Dangerous Boy

Chapter Fourteen

"Xavier - " my voice comes out higher than before as I eye the large men, dressed in black suits like Xavier is. They're all tall and buff, some are younger while others would be near the same age as my Dad.

"It's alright, they won't even look at you" he answers but my attention turns to the expensive cars parked everywhere, there's hundreds of them.

"Ready?" he asks, my eyes examine the hundreds of people I can see who all seem to be glancing at us. Every single one of the men are intimidating, some have tattoos all over them and others look like they're related to the hulk.

"Yeah" I answer, although my voice sounds anything but sure and confident.

Xavier gets out of the car, a new, totally cold exterior to him as he straightens his shoulders and I can only watch him as he walks confidently around to my door. Everyone standing around looks at him. Some of the girls who each look like supermodels stand in groups and are openly drooling, eyeing him up like he's a piece of meat which barely seems appropriate right now.

His gaze meets my nervous one as he opens my door, helping me out of the passenger seat of the car as I swallow. This is way out of my league.

The pressure of his hand rests firmly on my lower back as we make our way through the crowds of people who all nod respectfully when they see Xavier. Most of the girls glare at me, but none of the men even look in my direction. How Xavier can be in charge of all of these people at such a young age bewilders me.

A couple begins making their way towards us. A large, intimidating man whose nearly as big as Xavier but maybe a few years older has his fingers intertwined with a friendly looking girl whose heavily pregnant but still almost half my size.

"Cameron" Xavier shakes his hand firmly, his voice sounds so completely different than I've heard it before. So full of authority. "This is Grace, Grace this is Tom's brother Cameron and his fiancé Paige."

Cameron smiles at me as I shake his hand which makes him seem only a little less scary, I can definitely see the resemblance between him and Tom. "It's nice to meet you."

"Hi" Paige greets as I shake her hand, she looks to be in her mid twenties so she's few years older than I am but she seems a lot friendlier than the rest of the girls here. "I'm sorry we had to meet like this."

"Me too" I answer with a sad smile, thankfully holding myself together so far. "It's nice to meet you though."

"Tom's coming over" Cameron warns and I look up, sure enough Tom's walking towards us. The suit he wears makes him look so different than I've ever seen him, he doesn't look like he belongs in a gang.

"I'm so sorry" I whisper as soon as he gets to us, he pulls me into a tight hug and I squeeze him firmly which he doesn't seem to mind.  "Sam was such an amazing person."

He squeezes me just as tightly. "He was" he agrees quietly. His voice is hard to read, I know he's trying to be brave and keep a straight face.  "Thank you for coming, it would've meant a lot to Sam."

I pull back, allowing Tom to hug both Cameron and Paige. I'm most surprised when he clasps hands with Xavier who pulls him in for one of those man bro hug things guys seem to do. Xavier whispers something quietly to Tom I can't hear but he smiles a little, how he can be so together amazes me. If I was in his shoes I'd barely be able to stand.

"I think we're nearly ready to start" Tom glances at the black funeral car that pulls up and my chest tightens further, this feels so much more real all of a sudden. 

"The front row of seats is where we'll be sitting" Xavier whispers against the skin of my ear, pointing to the line of white chairs on the left hand side. "Go with Paige and sit down."

"Where are you going?" I keep my voice just as quiet, although Paige seems lovely I doubt a heavily pregnant women could do anything against the large men surrounding us.

"To carry the coffin" his voice stays exactly the same, emotionless. All I can do is nod silently, if I speak I'll cry and if I cry I'll turn into a wreck before the service has even begun.

Paige smiles at me sadly as we walk down the aisle together, Cameron, Xavier and Tom all walk in the other direction towards the car which I can barely bring myself to look at.

"When are you due?" I decide to ask and break the silence. It's a stupid attempt to take my mind off what's about to happen but it doesn't work, I shouldn't have expected it to either.

"She's due in two months" Paige smiles a little as she places her hands on her swollen tummy and we sit down. Other people also begin filling in the rows of seats around us but none of them say anything to us which I'm slightly grateful for.

"I'm about to cry and it hasn't even started" I wipe my eyes pathetically and Paige searches her purse, handing me small amount of tissues which I thank her for.

"Sam was an amazing person."

"He was" I agree quietly, he definitely was. Amazing doesn't even begin to cover what he was.

Everyone stands as some kind of sad piano based song starts playing, my eyes cast backwards to the elegant black coffin being carried down the aisle but I have to look away from it just as quickly. Xavier and Tom are carrying the front of it, Cameron's behind Xavier with someone else I don't recognise and two other men I don't know are behind them.

They place the coffin down carefully before walking back to their seats, Tom stays by it longer than everyone else and my heart breaks at the simple sight of his eyes on the photograph of Sam that rests beside it. Eventually, he moves back to his seat which is beside Xavier, who is beside me.

Xavier pats Toms shoulder heavily as he sits down, although he's yet to show any emotion himself. His face is still as blank as it was this morning. He takes me by surprise by intertwining his fingers with mine and squeezing them softly, a gesture which I wasn't expecting.

I guess this is it, it's time to say goodbye to Sam for the last time.