“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 werebrought 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.”
When I stepped out, I looked around at the stretched-out fields that were already marked for parking. Signs were labeled for the different schools to arrive. I flipped my locs back before hurrying to walk alongside Silas as I linked my arms with his. The dome looked like a glass ball situated in between thick trees swaying gently in the wind. There were stadium lights on from inside and I could hear shouting and hammering when a loud booming sound went off. We kept walking along the path that was paved for spectators until we walked through the gates that said tickets. The floating banners and colors for Drew Collins decorated the otherwise dark hallway leading to a direct path of the lit arena.
“You designed this?”
“For the most part,” he said as he looked up, staring at every detail. We drew closer to the opening of the arena until my mouth dropped at the sheer size of the place. The maroon seats warped around in a circle, sitting up so high with the dome made up of glass that showed the night sky from outside. Just below was a large field made up of people hammering away at what looked like a large sandbox. When we got closer, it was four squares made up of different terrain. One square was filled with short blades of green grass freshly cut. Maybe one or two baby trees no taller than my hip. Another square was filled with sand, the first box I noticed and the other two were water and concrete. The few people that were here working on it simply nodded at Silas in greeting before going back to work.
“Is this it? The big games? They’re going to fight in one of these little squares?” I asked as we came up on the four-square field. “The water looks no higher than my ankle?”
“You said you wanted to be in the water,” he said. “Go ahead then.”
I looked at him before pulling away from his body and stepping up towards the square filled with water no deeper than a basic puddle. The water rippled and waved constantly as I looked back at Silas. He was already talking to someone else who was showing him something.
“Can I just step in it?!” I shouted back, kicking my shoes off.
“You a siren right?” A deep voice let out as I turned around. The man with the chubby cheeks wearing a dark blue jumpsuit with a hammer in his hand, stared tiredly at me. More or less, I nodded to being a siren. I wiggled my toes over the water.
“This is like a puddle, anybody can get in this,” I retorted before lowering my foot in. As soon as I saw the water reach up like it wanted to grab my foot, I could hear Silas call my name just as my body got pulled into the water like a suction cup. I gasped as the water rushed over my head with bubbles surrounding me as the current suddenly carried my body back up. I gasped for air and picked my head up over the water as I looked around.
“What the fuck?” I coughed. Pinching my nose and wiping my face, I looked around for any sign of life, but it was cloudy, and the water stretched like the ocean. I dunked back into the water and looked around as I exhaled, letting bubbles shoot out of my nose and mouth. It was no sign of anything, but I began swimming down, pushing past the current as my body waved and flowed. When it began to get darker, I suddenly turned back around and stared before screaming out. Bubbles scattered from my mouth, capturing my screams until I heard it. My name.
“Asha?!”
I whipped around, knowing that voice and it wasn’t my man. He only screams my name when I get him on the brink of sexual destruction, and this wasn’t it. I knew that damn voice though.
“Asha?!”
I looked up where the surface was nothing but a distant swim until turning around and seeing the cascading swirls of white hair floating around me.
“Maggie?” I let out. I couldn’t see her face, but I could see the smile in between the white strands. I screamed out her name as the bubbles went flying, distorting what was only a mere illusion of Maggie. The white hair dissolved into the water like a tablet, but I could still hear her.
“I’m coming back Asha. Tell them we’re coming back and we’re okay. Let him know I’m okay…”
