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Seven: This is Perfect—not!
One year later &
Two years after that night:
Lex
Always go with your gut,damn it!How Lex thought he could deal with his asshole coach for a whole three more years, was beyond him. When he found out the Rojas’s offer to coach at Michigan State was off the table, he should’ve known he’d barely last another year. Like he’d ever had the patience for assholes. They butted heads almost from the beginning, and now he was scrambling to get all his shit together for his impending last-minute transfer. No way would he last another two years at UC San Diego.
He’d been fortunate that ESU’s soccer team had been so shitty the last two seasons. He’d turned down the scholarship he’d been offered two years ago to take the football one at UC San Diego instead. But because of their shitty two-year streak they’d made an exception and accepted his request to take them up on that offer he’d turned down. Main reason Lex had excepted the San Diego scholarship in the first place was because he knew his dad preferred football over soccer. Even though he’d told him the decision was completely Lex’s and he’d be behind him no matter what. Lex could admit both him and his brother loved pleasing and making their dad proud. Thankfully, his dad at least still had Gordo who he could live his football dreams through vicariously. His brother had also gotten a football scholarship but was smart enough to go with San Diego State instead. After hearing Lex bitch about the fucking coach so much, he made sure to steer clear of UC San Diego. But like Lex, he too preferred to stay close to home. Finishing up the online paperwork he’d been sent, he rolled his neck and glanced down at his dinging phone. Smiling when he saw it was a text from his sister Vannah, he picked it up and read the text.
Miss you, little brother. So glad you’ll be so much closer to me now. Call me when you get the chance.
He immediately hit the send button. It’d been a surprise how much he instantly missed her after she got married two years ago. He’d gotten used to her being away for school at the time, but knowing she’d be gone for good after the wedding, hit everyone in his close-knit family hard. Lex was always glad to hear from her now. Only thing he hated is that it inevitably brought on thoughts of what could’ve been. They still hadn’t been in touchat all. He got that what Xochitl saw that night was bad. He’d since accepted that had the tables been turned and he saw another dude kissing her after the night they’d just had, especially a guy he knew she’d slept with before, he would’ve been pissed too. But he’d explained it to her more than once via text and apparently it didn’t matter. His pathetic ass might still be trying to reconnect with her since no matter how much time passed, he’d yet to replicate what he’d begun to feel for her with anyone else. Except once Vannah mentioned Xochitl was officially back with her ex—her first everything—he’d been out. He didn’t even want to hear the details from a third party. He wasn’t about to chance Xochitl finally answering one of his calls and having to hear it directly from her.“Taz,” Vannah answered as cheerful as always.
“Hey, sis.” He smiled sitting back against his bed’s backboard. “How are you?”
“Good. I talked to mom today.”
“Really?” He chuckled. “Don’t you talk to hereveryday?”
She giggled. “Well, yeah. Just about. But she told me about you missing the deadline to get a dorm. You know me and Byron have an extra bedroom here, right?”
“Yeah, she did too. But no thanks.”
“Whynot?”
“Because I’ve seen the room, Vannah.” He shook his head lifting his remote to turn on the TV in his room. “There’s bunkbeds in there and it’s all set up for his nieces and nephews. I’m not about to take that from them.”
“It wouldn’t be forever just until you can get a dorm.”
“Yeah? Next semester? I’m not doing that to those kids. You told me yourself, they love spending the night at their Uncle B’s.” “So, what are you gonna do?”
“I got it figured out. Don’t worry. Coach is trying to pull strings as we speak.”
He explained a little about his plan, then changed the topic and did what he always said he wouldn’t. Asked what she’d been up to and tried to steer the subject onto something that might have her mention Xochitl. It’d been a while since he’d last spoken to his sister, as they both opted to text instead. But the last time he’d talked to her, she mentioned trying to come up with a way to prank Xochitl for their online channel. “You and Nena still posting videos for your channel?”
She was instantly giggling again, and it had him smiling. “Did she tell you I was finally able to get Xochitl?”
“Did you?”
“Yes, I pranked her good.”
She explained about the prank Uncle Manny had pulled on Uncle Romero years ago. The one about him being a fitness influencer. “She knows Iloatheworking out and it’s only because of Byron that I still have a piggyback membership to 5thstreet.” She laughed even more. “Anyway, you know me. I barely got through it, but I did the prank where I pretended to be uploading a video of myself being an influencer talking about my healthy diet, workout regime, no alcohol and how I’m up at four to work outeveryday. Only I was actually filming her reaction to it. The look on her face was priceless and so hilarious it’s gotten so many views!”
As always, his sister’s hysterical laughter, had him chuckling too. Lex wasn’t even off the call with her, and he was already pulling the clip up on his laptop.Goddamn!He’d started to think that maybe in the two years since he’d last seen her, he’d blown what he’d begun to feel for her back then way out of proportion. But just seeing her now, he was overwhelmed with the same inexplicable fascination he’d felt that night. That same heart thudding fascination he’d admitted to feeling for her less than fifteen minutes before she’d walked out and saw him holding Angela’s drunk ass in the parking lot. His eyes were glued to the screen. The video had been taken at Vannah’s apartment as Xochitl poured both of them a glass of wine. She’d listened to Vannah’s spiel, eyes going wider with each exaggerated claim about her brutal workout regime, then stopped cold when she heard the no alcohol comment. Despite that making him smile and how fucking hot Xochitl looked, all Lex was drawn to were those perplexed beautiful eyes that had his sister cracking up even in the video. In the two years since he’d last seen or spoken to Xochitl, she’d apparently avoided all of the Moreno family functions, and his visits with his sister in LA. Unbelievably, she looked even better now than he remembered. He’d stopped torturing himself long ago by not watching her blog video’s a while back. So, except for the photos his sister posted of her on occasion onhersocial media, he hadn’t seen her in a while.
“How’s she doing?” he asked as casually as he could.
“Xochitl?” Vannah asked as her laughter died down. “She’s good, Ithink. I’m finally getting together with her this week for the first time in like forever. But we’ve both been so busy lately, it’s not like before where we saw each other all the time.”
He nodded absentmindedly, closing his eyes. “Things still working out with her and the ex she got back together with?”
“Yeah. Last I heard anyway.” He heard his sister gasp. “I’m such a bad friend. I swear, I’ve just had so much going on lately. I’ve hardly had any time to chat about that kind of stuff these days. So, I’m not even sure. I know. I know. Bad, bad, bad! But we’ll get all caught up when we finally get together for lunch.”
“Oh, yeah?” He cleared his throat, trying not to sound as interested as this made him. “When’s this?”
“Tomorrow.Gah! I’m so looking forward to it, too. It’s been too long.” She paused when he heard Byron asking her something in the background, then she was back. “What was I saying?”
