Ultraviolet

Chapter Thirteen: The Great Debaters

Hadeon and I walked back to the apartment, not saying much of anything, but now the silence was comfortable. He opened the door for me, and I thank him quietly. Before I could even place my shoe on the first step, the sound of shouting travelled down from the apartment above.

Hadeon stepped in front of me, an arm swung out almost defensively across my body. He started walking up, his eyes directed at a random spot on the wall as he listened in to the argument. I couldn't discern anything being said, so I followed him, my eyes on him, awaiting his reaction to what he heard.

"I think it's just Jessica and Jack." He informed me. "Stay here, I'll check."

Normally I'd never back down from anything. Fear wasn't a luxury I was used to. But something about Jessica and Jack fighting made my heart drop out of my stomach. Maybe it reminded me of my foster home, or maybe I had just glamorised their relationship. Nevertheless, I waited patiently on the steps as Hadeon made his way to the apartment door.

"Whats going on?" I heard him ask as he stepped into the living room, closing the door behind him.

I could hear shouting again, but then it died down to what sounded like a heated debate. I could pick up on snippets of the conversation. I heard "No" and "Thats not fair" and "Its up to you", but the context was a little harder to understand.

The door swung open and Jessica gestured for me to come up, and I joined the three of them- Jessica, Jack, and Hadeon- in the living room.

"Violet," Jack greeted, a grim smile on his face. "How was your day?"

I nodded, trying to find the words in my tongue-tied mouth. "It was good." I made out. "Whats going on with you guys?"

"Work stuff." Jack and Jessica said at the same time. Hadeon took a seat on the couch and pressed the heels of his hands together.

"Do you want me to leave?" I suggested.

"No." Hadeon answered for the couple, but Jessica and Jack didn't protest.

"We can go downstairs and... discuss." Jessica offered, the word "discuss" was said as if it were poisoned.

"Theres no more to discuss." Hadeon rushed. He took a moment to rub at his eyes before standing up and grabbing a jacket from the small pile of his things stacked on the armchair. He turned to Jess and Jack, ignoring me completely. "I'll go now."

"Bye." I offered, but he refused to acknowledge it as his left the apartment, leaving the three of us in this awkward atmosphere.

"You should probably get some rest before tonight." Jess offered. "Fridays are pretty busy, it'll be a rough night."

I nodded and dawdled to my room, closing the door and curling up on the bed. Part of me wanted to walk back out and demand an explanation. I wanted to know what Hadeon was doing that had caused an argument. The only reason I could think of as to why this "job" was an argument is that it was dangerous.

Part of me wanted to know exactly what was going on, but a bigger part of me didn't want to know at all. I wanted much more to just pretend everything was alright, remain blissfully ignorant.