The Secret of Xavier

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

       Xavier walked over to where I was sitting in the living room on the floor, right in front of the coffee table where all my textbooks and notebooks were. "Daddy," he said. "I want song."

       I sighed, not being able to grant Xavier's request to play the guitar with him. I didn't even think I could take a five minute break because I was worried the moment I moved away from studying, I wouldn't go back to it. "Not right now, Xavier," I said. "I have schoolwork to do."

       "Why?" Xavier asked, sitting down beside me.

       "Because I have all my final tests," I said. "And if I don't want to take school in the summer, I have to pass all my tests."

       "Why?"

       "So I could graduate and be done with school."

       "Why?"

       I sighed again. Xavier was in the phase where he constantly asked why to everything I said in an attempt to understand the world more. I had to admit, as cute as it was, it was sometimes annoying when he would ask why ten times in a row, which he had done in the past. I made sure I didn't show my annoyance, though, since he was just a learning toddler.

       Thankfully, Mom walked inside the house just then, seeing that I was trying to study. "Xavier, would you like to help me make dinner?" she asked as she took off her shoes and puts them in the closet beside the door.

       Xavier jumps up. "Yeah!"

       "Thank you," I said. "I promise I won't be studying all night."

       "Don't worry about it," Mom said. "If you need to take time to study, I'm more than happy to keep an eye on Xavier. You know that. It takes a village, after all."

       I smiled my thanks as Mom took Xavier to the kitchen to help cook dinner. I didn't know if it would be enough to distract him for long, but at least it gave my some time to study without Xavier constantly asking for something. 

       I did consider myself to be a good student since I had good enough grades, but studying always drained so much out of me. On top of trying to remember and understand the material, I would constantly worry that I would end up failing my finals, which might make me fail my class overall. I was so close to graduating. The last thing I want was to fail and have to take summer school in order to graduate.

       Xavier ended up staying with Mom in the kitchen for the whole dinner prep. Mom brought out a plate of food for me, setting it on the coffee table while she and Xavier stayed in the kitchen to eat.

       I multitasked eating dinner and continuing to study, not wanting to let a moment go to waste. The only break I took was when I got a text message from Nova, asking if we could study together because she felt like she was losing her mind. I told her she could come over since I was studying now.

       It didn't take long for Nova to show up but unfortunately when she did, Xavier wanted to play with her. I mean, I was happy that my son loved my girlfriend, and I especially loved how happy he got whenever he saw her, but he wouldn't allow us to study properly.

       "Xavier, you're going to have to leave Nova and your dad alone," Mom said.

       Xavier pouted. "But I play with Nova."

       "I know you want to play with her, but she's busy," Mom said. "How about we go to the park for a bit? You can go on the swings and the slide."

       Xavier smiled at the mention of going to the park; one of his favourite places to go to. "Okay!"

       "Are you sure?" I asked Mom.

       Mom nodded. "I want to make sure you can study without Xavier distracting you. Besides, taking him to the park at this time might tire him out more before bedtime, so you can have even more time to study."

       "Thank you," I said. I really appreciated how supportive my mom had been the entire time towards me being a dad. She was shocked at first when she found out I got Jolie pregnant, but she told me she would support me in whatever way I could. Being a teen parent wasn't easy, so I was glad my mom was here to help. I knew not everyone was lucky like me, so I made sure not to take Mom's support for granted.

       Nova and I were only able to successfully study for a few minutes after Mom left with Xavier before Nova rested her head on the coffee table. "I give up. I'm just going to accept my fate. If I fail, I fail."

       "Do you really want to fail when we're so close to graduating?" I asked. 

       "I mean, I don't want to fail, but I also don't want to study anymore. What's the point of tests, anyway? A lot of it is memory based, so that's not fair for people who don't have the best memories. It's biased, archaic, and dumb."

       "I wouldn't exactly call it archaic, but I get what you're saying." I leaned back, resting my back against the couch. "Just think. Once we're done with this, we're done with school forever."

       Nova leaned back as well. "You're not going to university?"

       "I'm not sure," I said. "I'm not going to right away since I want to focus more on Xavier for a bit, and possibly save up money to go to university. It might even be better for me to start taking classes when he's in kindergarten so I can work my schooling around his."

       "Yeah, that's a smart idea," Nova said. "And don't feel any pressure to go to university right away. There's nothing wrong with waiting a few years, especially to save up money."

       I smiled at Nova's reassurance that waiting to go to university wouldn't actually be a bad thing. "What about you?"

       "I think I'm just going to take half a semester to a year off," Nova said. "No more than that. I'll probably go into general studies first just to see if there's something I want to study the most, but I'm also kind of leaning into going into social services."

       "I think that's a great idea," I said. "I know you always say that you hate people, but you're great with kids. And people."

       "To be fair, I hate people I go to school with," Nova said. "They're all dumb. I don't actually hate people. You really think it's a good idea?"

       "Yeah, I do," I said. "But it doesn't matter what I think. All that matters if it's something you want."

       Nova smiled at me before she leaned towards me and give me a kiss. "You somehow gave me the confidence to get back to studying."

       "I don't know how I did, but hey, if it works, it works," I said.

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so just one chapter left! i really don't want to drag the book one when i'm so low on ideas for it :( i do know what the last chapter will be, so if you think i'm taking too long to update it, just request for the update on my profile as a reminder! i just have too many books and end up forgetting some lol.