~~Describing The Word Love~~
Aaliyah shouldn't be here.
She had literally less than an hour before she needed to be on her way over to the Garden for Madison's opening night. And here she was standing outside Xavier's apartment, building up the nerve to knock. Things were finally starting to get back to normal again, ruining it by saying things she may not even mean to him wasn't going to make a difference. She knew this, she knew that whatever was going on with him, that he was her friend. He wouldn't abandon her in her time of need for any selfish reason, would he? Or for Madison?
Unable to help herself, she looked up Xavier Adams and Madison Strong in her search engine and a few of their individual songs popped up as well as a music video where they played love interests in a song from Madison's first album. Despite her better judgment, she watched the video, nausea building up and swirling as she saw the smile on Xavier's face as he stared into Madison's eyes adoringly, whilst they lied on a patch of fake grass in a movie set featured in the music video. She thought that that was how he looked at Aaliyah sometimes. She had to remind herself that this was just a video and that he was probably just a great actor too, but it seemed too good to be true. Or maybe that was just in her head. She couldn't tell, it was driving her crazy.
She supposed that she was wrong for bringing all of her insecurities into an argument, but she couldn't help it. She didn't want to make things hard for herself before she needed to be on stage in front of five hundred thousand people. She knew all of this, but she couldn't find herself walking away.
And then her fist was raised and she rapped against the front door. Once and then she received no answer, her pent-up frustration boiling over the top as she knocked again. "Xavier!" She yelled, her anger straining through in her voice, "Xavier, open the fucking door!"
Not up to a second later was Xavier at the door looking to her incredulously, though Aaliyah didn't give him the chance to even speak before her hand was out and cracked across his face with a force she didn't even know she had. He rocked back on his feet, as his head spun to the side like a ball on a pike. He cupped his cheek looking at her out of shock rather than pain and then he glared. "What the hell was that for, Lia?" He snapped, and Aaliyah could hear the level of control he was using. Aaliyah was still stunned that she had even raised a hand to him, but when she met his gaze again her stomach bottomed out.
"For making promises you can't fucking keep," She sneered at him, and at her words, Xavier's eyes darkened taking his hand from his face and wrapping it around her wrist tightly pulling her inside without another word. Aaliyah tried to struggle out of his grip, but he only let her go once she was in the room as the door shut behind her and she stumbled a little, and couldn't help a cold laugh, "Don't tell me. This is the part where you come up with a bullshit excuse as to why you couldn't pull up for me, huh?"
Xavier scowled as he stalked over to the kitchen not saying a word as he rummaged through his freezer, and took out a bag of frozen peas. She watched with intrigue as he put the bag over his cheekbone. He swore beneath his breath and continued to stand in the silence, it was slowly starting to feel like it was peeling back her skin, leaving more time for it to grow back so it can do it again. She couldn't help but feel bad as he pressed the peas to his cheek, looking down at her hand wondering why she even hit him. She was trying to keep herself together just before she knocked, wasn't she? She could slowly feel the silence work on her last nerve. "Aren't you going to say something?"
"Clearly, anything I say to you, isn't going to change how fucking crazy you're being," He replied in a freezing tone, "So why waste my breath?"
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.
"I was alone. I had no one. And I was alone when I learned that my miserable existence was because I was merely a fucking bargaining chip in a really dodgy deal, and my father was able to move on and have his own family across the country like I never happened, and you know why that sucks so much more," Aaliyah said, her voice cracking at the end as her eyes burned with tears, her vision blurring a little. For once Aaliyah wasn't angry about them, she wanted Xavier to see her like this. She wanted him to know how hurt she was by this, how much he had hurt her, "Because you promised you'd be there for me. And I believed you, trusted you, despite my instincts. And you chose someone else over me. Just as my father had, he chose his new family over me and you chose fucking Madison of all people over me. Do you know how much that hurts? How that makes—"
"Madison?" Xavier echoed incredulously, "What the fuck are you talking about? What does she have to do with this?"
