TheEyeOfTheStorm
1143 Words
It was the day before our first project milestone was due, and Professor Whitelock was pacing the front of the room like a ginger-haired tiger.The atmosphere in the lecture hall was thick with stress.
"I expect excellence," she reminded us. "Anything less is a waste of my time."
I could feel Ethan’s tension next to me. When the bell rang, he didn't even wait for the echoes to die down.
"My place. Now," he muttered, grabbing his leather bag.
"Ethan, I have sociology…"
"Skip it,if anything comes up I’d speak to whoever is in charge." he barked, already halfway to the door. "We’re missing a key primary source for the Versailles section. If we don't find it, we’re dead in the water."
I sighed, but I followed him. Twenty minutes later, we were back in his penthouse. But the mood was different. Outside,thunder rumbled in the distance, a low warning of the storm coming.
"Coffee," Ethan commanded, pointing at the kitchen. "I’m going into the archives."
"Get it yourself, Ethan. I’m checking the bibliography," I shot back, dropping my bag on his glass table.
He stopped, turned, and looked at me. For a second, I thought he was going to snap. Instead, he just let out a tired breath. "Fine. You check the sources. I’ll make the coffee."
We worked for three hours straight as the storm finally broke. Rain lashed against the floor-to-ceiling windows.The power flickered once, twice, and then blackout.
The silence was immediate and heavy.
"You've got to be kidding me," Ethan’s voice came out of the darkness.
"Do you have candles?" I asked, my heart doing that annoying flutter again.
"In the kitchen. Top drawer."
I stood up, using the glow from my phone to find my way. I found a thick, expensive looking candle and lit it. The small flame danced, casting shadows across the room. When I walked back to the table, Ethan was sitting there, staring at the rain.
"My Dad is going to kill me if I don't get the highest grade in this class," he said suddenly. His voice was so quiet I almost missed it over the sound of the thunder.
I paused, holding the candle. "It's just one project, Ethan."
"Not to him," he laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Everything is a competition. My mom is gone. My step sister just lives her life because her mom stands up for her. I’m the one who chose a local elite school, so I have to be perfect. If I’m not... I’m invisible."
I sat down slowly. I thought about my own parents. The divorce, the way they fought over who got me for the holidays, the way I felt like a trophy they were trying to break.
"I get it," I whispered. "I came here to be a blank slate. I thought if I was perfect, nobody would see the mess I came from."
Ethan turned his head, his blue eyes catching the gold of the flame. "I saw you the first day, Audrey. You weren't a blank slate.”
He reached across the table and tucked a loose strand of my red hair behind my ear. His fingers were warm against my skin, lingering there for a second too long.
“ I didn't know how to react to you," he admitted, his voice dropping to a low vibrate. "You weren't afraid of me. Everyone else avoids me."
"I'm still not afraid of you," I said, though my heart was beating so hard I was sure he could hear it.
"Good," he whispered.
He leaned in, his face crossing the line of the candlelight. I could smell the peppermint, the rain, and something that was just him. His eyes dropped to my lips, and this time, he didn't pull away. At that moment, I didn't know what it was but I felt like holding him.
Then, my phone on the table exploded with light and sound.
The caller ID flashed: MARK.
Ethan pulled back instantly, his face hardening back into a mask of ice.
"Your boyfriend is calling," he said, "Better answer it. We wouldn't want the nice guy to worry."
"Ethan, wait… I don’t even know how he has my contact yet. He’s not my boy…."
"Go home, Audrey," he said, standing up and walking toward the window. "The power will be back on soon. I’ll finish the bibliography myself."
"We were just talking. It’s still raining.Why are you doing this?"
He didn't turn around. "We were wasting time. 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. Don't be late."
I stood there in the candlelight, feeling his rejection like a physical blow. I grabbed my bag and headed for the door, but just before I left, I looked back. He was standing alone in the dark. I stepped out into the hallway, answering the phone with a shaky voice. "Hello?"
"Audrey? It's Mark. I’ve been texting you and you haven’t responded. I couldn’t hold back and I had to call. Are you safe?
I looked back at the closed door of Penthouse B. I wanted to say I was fine, that I could walk back. But the thought of trekking across a dark, flooded campus alone felt impossible after the emotional wreckage of the last ten minutes.
"Actually, Mark... that would be amazing," I whispered. "I’m at the Elite apartments. North Quad."
"I know the ones. I’m five minutes away. Stay in the lobby where it’s dry, okay?"
"Okay. Thanks, Mark."
I descended in the elevator, my mind spinning. Minutes later, a silver sedan pulled up to the curb. Mark hopped out, holding a massive umbrella.
"Hey," he said, giving me a bright, relieved smile. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Just a long study session," I managed to say.
He held the umbrella over me.As I reached the car door,I paused, my hand on the door handle, and slowly turned my head. I looked up at the fifth floor, toward the corner unit with the floor to ceiling windows and there, standing perfectly still, was a silhouette. Even from this distance, I knew the sharp line of those shoulders. I knew the way he stood. Ethan was watching us.
He was standing right against the glass, looking down at me and Mark under the umbrella. He looked angry.
Then, as soon as he realized I had seen him, he turned abruptly and vanished into the shadows of his apartment. "Audrey? Is everything okay?" Mark asked, leaning over the roof of the car.
I pulled my gaze away.
"Yeah," I lied, getting in and clicking my seatbelt. "Everything is fine."
But as Mark drove away, I looked in the side mirror at the darkening glass tower behind us. I was safe in the car, but my heart was still back in that dark penthouse, trapped in the silence Ethan had left behind.
- Writer
