He yelled at her and dragged her by the arm out of the room. I stood up and wasn’t exactly sure what to do. I could tell Bairam felt the same way by the look on his face, he was clearly conflicted between stepping in and not interfering. We both just stood there doing nothing until the door slammed and our senses returned.
We sprinted towards the door only to get to the hallway to see Yasmin laughing and Erik rolling his eyes. We turned to look at each other at the same time, then back at the siblings. What did we miss?
“We also have to figure the color theme,” Yasmin went back to the conversation we were having like nothing had happened.
Bairam followed Erik to the elevator, looking as puzzled as I was. Were we going to pretend like we didn’t see anything.
“Uh, what happened? Erik drags you to the corridor and you two are jolly the next minute?”
“Erik was just overreacting,” she said as we walked back into her room, “He gets like that sometimes when he takes his medication, which he only takes when he’s having trouble sleeping. I wonder why that would happen,” She smiled coyly while looking at me.
I rolled my eyes, I guess I’m never going to be free from being teased; If it isn’t Darius then it’s Yasmin. I didn’t mind being teased though; I appreciated it. It meant she liked me and I was more than grateful for being around her. We discussed about the details of her party and when she went to hang out with her friends I went around getting the party things and venue in order, I met Piran for help because I didn’t know what I was doing.
It turns out being a ‘personal Tholen’ really raised my ranks, I liked it but I didn’t let it get to me, I wouldn’t want to be like actual Tholens who were proud because of the little power they enjoyed. I entered a store: Vaedrin store this time. Hurrying to get Yasmin’s dress, she had given me her size, all I needed was to find something she would like, she said she trusted my sense of style, no pressure I guess.
I wasn’t sure why she would trust me with this, and I didn’t want to disappoint her. As I walked through the aisle, I saw Erik at the end looking at me. Just great. I tried avoiding him by making it for another aisle but it was too late he already saw me. He followed me.
“Hi. You seem to be avoiding me.”
“You think?” I rolled my eyes.
“Dumb question. I’m sorry. Please, let me just make up for it.”
“I’m trying to find an outfit for your sister.”
“And how’s that going for you? She doesn’t shop here for clothes.”
“This was the shop she told me about.”
“You actually believe she knows which store her clothes are from. Her job is to look good. She’s the last child in the family, there’s barely any responsibility for her. This used to be her favorite store but that was when she was little, the store lost its glory since then.”
“Are you trying to say she isn’t smart or something…and why would you know this?”
“I didn’t say that; she’s my sister remember? She just has no reason to know it. It’s my duty to know everything about everything.”
I was very confused but not exactly in the mood to talk to him.
“I’m guessing that’s your opening to show me. Well, go ahead. Or is it wrong for a Vaedrin to do that? Wait no, a Vaedrin isn’t supposed to talk to a Nadrin in the first place. You shouldn’t be talking to me; you wouldn’t want to be seen with me.”
“I’m sorry, and your right, please let me,” he held my arm and squeezed it lightly.
It was at that point I noticed he had been slowly covering the distance that I kept between us. I was clearly going to lose if I kept arguing with him, plus I needed him to show me the store for Yasmin’s dress; it was definitely not because I wanted to spend time with him.
He took me to the store and we went round looking for something Yasmin was going to like, the color was supposed to be either silver or gold since that was the party’s color theme but she preferred the color gold. It was no surprised; it was the same color she wore in the inauguration.
We started with small talk: first about the dresses and his choices of the one she’d like, then mine, then random things and then before I knew it I was laughing at his stupid jokes. He took me to a restaurant, booked the entire place. It was amazing, then we went to his family’s personal garden it was different form the one I had seen, it still had the same precision and design but it was enclosed and the trees had flowers of different colors and sizes.
We ended the day taking a stroll and just admiring the city before he dropped me off at my building. I insisted on giving Yasmin the things I bought myself but he ensured that he had everything under control. We stood in front, just looking at each other, waiting for the other person to make a move first.
“Well, I guess this is it. All is forgiven I hope?”
“I guess,” I said smiling.
We saw Darius heading our way, clearly tired from his day’s work. I couldn’t help but notice he got a new aeriq, it was blue like mine, ‘such a fan.’ I thought to myself.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Huh? You’re leaving so soon. At least stay for dinner.”
“Nah, I was about leaving. It was nice spending time with you today, I hope to do it again. Bye,” He squeezed my arm gently and left.