Aaliyah glowered. She knew him better than he thought she did, or better than he claimed she did, she knew his looks, she knew when he was keeping something from her. When he was lying. "Don't fuck with me, Xavier," She sneered, "The two of you are trending. You know, I looked you guys up earlier. You looked like you had a lot of chemistry way back when. Now it's like you barely acknowledge her existence. Tell me, Xavier? Was any of it real? Did she hurt you? Can you feel something like that—?"
"If you have to ask me that," Xavier interrupted in a cold voice. He sounded empty, scarily vacant, when Aaliyah met his gaze again, Aaliyah felt his look like a punch to her sternum, knocking the breath out of her lungs, "Then this argument is a waste of time. You clearly think so little of me. Why would you expect me to pull up for you—?"
"That's just it, Xavier!" Aaliyah cried. Her throat felt scraped raw, her cheeks burned with anger and exhaustion, and the familiar need to be close to him all at the same time. It clawed at her insides until she felt scraped hollow. Xavier was taken aback, almost startled by her outburst. Aaliyah would have been satisfied if it wasn't for her anger, "If I truly felt that way about you, I wouldn't fucking be here. I'm here because despite what you think, I know who you are. I don't know all the facts, I don't know all the ways this life had ruined you, but I see where you've been hurt, I see the places you're cracked in. I see them because I have the same damage. I'm hurt, and broken and sometimes I feel irrevocably ruined, but I still try to push through it. Because there are people in my life that I care about, people who care about me. And you have those people, I'm one of them. But you still don't fight. You're so intent on sinking and dragging all the people who care about you with them, and you barely even know it."
Xavier's silence was so deafening to Aaliyah's ears and she didn't know what to do about it. If she was being honest, she didn't know what she expected by saying all of this. She didn't even really know what she was saying, she just knew that words were tumbling out of her mouth with the hope that one of them would hit home for him. That she might be able to reach him wherever he was. But he was still hard as stone.
"Fuck," She swore, before her throat closed up, her shoulders shaking as a sob forced its way out her mouth, "Fuck, I hate this," She cursed again, loudly this time as she lifted her head to the ceiling avoiding looking at him. She knew that if she did, she'd break down. Her heart felt like a piece of dead weight in her chest that felt like it was only moments from imploding, "I came here hoping you wouldn't be here at all, that you would be at your mother's because of some sort of emergency, not that you were here the whole time like you didn't care that I needed you. I didn't even want things to get this far, but you made me so mad and now you won't even respond. You won't open up. Just like Jacks—"
"When did any of this have anything to do with Jacks of all people?" Xavier snapped throwing his hands up with an exasperated noise, "What? Now you're in your feelings because Jacks was there to hold your hand. You looked pretty cozy at Delgato's earlier. Didn't seem like you needed me then? Would you rather that he be with you now?"
Aaliyah glared. "Right now? Kinda," She yelled back at him, not feeling an ounce of guilt when she watched him blanch at her words. He was turning this into something it wasn't, he was trying to make her look like she was the crazy one here, but it wasn't going to work. She would have asked how he even knew that it was Jacks that was with her today, but she knew that social media worked wonders at times, "And you want to throw him at me? Whilst you and Madison looked like you were close enough to have your tongue down her throat today. Have you no standards—?"
"I'm not the one throwing myself at guys who have no respect for you," Xavier snapped back, "Talking about standards, whilst you crawl back to the same guy who hurt you over and over."
Aaliyah threw her head back to the ceiling. "Throwing myself?" She echoed incredulously. Xavier's expression was unreadable, "God, you sound just like Jacks. Stop making me out to be someone I'm not. I wasn't throwing myself at Jacks. He helped me out when I was upset because you stood me up. When you were the one offering to be there for me. And I didn't get even a text message back from you to tell me that you were busy with obviously people more interesting than me. That's not how things work. We talk to each other, we open up, and you don't push me away the moment you get bored. Or do the worst possible thing to me. And now you want to twist that fact and make me the bad guy, because of your inability to talk? Fuck that, Xavier."
