the sunlit kitchen, Xavier was already sitting at the head of the dining table dressed in a sharp charcoal suit. His laptop was open in front of him, and he was scrolling through emails with a mug of black coffee in his hand. Richard and my mom were sitting nearby, chatting animatedly over breakfast about their schedules for the week.

"Morning, sweetie," my mom said, looking up with a warm smile and setting a plate of fresh fruit on the table. "Did the power come back on early last night? I was worried you boys were stuck in the dark all evening."

"Around midnight," I said, sliding into an empty seat across from Xavier. "It wasn't too bad."

Xavier barely looked up from his screen. He reached for his coffee cup, took a quiet sip, and didn't say a single word to me. There was no awkward eye contact, no lingering glances, and no trace whatsoever of the heavy, suffocating tension from the night before.

"The wind knocked down a few branches near the driveway," Richard mentioned, cutting into a waffle and checking his watch. "I'll have the grounds crew clear them out before noon. Xavier, do you have that financial report ready for the board meeting?"

"Sent it to your inbox ten minutes ago," Xavier said, his voice completely calm and level.

"Excellent," Richard nodded, taking a sip of his orange juice.

I grabbed a piece of toast, buttering it quietly while I watched Xavier out of the corner of my eye. He looked totally unbothered, focused entirely on his work. I let out a soft breath, convincing myself that I’d made a huge deal out of nothing.

See? Last night meant literally nothing. He was just stressed about the blackout and angry about falling.

Two hours later, I was sitting near the middle row of my finance lecture on campus, trying to keep up with the slides on the screen.

The lecture hall was packed with nearly eighty students, the room humming with the quiet sound of typing and shuffling papers. At the front of the hall, the professor clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, settle down, everyone," the professor announced, stepping away from the podium. "Before we dive into today's topic, I'm assigning your primary midterm semester project. This assignment counts for thirty percent of your final grade, and yes—you'll be working in assigned pairs."

A collective, exhausted groan echoed through the auditorium.

"I've randomized the list to make things fair," the professor continued, pressing a button on his remote to pull up a massive spreadsheet on the main projector screen. "Find your partner after class, exchange contact info, and start brainstorming your case studies. You have three weeks."

I scanned the projector screen, scrolling through the long list of names until I found mine listed near the top: Julian Hart — Adrian Miller.

"Lucky you," a guy sitting two seats down whispered, turning over with a grin. "You got Adrian. He's literally the top scorer in our section."

"Really?" I asked, looking back at the screen.

"Yeah, man. He aced the last two exams without even sweating."

As the lecture ended and students began packing up their laptops, I stood up, looking around the crowded rows for my partner. A guy around my age with messy dark hair, a casual denim jacket, and an easygoing smile stepped down the center aisle toward my desk.

"Julian, right?" he asked, throwing a heavy leather backpack over one shoulder. "I'm Adrian."

"Hey," I said, offering a small smile as I gathered my notebook and pens. "Looks like we're stuck together for thirty percent of our grade."

Adrian chuckled, leaning back against the wooden desk frame with a relaxed posture. "Hey, don't worry. I actually like case studies. Plus, I promise I won't ghost you and leave you doing all the work at two in the morning."

He had a natural, charismatic energy—confident, funny, and completely unassuming. Unlike the rigid, quiet atmosphere I was used to at home, being around Adrian felt light. We walked out of the auditorium together and sat down on a wooden bench near the campus quad to go over the syllabus breakdown.

"So the professor wants five major analysis sections," Adrian said, tapping his pen against his printed copy of the rubric. "If we split it up right, we can have the first draft done by next Friday and spend the rest of the time relaxing."

"That sounds almost too organized for a college project," I laughed.

"Hey, I value my sleep," Adrian grinned, looking over at me. "I refuse to stress out over a finance project when we can just knock it out early."

Within ten minutes of sitting there, I found myself genuinely laughing at his commentary on the course materials. It was the first real, relaxed laugh I’d had in weeks, and conversation with him felt completely effortless.

By four in the afternoon, we walked down to the campus crosswalk near the main entrance gates, finalizing our research topic outline.

"So I'll draft the case study section tonight, and you can take the data analysis part?" Adrian asked, checking his watch with an easy smile. "We can compare notes tomorrow after class."

"Sounds good to me," I replied, slinging my bag over my shoulder. "I'll type up my notes and text them over to you tonight."

"Perfect," he said. "Hey, do you need a ride back to your place? I parked right over in the student lot behind the library. It's no trouble."

"Oh, thanks, but—"

Before I could finish my sentence, a sharp, loud horn blared from the curb right behind us.

