Xander's POV -

(A/N - Surprise!!)

"Come on Andy, let's go dice some more vegetables. Seriously, I don't know why you left me, we make a really beautiful couple," Rebecca says, as she wraps her arm against my waist.

God only knows what goes in this girl's mind. While I was distracted with Becy, I hear the sound of someone slamming the door shut. I turn around only to see Cocoa was gone.

"Now, where did she go?" I ask my friends as they all look at me.

Noah glares at Rebecca, Josh scoffs at me and Sandra rolls her eyes at me. What did I do, again?

"Recap - Your girlfriend came here to ask for you. Rebecca introduced herself as your ex, did quite some show of affection and probably made her jealous. Also, she took Oreo out on a walk," Sam says in a bored voice as he goes back on setting up the barbeque.

"You did what?" I ask, Rebecca as she smirks at me.

"I was just testing your girlfriend," Becy says cooly, as she goes back to dicing the vegetables.

"She is not my girlfriend and seriously Rebecca you didn't need to push her buttons," I say as I shake my head and start to pace around my backyard.

"If she's not your girlfriend, then can I go for her? I mean she's actually beautiful. I won't mind dating her--"

"She's not a toy, Noah and just because I am not dating her doesn't mean you get to talk of her as an object. Co-Jasmine can date whoever she wants. But she's not one of your play toys," I say as I glare at my friend.

I know Cocoa and me might not be that close, but that doesn't mean I'll let her fall into Noah's hands. I love my friends but Noah has a serious issue with commitment and I don't even want to think about choosing between him and Cocoa.

"Wow, you only know her for like two weeks, but you are already choosing her," Rebecca comments.

"I am going to date whoever I want. If I like Jasmine then I will ask her out," Noah replies, his eyes silently challenging me.

"You know I won't let that happen," I say gritting my teeth.

"Then just man up and accept your feelings. You are not even her boyfriend and yet you are so protective of her. Unlike me, not every guy that likes her would stop just cause you told me to, bro," Noah replies as he throws a carrot towards me. I catch it just in time before it hit my head.

"I don't like like her, I am just a friend," I reply, throwing back the carrot towards him, which he successfully catches.

"Oh really? Well, I guess you both are same - insanely ignorant," Noah replies, throwing back the carrot to me.

"What--"

"STOP PLAYING WITH FOOD!!" Rebbeca says as she snatches the carrot from my hands.

"You two are not children, if you have issues talk it out--" Rebecca's words are cut off midway by someone's phone's ringtone.

We all check our phone, everyone shakes their head in denial, just then Rebecca traces the source and brings out a phone from the nearby bush. I instantly recognize it.

"That's Jasmine's phone," I reply as I take a step forward to grab it from Rebecca's hands, but she takes a step back.

I glare at her, then at Jazz's phone, that now sports a long crack on it's screen. She is going to have a fit when she sees it. At least it's not bad enough to be unrepairable.

"I am going to answer the call. Whoever is calling either seems to be in some sort of emergency or the bastard doesn't care about his phone bill," Rebecca says and puts the phone on speaker, before I could stop her.

"Hello? Jessie? I know it's you, sweetheart," the person speaks and I immediately peg the voice as Aman. I scowl at all the endearments he's using to address Cocoa.

"Oh isn't someone really sure," Rebecca mutters under her breath.

Aman probably didn't hear Rebecca because he continues to speak at his own pace.

"Listen Jessie, I know you are angry at me." Now, this catches my attention because I could definitely feel the thick atmosphere of tension between Jazz and him from the moment he stepped into my house.

"Let's meet somewhere, we can talk it out like old days. Sweetheart, you know whatever I did was just to get to you. I didn't know my actions would have those consequences or you know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you," the bastard says as if he really regrets it.

All that I have come to know about him from just two three interactions speaks volumes about him. I remember how he had threatened me to stay away from Jazz or I'll have to face consequences.