"Well then," Xavier said after a long silence. Aaliyah peered into his expression trying to pick apart any sense of hurt, but there was nothing. He crossed his arms over his chest glaring at her, "It's a good thing we aren't together then."
Aaliyah flushed darkly. "Fuck you," She exploded.
"You know, I'm kind of getting tired of you swearing at me all the time," Xavier said, his tone patronizing, "It's like you're using the word fuck to overcompensate for the fact that you don't have a real reason to fight with me."
Aaliyah glowered. "It's a good thing, I don't care what you think then."
Xavier scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Bullshit."
Aaliyah raised a brow. "Really?" She demanded, in a challenging voice stalking up to him raising her head so that he could feel her rage boiling under her skin. "Fuck you, Xavier."
Xavier glared back at her leaning into her face so that they were barely inches from each other, close enough to kiss. "Fuck you, Lia."
"Fuck."
"Fuck!"
"Fuck!" Aaliyah screamed, using all her force to shove him back, he barely stumbled backward and she cursed again turning away from him. She didn't even know what they were arguing about anymore. Now it was just an argument about who can scream the loudest. She pressed her fingers to her temples trying to calm herself down.
She needed to get out of here. If she stayed who knows what might set on fire, "You know what, I only came here because I was angry as hell and I just needed an explanation. Now that I have and realize this was a wasted trip anyway since I feel even worse than I did before I got here, I'm leaving," She said starting towards the door. Xavier called her back, but she ignored him not wanting to scream anymore, her throat felt stripped raw.
Just as she reached for the door handle, Xavier beat her to it pressing his hand firmly against the door. "Let me go, Xavier," She sneered at him, which he returned with a glare.
"You don't get to just leave after all of that," Xavier said, "You don't make us have the fucking screaming match of the century and then walk out. That's not how this works. This isn't some fucking movie. You're going to fucking hear me out too."
"So now, I made us have a screaming match, Xavier you abandoned me," The raw pain in her voice when she spoke couldn't be reckoned with and just a look at his face told her that he knew that too. He couldn't argue, because he knew she was right. He had fucked up. "And it's not like you were trying to make an argument outside of undermining me anyway," She continued, "Forgive me if I wanted to spare myself any further embarrassment."
Xavier glowered at her. "It's like you're the center of the damned universe, Lia," He said in a sour voice and Aaliyah looked to him incredulously, letting go of the door handle, "You don't hear yourself talk. This world wasn't made for just you alone, I have my own bullshit to deal with, and as much as it pains you to hear, you're not the only important person in my life. My mother is sick and is hurting. And I can't be stretched impossibly so that I bend to your will too. And I am sorry that you suffered like this, no child should have lived the way you did, but that gives you no fucking right to dismiss my pain or anyone else's because you're hurt."
Aaliyah didn't know what else to say. She knew that his mother was sick, for a moment she hoped that he hadn't abandoned her for Madison, that it was for his mother instead. That she could understand. But it never occurred to her where he was emotionally. She had spent so much time with him these last two weeks, she knew that he wasn't perfect, that he was barely holding it together. And now here she was, screaming at him about her own problems. He was right, she was being self-centered and she hated that he was right. She never wanted to dismiss his pain, all she wanted was to be there for him the same way he had been for her times before. He was finally allowing her to see his pain and she went and spat it back in his face.
