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“Who?” Xochitl asked shaking her head as well. “Who does he think I’d move onto so quickly? I’min lovewith him.” The emotional choke hold was back. “And I doubt I’lleverget over him.”
To her surprise, Vannah smiled big as she wiped her mouth. “I know my brother and I have an idea.”
Xochitl peered at her bestie for a moment. “You know I don’t like games. Especially not as pissed as he is at me right now.”
“No games,” Vannah took a bite of her food and grinned. “But before last weekend, when I had no idea you two were a thing and I invited you both to the dinner at Beast’s this week, I mentioned Levi from the reality show, having an interest in you.”
Before Vannah could even go on, Xochitl was already shaking her head. “No.”
“Hear me out, hear me out,” Vannah said quickly. “Obviously, he knows now, that not only do I know about your relationship, but that he’s even considering dropping out of school because the thought of seeing you with anyone else is that nauseating to him. He knows there’s no way I’d put him through something like that at this dinner. But, after I tell him about our conversation today, explain all the things he’s obviously got all twisted around and then tell him my opinion about everything he’s so pissed off about, I’m sure he’ll see things differently. “He also knows I didn’t know anything about your breakup until this morning. That you hadn’t mentioned it at all when I last talked to you a few days ago. Now that I knew why, I assured him there was no way you’d still be up for the dinner where you two would run into each other. And I know he’ll be there for sure because he said he’s looking forward to it, Xochitl. Said it’s the distraction he needs right now. Mostly because aside from Beast, Felix Sanchez, Abel Ayala and Santino Sabian will be in attendance among several other big-name sports celebrities. He’ll be busy man crushing on all these celebrities and then,surprise!You show up looking all beautiful and irresistible. Between that, and the reminder that that there’s someone out there who’s already interested in you, he’ll be more than willing to at least hear you out.”
Xochitl gave her an immediate scolding look and Vannah lifted her hands up in front of her. “No games. No games, I promise. Byron had already warned Levi you were off limits. He’ll still be there but he wouldn’t dare do or say anything to upset my brother.” Despite Vannah smiling so smugly, Xochitl didn’t think it’d be anywhere near as easy to convince Lex she wasn’t the unforgivable, pathological, liar, she was certain he thought her now. “You didn’t see or hear him the night he left, Vannah. He’s completely disgusted with me and rightfully so.”
“Not rightfully so,” Vannah shook her head then reached out to touch her arm. “You did what you had to because of your obsessive need to be an overachiever and not because you were in any way out to hurt him.” Vannah lifted a brow pausing before she took a drink of her soda. “When I got Gordo’s version of how this whole thing went down, he told me about you running through the parking lot to get to the restaurant.” She stopped to giggle. “That issolike you.Andme, I can totally see myself panicking like that over some stupid assignment, and I’ll make sure to mention that to Lex when I tell him I spoke with you. By the dinner next weekend, he’ll have a completely different mindset about this whole thing. I’m sure of it.” Admittedly after her lunch with Vannah, Xochitl did feel a little better, despite breaking down and crying again when Vannah said Lex had asked her to pick up his things. Though, her tenacious bestie refused to take all his stuff. She insisted he’d be back soon.
But she made her promise that she’d try to snap out of it in the meantime and stop wallowing in bed all day. Xochitl did. She’d at the very least be forcing herself to go to her classes that week and see what, if anything, she could do about the assignments she already knew she’d failed to turn in. Then any new ones she’d missed the days she’d missed classes last week. Even by mid-week, she still wasn’t sure if she’d actually show up at this dinner. Despite Vannah’s optimism about this working out, Xochitl had major doubts. Every day that passed and she still didn’t hear from Lex, she could feel herself falling deeper and deeper into depression. And then it happened. Wednesday morning after dragging herself out of bed for the third time that week, she’d been walking through the campus parking lot on her way to her first class of the day. As usual she’d been lost in her self-pitying thoughts when she glanced around, and their eyes met. Lex was on his way into school also. Xochitl knew seeing him again for the first time would be brutal, but she’d never imagined justhowbad it would be. Not because seeing him again in all his glory, made it almost impossible to believe this guy had once said he was in love with her. Then getting a glimpse of those beautiful dimples that were no longer hers, when he smiled at a professor that greeted him. But seeing the hurt and disgust in his eyes.Utterdisgust he was obviously still feeling, just before he turned and walked away without so much as a hello.
It’s all it took. The tears were instant, and she spun around and headed back to her car. No way would she be able to function through the day. No way would she be back for the rest of the week again, and no way would she be making that dinner. There was no question about it. He hated her now. Why the hell would she torture herself by showing up at that damn dinner and have to be around him? Clearly, he had zero interest in trying to hear her out, like Vannah was so sure he’d be. She rushed straight back to the dorm where she promptly threw up that morning’s coffee. Then she curled up into a fetal position in bed, shedding tears she was amazed she still had after the exorbitant amounts she’d already shed. But it’s how she’d be spending the rest of her week. And after today she knew she had a decision to make. She understood now why Lex was considering dropping out, because knew now there’d be no way she’d get through the rest of the semester at ESU if it meant having to see him. Even if it wasn’t with another girl. Seeing him alone was enough to wreak havoc on her already shattered heart. That’d be one way she could make up for hurting him. Xochitl had researched it once before when her grandfatherwas diagnosed with cancer. She considered dropping a semester to spend time with him. There were ways of doing it the right way with minimal amount of risk of it haunting her academically for years. Something she was sure that in Lex’s angry and compulsive state of mind hadn’t even researched. She could at least save him the trouble of having to give up his scholarship and be hit with a semester full of F’s, not to mention having his family have to pay back his scholarship. All because of her. Why shouldhebe the one paying for her stupidity?
