Chapter Six

The next day Vanessa went to school, like no other. She kept thinking about last night, and how her parents had met Xavier. She had never brought anyone home before, nor had anyone ever met her parents so she was actually surprised it went so well last night.

As she was grabbing her things from her locker that morning a certain dark haired teenage boy came up and joined her. “Good morning Vanessa, it was so lovely to meet your parents last night.” Xavier told her in a cheery tone.

She sighed as she turned around with everything that she needed for her first period in her hands. “Morning Xavier.” She said, completely lost in her thoughts about yesterday. Her parents couldn’t shut up about how they came home to find a guy in their home with their daughter. They were so excited over the idea that their daughter had finally made a friend, since over the years their daughter had never brought anyone home. She had to literally tune her parents out for the rest of the night because they wouldn’t shut up about it.

Xavier read the girl’s expression and her behavior before replying. “Are you alright, you seem down or like something is wrong. I hope by your parents seeing me at your house last night I didn’t do anything wrong.” He told the girl in a concerned tone. Why was she acting this way? What had happened to her last night after he left to make her act this way towards him?

Vanessa knew she had to tell him the truth so she did just that. “You didn’t do anything wrong, just my parents wouldn’t shut up talking about you last night at all. They were so excited over the fact that they think their daughter has actually made a friend for once. Honestly we might have to work somewhere else today on the project, either your house or like the library or something will work. I just don’t want to deal with another headache tonight because of my parents.” She told him, as she started on her way to their first period.

Xavier thought that over a bit. Had she never brought anyone home for projects or something? If so, why had she now? He was nothing special to her, right? He was just a pest or an annoying person that was just trying to get her attention, or at least that’s what he thought she saw him as.

“Have you never brought anyone home before, and they stayed late enough to have met your parents?” He asked her, in a curious tone. Obviously he knew other schools made students work together on projects, so why hadn’t she brought anyone home before?

“No, usually there are an odd number of students so I’m able to work alone, or they would meet me at a cafe or something nearby to get the work done. So my parents were very surprised.” She told him, as she walked through the door to their first class before taking her seat.

“Then yeah we can work at my house tonight, it just might not be the quietest place in the world to work.” He told her, still thinking about why she hadn’t just insisted on going to a public place or his house before so her parents hadn’t had to see him.

“Thanks.” She said as she took her seat. She was stuck to her thoughts already about what his house would be like, and stuff like that. Why would it be so loud though? She wondered, but then again she remembered he wasn’t like her. He probably had tons of friends over all of the time, and if he didn’t then his parents probably did.

The two teenagers continued their conversation for a bit, before the bell rang. Both of them looked up to the front of the classroom where their teacher usually stood, but this time she was nowhere to be seen. Vanessa wondered why, while Xavier thought about the fifteen minute rule and how he didn’t mind skipping the first period at all.

After a few minutes the door opened and in walked a blond lady who seemed to be in her mid to late twenties, her body had an athletic build to it. Vanessa wondered if she was a gym teacher or something since the way she looked.

Before anyone could say anything the blond lady at the front of the room spoke up. “My name is Mrs. Hardt, and I will be filling in for Mrs. Dutch today. Now some of you may know me as one of the gym teachers here, but some of you may not.” Mrs. Hardt said, while looking over the papers littering the desk in front of her. “Anyways, Mrs. Dutch’s plan today was for you guys to work on your projects with your partners and I’m guessing you guys already know who that is so please get with your partners and get some work done. I’m here if any of you need my help.” Mrs. Hardt finished as she sat down at the desk.

Xavier turned to her with a smirk on his face. “I’m guessing you didn’t bring your laptop to school did you?” He asked her, and she immediately shook her head. Of course she hadn’t, it was an out of class project.

“Well I guess we can just talk while looking like we’re working on the project then, she’ll never know the difference.” Xavier said, while taking a piece of paper out of his binder and his pen. He began to write some things on the paper.

“I’m not sure we have that much stuff to talk about though, we don’t have much in common.” Vanessa told him, as she read what he was writing on the paper.

Xavier looked over to her with the same smirk on his face from before. “You would be surprised. I mean you’ve probably lived in every state so far, and have experienced a lot of different stuff. Plus opposites attract don’t they?” Vanessa could have sworn that his smirk had grown a bit at the end of that.

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Later that day the final bell rang, releasing all of their students from their classes. Xavier left his last class, and rushed to his locker before meeting up with Vanessa at her’s. While in the first period they had talked about how Vanessa would need to take Max out before she could go over to his house, plus she had to grab her laptop as well so they could work on their project.