She couldn't do anything but sit in a heap of her own self-loathing and grief. "Maybe you're right," She murmured, feeling more tears stream down her cheeks, she wanted to claw at her skin to do anything to get rid of this hollow ache in her body. "Maybe I should go. I was so angry, I forgot for a moment... I just saddled you with a bunch of my bullshit totally forgetting the shit you're going—"
"And that's where you're wrong again," Xavier replied, in a tired voice covering her hand on the door handle with his pulling it away. Aaliyah felt her body still under his touch and she hadn't realized up until now that this was what she had been craving, his touch, and his warmth. He reassured her without saying a word. But maybe that was dangerous. A battery only had so much energy, she wasn't entitled to all of it. To any of it if she was being honest. All she could keep hearing was Uriah's voice, Blair's too. Telling her that she was self-centered that she saw the world through rose-colored glasses, that she thought that everyone paled in comparison to her. She felt sick. What more could he want with her, Xavier already made what he thought of her clear. And he was right. Aaliyah could barely stand the thought of being in her own skin any longer. What father figure could ever really want her anyway?
"No, Xavier," She replied in a weak voice, taking her hand out from his, "You don't owe me anything least of all listening to me going off for no reason. You made that clear from day one, I didn't care. But I do now"
"Lia—"
"Xavier," She said in a soft voice, interrupting him meeting his wide eyes, "You don't have to pretend for me. I fucked up. Big time. I should have known better, and as much as I wish I could make it up to you right now, and how much I would love to be there for you right now, I doubt I'm the type of energy you need right now."
Xavier facepalmed himself. "You just completely misunderstood me," He sighed running a hand through his twists, "You have no idea how much I feel about you. No idea, how much I want to hear you talk about your problems. I'd listen to you till my ears fall off because I know you need it. And I want to always be there to listen to you, but I am just a guy ridiculously in over his head."
Aaliyah frowned at him. "In over your head?" She echoed in a soft voice, "Xavier, you are probably the sanest person I know."
Xavier snorted. "How low is your bar for sanity?"
Aaliyah couldn't help but crack a smile. "Pretty low if I'm being honest," She replied, and Xavier's smile mirrored hers for a moment and she couldn't help but reach out to touch him, but he moved away, his smile falling, and with that her reassurance.
"If the last five minutes have taught me anything about us, is that we can be incredibly toxic," He said in a low voice meeting her gaze, "One time it's me fucking up, another it's you, and we can't seem to go through our problems without ending up in a screaming match. Which can't possibly be good for the neighbors." He said turning away from the door, "Maybe we need a break."
Aaliyah looked out at him as he moved away, completely at a loss for words, she was confused. One moment he's trying to keep her from leaving, and then another he's trying to push her away. She didn't understand. "Xavier, a break from what exactly?" She asked.
Xavier lifted his gaze from the ground to hers in a knowing look. "From this," He said gesturing between them, "Whatever this is. Whatever we've been doing for the last few weeks. This is crazy. Neither of us actually knows what we're doing with each other. And I know for a fact that hurting you, only hurts me ten-fold, and seeing you cry was probably the most painful thing I've seen in a while, and I know that it's my fault, which makes it worse."
"Now who's being self-centered," She replied in a shaky voice, "You don't get to hog all the blame. I did just storm in here fucking guns blazing—"
"I made you a promise, Lia," He argued, "I was angry with you because you hit me. But you were right. I made you a promise, and I broke it. I don't take things like that lightly."
Aaliyah shook her head. "You have your own life," She said, "And it's not like you owe me anything. We're not really anything. I don't have a right to be claiming your attention every second of the day."
"But you weren't," Xavier insisted, "It was only thirty minutes, an hour tops. And it wasn't just my mom that kept me away." He said in a low voice. Aaliyah felt herself move from the door without her volition, she felt herself moving towards Xavier, her hands shaking.
"What else kept you away?" She asked, her voice quiet and trembling.
Xavier grimaced and Aaliyah knew that whatever it was he was going to say, wasn't going to make things better. "I was fucking scared," He replied forcing the words out like it was venom on his tongue, "I was scared of what it would mean if I went to you. You wouldn't believe that it was Madison of all people that got into my head. Thanks to Twitter, you know I saw her, but like with you and Jacks, they twisted things. She was talking all this crap about you and me, but I can't lie it meant something to me. She didn't know much about me, but she knew one thing. Commitment hasn't ever really been my style. What if I did it wrong? This relationship thing, what if I hurt you because I couldn't handle it. I can't deal with hurting you, Lia. I'd rather die."
