Music Sound Screaming Silence

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Erik is quite resilient and after his minor break down he quickly recovered and we ended up playing three good rounds of chess; I let him win the first round, the next I won and, surprisingly, he snuck a second victory in the third round. I applauded him. Soon after that he was on his way home and I was left alone once again.

Being alone didn't bother me much, I was used to it. I had grown up mostly by myself until my parents adopted my younger sister, Raven. I had been ten at the time and she was eight. We had eight good years together, just the two of us. With my parents away on trips or working late nights, we would spend most of our time with one another. We even discovered our powers together. It was comforting to have someone to go through that with. She helped me to love myself despite what people said about our kind...She was always so brazenly herself. That was until she started dating a teleporter named Azazel. "Little sis" became too busy to spend time with "brother dearest". The next year I had been off to college and largely on my own ever since. I had been alone before but never truly felt lonely...until now. Erik had left a mere hour ago, and I missed him? That couldn't be right. I just met him.

I got up off the couch that we had shared, walked to the kitchen and decided to switch my tea for coffee. I had some thinking to do.

It only took a few moments for my coffee maker to press out a nice hot cappuccino. I grabbed my mug and walked out of the kitchen through my living room to my bedroom. Once inside I put my cup down and pulled off my shirt and trousers so I could comfortably plop onto my duvet. I wadded up my cloths and tossed them into the hamper to the right of my bed.

I took a deep breath as I nestled into my abundant pillow collection. Grabbing my mug off the side table and taking a sip of my drink I started to replay the day's events in my mind.

Erik and I got on well. We seemed to share an overall enjoyment of one another's company. But, Erik could be set off easily. Whatever he was hiding about his past had left deep emotions scars. Only knowing the guy less than a week was enough to make me feel obligated to protect him. What was wrong with me? I am Charles Xavier. How was I letting this man get to me so easily?

I let out a long sigh. I needed to take a different approach. My head was too full of questions, wants, and terrible explanations.

I grabbed my phone from my bedside table and decided to listen to some music to take my mind off Erik. I just hit shuffle attempted to clear my mind as sound began to quietly drift out of my phone's speakers.

"I know when you're around cuz I know the sound, I know the sound of your heart..." I sang softly.

"Huh," I sighed, focusing on the lyrics, "availability heuristic, or is my phone listening to my thoughts now?"

I knew the sound of Erik's mind I realized. It was easy to pick him out as he pulled up to my building earlier because I could easily tune in to the frequency of his thoughts. So much for taking my mind off of him...

After a while of quietly listening I began to feel my eyelids droop. It was nearly 10:30pm. I didn't have classes the next day, but I did have a tutoring session at 9:00am.

I decided to let sleep take me.

The trill of my alarm jolted me awake at 7:15am that morning. I groggily rubbed my eyes as I got out of bed and headed for my bathroom. Once I had showered, I spent an unreasonable amount of time taming my curls as best I could, and brushed my teeth. For breakfast, I toasted an English muffin and covered it in a bit of jam. I grabbed my shoulder bag and munched as I went out the door. I could get coffee on the way.

At exactly 9:00am I met the small group of students I was to help that morning in front of the campus library. Fortunately, it was mostly regulars so this would be a short day. We would probably wrap up around 10-10:30am.