He was tired, he was angry, he felt frustrated yet hope pulsed through his veins as his gaze lingered on Maya's picture.
Melissa had given up on retrieving her phone at this point. She could understand.
The door opened, Xavier didn't look up, from Maya's picture as his finger trailed her features. Dirty, filthy rather yet still so beautiful. The welt and the bruise had not hidden her delicate frame or her red full lips he missed nipping on.
Brian came in with takeouts which he evenly distributed among the crew who immediately began a ravenous feast.
It was 6:30 pm and the girls have been with Melissa since it was 2, they had skipped lunch and with the way she had sounded, the urgency in her voice, they didn't even stop to think of buying takeouts so their hunger was understandable.
Xavier didn't touch the food beside him, he didn't feel like it was fair to eat while knowing Maya might not have tasted a thing besides he had a nauseous taste in his mouth that won't go away at the thought of Maya being lonely, scared and with his father.
"Hey, mate. Hang in there Okay." Brian looked almost like he had been forced to have that conversation, his face seemed like he was suffering from a serious case of constipation and he expected Xavier to give him a swooping punch for even coming to meet him at a time like this.
But he just couldn't sit and do nothing. Looking away like he had not noticed him was becoming old and sincerely, he really wanted Melissa's family to love him.
Her dad was a psycho and the only two people that mattered to her were her brother and Mom. Getting on Mrs. Salvador's good side had been a piece of cake, the woman had no malicious bone in her and that should have been enough for him.
Except that, he wanted Xavier to at least get along fine with him. Xavier and Melissa were just repairing their relationship at this point, he didn't want it to be a problem when he starts showing up regularly when they get past this phase They were in.
He didn't even know what the phase they were in was? His father holding his fiancée captive was crazy, but Melissa had warned him her family had lots and lots of unconventional dirty behind the scenes.
He had not expected something of this magnitude but he was already so in love with the woman to tuck his tail in between his laps and flee.
So that was why he was sitting opposite a man who looked like he was being tormented and was watching his life being snuffed out of him. Yet he had called him "mate"
Xavier gave Brian a little smile, which shocked the Britain lad. He had done a thorough check on him and now knew the accent in his English, which was distorted and About fading away was Britain. At least he could tell Maya when she gets back that he had not been faking it, because she will come.
The man did have balls and no matter how hard it was for him to admit it, he did feel something strong for Melissa if he was seeing all the dysfunctional happenings in her family and was not looking for an excuse to run and never look back.
He smiled, looking up to notice his little girl who had her back towards them and was holding Jasmine. The latter seemed to be crying and Melissa as always was being what she had always been to him as a child caged in a fucked up family, a ray of sunshine sneaking into the curtain and banishing the cloak of thick darkness.
She deserved to be cherished like it was a man's last breath, loved like there was no option, taken care of because that's all she ever did for people and never asked anything in return.
He wanted a man that will treat her so well she could almost forget all the men in her life that had once failed her. Her father, who was a narcissist, and her brother, who had promised her the world, but have not even stood by her side when she had to take on the world.
"Please don't break my sister's heart." He didn't recognize his voice, it sounded, croaked, weak, helpless.
Brian shook his head like he couldn't believe Xavier's utterance, "I've done the most insane things to get your sister here to even talk to me for the first time." His eyes showed pure sincerity and hopelessness, "I'm the one scared of losing her not the other way round."
"We ain't friends," Xavier mumbled after seconds of profound silence.
"I'll doubt it is still you if you had offered." He shrugged, "Melissa would be so happy that we had a real conversation."
Xavier nodded, the excitement in Brian's eyes as he talked about how happy Melissa would be explained that she was the reason why he had struck up a conversation with him to start with, made him realize just how right Maya had been.
It was better to hope on something that might not even be real than not to have any at all.
It was worth it. Thinking you are in Love, getting the break-up, and starting all over again if you were that brave or remaining so shattered if you were that burnt.
The point was, just lounging around life and not doing anything crazy, daring, stupid was depressing.
"You know I've been wrong about you, ever since I met you." Xavier smirked and added, "Funny that I'm admitting that I'm wrong so easily but you deserve my sister as much as she deserves you."
Brian nodded, his expression showing that he didn't know how to take this bit of information, and words that left Xavier's mouth. It weren't exactly what he had expected when he had sat next to him and called him mate.
"We'll find Maya," he managed to whisper, He didn't know too much about the girl with the wide genuine smile and was able to make Xavier behave to an extent, but he knew her enough to know that when she was around, she made sure no one could be gloomy or sad.
She is Xavier's sanity, Melissa's link to her brother, Mrs. Salvador's last hope, Jessica and Jasmine's best friend, and to him, He just cared that she laughed enough at his jokes. She was kind, he knew that because cracking jokes were not his best suit.