Walking On Eggshells
POV: Alexandra
I hadn’t meant to eavesdrop but I was coming back to ask Jess if she had packed any extra hair ties. My last one snapped and I wanted to pull my hair up. I had heard them talking about the God who cursed me. Jess had told Lucien that they need to “tell her” and I had only assumed that it was me they were referring to. Lucien wanted to keep me in the dark and I didn’t like the sound of that so I had decided to speak up. I walked into the room and said, “Keep me in the dark from what?” Lucien had a horrified look on his face since he was caught trying to keep something from me. He looked down and sighed, “Please forgive me, Alexandra. With all that you have gone through recently, I didn’t want to add to your stress.” I understood immediately why he didn’t want to add to my stress but I was still upset that he wouldn’t let me choose for myself. I looked at him, “I think you should have asked if I could handle anything else. I don’t like people choosing what is best for me.” He looked further dejected, “I am offering my sincerest apologies. I can only offer you the information that you would like to know now but I want you to know that it may cause you some stress.” I sat down and folded my hands on the table, showing that I had meant business, “Okay spill it.” Jess went to speak up but I looked at her, “Nope, I want to hear it from Lucien since this seems like it is his story to tell. Am I correct?” I was inwardly amazed at how much like my mother I had sounded at that moment. It was like scolding a child that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
He looked me in the eye, “Okay. You know how I was on the meditation date with Alesha?” I nodded, “Yes, she told me that she left early at the instruction of the master.” He side-eye glanced to Jess who had nodded at him for reassurance, “He wanted to get me alone.” Lucien then proceeded to tell me about how he spoke to Aphrodite during his meditation, how the God had possessed the master during the session. He finished the story by telling me about his claim on me and how Lucien should back off. It was a lot to take in so I sat there wringing my hands as the story went on. I sighed, “I can see why you would be worried about telling me. It likely would have added to my stress if I wasn’t already worried about him and his intentions to begin with. How is the master?” He looked at me with a look of admiration in his eyes, “I sent him to the church, he needs to be examined by our spiritual leaders to see if he has any long-term damage and also to see if they can gain any information about who it is that possessed him. I am expecting word about it shortly.” I tapped the table with my hand and rose, “Good, let me know how that goes.” I walked off and called over my shoulder when I saw him sag in my peripheral vision, “Lucien?” He said in a sad voice, “Yes?” I turned around and walked up to him and hugged him, “I’m not mad at you.” He wrapped his arms around me and buried his head into the crook of my neck and said, “Thank you.” I pulled away and smiled, “I need a nap since I’m dealing with Blake tonight. See you later?” He looked startled and I laughed, “I’m going to come to talk to you afterward. Okay?” He nodded, “As you wish.”
I walked out of the room but heard Jess tell him, “I would advise you to never keep her in the dark. Life will be easier. Too many have done that to her and I think she’d appreciate honesty even if it is stressful to her.” He simply muttered, “I realize that now. Thanks, Jess.” I walked on to my bedroom where Blake was standing by the door. He smiled as he realized that I was there, “Hello beautiful. I wanted to come by and let you know that you’ll want to dress comfortably for the fencing session. If you have sweats or slacks, that may help you out. If you wear jeans and placing the protective gear over will cause you to chafe.” This was a very Blake thing to do, taking time out of his day to offer care to my well-being. I smiled and nodded, “I have sweats that I was planning to use and a t-shirt for the top. I’m tired though, I hadn’t had good sleep for a couple of nights.” He pushed away from the wall he was leaning on, “Oh? Are you okay?” I sighed, “Well, I keep having bad dreams. It’s been affecting my sleep because they terrify me.” He leaned over and hugged me, “I think I can help you with that. Let me get in contact with Panshad and I will have a solution for you tonight.” He kissed my cheek, “Hopefully, you have a nice nap. I’m going to go get on that for you now.” He patted my head as he walked away. I drew in a sharp breath as I opened my door and walked in. I was hoping the scene that was haunting my dreams the last two nights wouldn’t show up. I wonder if this God was merely doing all of this to torment me or if he truly did care about me. If he had cared, he would let me sleep without haunting my dreams. I laid down and closed my eyes.