I waved goodbye as he entered into his hover-car. Darius finally approached me with a puzzled face.
“Who was that?”
“Erik, he uh…he dropped me off.”
I immediately remembered what Darius said concerning him, unfortunately it was too late to heed to his advice, I was already falling for Erik, hard. I felt guilty, I’d always listen to his advice and he’d always listen to mine. Being in love meant not thinking straight and having someone looking at things from a neutral point of view was really useful. Darius was going to give me an earful.
“Erik?” He said pulling me out of my thoughts.
“He wanted apologizing for what he said.”
“Is that so?” he gave me his you could do better look.
“You seem tired let’s go get something to eat,” I sprinted into the building.
“You can’t run forever; we’re going to have to talk eventually,” he sprinted after me.
I entered the apartment and tried running into my room but Darius caught up with me, he had gotten a lot faster than I remembered; I thought he was tired. He pulled me out of the room, so I headed back to the door to go outside, but he had already locked it; that was smart.
I turned around and he was right behind me, yikes, I needed to think fast, I pulled out the cartridge from his aeriq to buy myself time but he just touched the latched making the mask fold into a collar. I hated to admit it, but I miss the times he used his girlfriend’s aeriq.
Unfortunately, my diversion didn’t buy me enough time. He still caught up with me and forced me to sit on the couch in the living room.
“Going for my air? That’s really dark,” he said, as he caught his breath, “I’m already exhausted, I didn’t need any exercise.”
“Then you have just let me escape,” I said, also catching my breath, "Oh, and nice aeriq, it looks just like mine. Want my autograph?"
“Spending time with him is only going to make the feelings grow,” he settled into another couch, "and it's not like yours, mine is new."
I rolled my eyes at his final statement then stared at my feet.
“I think that’s too late,” I hid behind my hands that I used to cover my face.
“What? Tira? But I told…”
“I know; it isn’t really something I can control, you know this.”
“Fine, I still don’t think it’s okay though. You deserve better than him.”
I had somehow made it through the interrogation with Darius. We ate and talked about the issues he was having with his girlfriend before we went in for the night. Relationships seemed to be a lot of hassle, was I really ready for one?
The next day passed by fast, after spending time with Yasmin, I spent the evening with Erik, he always took me somewhere new. I didn’t exactly know how I felt, I guess no word really fit in, it felt like having butterflies in my belly; I wanted puke it all out.
After days of planning despite it not being my skill; it was time for Yasmin’s party. Apparently she always celebrated them every year, simply because she could. She loved the dress I chose and decided it meant I could do makeup. It was something I had never done in my entire life, not for me or anyone. For the strangest reason I did a pretty nice job with the makeup, surprising myself.
She allowed me invite Darius since we were close and I did the whole preparation, ‘it’s only fair’ she said, we both knew it was because she had a minor crush on him despite me telling her of his girlfriend. I too wore something nice, it matched with Darius outfit, we both decided it best to wear silver.
I kept walking around making sure things were in order since I was the organizer. I couldn’t spot Erik despite scanning through the crowd. I decided to just stay with Darius when I was pulled to the side by Bairam. He looked good in his Vaedrin attire, he put on a cheeky smile which was oddly contagious.
“Hey, couldn’t help but notice you roaming about.”
“Well, I’m the organizer; it’s my duty.”
“Okay, here I go,” he smiled nervously making me give him a questioning look, “Uh, so I was wondering…I’m not sure how exactly to ask this. Ever since I met you, I don’t think I’ve been able to get you out of my mind, not your mesmerizing smile or your eccentric beauty. I seem to replay every second I saw you over and over again, I simply can’t continue like this. I want to make you mine and make me yours, all yours. Will…will you go out with me?”
I was dumbfounded, I definitely wasn’t expecting this. I just stared speechless. He was nervous with a red face; I could see beads of sweat slowly forming on his forehead. He seemed nothing like the confident guy I’d met.
“I…I…I don’t know what to say.”
“That’s fine. I did kind of spring it up on you, that’s not a problem. Just answer me when you’re ready. I’ll wait.”
“This is…”
“Tira?”
I turned around to see Erik, he looked at me and then at someone behind me which I guessed was Bairam. I turned around to talk to Bairam but he had already blended into the crowd.
“What are you doing here? I’ve been looking for you.”
“I was umm, just trying to make sure the party was going well,” I said; I was completely lost in my thoughts.
