The Heart of the Silent

Chapter Two

"How I look?", I asked Asme while giving myself a once over in the mirror.

"You look cute," she said. "Yani said come to her room". I nodded my head in response and began to grab my things before heading out. I checked my eyeliner, mascara and edges once more before exiting my room. My main goal was to look good but my main impressor was Marcus.

Marcus and I met in the class group chat a year ago. I was running for class vice president and pretty much encouraged him to run with me for class president. Eventually he gave in and submitted his application the last day of submission. Every girl was on him of course. Why wouldn't they? He was 6'1, two full sleeves of tattoos with his caramel chocolate skin tone and thick brown hair to go with it. To top it all off, he was the class president. He was an outgoing ladies man which is what got him his position of power in the first place. Can't lie though, I was still salty at the fact that instead of running with me during the election he went and ran with someone else. It pained me to see the betrayal from someone I encouraged to run, it was a slap in my face if I'm being truthfully honest. However, once the whole election was over and the winners were revealed, I stopped caring. I saw the baggage and the publicity the position gave people in this school and I wanted nothing to do with it. I put my feelings aside because at the end of the day, Marcus still wanted to be cool with me. That's what made us closer as friends and eventually more than friends, virtually. My feelings thrived for him and I had high hopes of us being that "power couple" when we touched campus. It was apart of my college checklist:

Get to college

Get good grades

Find my black king

Fall in love

Get proposed to on graduation day

Pathetic, I know but that's what I pictured for myself and that's what I hoped would be the outcome for Marcus and I.I was just hoping he felt the same way.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I realized we had made it to Yani's room. The door was open for us to come in. Her room was decorated like a loft and I admired it. She had gray brick wallpaper all around the room and a mini hair studio at her desk for her clients. She was wearing a fitted all black cropped shirt along with leather pants and an oversized plaid button up and to complete her outfit, black and white 1's. She was doing her finishing touches on her sleek ponytail as Asme and I stood by taking pictures in the nearby mirror. Once she finished we all left the room and walked down the hall to the elevator. It took forever to come so we just took the stairs to the back door. It was somewhat chilly outside so we stayed in the basement while we awaited Marcus's arrival.

The thrill that ran through me was electric. This would only be my second impression on Marcus since we got on campus. We haven't had much alone time since we moved on campus a few days ago due to his presidential responsibilities. It irritated me but I had an understanding of his situation. After a few minutes he pulled up in his Audi Q5. Yani and Asme both hopped in the back gifting me with the front seat. We all conversed the whole ride to the party. Marcus and I joked around a little bit but not too much to make the ride awkward. Yani and Asme knew of our situationship but only what I've told them. I kept the majority of what we discussed in our private time confidential.

It took about 10 minutes to arrive at the address. It didn't look worth the outfit I had put together. Marcus drove around trying to see if any of the dark houses looked lively enough to have a party going on. None of them did. He pulled his car over and pulled out his phone most likely calling someone who was inside already.

"Yo!" the person on the other line yelled over the music.

"Yo it's lit in there or nah?", Marcus asked.

"It's igh but we finna leave in a minute."

"Let me see, flip the camera", Marcus insisted. We all leaned in getting a glimpse of the pretty much empty room. "Hell nah, we bouta leave too!". Marcus exclaimed, hanging up the facetime call. He put his phone in his lap and sped off heading back in the direction we came from.

"What a waste of an outfit.", I said sitting back in my seat.

"No bullshit.", Marcus replied, giving me a once over. "You look cute too.". He said making me smile slightly

"Appreciate it."

I tried to hide the fact that he had just given me butterflies. We arrived back at our dorm building in utter disappointment. Yani and Asme both got out of the car giving me a little time to speak with Marcus alone.

"What are you doing the rest of the night?", I asked.

"Going back to my room and sleep."

"Want to hang out?"

"Nah, I'm tired. We'll hang out another" he said looking into my eyes showing visible annoyance.

"You said that last time."

"I promise this time."

"Whatever." I got out of the car dragging my hurt feelings with me. Before he could utter my name I slammed the door walking into the building, my friends following suit. I liked him but not that much. I knew when a man was playing me and I wasn't about to let it happen. Not in college. I've dealt with unhealthy relationships before and my new life was supposed to be different.

I entered my room and shut the door immediately, locking it after. I wanted a nice hot shower and to just watch a movie by my lonesome. My LED lights lit up my room along with my TV as I scrolled through my streaming apps. I eventually picked Disney+ and decided to watch Hercules that night. My oversized t-shirt was still laying on my bed from when I took it off this morning. I stripped myself out of my party clothes, putting them up for the day and through my shirt over my naked body. Due to me not having a roommate, my bed consisted of two XL Twin sized beds pushed together to make one big bed. It was very comfortable to my liking and fit my decorations well. Once I was in the bed I laid down just watching the movie and scrolling through Instagram. Eventually, I started to doze off into a deep slumber.

Halfway through the night, like every night, I woke up. My insomnia is getting the best of me. I rubbed my eyes looking around my room trying to gain my normal vision back. When I did, I rolled over feeling for my phone which was underneath me and unlocked it to check my notifications. Just regular everyday people putting heart eyes on my stories and of course nothing from Marcus...expected. However, that same Instagram account from earlier today had texted me again. I opened the message seeing, "U cute". I finally took the initiative to look at this person's profile. My eyes widened at the mostly shirtless and enormously large man on my screen. From the angle he looked about 6 '1 and had beautiful brown eyes. His skin was dark chocolate and his body was covered in tattoos from the neck to his waist. His hair was ear length and it was in twists. I wasn't impressed, just surprised at the fact that someone who looked like him was trying to talk to someone like me. What did he want? I wasn't determined to find out.