4 XAVIER

4 XAVIER

The farther that I drive away from the university, the easier it is to breathe. 

The students this year weren’t the only thing making me want to leave. 

My father, the dean of the university, has been on my ass since the moment I got there. Despite helping me get the job, he seems to hate having me there. He’s always trying to push me, and gets mad at me, despite me having the best scores in the English department. 

He forced me to work with him, and now seems to resent me for being there. 

I cannot fucking stand him. 

Our relationship has always been rocky. 

He had an affair with a colleague and left my mom for the other women when she got pregnant. He left my mom and he left me. He chose his second family over ours. 

My phone begins to ring from my front seat. It’s connected to my car, so I use the button on my steering wheel to accept the call.

“Hey, xavier. Are you ready for a fun summer, man?”

A smile comes to my face as the loud voice of Cameron flows through my car speakers.

Cameron Baird has been my absolute best friend since high school. We both grew up in town, the sons of wealthy families. My dad and his both come from old money.

If he had decided not to work a day in his life, he would have been able to live a life still well above average. 

That's exactly what Cameron's dad did. 

My dad and his were longtime friends, raised together, always going to the same schools, in the same friend group with my mom and his in the group as well.

When my mom got pregnant with me, his mom followed a month later. They weren't the best of friends, but Cameron's mom really wanted to be seen as the leader of their friend group.

Everyone had hoped, and expected, Cameron and I to be best friends from diapers.

We weren't.

I think the energy from our parents made us resent each other.

They were always trying to compete with each other.

My mom and dad, and his mom and dad.

It wasn't until high school that we started actually liking each other. Or, rather, it wasn't until our families stopped liking each other, that we began to get along.

That's when my dads affair with his colleague came out.

The affair had lasted five entire years.

Cameron's dad had known about the affair the entire time, as expected.

So has his mother.

When my father came home with his mistress, he didn't seem ashamed in the least bit. In fact, he seemed proud.

“She's pregnant.” he had said to us.

He seemed elated.

My mothers entire heart was shattered that day. 

I think that the pregnancy had hurt her more than the actual affair. She had complications during her labor with me, and the doctors had to perform a hysterectomy. 

My dad had always wanted more children.

He didn't want to adopt.

He didn't want to have a surrogate.

He wanted more kids with his wife.

So he went out and fucked his colleague.

He told us that same day that he would be moving out and divorcing my mother.

He wanted to marry his mistress.

He wanted to move in with her and raise their little family together.

He had planned on having even more children with her.

That was when I was fifteen, so it's been about eleven years now.

She never got pregnant again.

I guess she had complained to my father about the stretch marks and said she didn't want to go through another pregnancy.

And he was fucking okay with that shit.

What a fucking hypocrite.

“Yeah, im fucking ready. Im telling you, cam, i dont know how much longer i can deal with that fucking asshole.” i say while pulling off of the freeway. 

My apartment complex is a fifteen minute drive away from the university.

Yes, my apartment complex.

I own that shit.

After what my dad did to my mother, we didn't speak for five years. When I was in college, he came to me and begged me for a relationship.

I had slapped him.

He kept coming back.

Finally, I let him in.

But I have always kept him an arm away.

always.

My dad had thrown money at me in an attempt to get me to be on his side. I was going to just donate it. I didn't want that shit. But I didn't. Instead, I bought this apartment complex and offered it at a highly discounted rate for students of the university. And not the preppy rich kids from town, either. 

No, the tenants are all from low income families, who work in town just to have any kind of money.

Those are the kids that deserve this shit.