"Come on, say something. I promise if you give me one chance, I'll make it worth to be deserving of it. I won't hurt anyone, any of your--"

"Could you shut your crap? I am not really in the mood to hear an apology monologue today and seriously who the hell are you to hurt anyone? Shut up you f*****d up bastard. If you did something you know was wrong, then you'd repent it. You'd be embarrassed to even come back to Jasmine, but for all I know you are apologizing out of formality--"

"Seriously, you call me a bastard? When you are being nothing but a b***h to me, watch yourself before you go on pointing out to others Miss I-don't-know-how-to-mind-my-own-business," Aman shouts from the other end, cutting off Rebecca.

"Just tell me where Jasmine is."

"And why should I?" Rebecca challenges him as a smirk forms on her lips. She clearly has the upper hand here.

"Because I asked you and I need to tell something important to her," Aman answers patiently. I think he realized shouting won't clearly get him anywhere.

"You mean your apology monologue? I think she'd be better off without hearing it."

"Miss, please, it's really important," Aman answers with an urgency in his voice.

God, this boy is such a good actor. I don't know how he manages to change his faces in a second, one second he's all good and polite and another he's shouting profanities.

"Okay, Jasmine has gone out with a couple of our other friends to the Botanical Garden."

"Botanical Garden?"

"Yes, okay I gotta go. Talk to her politely or be ready to get your a** kicked by me," Rebecca replies before hanging up and quickly switching off Jazz's phone.

We all burst out at Rebecca's white lie.

"Now he can go and search the whole botanical garden, approximately 55 acres of land for hours," Rebecca replies while handing me Jazz's phone.

"Here, give this to your girlfriend. God, she has some real psychos in her life. But I showed him his place. Nobody and I mean nobody should disrespect a woman and that guy could certainly top the list. Anyways, don't switch on the phone or he might try to trace our location. I love my life a bit too much to be chased down by a psychopath," Rebecca says as everyone goes back to their work.

As I start to dice the vegetables, we all hear the gate opening, my first thought is that Aman came here to find Jazz but soon I am proved wrong, as I see Cocoa and Oreo coming towards us.

"Hello buddy," I say to Oreo as he tackles me down.

Trust me, the number of times he licks me it will appear as if he sees me as his dog treat. Okay, that escalated to weird quite quickly.

"Your phone," I say, handing it back to Cocoa while getting up from the ground as she reluctantly takes it.

"A bastard called you, kept calling you Jessie and stuff about giving him a second chance. He also asked where he could find you," Noah says as the color drains away from Jazz's face. For a second I think, she's going to pass out, but she holds herself.

"But we didn't give out your location, we told him instead that you have gone to Botanical Garden," I quickly explain, before she passed out.

"Botanical Garden?" Cocoa asks me, her body relatively relaxing by knowing we didn't spill out the beans.

"Don't look at me, the mastermind was Rebecca," I say as I shake my head and look at Rebecca, who puts on a flirty smile.

I can never understand girls. One moment my best friend is treating me like her Butler and the other I am her Prince Charming.

"Also, Rebecca is not my ex," I quickly add, breaking the staring competition between the two girls.

"Oh..." Cocoa replies, looking at me.

Her honey brown eyes holding so much warmth yet pain. I can see pain in them, but I don't know if I should ask about it. I mean after all, I am hiding things from her too.

We are too alike to be different and too different to be alike. It's like we are both part of the same maze of life, yet are paths are too different to even cross each other. Yet here we are, staring at each other, trying to decipher each other.

I am the first one to break the eye contact. I know something's wrong in Cocoa's life and I want to help her out. But I'd be a hypocrite cause I know I won't allow her to reach out to me. These secrets, these things have been silently separating us. We both know that, yet we both choose to remain silent. Maybe it's better that way.

Don't they say, 'silence is golden'. Maybe, we are just not meant to be, maybe I am not meant to be with anyone, not after everything that had happened.

I won't let the demons of my past hurt Jasmine. We both are protecting each other by hurting each other. I wonder if the pain's worth it all?
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Hello Fellas!
I am back!! 😘

So, what did you all think about this chapter? You got a sneak peek of what goes inside Xander's mind. What do you think of him?

What are your thoughts on Rebecca and Aman? Any guess on what Aman might have done to anger Jazz?

Come on, guys. Please do answer, I would love to hear your thoughts and the impression my characters are making.😭😭

Till the next update, keep shining ;)

- Love Addy :)