I couldn’t wait for the party to end, Erik kept saying something but I was barely listening; I needed to talk to Darius and fast. I felt guilty for not paying attention to what Erik was saying but I couldn’t seem to focus no matter how hard I tried. The party came to an end, I assigned the Tholens who would clean to the different sections and scanned the venue till I found Darius.
“We need to talk, it’s an emergency,” I said the second I got close enough for him to hear me.
I told him about everything on our way to our building, he was just as stunned as I was, we analyzed the entire conversation to see if there was any hidden context or if he was joking, but that just left us with bizarre conspiracy theories. So it fell to the final complicated question. What exactly was I going to tell him?
I ended taking ‘gentle ways to let a guy down’ lessons from Darius, which brought me to a final conclusion ‘never take ‘letting a guy down’ lessons from Darius’. Of course, it officially meant I had to figure things out myself.
Since he barely visited Yasmin I could easily make it to work and comeback without seeing him. After all he was Erik’s bestfriend not Yasmin’s. I couldn’t be more wrong. I had never since him since the Erik dragging Yasmin’s incident but now he was everywhere. The worst part was that Yasmin let him stay since he was basically a family friend. Every time I went to work he was always close by, pretending to be doing something or making conversations with Yasmin while I was still talking to her.
It didn’t stop the evening outings I had with Erik though, after all Erik wasn’t aware. I decided to just let everything go and enjoy the time I spent with Erik. He dropped me off in front of my building as usual and we said our goodbyes, I watched his hover-car drive away, and it all became very clear; I was in love with Erik. I picked up my phone and called Bairam.
We met in a restaurant not too far from my building, He came along with flowers and had the same nervous smile on.
“I’m so glad you called,” he said handing me the flowers, “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about what I asked.”
“You made that very difficult with all your appearances.”
“What? Those were just random instances,” he said sarcastically and looking away.
“Well, umm I didn’t want to keep you waiting anymore.”
“That’s nice of you,” he drank from his cup, his has shaking intensely.
I took a deep breath, before making eye contact with him.
“Yes Bairam. I would like to go out with you.”
“Really? Yes! Yes! Yes!” he said, then shouted making people turn to look at us.
“Hey, not so loud people are looking at us,” I whispered while laughing.
“They should,” he whispered back. “She said yes,” he shouted, then stood up with his hands in the air, “I’m going to be all yours,” he shouted even louder.
I laughed, holding my finger up to my mouth to signal him to be quiet but that just made him shout even louder. After we finished dinner, he dropped me off despite me insisting to walk ‘I can’t have you straining those gorgeous legs’ he’d said, unlike Erik he was more lively and vibrant while Erik was more elegant and reserved.
He drove off after ensuring I entered my building and even followed me up the stairs till I entered my apartment to make sure I was safe, even though I told him not to, since I wasn’t sure if Vaedrins were even allowed to climb staircases.
Darius came back quite late which was unlike him. He had to go in extra time since his deadline was getting closer and the construction he was working on wasn’t close to being completed. He was much too tired for me to tell him about what had happened, so I decided to leave it for later.
I went to work the next day although at this point I no longer felt like I was working, it felt like I was visiting a friend which was what me and Yasmin had become. I wanted avoiding Erik but it was inevitable, I had made my decision so I had to accept the difficulties that came with my decision.
Fortunately for me Yasmin had something else planned out, we had spa day and outfit checking, I wasn’t sure if Nafren was supposed to be doing any of it. But it didn’t matter anymore, I was done wondering if I was or wasn’t supposed to do something due to my societal status, nobody gets to choose where they come from so why did they have to be restricted by it. I returned back to her penthouse with shopping bags in my hand, laughing at something I had said when Erik knocked and entered, smiling. I had completely forgotten about him.
“Looks like you two had fun.”
“I really need to change the passcode for this place, you keep coming uninvited,” Yasmin said dropping her bags on the floor and jumping on a large couch that could be mistaken as a bed.
“Can we talk?” he said turning to me.
I smiled and shook my head, yes.
“Of course, just steal her,” Yasmin said with folded arm.
“I see you tomorrow,” I said smiling.
“I’ll be in the family’s spire-form.”
I followed Erik out of the penthouse, rehearsing what to say in my head till we got out of the building, he seemed so happy. I wish things didn’t have to go this way. I wish I didn’t have to hurt him like this.