Limelight

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Aaliyah felt the blood in her veins chill. "You say that like my anger isn't warranted," She replied, "You left me alone. You didn't show up. I was at the park for over an hour after Brendan left and you never showed. And you promised you'd be there for me. So don't patronize me or make me feel like I'm being irrational for acting this way."

"I had things to do," Xavier replied in a stoic tone revealing as he worked his jaw around the frozen peas nothing about how he felt, only hurting her more.

"And what," She demanded, "A text message couldn't suffice? I was there for you when you needed me, the moment I knew you needed me to hear you out, I was there—"

"And I was there for you every other time," Xavier snapped in a cold voice, "You barely managed to hear me out without feeling guilty about Jacks. I was there for you every single time you had a problem you couldn't go to anyone else about. I listened to you, I advised you. I was there for you, even when it killed me. I was there. And you're losing your shit because you couldn't handle it the one time I couldn't be there—"

"Don't throw that in my face. You know why that was hard for me," She snapped her voice cold, "And this was different." Aaliyah continued in a frosty tone crossing her arms over her chest, not wanting to hear anymore.

"How?" Xavier snapped back throwing his free hand up exasperated, "How was this different to any other time, your highness, to every other time you've been on the precipice of yet another meltdown—?"

"This was my father, Xavier!" She cried angrily, tears already sprouting from her eyes. "I know that might not mean much to you or whatever but it means everything to me. My life was a fucking horror movie before I got here. You knew that. I spilled my guts to you that night on the balcony. You have no idea how many times I replayed that conversation in my head. So I know that you knew exactly just how tightly I held onto the hope that one day I'd be able to get out. Get out and run away and make a life of my own. How much I wished for my birth parents. I'd be starved for days slaving away for my foster parents because I knew that my life wouldn't be better elsewhere. I didn't have a family, I didn't have the support system you pretend you don't have—"

           "You have no idea what I've been through," Xavier seethed stalking up to her, fuming. She fell silent abruptly, clamping her mouth shut, stumbling backward a little when he stopped right in front of her, looming before her like a giant about to step over her. It was times like these that she felt startled by his astonishing height. When he was so close, she felt increasingly aware of herself, her body, and how small she was next to him. He was glaring at her, setting her blood ablaze with his rage like he wanted to strangle her, "You are not the only one with trauma in their lives, Lia. And you know nothing about mine. You think because you've met my mother and went to my Church a few times that you're qualified enough to speak on my experiences—"

        "I'm not speaking on your experiences," Aaliyah snapped back, stepping toward him too, matching his energy as she raised her chin defiantly holding his glare with her own, "And you're right, I don't know what you've been through. But I've met your mother, and I've been to your Church, I met the people you grew up with, the people who taught you and mentored you and loved you. No matter what you've been through, Xavier, you were never alone in it."

         Xavier was silent, his eyes hardened considerably as he bored his gaze right into Aaliyah's. The silence stretched between them so thin it was becoming uncomfortable for her, but she refused to let up. She was furious with him, rightfully so, and he was turning it on her and twisting her anger into something it wasn't. She wouldn't let him.