I've Never Heard Silence Quite This Loud (Jaxon)

[Talia Spencer]

November 24, 2014


It was late afternoon and Talia felt exhausted. She hadn't been sleeping well lately and she was really starting to feel it right about now. She glanced up at the clock, willing it to go by faster, of course knowing that was a fruitless line of thought. So after a long moment, she decided it was best to take a trip to the staff lounge, get some coffee and hopefully feel a bit better.

She gave the others in the office a quick heads up that she was stepping out and then off she went. Her pace was slow and leisurely and her thoughts were distant.

It had been just over a week since her date with Xavier. It had been a long time since she had had that much fun with someone. She really liked him. They had texted back and forth a bit in the days that followed until suddenly she just didn't hear from him. She didn't read too much into it at first - after all, everyone had days where they just were too busy to text back. But after three days, she started to get a bit worried. She had tried texting him, but he never answered.

Had she done something wrong? She had spent more time than she cared to admit re-reading those last texts, trying to decipher what she could have possibly done to make him outright stop talking to her. She had considered that maybe his phone had broken, but if that was the case, he knew where to find her. They worked in the same place after all. Yet she hadn't seen or heard from him and she didn't understand it in the least.

Talia had thought something was finally going right for her, but it seemed she had been wrong about that after all.

These were the thoughts that kept her up at night and the ones that bounced around her mind now. Apparently, it was those thoughts that had guided her feet too since she ended up outside the offices rather than at the staff lounge. She stood there for a moment, surprised by this turn of events before she finally just took a deep breath, stood up straight and moved forward, looking for his office. Classes should be done with for the day which meant he should be there, and she was ready to give him a piece of her mind.

Sure enough, once she found his office, there he was, sitting at his desk, writing something or other. The door was open so she walked right in, knocking twice on the door frame but not waiting on an invitation to enter.

"Did you never learn proper manners?" she started, annoyance and sarcasm heavy in her tone. "Because let me enlighten you, it is incredibly rude to ignore someone. Especially out of nowhere. So what's the deal, Xavier?"

[Xavier & Jaxon Wright]

Back against the leather couch, Jaxon found himself idly flipping through the channel. ESPN. Patriots and whoever it was that Jaxon did not care about, which lead to the remote being dropped on the glass table in front of them. Xavier had been rather quiet since he had come back, and frankly, it was beginning to irritate the younger soul.

His silence was not warranted, and Jaxon was becoming more and more anxious to find out why it existed. Xavier, him and his stubborn self, refused to tell, but Jaxon was going to find out why. Today.

"What's your problem, Xav?"

'Nothing.'

"Bullshit."

'I'm fine.'

Jaxon gave an irritated sigh then, crossing his arms across his chest and his jaw clenched. Xavier was seriously in a shit mood, and the more that he shut himself out, the more Jaxon felt helpless to help him. But suddenly a thought passed through his mind about the 'date' that Xavier and that wench had went on, and the younger soul immediately put the pieces together.

"This is about that damn girl, isn't it?"

'I don't know what you're talking about.'

"Don't give me that, Xavier. Ever since you went on that date with that bitch, you haven't spoken a word to me. What did she do to you?"

'First of all, don't you dare call her a bitch. She has a name, thank you. Second off, what is your problem with her?'

"She isn't good for you! She's cocky and annoying and frankly, more conceited than she should be."

'Okay, you know what. Fuck you. Hope you enjoy silence, because i'm going to sleep. Enjoy your fucking day.'

And there it was, the ultimate start to a week long mental embargo that left Jaxon slowly going insane.

It had been an entire week. A week since Xavier had last shown himself. Jaxon knew exactly how easy it was to fall into the storm that was the mental sleep; the world was no longer present and all the pain and irritation that was once felt would fade. It was a place of nothingness with an image of everything - never darkness, but never light, either. The whole ordeal was incredibly confusing to explain, but one thing was certain for the soul that had gotten left behind.

It was torture.

Irritation caused by a lack of sleep and mental stimulation on part of the Hammel trainer, Jaxon spent his hours trying to find a way to fill the empty void that was Xavier's spot, and frankly, nothing was working. He went through appointments with a fake enthusiasm hoping it would do something to provide the younger soul with some relief. That was not the case.

And not only that, but Jaxon literally had kept his phone off for majority of the week ever since he continued to get texts from that girl that had caused all of it. He also spent every moment of the day avoiding her, feeling as though she didn't deserve the satisfaction of seeing his face. She didn't deserve to see him, even though she would perceive it as Xavier.

