Beyond Love

Switch! #2

It's Xander's birthday! Quite recently as I was walking to the station and multi-tasking as usual (aka reading all your comments and trying my best to answer questions and stuff like that), I spotted this really interesting comment by one of my readers (oh nu I forgot who! Please leave a comment if you were the one) that featured them asking Xander: 'what if Chip turned into a devil?', to which they wrote, as Xander: 'hot'. Well, credits to them because here is a birthday special with Chip with a devilish personality and an uncharacteristically angelic Xander.

You thought the day would never come; well, you thought wrong >:D

*

The very first time Xander Jaxon caught a glimpse of Chip Honeycutt was when the latter had been called upstage during the school's assembly period and punished for dying his hair. While he could have been wondering why the seemingly tiny and harmless thing would not follow a rule as simple as 'do not dye your hair' or why such a rule was implemented in the first place, Xander was, instead, completely taken aback by the mismatch between the student's behaviour and his name.

Chip Honeycutt.

Good god, it sounded like a dessert. In fact, it sounded to him quite like something he would get at a pastry shop; one for him and another for his sister. Only—he'd yet to explore the rest of the town just yet, and having no one to show him around did not help his case either.

"It's always him," whispered the girl seated beside Xander, leaning a little too close for comfort. "Breaking the rules. Oh, and he has his eye on new people, so. Watch out."

Xander was used to being part of 'the new people'. Transfering schools was a norm for someone like himself, with nowhere to go and a father to please. He was, as of now, at the height of independence with a year left to graduate. All he had to do was work hard—then, he would never disappoint his sister. She was his everything.

"Um. I'm good," he nodded quietly, flashing a smile. "Thanks."

*

Apparently, Chip Honeycutt wasn't the only person in the school who 'had his eye on new people'. Everyone else was, too.

"Hey Jaxon, you gonna play for the school team?"

"When's the next match?"

"Where'd you come from?"

"Do you gym?"

The last one caught him off-guard, and while Xander was trying his best to answer each and every question with as many details as possible, he bumped into something. Well, not something—someone.

"Shit, sorry—are you okay?"

The person he'd bumped into had unfortunately lost his balance and fallen sideways, books and papers flying all across the hallway. Xander leaned down to help the other up; only to have his hand slapped away.

"No, I'm not okay," fired the bespectacled boy who'd bleached his hair a platinium white. "You must be blind to think that I am."

At once, Chip Honeycutt straightened up and brushed his shoulders. "Pick them up."

"Uh...sorry, what?" Xander blinked, watching as the other tidied his clothes, not even bothering to spare the transfer student a glance.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" He snapped. "You made me drop my things. You pick them up."