Chapter 24 Sevan
Sevan
There hasn’t been a single moment all semester that I’ve been nervous about my miniature car project until the night I walk out onto the auditorium stage.
I know the car works.
I’ve been testing it in many conditions all day, and I’m convinced it will be one of the more advanced projects presented today.
But knowing that Weston is out in the audience, waiting to watch me, actually gives me a surge of nerves as I step out into the stage lights.
The whole auditorium breaks out in applause as I walk onto the stage with five of the other finalists in the competition. There are a lot more people here than I ever would have expected in an engineering ceremony, a lot of them parents or professors.
Mom is somewhere in the back, and I think Niko and Ollie went to go sit with her.
I squint into the lights and see Wes front and center in the first row like he said he’d be, surrounded by other Onyx guys on either side of him.
“Thank you all for coming out tonight,” the head of the engineering department says into his microphone, waving to the crowd. “We’ll be seeing the final five projects on display this evening, which our brightest students have been working on all semester. I think you’ll be impressed.”
I hear a loud whoop whoop from the front and I smile, knowing it’s Wes.
There’s a panel of judges at the back of the stage who are introduced.
Most of them are engineering professors, and a few are from mechanical engineering companies. They’ll be judging each of our projects.
I take a deep breath and watch as the other students come to the center of the stage, one by one, showing off their projects.
One of them is an impressive motorized robotic arm, and the girl who made it is someone I’ve seen in many of my classes over the past couple of years.
The robotic arm can pick up many things, and in the final demonstration it even manages to pick up a raw egg, bring it over a frying pan, and crack it into the pan without any egg shells getting in.
The next few projects are equally good. Someone made self-cooling shoes that look ridiculous, but are a great idea for a prototype, and another person made a little electronic bird that can flap its wings and light up in different patterns.
When it’s my turn to present, the whole front row erupts in cheers and applause even though the audience has been relatively tame until now.
I explain the process of building my mechanical air-powered car, and that it runs on pneumatic cylinders. And then I fire it up, sending it down the long, looping track that I made for it.
When it gets to the end all on its own, the front row cheers again.
“Very good work, Sevan,” the engineering head says.
The panel of judges breaks to deliberate, and the rest of us are finally allowed to mingle. I hop down the stairs at the edge of the stage and right away, Wes is running toward me.
He tackles me in a kiss, wrapping his arms around me.
“You’re so fucking smart, Sev,” he says. “You didn’t tell me this thing was powered by air. That’s cool.”
“I’m a nerd, deep down,” I tell him.
“A hot nerd. A hot, tough-guy nerd with a delinquent past.”
I puff out a laugh. “You make me feel like a rock star.”
“You basically are.”
Mom and Niko come find us at the front of the auditorium soon after, and I exchange hugs with them, too.
I’m surprised to see a man I don’t recognize walk up behind Mom a moment later, and she turns to bring him into a little circle with us.
“Sev, this is Shawn,” Mom says. “We’ve been seeing each other at the ceramics class I’m taking, and I invited him along tonight.”
Shawn shakes my hand. He’s a tall guy with brown, slightly greying hair and a kind smile. “These projects were amazing to see. I minored in mechanical engineering, but we never made anything this cool back then.”
Mom’s cutting me a look and I can tell she’s waiting for me to take her aside.
I used to cast judgment when she started dating a new guy too soon, but the only thing I feel for her right now is sympathy.
She hates being alone. And even if I didn’t understand that for the longest time, I’m not the one who should deny her a chance at something good.
When Shawn breaks off into a quick conversation with Niko, I take Mom aside.
“Shawn seems really nice,” I tell her.
“You like him?” she asks, with a sweet smile. “Things are still new, and I’m not jumping into anything fast. But he’s a lot different than any guy I’ve dated before.”
“He seems like it.”
There’s no certainty that it’ll work out, but I’m able to be genuinely happy for her.
Strange.
As the judges ring their little bells to call everyone back to their seats, Weston gives me a little pinch on my hip.
“Hey,” he whispers in my ear, “if you win, you get to fuck me tonight in your car.”
“And what if I don’t win?”
“Then you have to fuck me in your bed, instead.”
I bite my lower lip. “Maybe I’ll just forget this whole competition and just pull you into some supply closet right this moment. Tie you up. Fuck you raw—”
“Sevan,” the announcer calls to me from the stage.
Wes blows me a kiss, and I head back up.
When I end up getting the second-place prize and first place goes to the girl with the robotic arm, I’m not surprised.
She deserved it fully, and it’s clear that she spent a boatload of time on her project.
Taking second place in stride feels different for me, though, after a lifetime of competitive edge filling my veins at every moment.
How am I still so fucking happy?
Even now?
The answer is right out there in the crowd, though.
I look out and see Weston’s face and I just don’t care about being first place in a competition. I have him.
And he actually wants to be mine.
After accepting my silver trophy I start to head back down into the crowd, but get pulled aside for a moment by one of the professors.
She’s going on and on about how impressive my project was and that it was a very close decision for who got first place, but I can’t stop looking at Wes out in the crowd.
Roman’s talking to him.
And Wes is frowning.
Roman has a serious look on his face as he says something to Weston, and both of them can’t look away.
The fuck is going on?
Anxiety trickles through my veins.
They don’t still have Onyx House secrets that Wes wouldn’t tell me, right?
And if so, what the hell would they be?