Aaliyah felt her heart pant painfully and she stepped towards him. "Xavier, it's not like you don't have a choice—"
"Sometimes you don't," He insisted giving her a look, making her stay where she was and keep her at a distance. Like she was some china doll meant to be kept locked away and admired, not touched, "Like you with Jacks. I know you never wanted to hurt him, but you did because of me."
Aaliyah shook her head, trying to figure out a way to reach him. "Not because of you," She replied softly, "Because of me, Xavier. I love Jacks, he would always be my friend, but how I felt about him wasn't what I feel about you—"
"And what even is that?" Xavier demanded throwing his hands up stepping away, and Aaliyah felt like she was losing her grip on her only lifeline, "Lia?" He said turning back to look at her almost accusingly, and he laughed in a cold voice, "Neither of us even know what that is. How do you know in the near future that I won't find some spectacular way to hurt you, or you find a way to hurt me. What if we both break our hearts? What then?"
"Then they'll break," Aaliyah said fiercely stepping closer to him. Xavier looked down at her and Aaliyah kept her gaze even, fire igniting in her blood. Tightening her hold, she wouldn't lose him, not today, "And when they do it'll hurt like a bitch, but I'd rather have some day in the near future where we both hurt each other than just keeping myself away from you, because Xavier, that hurts. And I'm not some fragile piece of china you need to protect at all costs. I'm not perfect, I have my scars, you've seen them. And I know for a fact that I feel a thousand times better with you than I ever did without you."
"Dammit, Lia," Xavier exploded. Despite herself, she flinched, though he seemed oblivious to it, "Don't you get it? I'm bad for you. You're literally here furious because I couldn't keep a fucking promise—"
"Xavier, your mother needed you," She said, "You think I expect you to choose me over her? Hell no. I was wrong to think that you wouldn't have other things to do that are important—"
"Sure maybe you came off a little inconsiderate, but it's not like it wasn't warranted. This was important to you and I couldn't even text—"
"Just like your mom is important to you," She insisted with a frown, shaking her head, "Why are you trying so hard to push me away?"
Xavier sighed turning away facepalming himself. "Because," He said tiredly, "I'd rather break your heart now than continue to disappoint you and then inevitably break your heart later."
Aaliyah could hear the pain and the force in his words and they felt like a punch to her heart all the same. He was in pain. Aaliyah could feel it, she could see it. She wasn't sure what it was, that had him convinced that he wasn't good enough, that he was too damaged, too broken to allow himself to be happy. She supposed she had Madison to blame partially, but this was also something internal. He believed it himself. And that he seemed to hurt her more than anything, she didn't care what she had to do. She would remind him every day that he was enough, for her, for himself, that he was good enough to be loved and more.
"You don't get to choose that for me," She said in a firm voice, and he looked at her with a cocked brow, "You don't get to choose to spare me pain or heartbreak. Because it'll be my pain, my heartbreak, mine. And I am the only one that knows what I need—"
"But Lia—"
"No." She said not letting him give her more reasons to give up on him, she reached for his hand and put it over her chest, right above her heart that was beating wildly against her rib cage as though it was ready to break out. She held his hand by his wrist, his pulse thumping quickly under her hand. "Break my heart, Xavier. Break it into a thousand pieces. Do whatever the fuck you want with it, I give you my full permission," She said meeting his gaze, staring up at his wide eyes. His dark, dark eyes that shone like polished obsidian and cut deep into her. She remembered the first time she met that smoldering gaze. The first time she felt something, she didn't know at the time, that it would be something she may not be able to live without. She craved that look more than anything, and maybe it was selfish, but she didn't care. It wasn't selfish to wish for someone else's happiness more than anything else in the world, because it would make her happy too, "Break it now, break it ten years from now. As far as I'm concerned, just getting to be loved by you the way that I love you would be worth it."
