Gravitating : Book 1 (The Defying Series)

Chapter Twenty

Xavier didn't pick up Mia's call when she called him before bed. She tried twice and gave up the third time, wishing that she could give up on sleep as easily as she could give up calling Xavier. Even though she felt tired she couldn't sleep.

After another hour of tossing and turning Mia decided to give up. She sat up, put her hair in a bun and left her room. Regretting it as soon as she stepped out. She was used to the way mansions looked at night but she was not used to seeing shadows.

Instead of screaming her head off she picked up the nearest vase and started walking towards the shadow. She was ninety nine percent sure that it was either any of the Knights or the Wilsons, the vase was for the one percent and the chills rising up her spine.

"Mia?"

Mia dropped the vase with a loud clang and turned around.

"I didn't mean to scare you" Xander muttered.

Mia's heart was still hammering against her chest. She placed a hand over it and took a deep breath. "Did you mean to give me a heart attack then?" She snapped.

"Why would I do that?" He asked confused.

"You don't sneak up on someone like that!" Mia said, rolling her eyes. "That to in the dark." She added.

"I-I am sorry. I didn't-"

Mia cut him off. "You didn't mean to scare me. I got it"

"What were you trying to do?" He asked, picking the vase up and examining it.

"I thought I saw someone" Mia answered taking the vase away from Xander, a bit too roughly.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping right now?"

Mia scrunched up her eyebrows and scowled at him. "My sleeping habits shouldn't matter to you" She snarled. Trying to step past him towards her room.

Xander stopped her by placing his hand on the wall and his body in front of her. "I was just curious" He said, his tone probably the softest Mia had ever heard, weirdly making her heart beat faster again. Probably from the shock of Xander being nice to her.

"Are you trying to have a conversation with me?" She asked. Crossing her arms on her chest.

Xander didn't reply but his eyes stayed unmoving from her face even in the dim light of the moon. "Your lips look swollen" He said almost in a whisper, as if thinking out loud.

Mia broke her gaze from Xander's face startled and touched her lips. "They're fine" She muttered, her mind fading in to glimpses from her kiss with Xavier.

"I'm not blind Mia"

His voice was so sharp that Mia resisted the urge to step back. "Why should I explain myself to you?" She fired back.

Xander's eyes softened in realisation, his shoulders dropped from the taut stance they were in as he finally took his eyes off her and lowered them. Mia sucked in a deep breath, why were her words effecting him like this? She asked herself but before she could answer the questions going through her mind Xander stepped forward, he lifted his hand up to cup her cheek and tucked in a stubborn strand of hair that rested over Mia's face. "You're right" He drawled out. "I don't deserve any of your explanations not when I never gave you mine"

"Xander-" Mia stopped as soon as his thumb came over her lips. He rubbed the pad of his thumb against her lips  while Mia stared at him utterly surprised. His eyes appeared heavy almost tired as they flicked from her lips to her eyes and then suddenly every last drop of softness vanished from his eyes. He stepped back and before Mia could blink he was gone. She heard the slamming of a door behind her but it wasn't as loud as her heart was beating. She almost felt lightheaded with everything that had happened in a span of few seconds.

Mia slapped her hands against her forehead, trying to wake herself up. Had she imagined everything that happened seconds ago? She was having a hard time believing that anything of this sort could even be remotely true.

She walked back to her room lightheaded, forgetting to place the vase in its place as she entered her room and closed the door. She dropped the vase on a chair near by and dropped herself on the bed in a similar fashion. Everything felt like a whirlwind in her head. The moment had been so short and yet so vivid that she could remember each and every detail.

Each and every detail about the man against whom she held a lot of unknown and known grievances.

Mia didn't remember when she had fallen asleep last night. She woke up in a haze, memory of last night still vivid in her mind but she couldn't sit mulling over it. She had to go and pick up Lucas from the airport. Leah would certainly come over to see her today hence she'd bring Lucas with her back to the house for a nice reunion.

She was glad that she had set up an alarm or she'd not have woken up this early. She quickly got ready and walked downstairs but Susanne was in front of her before she could leave.

"Young lady you're not leaving the house without breakfast" She said in a stern voice before taking Mia to the table where she already had a plate ready with eggs and bacon.

"I'll get late you know" Mia muttered as Susanne sat her down.

"You're not leaving without breakfast" Susanne repeated before walking to the kitchen. She stopped at the door and turned around. "I'll be watching you, don't dare to leave without eating" She warned before disappearing in the kitchen.

Mia reached the airport before Lucas had arrived. His flight was delayed due to the weather. She decided to wait in her car till then. The airport was as packed as always, people hustled and bustled out of it even this early in the morning. Mia was staring at the screen of her phone in an unfocused manner, she was more focused on the shadows that moved on her dashboard notifying her about the movement of the people.

It was the moment that she flicked her gaze upwards, out of the windshield when she noticed that a familiar figure walk by. It wasn't Lucas. It was Xavier. Mia flung open the car door and watched the figure gain distance from her. Xavier hadn't told her when he would return exactly and he had not made any contact to her after she left the library that day. She'd have blamed it on the kiss but she knew it wasn't the reason. They had spent more than an hour together after the kiss as Xavier had read out the Legacy to her.

Lost in her pursuit of the man in front of her Mia hadn't noticed that she had almost crossed the threshold of the parking lot and was now walking out through the main gates of the airport. It was hard to keep up while dodging several people who came from the opposite direction. She managed to grab the jacket of the man before anything else could shove her out of the way, an unfamiliar face stared back at her surprised.

Mia was at a loss of words. Her mouth opened and closed without any word coming out of it as she tried to grasp the reality of what she had actually done. Exhaling the shock of what just happened she muttered a weak sorry to the man and turned her back on him.

She made her way back to the parking lot, not so careful about the people pushing their way past her. Thoughts were buzzing in her head, more prominently the question that what was she thinking when she blindly followed someone that looked close to Xavier. The truth was that she wasn't thinking and she wasn't one of the persons who acted without thinking.