20. Aiden
AIDEN
After showering, I went back into my room. Part of me thought I should have followed Severn. Let him know not to feel awkward or think anything of it, but I also had no fucking clue how to have that conversation.
My phone vibrated on my nightstand where I had put it on charge during the movie last night. It was a text from Mitz.
Mitz
I’m coming by this afternoon with groceries. Anything you two want in particular?
Me
Noodles, you can get the spicier ones too. More coffee. And pudding cups.
Mitz
pudding cups? Really?
Me
Yeah, Severn likes them.
just make sure you get the mild noodles still too. I can’t eat the spicy ones
Mitz
Mmmm. anything else?
Me
Can you bring some art supplies? Just a sketchbook and some pencils.
Mitz
sure
When I finished towel drying my hair, I tossed the towel in the clothes basket and walked out into the living room.
Severn sat in his usual spot on the couch holding the phone I gave him.
He hadn’t had a reason to use it really, but he played games on it as we all do.
“Mitz is coming by today with more food and stuff. Is there anything you want me to ask him for?”
Severn set the phone down and looked right at me as soon as I started speaking.
I had every urge to tear down the mental wall I had to my senses so I could read his emotion, but I resisted.
I expected him to avoid me or be angry. Severn was acting as if nothing had happened.
When he spoke, he sounded like his normal calm self, “I think we may be running low on coffee. Just some different things to eat, I guess.” He shrugged, picking his phone back up.
Nodding, I replied, “Okay, yeah. He will get us good stuff. Coffee too.” Continuing through the room and into the kitchen.
“Can you show me how to use that?” Severn was right behind me now as we stepped up into the kitchen. He gestured to the coffee machine.
Pointing at the machine, I made a face. “The coffee machine?” I was genuinely confused. This was the first time he had asked anything about any of the stuff in the kitchen. “You don’t know how to use any of this stuff?” I gestured around the kitchen.
He shook his head. “It’s not that I couldn’t figure it out.
I could. I wanted to know how, but Ceril never did this kind of stuff for himself, so I never did it either.
” Severn just shrugged and looked at the machine.
I couldn’t help but wonder if we were just going to pretend like this morning didn’t happen or what?
For now, I was going to just go with what he was doing.
I took him through the motions of filling the machine with coffee grounds, then filled the coffee pot with water and handed it to him.
“You just have to fill the tank back here,” I guided Severn’s hand to fill the water reservoir for the coffee machine.
A little water spilled on the counter, making Severn jump slightly.
On impulse, I rested my hand on the small of his back.
He turned to look at me when I made contact and rolled his lips between his teeth before smiling at me.
When he set the pot back in the machine, I pointed to the start button.
“Just push that, and it will be ready in a few minutes.”
“That’s not bad at all.” Severn turned to face me directly, my hand on his hip now.
Once I realized where my hand rested, I pulled it back quickly.
Something about resting it there felt too intimate.
Severn took a step closer to me, and my breath started to get more uneven.
The mental wall on my senses collapsed. A steady, soft pink aura pulsed around Severn as he lifted his hand and placed it on my waist.
The closer he got, the more I had to look up. He wasn’t much taller than me, but his presence in this moment commanded me. With his other hand, he cupped the side of my face and leaned in slowly, sneaking glances at my lips.
This was not really happening.
When our lips met, it was like a sweet, icy-hot sensation.
Something that I never knew I craved until I had it.
Severn’s fingers threaded through my hair as I reached out, gripping his waist. Teasing the seam of his lips with my tongue, it didn’t take long for our tongues to meet. He tasted like sin.
Severn broke the kiss and rested his forehead against mine. The pink aura began to shift to a muddy yellow. His admiration turned to nervousness. My need to ease those nerves was strong. “Hey, no. Don’t overthink anything that just happened.” I reached up and cupped his face. “Please, Sev. Don’t.”
“That’s the second time you’ve called me that.” He looked at me in the eyes, his eyebrows drawn together in question. “How did you know I was overthinking things?” he tilted his head to the side slightly.
Letting out a sigh, I took in his delicate features.
“I have a special sense too. Emotions,” I whispered, waiting to see how he would react to what I said.
He didn’t react at all. “I am sensitive to others’ emotions.
I can feel them and see them.” Severn looked down at the floor and nodded as I spoke.
I reached out, placing my hands on his shoulders.
“I don’t want you to feel like I was invading your privacy or anything. I never meant to do that.”
He looked at me quickly. “No, it doesn’t feel that way at all.
” Shaking his head, he turned and grabbed mugs from the cabinet and set them on the counter in front of the coffee machine.
“It makes sense, actually.” Turning back to me, Severn looked me directly in the eyes.
“I’ve never felt the way I do now. I never felt like I had control over anything in my life, but now I do.
The emotions I feel now actually feel like my own rather than some that were fabricated for me by my surroundings. ”
Reaching out, I gently cupped his cheek and rubbed my thumb across his bottom lip. “I’m glad you feel that way. Really.” Leaning down again, I placed a soft kiss on his lip as the coffee machine beeped that it had finished brewing.
Severn and I sat quietly together on the couch for the rest of the morning watching TV. When a soft knock sounded from the door at the noodle shop storeroom that afternoon, a series of beeps followed immediately after. The door buzzed open, and Mitz walked through the small opening.
I sat up from the couch, realizing only then that I had fully leaned into Severn’s side and his arm was wrapped around my shoulders. When I turned to look at Mitz, his eyebrows were raised,d and a smirk was painted across his annoying face.