Chapter Fourteen
Asha Avery
“Are you feeling a little better, Asha?”
Professor Jones' soothing voice managed to calm me down a bit as I kicked at the small crumbs of pebbles on the ground. Solomon was standing before me with his arms folded against his chest.
“You done sulking?” He blatantly asked. I could tell he was annoyed. It seemed like everyone was annoyed the moment I open my mouth and speak my fucking mind, people are annoyed. “Huh? You done?”
“Please leave me alone, Solo–––”
“I won’t. I can’t. You will always be a priority. In a room full of mythics like them, you will always be my priority by default. I don’t get why you move like you don’t have people that will step for you. Why hasn’t it clicked who you are and what you can do?”
I looked down at my phone with a sniff, seeing my boyfriend asking me where I was. It must mean he was in my room or attempting to visit me for the weekend. I could already feel myself feeling better just at the thought of being with him and away from this.
“I need you to step in my place again,” Solomon said as he looked down at his phone.
“If you and Souxie beefing, cool. Put that on the back burner and figure that out for another day. You have other priorities to attend to. I need you to handle business with us first. You are not like them,” he stressed. “Do you hear me? You are not the same.”
I nodded as I wiped my face, letting the last bit of tears go for good. I refuse to cry for this long, especially in front of this fool. Not after how we started. Like that weird orange chick said, stop giving up the most vulnerable parts of yourself to everybody.
This shit is no longer free.
“I’m good,” I said, hardening up. “I’m gonna go back to the school and cover for y'all if they ask.”
“You need me to take you?” Professor Jones asked as she leaned her head out of the window. “I can drop my son off with my coworker for her to watch so I can be here for Bellamy.”
“I still can’t believe you’re dating him,” I said with a smile. “How in the world did that happen? Were you not scared?”
“Tuh,” she laughed. “Baby, that man is more afraid of me, and he should be. Come on. Let’s go before the sun comes up.”
After a long talk with my old professor, I was back at the iron gates.
I quietly made my way back to my dorm where my roommate was sound asleep with her music playing.
The base fell against the walls so all you could hear was muffled lyrics and a light bump of the walls from the beat.
I knew my man was here when I smelled his cologne.
I could just ughhhh, I can feel my body relax at the sight of him.
sitting on the floor with his back against the bed, studying his drawings.
He wore a black hoodie with his headphones over his ears, and his locs were pulled up pack wearing black sweats and his bare webbed brown feet.
His sharp eyes were soft, and always calm when he looked at me.
What started as a winter break situation turned into a full blown, I plan on marrying this man, and having all his babies, relationship.
Since he was Solomon's half biological brother who didn’t want to be known as such, I kept him and his life private.
If people found out about Silas, questions would begin to arise and the truth about who was actually born a triton and who wasn’t, would start to circulate.
As far as who said I love you first, it was probably him but then again, I was ready to drink this man’s bath water by week three. So.
“You’ve been crying,” Silas said, taking off his headphones.
His deep voice calm and chill like neo-soul, this man always had a way of just keeping cool during the most emotional times.
He was the perfect blend of a cool siren and the even temperament of a nymph.
I love the way his ears pointed back with the piercings and the way his lips formed that thick wide heart shape, perfect for kissing on.
I sat on the floor with my body leaning against his and just closed my eyes.
This was my safe space and probably the reason I didn’t speak about him too much.
I wanted to keep the best feeling in the world to myself and maybe Maggie was the same.
“I want to be in the water,” I told him, looking at my nails.
“Yeah?” He said, flipping the large notepad to show more sketches.
The official school crest of Montclair University was at the top.
Silas was one of the top architectural students in the Underground.
I tried to get him to transfer to Drew Collins, but he calls it the First 48 University and had no desire to be around murderers and whatever else he heard.
Still, it was cute to see his designs as he slowly flipped through different scales of buildings and homes until I picked my head up and stared at one in particular.
“That’s here,” I pointed.
“Yeah. I’ll be staying here starting Monday. I was going to surprise you. They’ve given us dorms and everything. I’m one of the lead designers for the arena for the official games. I may not be able to see you as much, but I’ll still be here.”
