Dear Love, I Hate You (Easton High)

And panic tightens its hold on me.

Shit, did he leave?

He can’t run.

He can’t—

“What happened to your shoes?”

Every bone in my body unwinds at once. I spin on my axis, my chest heaving with my lack of cardio, and tears of relief hail down my face.

He’s here.

He ditched his suit’s black jacket, wearing nothing but the button-up shirt he had on underneath with the sleeves rolled up. I don’t bother elucidating my shoe situation, struck by this intense need to kiss him.

So, I do.

I charge toward him, hurl my arms around his neck, and mesh our lips together before he can get a word in. Xavier immediately angles my chin for more, his large hand sneaking into my hair as he kisses the fear and adrenaline still pumping in my stomach goodbye. His mouth acts like a tranquilizer, his tongue tangling with mine soothing my worries. I’m still crying, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m happy, sad, terrified…

Or all of the above.

“What were you thinking?” I choke against his lips, my voice a quivering mess. “Your scholarship, your future. God, what if Duke finds out? Xavier, what did you do?”

Xavier grabs my face with one hand and squeezes my cheeks, staring into my eyes as if to engrave the words into my brain as he whispers, “I protected my family.”

My crying picks up again, twice as hard this time, and Xavier?

?s lips enclose mine, his thumbs swabbing my tear-soaked cheeks dry. He kisses me so hard I wonder how I could, for even a split second, consider moving 2,216 miles away from him.

I don’t have the faintest idea of what this means for us, if I’m still getting on a plane tomorrow, if his coming clean to the entire party changed anything in the grand scheme of things, but I can’t bring myself to care. Not when Xavier Emery is kissing me like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do.

I’m gripping his collar, squashing our bodies together, when I discern fast-moving footsteps heading straight for us. Next thing I know, the door to the living room is blown wide open, and Xav gets ripped away from me violently.

The following events unfold too fast to catch up.

I barely get the chance to see Mr. Emery, sorry, Xavier’s dad, glaring at us like he’s planning a homicide before he cocks his fist back and swings at his own son.

He strikes Xavier smack in the face with all his strength, and I scream, my hand flying to my mouth in an involuntary impulse. Gobsmacked, Xav staggers backward, swaying like he’s going to lose his balance and regaining control just in time. Royally pissed off, Xav jerks his head up and wipes the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Do you have any fucking idea what you’ve done?” Mr. Emery belts at the top of his lungs, nostrils flaring with rage. “You ruined our lives, son. We were perfectly happy this way.”

Xavier’s features twist in disgust, rage thrumming through the bulging vein in his neck.

“Wait… Are you saying… you fucking knew?” Xav yells.

Mr. Emery clenches his teeth together, debating on revealing a secret Xav will never be ready to hear.

Finally, he says, “Of course I knew.”

The confirmation serves as a detonator to the explosive anger that’s laid dormant in Xavier for far too long. Matching his father’s violence, Xav grips Mr. Emery’s suit into his fist and seethes inches from his face. “So, you knew all this time? You knew she was fucking a minor? My friend?”

Mr. Emery, who’s a hair shorter and not nearly as muscular as his son, has no choice but to face his disadvantage.

“Jesus, no!” His dad sticks his hands up in surrender. “I knew about the plumber, and the neighbor, but I didn’t know about the kid, I swear.”

Far from convinced, Xav lets go of his dad’s suit with a strong shove that leaves daddy dearest straining to restore his balance.

“So, what?” Xavier hisses. “You two had some fucked-up cheating arrangement? You knew she was screwing all these losers from the get-go and you were just okay with it?”