Twisting Tides

Chapter 10 - Shia

Shia was seated in Xavier's bean bag chair, sighing for what felt like the 100th time. It's been nearly 2 ½ months since that night at her house and she still occasionally plays it back in her mind. The shock on Kaylen's face, the promise of violence on Tia's and the devastation on Jalen's. Actually, no, devastation is the wrong word. What Shia actually saw was hurt... and betrayal.

She groaned and leaned forward, holding her head in her hands. After Xavier's announcement, Jalen had got up and stated he was turning in early for the night. In Tia's room. And Tia had no objections whatsoever. She tried to talk to him the next morning to explain what happened, but he kept himself occupied by talking to Tia, Kaylen or her mom. When Xavier came to take them school, they all ignored him and made for the bus stop. Shia attempted to follow them but was stopped by Xavier catching her arm.

"You're not gonna leave me to go to school by myself on our first official day as a couple, are you?"

He said it loud enough for Kiana to hear and she received an earful that night after explaining how it all went down. Since then, her relationship with Jalen has been strained. He'll talk to her and come by the house, but the greetings are short and he only comes over to hang out with Tia. If she tries to start a conversation, he either ignores her or walks away. And whenever she enters the room, he leaves it. She's been trying to get him alone so she can explain herself, but he actively avoids her. She's tried to convince Kaylen to help, but she always refuses, saying she can't break his trust in her like that. At this point, Shia was at a loss on what to do.

She groaned again and leaned her head back, eyes closed.

"What's wrong with you?"

She opened her eyes and saw Xavier standing over her, a questioning look on his face. She opened her mouth to say, but quickly thought better of it. Whenever she would try to talk to Xavier about her feelings regarding what happened, he gets a nasty look on his face. Then he bellows that he doesn't want to hear about another male while she's with him. After the first few times, she learned not to bring him up.

"It's nothing super important. Just having some difficulty coming up with ideas for my business administration project."

She lied through her teeth. In truth, she was almost done with it, the write up the only part she had to get done.

"Didn't Tia take that elective freshman year? You can try asking her for advice."

"Yea, I think I'll do that."

He nodded and sat in his desk chair, turning on his game console. Minutes later, he had Apex queued up and his headset on. She turned away from him, popping her headphones in her ears and scrolling through TikTok. After an hour, she looked back at him and he was still playing the game, presumably yelling at someone the way his face was set. She turned away again and sat back, eyes closed and arms crossed.

If she was being honest with herself, dating Xavier was not at all what she thought it would be. Before they got together, he would always carry her bag and open her doors. That's now out the window. He was never one big on physical affection, but he would link their arms all the time and accept her hugs whenever she gave them. Nope, that doesn't happen anymore. Now he gets annoyed whenever she tries to get close and affection can only happen if he initiates it. Oh, and venting to him? Nonexistent. He blows up and tells her to either solve her shit herself or he doesn't want to hear her babble about stupid shit. He's also turned into a raging green monster that snaps at almost every male that's around her and absolutely loses his shit if she expresses that she wants to go to the twins' house. He even tries to limit the time she spends with Tia on the account that she's still close to Jalen. He hasn't told her that that was the reason, but she wasn't stupid, she knew that's exactly what it was.