I was awakened by a rapping on the door, I got up and found Blake there. He smiled, “Did you forget?” I rubbed my eyes and yawned, “Forget what?” He pointed at the window where nighttime was beginning to fall. I gasped, “Was I late?” He nodded, “Slightly, I left the instructor to come fetch you. Do you want to get changed? I will wait for you out here.” I nodded, “I’m so sorry Blake. I know you were looking forward to this. I had a good nap so I think my body took what I was giving it.” He laughed, “Don’t worry about it. Go ahead and get dressed.” He reached over and closed the door but spoke through it, “I will be here for you so we can go to the gym together. Okay?” I was shedding my pants, “Works for me.” I quickly got dressed from my blouse, jeans, and knee-high boots into sweats, t-shirt, and sneakers. I pulled my hair up and remembered that I never asked Jess about a hair tie. I silently cursed myself and remembered that I had a purple handkerchief and wrapped it around my bun and tied it. I looked in the mirror and hoped that the bun would stay in place since it wasn’t secured by a hair tie and I didn’t have pins to secure it. I came out of my room and Blake smiled, “Still beautiful as always.” I smiled, “Oh please, I just woke up and my hair is a mess.” He shook his head, “You could be completely disheveled and you’d still be the most beautiful thing in all of the realms.” If I had been allowed to fall in love with him, it might have happened here and now. That was a very beautiful thing to say to a lady who had taken nothing but bullying for eighteen years of her life. I smiled and said, “Thank you, Blake. You don’t know how nice it is to hear that.”
We walked towards the gym, happily chatting about little things like how school was going, how Sebastian was doing since he hadn’t seen him in a while. I had told him school was fine and Sebastian was still with me in my shadows and came out at night and slept with me. I heard a voice from behind us, “Hi you two.” We turned around and Lucien was standing just outside of his door. Blake grunted a little, “Hi brother, did you need something?” Lucien looked at me and then back at Blake. He spoke in a shaky voice, “I just wanted to apologize to Alexandra for something I had done to insult her earlier.” Blake clenched his jaw, “What did you do?” Lucien widened his eyes and stepped back a little. I put my hand on Blake’s arm who had started to walk forward. From the look on his face, he was ready to haul off and punch his brother because of me. He looked down at me and I shook my head, “It was a simple misunderstanding and from the looks of it Lucien has been unjustifiably beating himself over it.” I looked at the normally put-together Lucien. His sweater was tucked haphazardly into his slacks, with some of it hanging out and his hair looked as if he shoved his finger in a light socket. Blake’s face relaxed as he took a closer look at his brother. He started to laugh, “You might want to fix yourself before you go off to your date with Litha.” Lucien simply nodded and went quietly back into his room. Blake turned to me, “Did you berate him or something? I have never seen him like that ever in my life.” I shrugged, “I did kind of lecture him about keeping secrets.” Blake was wiping tears from his eyes, “Oh? He kept a secret from you? What about?” I walked forward, “It was about my curse. He apparently encountered the one who placed it on me. He didn’t want to stress me out so he was telling Jess that I should be kept in the dark.” Blake said, “Oh…” I stopped and looked up at him, “Oh? Is that an indication that you would do the same?” He shrugged, “As much as I don’t want to give him kudos in regards to you, he was simply concerned for your well-being. You’ve been so stressed that you passed out. Any man who cares about you would likely have thought the same.” I shook my head, “I don’t think so. My father wouldn’t.” He laughed, “Test it out then.” I didn’t know how I would do that exactly and I looked confused. He spoke again, “Bring it up to Derek and Meldon. See what they say they would do in that situation. I’m thinking perhaps you should apologize to Lucien too.” I shrugged, “If your little experiment goes the way you think it does, maybe I do. Look we’re here.” We came upon the door to the gym. I had understood that the gym was divided into several rooms. The main room was where the meditation session would happen and off to the left was the fencing room. Blake opened the door and he gasped. I was curious as to what he saw and poked my head in to see Jess kissing Meldon.
