Saphora: vol.1 Retention (The Athena Universe) (19 page)

Staring at the ground as she trailed along the side of the highway she felt the corners of her lips pinch upwards in the beginnings of a smile. It felt nice. Having someone ask her how she was with the genuine concern of how she was doing. Not because they wanted something in return, or were worried what someone else would think based upon her answer. But because they actually wanted to know.

“I also wanted to say that I really enjoyed talking to you.”

“Yeah?”

Maverick laughed.

“Everyone has their days. And from the sound of things, you were having a pretty tough time. And still are, apparently,” Maverick reasoned.

“Yeah …”

There was an awkward pause then, and Saphora looked up from the road. She found herself waiting for his next words. Hoping that the compassion would continue. Or at least the conversation. She liked the distraction from her raging thoughts. The strange act, to her, of speaking to someone who didn’t constantly want something from her was weight lifting, and seemed to quiet her thoughts into a soft lull.

“So, uh,” Maverick continued. “Have you tried anything to, uh, practice calming down?”

“Talking to you seems to help,” she said, and then immediately afterwards, her hand reached up to cover her mouth as she stopped in her tracks. “I – I mean … Sorry, I didn’t-“

“No, no, it’s okay,” Maverick stuttered. His heart was pounding against his chest in excitement, and disbelief.
I can’t believe she just said that
, he thought. He rushed to find encouraging words for her confession. “It’s fine, really. I’m glad.”

Another awkward pause, and Saphora thought about his question. She agreed with him, that she needed to practice control. Just not with
her emotions. With her power. She decided that she would do so, and really work on keeping a lock and key on it. She couldn’t just have things happening without her consent, like with Dr. Lupin just then, or that car ride with Officer Roland. She had gotten lucky, but with stunts like those, someone could have easily gotten hurt. She couldn’t risk putting someone in danger and wind up actually becoming responsible for someone’s death. Plus, with Tebias at large, it was probably a good idea to learn some control so that she could defend herself. Yes, the voice had helped her out of her last encounter with him, but where was she in the woods? She had been left to defend herself. What if the voice didn’t come again? Or what if it failed? She couldn’t depend on something she wasn’t sure existed. So being able to defend herself properly was more than enough of a reason to learn better control. And she would start that today.

“Saphora? Are you still there?” Maverick asked, having been trying to get her attention. Saphora shook her head slightly, refocusing.

“Sorry! Sorry, I was just, uh, thinking about something.”

“It’s alright. Did you hear what I said?”

“Can you say it again?”

“I said … I mean, I asked … I was wondering if you wanted to hang out again. Or, err, talk, I mean. I was wondering if you wanted to talk again – with me.”

Saphora shook her head, not really understanding.

“But, we
are
talking …”

“I meant like … Go somewhere, and talk, like, in person.”

“Oh,” she said, blinking a couple of times. While it was true that she enjoyed talking to Maverick, she hadn’t expected him to want to keep talking to her so soon. She thought he would try and keep his distance from an emotionally unstable woman for at least a
little
while.

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I mean, you know … We
did
just-“

“No, no, I do. I mean, I’d like that, but …” She wanted to start practicing her control immediately. And although it was his idea, she didn’t think she could share that with him. She knew she couldn’t. Being nice was one thing, but knowing s
omething like that was a whole other. “But I’ve got something else to do, and I promised Fran I would be home early.”

“Oh …” Saphora could practically feel the disappointment in his voice.

“But, uh, maybe tomorrow? I mean, if you’re not working or anything.”

“No! I’m not working at all. Today or tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay. Tomorrow, then?”

“Tomorrow it is …
Uhm, do you want me to pick you up, or … Or do you want to meet me at the shop, or …”

Saphora giggled at his immediate recovery and childish excitement.

“We can go to that book store you brought me to.”

“Oh, okay, do you want me to-“

“I’ll meet you there.”

“You remember how to get there?”

“Mhm.”

“Wow. Are you sure you have amnesia?”

Saphora gave an involuntary giggle, and her mouth rushed to cover it.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“I was just teasing you. So, what time tomorrow?”

“Hm … Is two alright? In the afternoon?”

“That’s great. I’ll meet you there?”

“Yeah.”

“Great,” he happily sighed. “Take care, Saphora.”

“You too, Maverick.”

              Maverick hung up the phone and held it up above his face, staring at the lit screen. With a smile, he exhaled and dropped his hand into his lap, along with his phone. He kicked his bare feet up in the air and flailed about on his bed for a moment, before settling back down.

“I can’t believe it,” he said to himself as he combed his finger
s through his chestnut locks that were sprawled out against his pillow. His hand stayed there as he heard the familiar voice of his friend come from his doorway.

“This is what you paused
the game for? This is just sad, bro,” Jared groaned, shaking his head with folded arms. Maverick sprang up to sit upright on his bed.

“How long were you standing there?”

“Too long. Who’s this Saphora chick?”

“She’s not a chick, she’s a woman,” Maverick corrected. Jared rolled his eyes and uncrossed his arms.

“Oh my god. Please don’t tell me you’re in love,” he groaned, coming into the room. Maverick scoffed, watching as his friend took a seat at his desk.

“I wouldn’t tell you even if I was.”

“So who is she?”

