Rise of Xavia

by Tara Chau

  * * *

  The sun streams through my veranda door, shining right in my eyes. My seven o'clock alarm rings loudly. I groan, rolling over, pressing my pillow into my ears. The alarm is on the other side of the room, I put it there last night, so I would have to actually get up to turn it off. Something shifts near my head, and I nearly scream before clamping down on my tongue, remembering that Gabe slept over last night. I squint and see his toes in my face; a small smile breaks my face. My smile spreads into a grin as he moves his big toe, flexing it back and forth. He's awake.

  Memories of yesterday afternoon come crashing back, Lucien, Gabe, Cleo, and Frankie, all affected by the brief yet deathly event. From the corner of my eye, I see Gabe sit up, only to shift and plonk back down on my side of the bed, facing me.

  “Morning,” he whispers.

  “Shhhh, if we acknowledge it, it'll stay. If we don't…." I say, closing my eyes sleepily again.

  Gabe laughs softly, brushing aside a piece of hair that had fallen across my face. I feel his arm wrap around my waist, pulling me in close to his body. Somehow, I fit perfectly in the folds of Gabe's body, his heat keeping me warm but not hot. I sigh with content, tuning out the ringing alarm. A knock comes from my door, causing me to spring up, shoving Gabe flat under the covers. Before calling out to Dad, I lie back down, close to Gabe's body but propped up on my elbows, praying that Dad thinks his body is just my blanket bunching up.

  “Come in,” I call, trying to sound calm and sleepy instead of panicked.

  Dad opens the door. Walking over to my desk, he shuts off the alarm.

  “Just checking you were awake,” he says, walking over to kiss me on the forehead. “You alright?” he asks suspiciously.

  “Fine,” I say chirpily, hoping that it wasn’t too chirpy.

  “Alright, hurry up, don’t be late to school, it’s very expensive,” he says, chuckling to himself as he walks out the door, closing it behind him.

  I heave a sigh of relief; I feel Gabe relax under the quilts. Sliding it back, I see him grinning guiltily. Unable to keep the smile from appearing, I turn away, shaking my head too close. Rising from the bed, I walk over to the closet to pick out my clothes.

  “I have an idea,” Gabe says, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “The four words that society fears most,” I tease.

  Gabe huffs his annoyance but continues. “Your dad’s gotta know we’re dating sooner or later, I say sooner.”

  "And where is the ideal part of all this?" I ask apprehensively.

  “I’m going to go over to Ty’s house and get ready for school. I’ll be back in half an hour to walk you, giving you the perfect opportunity to tell your-”

  "God, it's too early for this." I breathe, pulling out a white singlet, black jeans, and my doc-martins.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” he says optimistically.

  “Get out of here,” I say, lobbing my jeans at his face.

  Gabe laughs loudly. I run over and clamp my hands over his mouth, swearing quietly.

  Gabe removes my hand from his mouth, kissing me hard on the lips. Before I can get too caught up in him, I pull away, lips aching slightly. I smile sweetly but shove his chest.

  “Go away,” I say. “I’m getting dressed.”

  “You really think that’s gonna make me want to go away anymore?” he asks, a wicked smile growing on his waking features.

  “Perve!” I yell, throwing one of my boots at him.

  He catches it one-handed, failing to contain his grin. "Seventeen-year-old guy here, we're all perverts,” he counters.

  I bluff, throwing my other boot at him. He raises his hands in surrender.

  "Going, Going,” he surrenders, hands displayed beside his head.

  Gabe stands to kiss me again, but I turn my head, giving him the cheek instead. Ha!

  “Cold witch,” he complains.

  “You might want to leave before you make this even worse for yourself,” I advise.

  “Wise,” he says, nodding. “Be back in thirty.”

  I turn around to close my closet doors, knowing that he's already gone before I spin back around.

  Walking around the house collecting all my things for school, I grab an apple for breakfast. I pace the hallway outside my dad’s office ten minutes before Gabe’s due to return, procrastinating.

  “Just do it,” I murmur to myself.

  "You're wearing pace marks into my carpet!" Dad calls from inside his office; damn, busted.