The words escaped her before she even realized that she was saying them and she felt herself inhale sharply at her words widening her eyes as she searched Xavier's expression as he registered her words too, his mouth parted in surprise and his eyes seeming incredibly vulnerable.
Just the sight was heartbreaking and she swallowed meeting his gaze again. "I haven't," She started slowly, feeling her nerves choke her as she spoke. The silence between them after she said the words was deafening. Even as true as her words were to her own ears, she was terrified that Xavier didn't feel the same, "I haven't for the longest time been able to put exactly how I feel about you into words. And as a songwriter, you know just how annoying that is, it's my job to be able to put how I feel into words, it's how I speak to the masses. But when I think about it now, how I've felt has always been simple and maybe I was just guilty about Jacks, and maybe I was insanely terrified that whatever it was that I felt wasn't reciprocated and that even trying to explain it would only end up with me being hurt. But just saying the words felt like so much relief—"
"Lia, just stop talking," He said and between one breath and the next, he brought her to him, his hands pressed against her cheeks as he pressed his mouth against hers in a firm kiss and it was like explosions going off in her head. His mouth was soft against hers tasting like chocolate. She felt herself sink into his hold, tears springing to her eyes as she let her eyes flutter shut and be trapped in this singular moment with him, "How am I supposed to let you go now?" He murmured between fervent kisses, all over her face, along her jawline, the tip of her nose, her cheeks.
"Please don't let me go," She begged through her tears, her voice shaking as she grappled for something on him so that when her knees buckled she'd have something to hold onto, "Don't let me go. Just tell me you love me. Just tell me that and everything will be fine."
Xavier pulled back for just a moment holding her face in his hands like some precious jewel he was terrified of breaking. She wished he would know that he didn't have to be afraid. You can't break something that's already been broken. And she'd been broken by the world long before she knew him. "Of course, I love you, you dummy," He said swiping her tears away, staring at her tear-streaked face adoringly, "I've loved you for a long time."
Her heart was lighter for once. As though hearing the words from herself and from Xavier changed everything. Like admitting a fact that had been staring her in the face since that night that they kissed in his car and even before then maybe, was exactly what she needed, what they needed. "I know that you think that you're too broken to be loved by anyone, but—"
Before she could say anymore there was a knock on the front door and she jumped. Her heart almost rattling in her rib cage. And a pit of dread started in her stomach as Xavier's gaze went over to the door and darkened. He turned her to keep her behind him as he stalked over to the door. Aaliyah went after him, unsure of why Xavier felt the need to take extra precaution. He took a minor pause at the door before pulling it open. Aaliyah held her breath. The tension in his shoulders making her anxious. And she barely managed to get a scream out when a man, gigantic, even bigger than Xavier pulled a grin filled with malice that could shock someone's system, pulled out a gun, and slammed it against his temple not giving him the chance to even make another move and he crumpled to the ground like a tower of blocks.
Instinct told her to run to Xavier, and she did. But before she could crouch down, the man took her by the shoulders in an iron grip and she could barely move, like the more she struggled the tighter his grip got like a vice. Somehow, Aaliyah thought she recognized him. His grin was awful and she felt like she was going to jump out of her skin at just the look, "Hey gorgeous," The man said, his voice coming out teasingly, like velvet. Almost like Xavier, and then her eyes widened.
"You're Xavier's brother," She breathed out shock mixed in with a tiny hint of growing horror when her gaze went back to the gun in his waist holder.
The man, shrugged, his smirk growing a little more impressed. "Manny did like his girls smart." And at Aaliyah's growing scowl and the fear in her heart when she looked down to Xavier's unconscious body, the man took her head, she couldn't even scream, and next thing she knew there was a crack, things spinning and then nothing.