Jamal POV
“Love,” he said simply as he tossed me the cube.
“Love?” I caught the cube and began shuffling it with as many complexity as I could probably do it. “What makes you think its love?”
“Well, I have not experienced it myself but from what I see, love can make you do crazy things including banging a man’s head into concrete till it tears open.”
He was mocking the fight between Xander and myself but I would take it lightly. He was not wrong though. Love would make you do crazy things. Things so crazy that after you are done and if the love fades, you would wonder why you had done it and if really was the driving factor logical enough to make you do those thing. I had experienced it twice. Once with the Dark Witch and the other one now with Methis who happened to look so much like the Dark Witch. A coincidence I am still amazed by.
I tossed the shuffled cube back to Autumn and he set to work with arranging it. “I do not think that that is love,” I said.
“You don’t?”
“No I do.”
“I don’t think so. Maybe you are just scared to acknowledge the fact that Xander loves Methis as deeply as you do because by accepting that reality, your chances of getting Methis reduces as the probability is now split between you, Xander, and her choice to pursue her carrier as opposed to before when it was just between you and her career.”
Xander did not love Methis as deeply as I did, I told myself. I had loved her the deepest. So deep that I had gone deep inside her and pumped you small little shit inside of her. But I knew Autumn was right in what he had just said but I did not want to accept it to myself. “Did you read that in one of your books?” I asked.
“I do not read works on love. All of my knowledge on that field is acquired through observation.”
Observation of me and your mother. I wondered just how awkward it must be for Autumn to see his father try desperately to woo his mother when that was something they ought to have done long before he came into this world.
I stood up and patted Autumn on the head. “I’m off to bed.”
“Maybe you should ask Xander about his motivation yourself. Do it without the fist this time, will you? Just maybe the both of you would get along to understand each other.”
Xander's POV
I woke up with a jolt, feeling a sharp pain in my ribs. I groaned and rolled over, trying to find a comfortable position. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was midnight. I had been asleep for only a few hours, but it felt like an eternity.
I got up and stumbled to the bathroom, turning on the light. I looked at myself in the mirror and winced. I was a mess. My face was bruised and swollen, my chest was covered in cuts and scratches, and my arms and legs were sore and stiff.
I was lucky to be alive. But I was also lucky to be a dragon blood.
I turned on the shower and stepped in, letting the hot water soothe my aching muscles. I washed away the blood and dirt from my body, and felt some of the pain subside. I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked back to the bedroom. I opened the closet and grabbed a pair of jeans and a hoodie. I didn't want to stay in the apartment. I needed some fresh air and some space to think.
I put on my clothes and grabbed my phone and keys. I left a note for Sophia, telling her that I was going out for a walk and that I would be back soon. I didn't want to wake her up. She had been so angry at me when I had come home from the fight. I had called a few times over the past few days but she had simply ignored all my attempts. I eventually gave up. I realized as the days had passed, I was too embarrassed to hear her voice or even talk to her. Things had gotten that bad.
I slipped out of the apartment and headed to the elevator. I pressed the button for the ground floor, and waited. The elevator arrived, and I stepped in. I pressed the button for the lobby, and the doors slid shut, I heard someone shout, "Hold it for me will you?"
My first instinct was to ignore the woman bolting towards the elevator and let it go down with me alone, I needed some time to myself, which was why I was going on this stupid jog anyway, and I couldn't even recognize the woman, but at the last second, I changed my mind slowly stopped the doors from shutting, allowing her to dash inside, out of breath.
She doubled over, panting and trying to catch her breath as I observed her. She was indeed a stranger, I had never seen her in the building before, young and petite with dirty blonde hair tied in a messy pony tail.
"Thank you," she finally said standing up and holding out her hand to me, "I am Kate, I just moved in." She said, a wide smile on her face. She looked pretty, and even younger than I had initially thought, maybe early twenty-ish.
I shook it slowly, offering her a little smile. "Xander."
"Oh, hello." She shook me gently, "Xander, interesting name. Short for Alexander?"
I gave her a little nod, hoping she would take the hint and just let me be, already regretting letting her on the elevator. She seemed way too much like the chattery type and I was definitely not in the mood.
Thankfully, it seemed to work, she didn't say anything else for the rest of the ride to the floor.
The elevator reached the lobby, and the doors opened. I stepped out and walked to the exit.
"See you around?" She called, heading the other way.
"Yeah, sure."