February 4th 2005 -- FRIDAY

‘Another day without Xavier,’ was Angela’s first thought as she awoke that morning. “At least, the bed is comfortable,” She comforted herself.

It brought a sense of appreciation to her heart, knowing the bed likely cost as much as her house – not that she was with Xavier because he was wealthy.

If anything, it was the opposite.

One of the things Angela particularly liked about Xavier was the fact that he held little regard for money – everything of value to him was based on its sentimentality and usefulness.

‘Then again, who would value money when they have supernatural abilities?’

The usual morning routine followed Angela’s languidness – she was finding it harder and harder to muster the necessary energy to get through the day.

At first, she thought it was love sickness but even she was so much in love with Xavier that it would affect her daily habits – had that been the case, she would have died long ago from the complexities of heartbreaks Xavier always sent her way.

No, this was something else.

Luckily, it had only been two days and she had already learned how to address the matter; admittedly, with no small amount of help from the supercomputer embedded into every nook and cranny of the mansion.

‘My eating habits changed…’

‘I feel the urge to sleep more when I repeat the same actions.’

‘I get bored more easily.’

‘I begin to feel more comfortable when I am closer to the mansion…’

Everything had yet to be settled but Angela had an inkling of what was at the heart of her recent issues – the strong sensation of De ja-vu that followed her everywhere.

It followed her twice to the kitchen – she even imagined herself falling down the stairs just in time to catch her step.

Once again, another possibility for tumble was conjured in her mind when the burned dishes courtesy of an early-rising Jesse reached her nose.

But Jesse was on the couch.

Still, as she entered the kitchen, Angela could see the traces of soot on the pans and pots – Jesse had indeed cooked something, likely a disaster, and cleaned up after herself accordingly.

“Strange,” Angela muttered.

Jesse had cooked something hours ago but somehow, Angela could imagine Jesse hard at work in the kitchen as she came down the stairs, as if a single decision away from breaking into reality.

Angela shook her head and proceeded to arrange the spices and vegetables on the table before her hands moved with familiarity, conjuring something between a snack and lunch.

Oftentimes, she would cook with no clear goal in mind.

Once again, Angela could imagine a variety of dishes flooding the table from one end to the next, but by the end of her two-hour cooking session, there were only sandwiches on the table.

A bout of confusion ran through her.

The next thing Angela could recall was walking down the stairs towards the garage – Jesse had left at some point during her cooking.

And of course, she was with the boys in the garage.

“We need to pump the lever some more,” Jacob urged.

“This is as high as it can go!” Tyler growled, clearly not a fan of supporting most of the lever’s weight by himself.

Jacob: “That means Jessie is the only person who can fit.”

Without a word of protest, Jessie wrapped the cloth she had recently used to wipe her hands around her head like a bandana; then, she slid under the car as best she could.

Jacob passed the tools on request, though he was mostly the one deciding which tools were necessary based on Jessie’s feedback.

It had been a couple of weeks since she started to work with Jacob and Tyler in earnest, so there was still a bit of a learning curve to cover.

“Snacks…” Angela barely whispered.

Jessie was the first to arrive at her side, sliding from under the car with spider-man-like dexterity… she was followed closely by Tyler, and finally, Jacob.

Each grabbed a handful of sandwiches, not minding the paste dripping from between their dirty fingers – their primary goal was to stuff as much of the delicious snacks into their mouths as possible.

This would usually be a losing competition with Xavier around, but with the largest eater gone, and Jessie eating so little, Tyler and Jacob were free to fatten themselves.

“Anything I can do?”

Jessie shrugged.

Tyler, wisely, didn’t reply, just as Xavier had taught him to countless times.

As good a friend as Xavier was, and he was a cool friend indeed, Tyler knew exactly what boundaries to respect.

But Jacob was another matter entirely – he was young, somewhat cute, and just naïve enough.

“Wanna scrub the mud off the hummer?” The longhaired Native American spoke with a mouthful of snacks. “You know Xavier doesn’t like his cars dirty… and nobody is going to wash it until the very last moment – it’s bound to be twice as hard by then.”

Jessie and Jacob froze for a second, wondering if they should correct Jacob but when they thought about how much Xavier favored the boy, they chose to stay silent.

