The Sword And The Shield (X-Men) (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Chapter Forty-Eight: The Dinner

The Dinner

Aaron's POV

Once I reach the front door of the mansion, I waste no time. I sprint up the stairs and down the hall, nearly knocking Belle over. "Sorry Iz!" I grab her elbow and steady her, not wanting her to fall. She laughs and pats me on the shoulder.

"Everyone's in a rush today. The Professor's dinner is tonight and the newbies are getting shipped out! Gosh, so much is going on right now." Belle drones on and on, forgetting that I know little about what's actually happening.

"Wait, who's leaving?" Belle's tiny eyebrows nearly cling to each other in the middle of her forehead.

"Jesus Aaron, where have you been? Lauren, Terry, Blake, and Acacia are being flown out to L.A., I think, to complete their training." She shrugs her shoulders and adjusts her spaghetti tank strap. "Jean and Scott are overseeing them. They'll be back in like a month." I nod and shove my hands into my coat pockets.

"And where's Jade?"

"In her room." Belle holds up the dress bags for me to see. "We're getting ready together, for the Professor's dinner. I just have to go find my makeup bag." She looks me up and down, noticing my odd silence. "What's wrong." Her blue eyes widen once she realizes where I just came from. "How was your date?" I rock back and forth on my heels, sucking in my bottom lip.

"Not good." Belle's shoulders drop and she reaches out to me, resting her delicate hand on my arm.

"I'm sorry Aaron."

"I don't know what I was expecting. Jade is a very specific kind of girl, no one can really replace her." Belle withdraws her hand in confusion.

"Do you want to replace her?"

"No, but I think she wants me to..." Belle shoulders her dress away and throws her arms around me sympathetically.

"Oh Aaron." The amount of pity in her voice is a bit unnerving, but I accept the hug gratefully. "It's a shitty situation, I'm sorry." She pulls away, running her hand down my arm. "Tell you what, you're going to go and talk to Jade while I make sure Dan didn't find the bottle of vodka I hid under my bed. You know how he gets when he's around authority figures." She winks one blue eye at me before turning around and sprinting down the hall. I bite on my bottom lip before actually making my way towards Jade's room.

The door is already open, but I still knock on it as I lean against the frame. She's sitting on her bed with her legs crossed. Her long brown hair has been rolled into curlers and piled on top of her head. I can see a few of them have been loosened, probably because Jade doesn't like having things in her hair. I look closely and realize that shes wearing a pair of black briefs, which I'm guessing are supposed to match her black sports bra. She's reading a small booklet, entitled Great Poetry of the 1900s. We recently discovered that poetry calms her down when she gets stressed, particularity Edgar Allan Poe. Something about his dark, twisted mind really speaks to Jade. No idea why. "Are you wearing briefs?" Her greens eyes don't leave the page she's reading, but a small smirk dances across her lips.

"They're not yours. Belle bought me some." She finally looks over to me and smiles, wiggling her body in a strange way. "I feel so free." I chuckle and step into the room, finding that I'm standing on an empty bag of shredded mozzarella cheese. Jade eats cheese when she's stressed. Poetry and cheese. "You worried about the dinner?" I ask as I sit down next to her on her bed. Jade shrugs and goes back to reading. Words cannot express how happy I get when I see her read. Ever since she learned how, it's one of her favorite things to do. That and beat up the new high-tech dummies we made that scream when you hit them.