But as he was writing himself some notes for a few of his students, plans for their training and such, an unfamiliar voice with a very familiar face barged in the door, calling him by his brother's name. "I beg your pardon? And who are you?" There was a growth of venom in every word that he spoke then, but only for her. "Are you a student? Because dear, that is no way to speak to a trainer."

Oh he knew exactly who she was, but wouldn't give her the satisfaction of letting that be known.

[Talia Spencer]

Honestly, Talia didn't know what she had expected. In truth, she hadn't expected to be confronting him at all. But even with that fact put aside, in the split second she had to imagine a reaction, she never could have predicted the one she was greeted with.

And who are you?

For a moment she was dumbstruck into silence. She could have accepted him responding in confusion, even anger. She could have expected him to just brush her off. But to entirely deny everything? To act as though they have never even met? As though they hadn't gone out on what she had believed was a very successful date? He was going to sit there and just deny even knowing who she was?

Who the hell did he think he was?

"Excuse me?" she blurted out, shock and outrage heavy in her voice. Her eyes widened as he continued speaking, enough venom in his words to imply she had somehow murdered his mother or some other unspeakable atrocity. Which was ridiculous because she hadn't done a damn thing wrong. More than that, the implication that she was some wayward student come to seek out his instruction? He was seriously going to patronize her like that full well knowing that she was an employee of the school just like he was? He was going to condescend to her as though he had some higher authority or maturity when he was the one acting like a ten year old?

Oh hell no.

Needless to say, her rage got the better of her at that precise moment. She had come here to get answers, but his response had all but driven that from her mind. She didn't understand how anyone could go from being so caring to so callous in a matter of days. It was almost like he was an entirely different person all of a sudden. Now though she wasn't feeling all that worried about holding back or being polite.

"No, that's the way you speak to a ass who has the emotional maturity the size of a damn pea!" she exclaimed. She wasn't going to bother answering his question about being a student. She knew he was fully aware of that answer. He only said that to upset her - which had clearly worked - even if she didn't understand why he wanted to. "What the hell did I ever do to you to deserve this?"

[Xavier & Jaxon Wright]

There was no way in hell that Jaxon would have been able to get away with this had Xavier been active and filling the void, but in the end, maybe it was for the better? The woman would be gone in a matter of seconds, that much was undeniable, and in the end that would remove her from the list of threats that Jaxon had piling up in his mind.

There was no remorse for what he said, which was very much a familiar feeling. The younger soul had always spoken his mind and didn't care what the outcome would bring. In his mind, if they hated him fine, but if they loved him, that was great too; either way it ran, there was never an ounce of bother that was felt. Especially now.

"And what did I do to deserve to be called out for no apparent reason? Also, if you're going to curse at me, child, at least be grammatically correct. Clearly you've learned that the correct way would be 'an ass' instead of 'a ass'."

Honestly, he was just in such a piss poor mood and the woman had the misfortune of confronting him at the wrong time. It was her fault in his mind; she deserved what she had gotten, and given the fact that she was the one to initiate it all, it only made more sense in his mind to do what he was doing.

[Talia Spencer]

The surprises just kept coming. After his first spiel she should have seen it coming, but the depths of his denial seemed to know no bounds.

"No apparent reason? No apparent reason?" she repeated. That went beyond anger or confusion. That was downright insulting. After what they had shared, he began ignoring her entire existence and then essentially called it nothing? She was practically shaking with rage at that point.

And the way he called her child. That got under her skin to an extent that she couldn't even begin to explain. All her life she had been viewed as a child, unfit to make decisions for herself. She had left all that behind when she came to Vermont, and she was not about to deal with it again. She was not a child. She was a 25 year old woman, damn it, and she wasn't going to put up with this level of cruelty.

"So with all this, you care more about proper grammar than you do me? Fine. Have it your way. You want to pretend that I don't exist, go right ahead. Better that I find out now that underneath your smooth-talking gentleman act is a selfish prick who doesn't give a damn about anybody but himself. I do not need that bullshit." With that she spun on her heel and moved back towards the door.

Talia paused in the doorway though to turn back towards him for one more remark. "For the record, the only child in this room is you, Xavier. So I hope for your sake, you still have some imaginary friends to help distract you from your petty, immature, miserable existence. But my guess is that even they have gotten sick and tired of you."

With that, she slammed the door behind her.