Dude...Thats Not a Guy

38. Silence

Xavier's POV:

I stared at the amount of people that were still here, still out of the front of my parents house. The police had steadily been making their way through the crowd, getting statements from everyone now so they wouldn't have to chase them up later. Soraya had been taken to hospital first, Zeke and Ashton had gone with her. Alistair and Willow were still here, all three of us had given accounts of tonight while Alistair and I had given extra background information on Adam's stalking of Soraya.

Willow had called Soraya's parents straight after that, telling them what happened, that Soraya was at the hospital and to meet us all there.

Alistair had explained why he was over the top of an unconscious Adam, who had also been taken to hospital due to the broken nose and hit onto the pavement. The police seemed to be okay with it once they saw the footage that showed Adam had swung first and had clearly started something he couldn't finish. Self-defence, and defence of others because who knows who else he might have hurt.

Me, on the other hand... I felt useless.

All I did when I heard Ashton shout Soraya's name was freeze. I wish I meant I just didn't move, but I felt my blood turn cold as his voice reached my ears. My mind paused, and I didn't know what to do. Sure, we had been through some shit this year, sure I had broken my face which was still tender, Ashton got drugged at some point...

But this... this under my own roof.

If Alistair hadn't moved the millisecond he heard Ashton shout we might have never seen Soraya again. At least alive. Ashton would have done his best, but his panic would have gotten the better of him.

Zeke had grabbed my wrist and dragged me through the crowd, following Willow as she barrelled through people to get to her friend even though there wasn't much she could do.

As I looked at Willow and Alistair, standing together, Alistair's arm around her shoulders as she cried into his chest, I realised something. The panic I felt hearing Ashton shout after Soraya, that's the same panic that Zeke felt when I told him about my situation in this fucking house.

I didn't want to make this about me, and I wouldn't, but some part of my brain clicked into place and told me that this anxiety was something that the people in my life felt for me. Worrying about my own safety. Not just Zeke, but Alistair and especially Ashton. I didn't want to live in a constant state of fear anymore either...

If tonight proved anything it's that we don't know what's going to happen next, we could get hurt, we could die and never see it coming. It took me too long to realise it, but I understood now.

"Soraya's awake, she'll be okay." Alistair said. We had all been standing here for the better part of three hours as the police went to everyone present for statements. I had been too far in my own thoughts to even notice that he was on the phone. "She's just doing her statement, her family is there and took the evidence with them to give to the police." He said next, I nodded as I looked back at the house I had lived in for my entire life. The house that my sister had chosen to leave...

I hadn't talked to her since she left, and I missed her so fucking much.

"Are you talking to Ashton?" I asked quietly, Alistair nodded. "Can I... I need to ask him something. I know now is a bad time..."

"Hey, Ash, Xav needs to ask you something." Alistair said, waiting a second for a response before he passed the phone to me. I turned away from Alistair and Willow, looking at the house behind the hundred or so people still here.

"So Soraya's okay?" I asked, needing to be sure.

"I mean, as okay as she can be." He responded, I nodded even though he couldn't see. "That's not what you wanted to ask though, is it?"