Thy Will, Not Mine

Chapter {10} Destiny

I couldn't help but smile as I greeted him, happy to see a familiar face in this otherwise deserted hallway.

"Destiny?" he smiled, his blue orbs glowing with surprise.

"Hey, Samuel. What are you doing here?" I had not been expecting anyone to be living here, least of all him.

Smirking, he walked up to me, "Shouldn't I be asking you the same question?"

"Well, I have been living here for the past two almost three weeks now and I always pass by this way but never saw you or anyone else for that matter," I explained as I felt the laundry soap start slipping through my fingers. Argh...

"Do you need any help?" he asked.

"Yes, please." I watched as he took the soap that was about to touch the ground and held on to it. "Thank you," I smiled. I was sure all my soap would have spilt on the carpet and I would have to buy another one, with my non-existent money and to make things worse I would have to scrub all the power from the carpet. So I was highly grateful.

"I moved in just yesterday and saw no trace of anyone living on this floor. It was dead silent," Samuel said pressing the call button on the elevator.

"Thato and I must've been at the campus at that time," I explained as he nodded in understanding, having already known Thato.

We stood together in comfortable silence as we waited for the elevator to arrive. When it finally dinged to alert us of its arrival, we stepped inside and watched as the doors closed behind us.

As the elevator began to ascend towards the top of the ten-story building, I decided to break the silence. "So, how's college been treating you?" I asked, eager to catch up and hear about Samuel's experiences.

Samuel let out a sigh and ran his hand through his stubble. "I can't really complain," he said, "but the assignments can be pretty overwhelming at times."

I nodded in understanding, knowing all too well the feeling of being buried under a mountain of coursework.

"I guess we have to grow accustomed to university life as we have more work than we had in primary and high school combined," I agreed with a nod.

"Yeah, but look on the bright side, no parent supervision, which means more freedom," he smiled.

"More freedom to do what?" I curiously asked ad the elevator dinged once again, opened and we stepped out.

"Party and explore of course," Samuel said with a shrug. The way he said it made it seem like a normal, casual thing, to party, get drunk and make irresponsible decisions.

"I'd rather stay at home than party and explore and I did not mind my parents' protectiveness cause it shielded me from the dangers and evils of this word," I truthfully said.

"Evil? Dangers? What do you mean?" he furrowed his brows.

"Well..." As we walked through the room filled with washing machines and dryers, I trailed off in my sentence, leaving the word hanging in the air. There were about five other people in the room, all doing their laundry. We exchanged friendly greetings with each of them as we made our way through the rows of machines.

At one point, I recognized a girl from my business studies class and struck up a polite conversation with her. We chatted for a few minutes until Samuel audibly sighed, indicating his fatigue.

"So, you were saying?" He attentively looked at me, his gaze not wavering.

"Well, I was saying that this world is filled with deceitfulness and you can easily find yourself in a sea of-" I was cut off by my ringtone blaring from my earbuds.