  How to tell your dad you now have a boyfriend that he doesn't know at all? That is the million-dollar question. I steel my nerves and push the study door open, walking in and sitting on the chair pushed into the corner.

  Dad has finally unpacked all the boxes, random books, and mini sculptures decorate the wooden shelves. A framed picture of Mum and I is sitting on the huge oak desk. I remember the day Dad took that photo; it was one month before Mum was diagnosed.

  We had gone to the park; it was autumn, and the leaves were just turning fire. Mum had insisted we go out, complaining that we never spend enough time together as a family, which was of cause absurd due to the fact that we had family dinners every Wednesday and Friday. But Dad and I simply nodded and went along with her cause Mum always gets what Mum wants. She had packed a huge picnic which Dad had whined about, saying that we wouldn't finish even half of it. Mum simply rolled her eyes and shut him up with a quick kiss, which I totally looked away from. After we ate, Mum revealed she had a kite with her. She and I spent ages trying to get it to fly, it wasn't very windy, so Dad had a good laugh watching us throw it up and up countless times into the air. Eventually, a gust of wind took it up; it soared high, higher, and higher until the string ran out. I smile as I remember mum's shrill laugh, calling for me to bring it down.

  Being incredibly annoying and stubborn, I just poked my tongue out at her and ran with it. I turned around once the edge of the park came into view, sprinting back to my beaming parents. I didn't care that I was way too old to be enjoying flying a kite at this age, didn't care that the other couples in my year watched me like I was a lunatic. I was happy. As I reach my parents, another gust blew into the kite, sending it flying out of my grasp. I screamed, begging it to come back. Turning to my mum, I brought out a majorly cute and innocent pout, making my bottom lip wobble. Seconds later, we both burst out laughing, giving Dad the perfect opportunity to capture a picture that is now sitting frozen on his desk. It's one of my favourite memories with my mum, of my family.

  “Dianna?” Dad asks worriedly.

  “Sorry,” I mumble, waking from my daydream back into my stark reality.

  Glancing at the clock, I gape, only five minutes before Gabe comes knocking at my door, expecting a fully informed father.

  “Dad,” I say, matter-of-factly.

  “Oh no, it’s that tone. Please tell me you’re not pregnant,” he begs.

  I'm so startled by his comment, I gape openly at him, not saying a word.

  "Oh no, you are!" he says, voice raised and panicking. "Are you sure?"

  “Dad,” I yell, breaking away from my shock. “That’s not even close to what I was going to tell you!”

  “So, you’re not pregnant?” he asks, concern inching over every feature of his face.

  “No!”

  “God, thank god!” he says, sighing in relief.

  It’s at that point where I see his happy smile and realise the sarcasm in his words. I shake off the nerves and glare at his brightened face.

  “What I was going to say is… I have a boyfriend,” I spit out quickly. Dad looks plainly at me; his expression is nonreadable. "And he's coming over so we can walk to school together, and so you can meet him,” I add.

  Still, nothing.

  “Daddy?” I ask, worried.

  “Okay,” he says simply, smiling coolly.

  “Okay?” I question suspiciously.

  Dad nods reassuringly. Smiling,
I walk out of his office, relieved, that is until I hear him mumble something.

  “I wish you were here.”

  I know who he means. He means mum. I wish that too.

  Walking into my room, I pull a brush through my hair and yank on my clothes and boots. The bell rings.

  Punctual jerk.

  I run into the hallway, determine to beat Dad to the door. I do.

  Opening the door, I return Gabe's grin with a vicious glare, somehow in Gabe language, that means come in. Shutting the door behind us, we don't even have to take a step before Dad appears in front of us.

  Be nice. I mouth to Dad.

  He dismisses my silent comment with a wink and goes to shake Gabe’s hand. Don’t break his hand. I inwardly beg, realising that Gabe can sometimes miscalculate his strength.

  “Killer grip,” Is all Dad says.

  I sigh with relief for the billionth time this morning.

  “Nice to meet you formally,” Gabe says, flashing Dad a charming smile. A bit over the top there, Chip.

  “Sure, but I’m pretty sure Di already introduced us, Gabe, right?”