“Good,” was all I said as I leaned my head back on his shoulder.
“Do you want to see it?”
“I’m looking at it, babe.” I said before closing my eyes.
“No, do you want to see the dome? The arena? Right now? I don’t understand why it’s here given everything that’s happened, but Drew Collins is the Underground cherished diamond I guess.”
“I’m allowed in?”
“No,” getting up. “But it’s fine. Come on.”
I’m glad we weren’t walking all the way when we slipped into the cool seats of his car.
He had most of his stuff packed for the next week of his stay here.
I had a few things already here like my sneakers, blankets and extra pair of socks and tights for when I slept over at his dorm.
Silas let the windows down as the cool early morning summer breeze blew into the car.
I could feel the moisture in the air hit my face as my skin began to breathe like it was the first time it touched water.
“Do you think I can be…self-centered sometimes?” I asked. Silas’s eyes widened for a moment before settling back into his chill demeanor. He leaned against the door of his car with one hand draped over the wheel as he drove along the backroads of the school.
“Sometimes,” he replied. “You grew up in an environment where you had to constantly be on the defense. No affection. No time to pity others and their situation. You know how to fight, fuck, and feel. All for yourself.”
I smiled as I looked down at my nails.
“It’s not a bad thing. That’s just how you are. As you get comfortable in a space, you realize you don’t have to be on guard so much. One of your friends must have said that?”
“Yeaap.” I let out. “A lady told me to stop giving out my emotions to everybody…the most vulnerable parts of me anyway.”
“She’s right,” he stated as he made a turn.
I could see the large dome in the distance start to appear within the trees.
“The way you talk about your friends, you’re always on go, always ready to fight or just be in the middle of something.
I don’t understand it but if that’s what they constantly bring out of you, and that’s what you’re comfortable with. ”
“It’s not what they bring out of me. I don’t act like that around you.”
“No, you don’t. You’re comfortable with me and your position in my life.
At least I hope you are, and I hope I make it that way for you.
I don’t think you’re comfortable in your position with them.
Then again, with you being a siren with no sense of community growing up, it makes you feel like you’re always missing something in your life. ”
He pulled into the parking lot that looked abandoned, but the rest of the lot stretched into green grass that was already marked for other cars to be parked. Silas turned to look at me when he cut the car off.
“Fight fuck and feel, huh?” I smiled.
“Fight…I feel for whoever the woman might be that will try me because they have no idea how you’re coming,” he said.
“Fuck…you’re easily the best I’ve ever had…
very sensual, very open, and honest with your body, your love, and your heart, and feel…
You’re a ball of emotion and you wear it like clothes that you strip off throughout the day just to wear the same shit the next day.
I’m sure it’s exhausting but I look at how you were brought up and I realize, you just gotta get comfortable and have some reassurance that everything will be okay in the end.
You don’t handle change well but as long as you’re comfortable in your position, you’ll manage just fine.
I’m seeing it in real time. I see you Queen, even if nobody else does. I see you.”
I felt my eyes swell with tears as he leaned his head back on the head rest to stare me.
“Silas stop looking at me,” I choked with a laugh. “I’ve done enough crying for the damn night.”
“Who said this to you?” He asked, eyes growing dark as I quickly shook my head.
“Souxie. The pretty one I was telling you about. No guy said it. Please…I wouldn’t give a fuck about a man telling me shit.
” Sniffing, I wiped around my eyes as I thought about Solomon.
“Maybe that’s what your brother meant by saying I don’t realize I have people that will step for me. That I was his priority.”
Silas’s gaze could burn a hole in the side of my head. I hid my small smile in my childish, but playful attempt to make him jealous.
“Okay, Asha,” was all he said. I started to laugh as he got out of the car.
“I’m kidding! Silas?! I’m just kidding…”
He pulled his locs back, showing the flex of his muscles in his arms. The crisp white t-shirt with the hoodie laid against his seat, the black sweats showing just a hint of that bulge when he stretched, and the sharp nymph like eyes that were the perfect combination of his makeup.
“Come on. Let me show you what I did.”