The Hottie Cable Guy

Chapter 13: As Grumpy As His Old Uncle

"Honey, Xander is downstairs." Her mom says poking her head in her door.

"I'm coming down in a minute mom."

She gave herself a one last look in the mirror before slinging her backpack over her shoulder and making her way downstairs.

"To what do I owe this visit?" She said smiling halfway through the stairs. Xander is sitting on the couch and when he looked up, he froze. As if he got paralyzed. He slowly pulled himself up from the couch.

"What?" Kirsten said snapping him out. She was already standing in front of him and he was still staring at her.

"You look...great."

Kirsten scoffed."Thanks to your sister." She says rolling her eyes.

"She's a genius. You look really awesome." Her smile faded all of a sudden. There. Second time he used an adjective to compliment her and she felt her cheeks flushed. She rarely gets these type of compliments from Xander and with the way he was staring at her as if he was too fascinated makes her cheeks go crimson even more.

"Thank you." She said shyly taking a deep breath. "So... What brings you here?" She said in an attempt to change the awkward topic of her looking awesome and great.

" I just wanna tell you we have a photoshoot later after class."

"What's the photoshoot for?"

"For the tarpaulins that they're gonna put all over the campus. And the student newspaper."

"Tarpaulins? Student newspaper?" 

"Yeah. Does it sound ok to you?"

No it doesn't. But I don't really have much choice, do I?

"Yeah. Of course. That sounds fun.But you shouldn't have bothered to come here. You could have just texted me." She said instead. She doesn't have the heart to say it out loud. 

"Fun? The expression on your face says otherwise." Xander says. Oh he knew her very well! 

"Well anyway, I wanna let you know personally about the photoshoot and I wanna take this chance to apologize too. You know, for dragging you into this. Look if you're not really comfortable—"

"I'm not quitting. " She stated cutting him off mid-sentence." I must admit this is not something I ever imagined myself doing in my high school life but I'm pretty sure I'll get used to it. I have you on my back right?"

"Of course." He says giving her his million watt smile and her heart almost wanted to melt.

"We don't have much time left...so...let's go?"

"Where?" She gave him a puzzled look. She doesn't remember him telling her about them going somewhere.

"School, silly. Ali says your car isn't fixed yet so I volunteered to be your slave driver for the day."

Oh. "Thanks but actually someone is coming to get me—"

The door bell rang and they both turned to look at the door. She excused herself to Xander and went to open it.

"Morning sunshine." Ethan was smiling at her widely. She rolled her eyes at the endearment he used.

"Come in pretty boy." She stepped aside to give him way.

She closed the door and when she looked at Xander, the smile that was just playing on his lips earlier were now gone. And he is giving Ethan a look. An intimidating kind of look.

"Dude." Ethan offered his hand and by the way Xander remained still and just stared at Ethan's hand for like a minute, she knew he is hesitant to accept it. But he did anyway.

"I'll go ahead. I'll see you after class." Xander says ruffling her hair. Her lips pout. She hates it when he does that. It makes her feel like a 10-year-old girl.

"Yes sir."

"He looks as grumpy as my old uncle." Ethan stated once Xander left.

"He isn't grumpy Ethan. He can be the serious type sometimes. That's just how he is." She felt the need to defend Xander. Being the only boy and the eldest in the family, he grew up looking after his sisters since their father is busy with their construction company.Their mom died of cancer when Xander was just 10 and Alicia was 9. They were living in New York then and after their mom's burial, their father decided they move here in California. And that's the reason why Xander was a year behind in school.