Maverick sighed, hesitating to answer. He knew that he would judge him for speaking to Saphora, because of how she entered
the café. But before Maverick could say who Saphora was, Jared started laughing.

“Oh my god. Don’t tell me it really
is
that chick from Monday.”

Maverick’s brows pinched together.

“What do you mean,
really
is?”

“Liz told me the other day that you left work to go somewhere with that girl, but I didn’t believe her. But it really is, isn’t it?
”

Maverick groaned. He should have figured that Liz would go blabbing about him leaving
.

“Hey man, I’m not judging you or anything. But why the hell are you chasin’ after
that
? I mean, Liz is like,-“

“Throwing herself at everything with a penis? No thank you.”

“I hear she rolls with women, too,” Jared chuckled. Maverick rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

“No.”

“Well you may be eating those words. I heard you owe Liz a favor. That’s dangerous territory, man.” Maverick rolled his eyes again.

“I know that.”

“Geez, you really must be in to this girl if you agreed to owe
Liz
a favor.” Maverick nodded. “But what if Liz wants you to sleep with her for the favor?”

“What?” Maverick turned his head to look at Jared. “She wouldn’t ask me to do something like that.”

“Do you
know
who we’re talking about, here?”

Maverick grew silent. But he shook his head, grimacing.

“I wouldn’t do it even if she did.”

“But what about the favor?”

“Forget the favor. I don’t care if I get fired for leaving. I’m not going to do that.”

Jared smiled.

“Dang,” Jared sighed with a smirk as he moved to rest his hand on his knee. “What the hell did this girl do to you in those few hours? You’re already so defensive,” Jared laughed. Maverick’s cheeks began to burn as he looked away. “So tomorrow, huh?”

“Yeah,” Maverick said, his mood immediately replenishing. Jared chuckled, nodding.

“Where to?”

“Yeah, like I’m going to tell you.”

“Why not?”

“You’re going to stalk us!”

Jared scoffed.

“Okay, my life is not
that
sad.”

“One could argue …” Maverick mumbled.

“Oh, right. Says the one going out with a crazy wo-“

“She’s not crazy. She was having a bad day.”

“Right. And is she still having bad days?”

Maverick paused, before standing up and groaning.

“You know what? Shut up, and let’s play,” he said walking out of his room. “Before I kick you out of my apartment.” Jared laughed and followed behind him.

“Whatever you say, lover boy.”

             
It had been almost three hours now, and Saphora was feeling exhausted. She had been working at this since she had gotten off the phone with Maverick, and it was proving to put a strain on her. Though she had succeeded in being able to levitate small items on command, the longer she held that concentration, the more it seemed to ware her down. Much like flying. She had made the connection between the two powers, in how they were performed. She merely had to concentrate, wanting it to happen, and it would. And just like flying, it would take practice to be so familiar with it.

But now that she ha
d grasped the workings of the power, she could take that next step in learning to master it. It was just a bit different from flying. She had never found herself floating from a subconscious desire before, like she had experienced with these powers. So that was something she was going to have to take into consideration and really work to keep under control. She couldn’t have her subconscious running the show.

She was now walking up the street to her house, with several stones floa
ting around her. Each of them were only about the size of a golf ball. She moved the stones left to right, right to left, up to down, and around her all together, to get the feel of controlling the objects. It had gotten to a point where she barely had to move her hands to get them to move. Now, she could focus without so much as looking at them. She just had to keep a mental log of everything that was being moved. It didn’t always work. Sometimes she would forget an item, and it would fall from the lack of concentration. She had to really work to keep that focus, and at the moment, it seemed that she could only focus on four things at a time.

A movement from
the corner of Saphora’s eye made her head snap up. She saw Fran in the doorway of the house, waving to get her attention. And as soon as she did, all of the stones fell to the ground, one of them hitting Saphora on the head. She groaned, sighing as she raised her hand to rub the top of her head. Fran took that as a wave back, and she motioned for her to hurry up and come in the house, before turning around and going inside herself. She wondered what Fran was doing home, since she said that she was going to try and put in the rest of the hours at work.

“Saphora! It’s coming!” Fran exclaimed when she heard the front door close from Saphora entering the house. She was in the kitchen, coming out to greet her. Saphora raised a brow at the statement, looking around the room before letting her gaze rest on her.

“What’s coming?”

“The new exhibit!” she squealed, coming closer to Saphora with a little bit of a bounce. Saphora’s brows furrowed. “At the zoo! The one we’ve been building for the last two months?” Saphora’s mouth fell open as the memory came rushing back. She had completely forgotten about the exhibit that was due to open, despite the fact that she was just at the zoo the previous day.

“Oh,” Saphora breathed. “Uh, what is it?” she asked as she moved to sit on the sofa in the living room, feeling the need to relax her body.

“You’re not going to believe me. It’s a
dragon
!” Fran said, rushing around the sofa to sit with her. Saphora grinned some.

“What, you mean
a komodo dragon? Don’t you already have those?” Fran shook her head.

“No, Saphora. It’s an actual dragon! It’s the greatest discovery since the
dinosaurs! Only it’s alive!” Fran said, bouncing on the sofa.

“What? Come on, Fran.”

“I’m serious! The news is going to be there on Wednesday when they bring it in. And scientists, and archeologists, and-“

“Fran, a dragon?
Seriously? Do you know how that sounds? Like, with wings and all?”