  “Yes, Sir,” he says.

  “Please, call me Henry,” Dad says; wow, nice start.

  “Yes, Sir… Henry. Sorry, habit,” Gabe says, cringing.

  “Oh, did you do cadets or something?” Dad asks interestedly.

  “You could call it that,” Gabe says, actually considering it.

  "Right, well, you two better head to school,” Dad says. “Straight to school,” he adds.

  “Dad,” I hiss.

  “Seriously,” he says, giving me the look.

  “Absolutely,” Gabe says, nodding firmly. Way to suck up to the adult.

  “Good. And no fooling around either,” he warns.

  “Oh my god. Alright, Gabe, we're leaving,” I say, grabbing my bag and his arm.

  Gabe stumbles back, giving my dad a small wave. Dad shouts his goodbye from the door, watching us walk down the driveway before closing the door. As soon as we leave the street, Gabe drapes his arm around my shoulder.

  “See, wasn’t that bad,” he says into my ear.

  I shiver involuntarily, making him laugh.

  “Hi,” he says into my ear again, making me shiver again. Gabe laughs, his body vibrating against mine. I shove him off me, grumbling—Gabe sprints to catch up to me, this time wrapping a hand around my waist.

  “I like this,” he says.

  “Me too,” I admit. “Most of the time.”

  Gabe stops, turns my face to him, and kisses me deeply. A moan escapes my lips as he pries them open. Remembering that we're in the middle of the footpath, right in the public eye, I pull away hesitantly.

  Gabe rolls his eyes amusedly, though when he looks back at me, I know he's waiting for something.

  “Fine, I like this all the time,” I admit. There, that’s what he wanted.

  Suddenly his face goes completely serious. “What was Lucien talking about when he said it was your turn to do your part? Yesterday,” he requests.

  I look away from him, unable to lie to his face. “I don’t know.”

  Gabe looks at me. I can see him considering if I'm telling the truth. Why aren't I telling the truth? Because I don't want him to get hurt. Because I know if I tell him, he'll tell everyone else, and there'll be a huge hunt for him from my own personal friend group, and they'll all die. Selfish. My conscious screams that single heart-retching word, making me inwardly cringe, but maybe not because Gabe sees it.

  “Don’t lie to me, Di,” he murmurs.

  “I’m not,” I shoot back, way too quickly.

  He stops again. This time he takes the time to walk into a smaller shadier street, away from most of the public eyes and ears. We can totally do this because we’re totally early for school. Not!

  “Gabe, school, late, phone call, parents, absent,” I say.

  He ignores my complains and takes both my hands. I look at a spot just above his head, still unable to look at him without a screaming frenzy from my conscience. Noticing this, Gabe transfers his hands to my cheeks, forcing me to look into his dark eyes. Shit.

  "Do you know what Lucien is talking about when he says it's time for you to do your part?" He asks, straightforward and precise.

  “No,” I say, forcing my conscience into quiet submission. Still, the lie tastes bitter as lemon skin on my tongue.

  Gabe searches my eyes for any proof of the lie; it feels like he's digging deep. I force the lie deeper. "Please…"

  I stop his next words with a desperate kiss, not allowing him to pull back. By the time I've released him, he's in a daze and seems to have forgotten about the interrogation happening seconds prior.

  “We’re going to be late for school,” I say, leaving Gabe in the empty street to sprint to school.

  As the houses and trees flash by, faster than the cool winds blowing, my worries and lies blow away as well, until I see Gabe running next to me. We slow to a normal pace one block before school, just in case some other students see us. Running as fast as we did gives us about three minutes before the bell, just as we stroll through the front doors.

  “I was still asking you about Lucien before you distracted me,” he complains, giving me the stink eye.

  Smiling innocently at him, I blow him a sweet kiss before skipping away from him towards class. Of course, Gabe couldn't just leave it alone, so he grabs me around the waist, spinning me round to face him. I huff in annoyance.

  “Yes?” I ask.

  "Don't use that tone on me, Dianna.”

  “Don’t interrogate your girlfriend, Gabriel.”

  “Girlfriends don’t lie,” he counters.

