Gravitating : Book 1 (The Defying Series)

Chapter Nine

Nick took Leah and Catherine back home after the dinner, which left Mia and Xander alone at home since the adults were out working on something important.

It was calm and quiet, just the way Mia liked it when she prepared herself for bed. However a knock on her door took her out of her peace bubble.

"What do you want Nick?" She asked, without turning to the door.

"Were you expecting him?"

Mia turned around, facing Xander. "Was not certainly expecting you" She said, being rude unknowingly. He didn't look as taken aback as Mia thought he would with the tone of her voice.

"I see, well I had a few things to ask" He said, still standing by the door and leaning against the door frame.

"Could they not wait till the morning?"

Straightening himself he walked in to the room in a gait that answered Mia's question loud and clear : He didn't care.  

"You wouldn't like me asking all that in front of everyone" He muttered, his eyes wandering everywhere but to her. "Now listen to me carefully." He said finally steadying his gaze on her. "I know you're lying about going back to your house-"

Mia opened her mouth to deny but the way he had her locked up in his gaze didn't allow her to utter a word.

"I know you were not there because I checked the house myself. I told you, you wouldn't have liked it if I said this in front of everyone"

Her lips tightened in a straight line as she failed to decide how she should react. "I don't see how it's any of your business" She said.

Xander chuckled, as if her outburst was the funniest thing he had seen in a while. He walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, surprising Mia to the extent that she took a step back. "I wonder how Sebastian would feel if I told him that his precious little girl was lying and as far as I guess, she was rather out with some stranger the whole night" He paused as his gaze slid down from her face to her bare legs. "Your ankle has healed" He muttered.

Usually Mia had her pjs on, but now that she had lost most of them she had to stick to what her aunt shopped for her. Most of which consisted of lace and silk nightwears. She was glad she had this very sweatshirt left on her to hide the goosebumps.

"Yes" She answered, drawing Xander's gaze to her face again and as his eyes rose in the similar fashion they had went down. Observingly.

"And your forehead?" He asked.

Mia had almost forgotten about the bandage around her head. Xavier had done a pretty good job patching her up because even with her tossing and turning in bed it hadn't come undone. She raised her hands to touch it, or maybe to remind herself that she had actually met Xavier because with the amount of times she had repeated her lie it had began to feel real.

Xander raised himself up from the bed and took a step closer to her, keeping his gaze still on her forehead. "You did a very good job patching yourself up like that, I mean your head must have been paining"

"The family-" She stressed. "That picked me up from the accident spot helped me bandage it. I didn't do it myself." She said, drawing his attention to her face again. "Don't you think you've questioned me enough for the night?" She added.

"And you didn't answer any of them truthfully"

"That's because I'm not answerable to you"

Xander shook his head and turned his face away from her. "You leave me no choice but to inform this to Sebastian" He said turning to the translucent windows she had forgotten to pull the curtains over.

"Well were you sitting outside my house throughout the night? Maybe our timings were different, what makes you so set on the fact that I lied. You barely know me"

Xander's gaze turned back to her, much softer now than it had been ever since they had met. "What time did you reach your house Maria?" There was a certain breathlessness in his voice as he took her name as if it had been forbidden for him.

"How do you know my name?" Mia questioned, her throat dry and lips shaky. She was sure even Nick didn't knew this name. Only the people who were present at the time of her birth knew about it which included her grandfather, the Wilsons and her parents.

Just when her mother had heard her first cry, she had said that her daughter would be named Maria and fallen unconscious the next second. However, Maria had been the name of the sister of her great grandfather. The sister who died at a very young age, so her grandfather had considered the name to be unlucky and named her Mia instead. Her mother had agreed without even a sigh of protest when she woke up next.

"Is everything okay here?"

Catherine was the last person both Xander and Mia had expected to see. Nick and Leah followed her inside, unaware of the tension that stayed thick between Mia and Xander.

"Xander was giving me some company since we were alone" Mia said, recovering from the shock that was evident on her face even seconds ago. Everyone's head in the room turned to her, including the bulging of Catherine's eyes. "Oh don't worry, we weren't hooking up" Mia added patting Catherine's arm.

Nick fell in to a coughing fit while Leah tried her best to choke her giggle until Xander cleared his throat and announced that he was going to his room. Catherine followed him.

"What in the world was that?" Nick screeched. "And why in the name of hell are you wearing these non existent pair of shorts?"

Mia rolled her eyes and plopped down on her bed, letting the unnecessary tension fall of her shoulders. "I don't have my pjs Nick, these are the ones Aunt Susanne got for me and these non existent shorts are what 40% of the girls wear to bed. Other 10% sleeps naked"

"Stop overreacting Nick" Leah added before Nick could speak. "And stop trying to give him a heart attack will you?" She said turning to Mia.

"I pissed Catherine off didn't I?" Mia asked, her grin contagious.

"Big time" Leah laughed. "Well her snobbishness was getting out of hand when it came to Xander. She didn't even let Xander leave the house the night you went missing, kept saying that she was sick and was stuck to Xander like a chimpanzee"

"Xander never left the house to find me?" Mia asked flabbergasted.

"Nope" Nick muttered scrolling through his phone.

Leah elbowed Mia and pointed at her face, asking her to fix her expression before Nick saw her. "You know the roads were blocked because of a landslide again, we couldn't go home" Leah said, diverting the topic before Nick could question Mia further.

"And I couldn't be more glad about it" Mia said throwing her arm around her best friend's shoulder. "We can spend the whole night now ordering pj's online" She added.

"Oh you don't need to" Nick announced, looking up from his phone. "I was ordering them for you right now. You'd get them in a few days"

"Do you know how much controlling you're sounding right now Nick?" Leah said, clearly angry. "You don't have any right to choose what she wears."

"Babe I was jus-"

"Do not babe me!" Mia cringed back at the high pitch of Leah's voice. "You're terrible at shopping. Just cancel all the orders right now"

"But I-"

"Right now Nick"

Nick huffed, handed his mobile to Leah and left the room muttering under his breath.