Make Me Yours

Athanasia

Chapter Four

Athanasia

"How others see you is not important. How you see yourself means everything." - Unknown

There are so many young people on this ship. I thought and then immediately felt stupid because why wouldn't there be?

The music had been so loud that Veronica and I had heard it from a long ways away, but as we walked through the hordes or grinding couples and horny strangers, the suggestive music didn't seem so intrusive anymore.

Where are we even going? I wondered but continued to follow Veronica wordlessly, knowing she knew better were to meet Cade.

Taking in my surroundings, I shuddered in disgust. There were barely any girls dancing above a ninety degree angle even though some sappy love song was playing. Everybody needs to get a room...or a cold shower. However, it wasn't too bad because the flashing blue and purple lights and fog kept much hidden.

We walked through a curtain of jeweled strings into an area that was quieter, but not by much as the singer's heartbroken voice could still be heard at an ear-numbing sound. There was a huge bar crowded with people and hustling bartenders. The counter and the back wall displaying all the bottles were illuminated by a pretty blue light while huge silver lights hung from the ceiling. I looked around to see what seemed to be rooms with no doors and a big glass window on each, not that the participants of the rooms seemed think much of it.

"Hey, Veronica," came a smooth voice that rolled the "r" in her name and brought my attention back to the reason we were here in the first place. The voice had emitted from an olive-skinned man with hair black as night and bright auburn eyes. A set of pink lips were above his square jaw, pulled into a flirtatious smirk as he peered at Veronica. His muscles were clearly defined his formfitting gray shirt.

"Hey," Veronica smiled, faintly shy yet slightly arrogant in her manner towards him.

"You want to go somewhere a little bit quieter?" Cade asked.

"Sure," Veronica replied automatically and started walking behind him.

Shit. Was I supposed to follow? He probably meant only her...but then where was my date? I took a step towards their advancing figures hesitantly, not quite sure what to do. Then Veronica looked back and called me over and I complied.

He led us into one of the door-less rooms, and it was considerably quieter in there than I'd thought it'd be. Someone's already in here. I thought as I saw the man sitting on the black couch turn to face us. His chocolate eyes trained themselves on Veronica first, and then me as he slowly took me in while ruffling his shaggy dirty blonde hair. My shoulders fell the slightest bit at the fact that the guy from earlier wasn't my date but I guess life couldn't be that coincidental. Unfortunately.

Shay, get a grip on yourself and don't be so mean. Do it for Veronica. But as I looked him over for a closer look, I noticed that his amber eyes, captured by chestnut eyelashes, were focused on me and his pink lips hung in a smile. Everything about him was friendly. Somehow, we'd mutually signed an agreement of never being attracted to each other in any other way but amiability. He scoot over on the couch and patted the spot for me to sit. "I'm Carson. Nice to meet you," he said, revealing a gentle lip twitch.

I did the same, "I'm Shay. It's nice to meet you, too."

"So how are you here?"

"We just graduated college and this was my parents' idea of a graduation gift," I laughed, a little embarrassed thinking that he probably viewed me as a spoiled brat.