silence

twenty two

Khai

My eyes flutter open to natural light entering my room. My body is warm and heavy. I can feel a weight on my chest.

I adjust my eyes to the room and realise that it's not mine. It's Athena's. Looking down I see her cuddled up to me in the bed.

I turn my head to her bedside table and look at the clock.

10:36am

Shit. We're supposed to be at school. I pull my phone from my the pocket of my sweatpants gently, trying not to wake Thena.

Turning it on, I read a message from Atticus.

'Stay home today. You both deserve it after the past few days.'

Oh, okay perfect then. I worried myself for nothing.

"Khai?" croaks our Athena from beside me.

"Morning Thena, Atticus let us off school today. You can go back to sleep if you like."

"Oh. Thank you. I didn't think you'd stay," she admits quietly.

"Of course I stayed. You were upset last night. I wasn't going to just leave you."

She goes silent.

"Let's go make some breakfast?" I suggest and she nods. I gently lift her off me and we sit up. She moves to out her contacts in but I stop her arms.
She looks at me confusedly.

"We're staying home today. You don't need them." I explain.

"But my eyes are-" she starts before I interrupt her.

"Beautiful. Your eyes are beautiful."

She looks down and nods. I walk out her door with her behind me and we make our way downstairs for breakfast.

She makes us waffles with fruit on the side and we sit and eat at the island bench.

"How are you feeling?" I ask her gently.

"Yeah I'm good now I think. Things get a bit much sometimes that's all," she deflects smoothly. I nod, understanding she's not still down to talk about it yet.

"Oh Atticus wanted me to tell you that there's this gala thing coming up that we have to attend. We were going to go without you but since you know about everything now, it's better if you're there. He said that people from the underworld are gonna see you on our terms or something, I don't know." I explain to her.

She looks up at me. "Oh okay sure. Do I have to dress nice?"

"Yeah it's like a fancy dresses and suits type of thing. Mainly just for the gangs and mafias to interact and make deals and allies and stuff."

"Alright, I'll have to find a dress online. I don't feel like shopping at the mall again. There's too many people there." She says nodding, more to herself but I like to listen.

"Yeah that's probably best."

We finish up breakfast and she walks back up to her room to start shopping. I spend the rest of the day checking up on her every now and then. I can hear Phoenix in his room too. He comes downstairs every now and then to eat something and ask about Thena.

As much as he wouldn't admit it, I know he cares for her arguably the most of all of us. His way of showing it is just different. He tends to get angry at things, or at her, when shit doesn't go to plan or she does something he doesn't like.

He just deals with things differently. He has since our parents died. He went out to the gym everyday for six months when that happened. I think he just likes to be in control of things. Which is okay as well.

I hear Thena come down the stairs, her footsteps light. She spots me and walks over.

"Cool if my friends come over? I haven't seen them all much recently."

"Yeah of course, just try to stay out of Phoenix's way. He doesn't seem in the best mood today." I reply to her.

She nods and roughly 20 minutes later the doorbell rings and her friends walk in when she opens the door. They all go up to her room and I can hear them laughing about God knows what from down here. I'm glad she's getting some interaction with people who aren't her brothers or our workers and friends.

I'm pretty glad she has some girl friends too. There's so many males in her life. She need some balance.

Isaiah and Atticus get home about 4 hours later, they
missed dinner, which happens occasionally. They stopped to chat for a while but ultimately walked up to their rooms probably to get some rest. They've been quite stressed with the gala coming up.

I jolt when I hear a loud bang from upstairs. I begin walking up the stairs to check it out. Phoenix pops his head out his bedroom door when I reach the top.

"What was that?" I ask him.

"I don't know. Sounded like it came from Reign's room though."

I nod and walk over to her door. Knocking on it before opening it up to reveal her face down on her bed. She picks her head up upon hearing the door open.

"What happened? You all good?"

"Yeah I got frustrated that's all. I threw my phone at the wall. I think it's broken," she replies blankly.

I walk over to where she pointed at her phone on the ground and pick it up to reveal the smashed glass front. The entire screen is barely attached to the back and the motherboard is visible.

I sigh and bring it over to her now sitting up body on her bed.

"Yeah it's broken alright. We can get you a new one don't stress. What made you angry?"

"Got a text from Ahren. We started talking - or rather arguing, about things. He pissed me off," she admits pretty openly for her.

"Oh right. What were you arguing about?" I keep the conversation going, somewhat curious, somewhat wanting to talk to her some more.

"More than one thing. I let slip that I knew he was in a gang too. Big mistake on my part. Revealed a bit too much there. Among other shit too though."

I look at her pointedly for swearing but ignore it this time. She's already annoyed. "Right, it wasn't a massive secret to be fair, not to him since he already knows about us too. Just don't let it slip to anyone else. Atticus will get annoyed."

She nods and falls back on her bed. A knock at the door makes both of us look at it. It opens to reveal Phoenix standing in the doorway. He walks in and plonks himself on the bed as well. We all sit in a comfortable silence.

I assume he was listening in but the idea of it is cute.

"If he's a problem, I'm here to help."

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This chapter is cute. I think Khai is one of my favourites tbh :)
- Keyara