  "I think you'll find that most of us do. Though, I promise that I'm not lying. This time,” I add.

  Gabe throws his hands up in frustration. I stifle a laugh. He sees.

  "Why are you laughing?" he asks, annoyed.

  “Because you’re getting worked up over nothing,” I answer, again, lying.

  “Am I?” he asks, eyebrow raised.

  “Correct.”

  Gabe lets out a huge sigh as if letting go of all his irrational worries. "Okay."

  I smile proudly to myself. "I'm going to class because I'm a good, diligent student."

  And because you can’t bear to look at your boyfriend, who you just lied to. Screams my conscience.

  I’m so wrapped up in my own thoughts that it takes me a second to realise that Gabe just snorted. Snorted!

  “Excuse me?” I ask, offended.

  “Nothing,” he says sweetly.

  He comes in for a kiss which I block with a hand to his face. “Did you just snort?” I accuse.

  "No, ma'am,” he says, only to snort again.

  I shove him hard in the chest, unbelievable.

  “Sorry, sorry,” Gabe says in surrender.

  “That’s right,” I huff.

  Gabe laughs to himself, “Go to class Miss Diligent.”

  "Fuck off, Mr Loner,” I say.

  Gabe pretends to look hurt, but his frown turns into a grin. "I'm not a loner. I'm together with you,” he points out.

  “Then I dump you,” I say, turning my head to the right and crossing my arms.

  “Nope, you’re stuck with me,” Gabe says, walking up to me and lifting me up, spinning me around, so my legs hit a person.

  “Put me down,” I squeal.

  Gabe promptly places me back on the ground. “Okay,” he whines, “Bye,” he says, waving to me as he turns around.

  I mentally shove him into the wall, remembering all too late that it will actually happen. Oops.

  Gabe falls against the wall but somehow makes it look cool. Turning around to look at me, he sends me a look that promises something humiliating later. Great. The first bell rings. I blow him another kiss and start walking away; off to be a diligent student.

  Walking into Ty's house, I strut straight into Ronnie's ro
om, coming to a sitting position on the floor next to her.

  “Hey,” I exclaim. “Want to hang out?”

  “Why?” she asks suspiciously. Smart child.

  “Because everyone else is talking about boring stuff,” I answer, meaning they’re in the kitchen talking about ways to find Lucien that don’t involve using me as bait.

  "Okay!" she says excitedly. "I'm going to go stand on the opposite side of my room and throw these daggers at you; you're going to block them with your cool mind powers."

  Sigh, of course, this is what she wants to do, hurl daggers at me.

  Ronnie flings one at my head without warning. I scream, I high-pitched scream before blocking it frantically, too close. Ronnie giggles.

  “Are you dead, Di?” I hear Ty call.

  "Ronnie, did you kill my girlfriend?" Gabe asks, not one inch of worry in his voice. It's more like he's amused.

  “No! Go back to your boring stuff!” she says, sassy.

  “Yeah,” I add, childish.

  Ronnie lets another dagger fly, this time, aiming at my chest. Block.

  “You gotta be faster, little girl," I tease.

  Ronnie glares. This time she draws her last dagger and lets it soar towards my face, fast but not aimed very well. I let it graze past my ear, wincing slightly as it scrapes my skin, drawing small drops of blood.

  "When I said you have to be faster, that doesn't mean you can substitute it with poor aim," I say, tossing the three daggers back to her.

  "Yeah," she says, glaring at her hands. "Okay, go away. I'm going to practice on my door."

  “Can’t I watch?” I ask.

  “No,” she says simply.

  “Why?” I whine.

  Ronnie looks at me, unimpressed to see a big girl begging. “Because I like to do it in private,” she explains.

  “Then why don’t you just do it on me again, pretend I’m your target?”

  "Because I like to hear the thump of wood when I hit my door, it's satisfying," she admits darkly.

  "Oh, okay," I say, dragging myself out of the room. I close the door just in time for the first blade to hit it.

  Walking into the kitchen, I hiss as Gabe touches my bleeding ear. “Ow,” I mumble.

  “Our little devil’s quite brutal,” Gabe says to Ty, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist.