“Even though Xavier was only human, it seemed he could protect me from anything and everything. I wouldn't have been worried if a fire-breathing dragon had torn of the roof, because I knew that Xavier was there. I wondered fleetingly if I was expecting to much og him, but dismissed the idea.”

“There was nothing else to do but call upon the Creator,praying, begging, pleading, bargaining—anything to makehim protect Xavier. I couldn’t have him ripped away fromme like that. I could survive emotional turmoil; I couldsurvive the most intense physical torture. I could surviveArmageddon and holy fire raining down upon the earth, but Icould not survive without him.”

“Oh, man," Xavier groaned. "See what you've done--now I'm stressing.""You can't! You're the stable one!"Xavier laughed and I realized his distress had been feigned to illustrate a point. He wasn't worried in the slightest."Just relax. Go and run a bath or have a shot of brandy.""Okay.""That second bit was a joke. We both know you can't hold your liquor.”

“They want to hold a seance and go dressed as bunnies.”“What kind of bunnies?” he asked suspiciously.“Playboy, I think. Whatever that means.”“That sounds about right.” Xavier laughed. “But don’t let them talk you into anything you don’t feel comfortable with.”“They’re my friends.”“So what?” He shrugged. “If your friends walked off a cliff, would you do it too?”“Why would they walk off a cliff?” I asked in alarm. “Is someone having problems at home?”Xavier laughed. “It’s just an expression.”“It’s silly,” I told him. “Do you think I should go as an angel? Like in the film version of Romeo and Juliet?”“There would be a certain irony in that,” Xavier said, smirking. “An angel posing as a human posing as an angel.I like it.”

“What about this?" I held up a battered copy of Beauty and the Beast. "It sounds romantic." Xavier wrinkled his nose."Disney... I don't think so.""Why not?""Because if anyone found out, I'd never live it down.""I won't tell if you don't," I pleaded, and Xavier shook his head in defeat."The things I do for you," He said with an exaggerated sigh.”

“But I was wrong. I should have known it wasn't owver, couldn't be over quite easily. No sooner was Xavier out of sight than a little cylinder of paper fell from the top of my locker. As I unrolled it, I knew I'd see black calligraphy crawling across it like a spider. Dread settled around me like a fog as the words burned into my brain: The Lake of Fire awaits my lady”

“Love you,” Xavier said just before he drifted back to sleep.“Love you more,” I said playfully.“Not a chance,” Xavier said, fully awake now. “I’m bigger, I can contain more love.”“I’m smaller, therefore my love particles are more compressed, which means I can fit more in.”Xavier laughed. “That argument makes no sense. Overruled.”“I’m just basing it on how much I miss you when you’re not around,” I countered.“How can you possibly know how much I miss you?” he said. “Have you got some sort of built-in miss-o-meter that can give us a reading?”“I’m a girl; of course I have a built-in miss-o-meter.”