Stolen novel; please report.

It was no skin off their backs.

Angela noticed the tenseness enveloping the scene but once again, she was grateful for Jacob’s bluntness… any small thing she could do for Xavier was a victory in her book.

Especially when she was unsure of his survival.

Sure, Angela knew Xavier would make it back to her but she had yet to fully grasp the extent of his abilities and those of his enemies, hence an uncertain haze always lingered around her hopeful heart.

“I’ll get to scrubbing—” Angela shrugged.

“And I’ll get to—” Jacob paused mid-sentence, catching a glimpse of someone crossing the street just outside the gate.

Jessie and Tyler tracked his eyes.

Tyler chuckled lewdly, while Jessie’s face rapidly sunk into expressionlessness – unlike Tyler and Jacob, she was truly aware of who Sue was.

“Jacob—”

Before Jessie could give her two-cent advice, something Xavier would have similarly done, Jacob was already pushing open the gate and slipping outside the yard.

Just how such a small boy managed to move such a large gate was beyond Jessie and Angela, not that they were really paying attention to such a thing.

Sometimes, Xavier’s excellence blinded them to the obvious.

………

“Sue! Sue!”

The short, button-nosed, dark, shorthaired girl was reluctant to stop for even a moment but when she thought about the child she once carried in her womb, Sue decided Jacob at least deserved some closure.

“Sue…”

“Yes?” Sue quirked her wild brows, stopping some ways down the street.

“I-I…” Jacob blushed, scratching the back of his head in semi-embarrassment. “Xavier told me…”

‘Xavier told him?’ Sue was surprised at the news. ‘I thought Xavier would spare Jacob the burden of knowing I aborted the baby but maybe… he wants Jacob to grow more mature?’

Sue’s eyes were beginning to glitter with unshed tears – though she had put up a brave front in front of Xavier, only Sue knew how much it tore her up inside to abort the baby.

Doubly so because neither she nor Jacob understood what they were really doing that night.

Pregnancy was a theory Sue knew, but it was completely different from the profound panic that froze her limbs when the test gave a positive result.

And at that time, calling Jacob didn’t even cross Sue’s mind – there was only Xavier.

Not for any other reason than Xavier was the one who slipped Jacob in the bedroom at the party, without even the most basic information like how to properly wear a condom.

“Xavier told me that you need money for college and it's best to start saving early…” Jacob still blushed fiercely, but there was a growing determination in his eyes. “I just want you to know that I will take care of you…”

Sue was speechless… and… and… touched?

The pregnancy was bad because it meant she could no longer attend college, like almost all the members of her deadbeat family.

Not that she had enough money to attend college in the first place, but a girl could dream.

“Xavier… told you?” Sue retraced her words, feeling something amiss. “Was that all Xavier told you? That I needed money for college?”

“Yeah,” Jacob replied. “He lectured me about needing to take care of my girls but… I am not like Xavier – there is only one girl I need to take care of.”

Sue was touched but not so much that she forgot the reality. “Listen, Jacob…”

“I know… you think I can’t do it but—” Jacob gestured to the gate, through which one could barely see Jessie and Tyler hard at work once more, fixing what seemed to be a classic car. “The cheaper of those cars will go for around $20,000. Tyler works on commission, and Jessie will get a percentage but most of the money goes into my and Xavier’s joint account.”

Sue’s eyes widened. “You’re saying…”

“I know I am a kid… I am young. I don’t understand you enough but—” Jacob took a deep breath, grabbed Sue’s hands, and stared into her eyes. “Honestly, that night was a mistake. You probably thought I was some embarrassed kid and slept with me out of pity. Also, I missed the proper hole—”

Sue immediately clumped down on Jacob’s mouth with both hands. “These are the types of things you don’t repeat in public,” She sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Jacob, listen…” Just as Jacob had, Sue took a deep breath. “You are kind, you are cute, and you make me laugh but you’re still a kid. A kid who just offered a girlfriend you barely know all your money…” She chuckled.

Jacob lowered his head – he was not embarrassed… he was experiencing a hint of heartbreak.

“But—” Sue swiftly wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and secretly made a decision – the decision to view Jacob with new eyes, not as a kid but as a maturing man. “But more than my brothers who steal my money, or my father who beats my mother and I… or my mother who pretended not to see when my father—” She briefly sobbed.