As the male made his way to Vanessa’s locker, he stopped as he saw a familiar person standing behind Vanessa, talking to her. It was Axel. What was he doing there? Xavier made his way closer to the two of them, and interrupted Axel midsentence. “Are you ready to go?” He asked Vanessa, completely ignoring his best friend.

Vanessa turned around with her bag in her hands. “Yeah, let’s get going. It was nice talking to you Axel.” She told the blond male as she closed her locker and left with the dark haired male.

The two made their way out to the black Tesla that was waiting in the student parking lot. They both got into the car, before Xavier drove off to get Vanessa home. It was quiet on the way over there, neither of them having anything to talk about. Of course Vanessa didn’t want to bring it up, but she had noticed him giving his best friend the cold shoulder back there at the school. She wondered why he had done that, after all Axel was Xavier’s best friend or at least it seemed he was.

Xavier pulled up in the driveway, and parked the car before turning the car off. Vanessa immediately looked over at him for the first time since they had gotten into the car. “I’ll be right back, unless you want to come inside and wait.” She said, in an unsure tone.

“I’m fine here, wouldn’t want your parents to come home and see me in their house again. They might start asking questions.” He told her, in an amused tone which caused her to shake her head at him.

He watched as she got out of the car, and walked into the house. He heard his phone go off, and checked it to see a message from Axel. Axel was acting smug about how Xavier had treated him at the school, and was calling Xavier jealous of him for talking to Vanessa. Was he jealous? Xavier asked himself this, and he could never come up with a forsure answer.

He shook his head as he put the phone back into his pocket, and waited for the female to come out of her house with her laptop in tow. He waited for about 20 minutes before Vanessa came out of the house, her backpack seemed to have grown in size as well.

He watched as the female made her way to his car after locking the house door up behind her. She then got into his car, and he started it up before heading to his house. Again the two of them didn’t talk or say anything to each other as they rode over to his house. The silence was a comfortable silence, both of them being stuck in their own thoughts about the other.

A few minutes later they pulled up into a driveway in front of a big house. It was grayish in color, and had a second story balcony that seemed to wrap around the front of the house.

Vanessa looked up at the house in shock, she had never been to a house this big. “This is where you live?” She asked him, in a curious and astonished voice. Which made Xavier laugh.

“This isn’t even that big of a house. This isn’t even considered a mansion.” He told her in an amused tone as he turned off the car before pocketing his keys.

“I’ve never been to a house this big. This has to be the biggest house in town though.” She told him, as they both got out of the car.

Xavier looked up at the house, and shook his head. “I’m pretty sure there are bigger houses in town. Let’s get inside the house, and get to work on the project. Wouldn’t want you to go home late to your parents.” He said, as he made his way towards the house.

The two made their way into the house, and into the dining room, where the two set up Vanessa’s laptop and started working on their project. They continued working on the project until they had finished it. It hadn’t taken too long, only a couple of hours. They hadn’t left much to do yesterday.

“Hello, don’t think I’ve met you before. What’s your name?” The lady asked, as she was looking over Vanessa. The man followed her over to the table with the two teenagers.

“My name is Vanessa, I’m actually new in town.” Vanessa told her, in a kind tone. She already knew that this had to be Xavier’s mom, and was wondering what time it was because she hadn’t been paying attention.

“Well it’s nice to meet at least one of my son’s girlfriends since he has so many of them. I’m Dina, and this is my husband Adrian.” The lady told her, the first part in a teasing tone.

“That’s not….I’m not….” Vanessa started to say, while her face turned about three different shades of red.

“Mom, this my friend from school, we were just working on a project together. She isn’t my girlfriend.” Xavier said, in a neutral tone.

“Well it was nice to meet her anyhow. Will she be staying for dinner?” Dina asked her son, as her husband left and took off to some other place.

Before Xavier could answer her, Vanessa cut in. “No I won’t be, I have to be getting home soon. It was nice to meet you though.” She said, in the same kind tone as before. She shut down her laptop, and began to stuff it into her bag.

“Yeah, we should probably get you back home before your parents start to wonder where you have gone.” Xavier said, as he got up off his chair and stretched a bit.

Vanessa got up from the table as well, and turned back to Xavier’s mom. “It was really nice to meet you as well.” She told Xavier’s mom as she went to follow Xavier out of the house.

The two left with nothing else being said between the three. Vanessa was dropped back off at home that night, before her parents had come home.