R.O.N.A.

Chapter 7 part B

*Sephora*

Wow… this place amazes me every time! I thought. My eyes searched the room as I strolled through the Aircraft Hangar. Surprisingly the room seemed to be deserted. The whole place smelled of chemicals, like new plastic.

I walked over to the nearest hover-car and examined it. It was black and the surface material was unexpectedly smooth. Since the machine was powered down, only the clear tracks showed where the Tamine would flow through, once turned on. I ran my hand over its exterior, admiring the sleek design.

“What are you doing here?”

I whipped around, startled by the deep voice. Before me stood a tall black man who had a broad frame and sizeable muscles. He looked like a security guard, and a beefy one at that. “S-Sorry I… just kind of wandered here,” I stuttered.

“Are you a new recruit?” he said with amusement.

“Yes actually, but it seems like you’re teasing me.”

“Maybe I am,” he said with a wide grin, “Name’s Cecil… and you are…?”

“Sephora,” I answered, relieved that he wasn’t mad at me for poking around.

I took a second to observe his appearance. Surprisingly, he was not wearing a uniform. Even more surprising was the fact that he was wearing a loose jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled up above his elbow; he looked like a regular old mechanic. His eyes were rich brown and his face was angular and chiseled.

“So what’s wrong? You must have had some reason for coming here.”

“I… I was upset and this seemed like an interesting place… Whenever I get angry, I usually end up crying and I couldn’t cry in front of him.” I was shocked at myself. I couldn’t believe I just said that; I hardly ever felt comfortable enough to let anyone know my feelings, let alone a man. But something about him seemed soothing, and it put me at ease.

“Who?”

“…Tyzon…”

“I see…. What did he do to upset you?”

I relayed the story to him, still amazed at my ability to talk to this man. I felt the anger all over again as I retold everything, but by the end I was trying as hard as I could to hold in the tears. My anger always seemed to break way to sorrow.

“It wasn’t kind of him to treat you like that. I’m sorry… with Tyzon you just have to learn to ignore it.”

I let my bottled up tears gently roll down her cheeks. I hated crying in front of others, but it felt good to let the pressure out.

“Aww no, don’t cry… You’ll be fine. And I’m nearly positive he won’t treat you like that again. He just likes to test people.” Cecil stepped forward and brushed a tear off of my face. Surprisingly, I didn’t even flinch. “Everything will be fine, okay?” He stepped back, bent to my level and grinned; his infectious smile caused to smile as well. He was like a cool older brother. “You’d better go find your friends. They must be looking for…”

Just then the doors flew open and Aris stood in the doorway. “Where have you been?! We’ve been looking all over for you!” Aris said sternly. She then seemed to notice that there was another person in the room. “Oh… sorry about that…,” she said, acting embarrassed.

“No problem. I’m Cecil. Sephora wandered up here and we were just introducing ourselves.”

“Nice to meet you Cecil, I’m Aris.”

“Same to you.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve been looking all over for her and I think the rest of our friends will be glad to know I found her.”