I jumped slightly, turning around to see a sleek black SUV parked at the edge of the loading zone. The front passenger window rolled down smoothly, revealing Xavier sitting behind the wheel. His expression was completely blank, but his grey eyes were fixed straight on me with an intensity that made the air feel suddenly thin.

"Julian," he called out.

His voice wasn't angry. It wasn't raised. It was just quiet, flat, and final.

I let out an awkward, sheepish laugh and turned back to Adrian, rubbing the back of my neck. "Sorry about that. That's my stepbrother. I guess my ride's already here."

"No worries at all," Adrian said smoothly, giving me a friendly wave as he backed away. "Get home safe! I'll text you later about those charts."

"See you tomorrow!" I called back.

I walked over to the SUV, pulled the heavy passenger door open, and climbed inside. As I pulled the door shut, Xavier didn't wave back at Adrian or even acknowledge his presence on the sidewalk. He simply shifted the car into drive, stepped on the gas, and pulled smoothly out into the afternoon traffic.

A long, heavy silence stretched between us inside the sleek leather interior of the car. The only sound was the low hum of the air conditioner and the quiet clicking of the turn signal.

"Who was that?" Xavier asked quietly, keeping his eyes locked straight ahead on the road.

"My project partner," I said, adjusting my seatbelt and opening my phone to look at my schedule. "The professor paired us up today for the midterm assignment."

Another long beat of thick silence filled the car.

"You'll be spending a lot of time together?" Xavier asked. His tone was flat, completely unreadable, but there was a sharp edge underneath it.

"Probably," I murmured, scrolling through my downloaded files. "It's a pretty massive project. We have to do a full corporate analysis by the end of the month."

Xavier didn't say another word. But as I glanced sideways at his hands on the wheel, I noticed his knuckles whitening as his grip tightened on the leather steering wheel until the veins stood out against his skin.

I frowned slightly, not understanding why he looked so tense out of nowhere, but I shook it off and looked back down at my screen.

By seven that evening, the whole family was sitting down around the long dining table for dinner.

The atmosphere in the dining room was lively as my mom talked about her afternoon spent shopping with her friend Sarah, while Richard cut into his steak at the head of the table.

"How are your classes coming along, Julian?" Richard asked, setting his fork down and looking over at me. "Any big assignments on your plate this semester?"

"Yeah, actually," I said, passing the bowl of roasted vegetables down the table. "We got paired up for a major midterm finance project today. It's thirty percent of our grade."

"Oh, nice!" my mom chimed in with a warm, encouraging smile. "Who's your partner? Do they seem nice?"

"His name is Adrian," I replied, taking a sip of water. "He seems super smart and easy to work with. He's actually the top scorer in our section."

"Well, that's great news," Richard said casually, taking a sip of his wine. "Invite your partner over one day after class. You kids can use the study downstairs to go over your work."

"Maybe," I smiled, cutting my food. "We might do that if we need a quiet place to work."

Across the table, Xavier placed his fork down against the rim of his porcelain plate. Very gently. Too gently.

Neither my mom nor Richard noticed the subtle shift, but sitting directly across from him, I caught the tight, rigid posture of his shoulders. He didn't say a single word, simply picking up his cloth napkin, wiping his mouth, and keeping his eyes fixed on his plate.

Later that night, around ten, I was sitting on the soft living room rug with my laptop open on the coffee table, organizing my references for the project.

My phone vibrated against the wood beside my notebook. I picked it up to see a notification banner pop up across the screen.

Adrian: Today's meeting was actually fun. See you tomorrow in class!

I smiled to myself—not romantically at all, but just genuinely relieved that I finally had a decent, reliable classmate to work with for once instead of taking on the whole load alone. I typed out a quick reply—Same here, see you tomorrow!—and tossed my phone back onto the coffee table. Leaving my laptop open, I stood up and headed upstairs to take a quick shower.

Fifteen minutes later, wrapped in a comfortable hoodie and sweatpants with a towel around my damp hair, I padded quietly back down the stairs to grab my phone and close my laptop for the night.

The living room lights were off, bathed in dim moonlight from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

As I rounded the corner near the sofa, I froze.

Xavier was standing beside the coffee table in the dark. He wasn't holding his own phone or drinking water. He was standing totally still, his tall frame towering over the rug, staring directly down at the glowing screen of my phone.

Just as I stepped closer, my phone screen buzzed again, illuminating the dark room with a soft blue light.

Adrian: Don't stay up too late working on those charts.

Xavier didn't reach down to touch it. He didn't pick it up or try to unlock it. But in the pale glow of the screen, I caught the sharp line of his profile—his jaw clenched so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek, his grey eyes shadowed and completely unreadable.

"Xavier?" I asked softly, stopping a few feet away.

He didn't look up at me. Without saying a single word, he turned on his heel and walked away into the dark hallway, leaving me standing alone in the quiet room…….