Once again, Jacob was at a loss of what to do but a brief predatory expression flashed across his face, so quickly that even the boy, himself, was unaware of it.

“You are the first guy to want to take care of me in my life so…”

Jacob: “Anything.”

“Three conditions if this relationship is going to work!” Sue raised her first finger. “As you probably guessed, my life is not easy. I need someone who can protect me and I want you to prove to me that you can do that… without asking Xavier for help,” The second finger. “As long as we are in Forks, I want to see you at least once a week. Relationships tend to go dead if lovers don’t see each other,” And the third finger. “We are allowed to tell each other only three lies a year and when we do, we have to make it an obvious lie. That will make us know that it is something we can’t tell each other while giving the other person the decision on whether or not to trust or dig deeper.”

A deep conversation ensued.

………

When Jacob returned, Angela had finished the worst of the stains on the hummer, while Jessie and Tyler had found a workable solution for the jack supporting The Citroen C8 MPV.

And of course, Jacob was not alone.

“Know how to check a torque converter?” Jessie questioned.

Sue quirked a brow and chuckled. “These cars are manual – what torque converters?”

“You pass,” Tyler voiced.

“Jacob taught me well.”

Jacob was unsure of what exactly he taught Sue but one glance at her told him it was another one of those things he should not speak of in public.

“Then, can you come teach me?” Angela insisted, hooking Sue by the arm and dragging her into the house.

Sue was perplexed at first but when she saw the hint of seriousness in Angela’s eyes, she knew it was not a conversation she could, or should, avoid.

A couple of seconds later, they were in Angela’s room.

Angela carefully shut the door behind her, took a deep breath, and met Sue’s eyes…

“Uhm… Angela?” Sue was uncertain.

“Thank gosh, you’re here…” Angela released a breath of tension. “You don’t know how much of a nightmare it has been with the accounts frozen.”

“The accounts are frozen?”

“Wait… why would you know—”

“You’re the best at Math and I know you plan to take courses in international business when you go to college,” Angela grabbed her phone from the desk, pulling up the relevant account information. “Something happened a couple of days ago and the cleaners, gardeners, and grocery deliverers are not getting paid.”

“No doubt a Xavier contingency?” Sue rolled her eyes. “Still paranoid as fuck…”

Angela: “Did you also date him?”

“Unlike popular belief, Xavier doesn’t date just anyone,” Sue chuckled. “And as full of myself as I am, I doubt I meet his standards. You are actually the first girl I know who has dated him.”

“Brenda, Stacy, and the other?”

“I didn’t say he was not promiscuous,” Sue shrugged. “I knew him before Jessie and most of the others, so I can say that he sleeps with all the girls. Almost as if he would regret missing out on anything with a vagina, but… well, there is only one Angela.”

Angela frowned. “And Bella…”

Sue paused, stared at Angela, and frowned for a couple of seconds before deciding something. “Do you know where I first met Xavier?”

“What?”

Sue: “Do you know where I first met Xavier?”

“Probably at a party getting a lap dance from some strip—”

“A psychiatric home for disabled children,” Sue revealed, causing Angela’s eyes to widen with surprise. “I was his primary caretaker since my mom works at the place. His mind was messed up but his body was worst… I am only telling you this so you understand – there are some parts of Xavier that even Xavier has forgotten.”

“Then, how comes?” Angela was peeved.

“How come Xavier and me are not as close as he and Jessie?” Sue removed a ring from her finger, showing a thin line where the appendage had once been detached. “Jessie was about to risk her life to be Xavier’s friend but… I learned long ago that not everyone has the tolerance to build resistance to poison. I understand my limits rather keenly.”

A couple of seconds of silence sunk between the duo.

Angela realized the answers to questions she never thought to ask, and Sue had found herself welcomed back into Xavier’s fold by a rather enthusiastic boyfriend, Jacob.

“Now, about these accounts…” Sue shifted to business mode without furrowing a brow. “—there is nothing wrong with the accounts; it’s only that the money has been digitally marked. We just need to convert it to cash and pay everyone personally.”

With that, Sue and Angela got to work.