Demons & Angels

Chapter 4

Naomi-

August 1st, which means it's the first day of the new semester. This morning I woke up before all my alarms, which definitely says something. I tore apart my closet looking for anything professional to wear despite, deciding on a cute brown pencil skirt and a white short-sleeved shirt.

However, that's as exciting as my first day gets. I spent most of my periods handing out syllabi and learning the names of the students I'll have in class. Most of them seemed very uninterested in literary composition anyhow.

At the moment, I am heading towards the student activity center's ballroom. That meeting with the volunteers is today and I'm hoping I get matched with someone sweet. When I entered the ballroom, I saw a bunch of seats lined in front of a presentation board and a speaker squeezed between the two. The lines of seats were separated into two parallel sections. One for the volunteers and one for the teaching assistants.

I wasn't late, thankfully, but I wasn't early either. Many of the seats were taken and I had to glance around to find one in my appropriate section. A few minutes after I took my seat the speaker got started on his presentation.

Most of the PowerPoint were videos and pictures of things they had done in past years with a few exceptions for the rules and regulations slides.

"Each TA will be paired with a volunteer from the Beverly Community Service Initiatives. When I call your name please step forward and when you have your matched pair please line up at the checkout tables. There you will write each of your names down and get a colored lanyard to match.

Starting off with Morgan Aarons, you will be paired with Christopher- pardon my pronunciation- Abaijan? Yes, thank you.

Next, we have Alana Allen..." The speaker projected.

Each pair was called and then checked out at the table. Most of them had already started smiling in chatting in line. Seems like this may be fun after all.

"Naomi Campbell," he said looking around the room. I got up with a smile and walked up towards the front.

"Rowan Black."

Rowan? Haven't I heard that name somewhere?

"Is Rowan Black absent today?" the speaker called out again. When the room remained silent the speaker looked back down at the paper to call out the next name when the doors to the ballroom opened.

A tall, dark-haired boy with tattoos on his neck and arms walked in. The room was silenced as if it was making any noise to begin with.

"I apologize for being late, but I didn't realize I was going to cause this much of a scene." He spoke out in a deep booming voice. It took him saying that to make me realize that everyone had been watching him all the way to the front of the room.

"it is fine. You are going to be paired with this young lady right here." the speaker pointed in my direction and I could feel all the eyes in the room land on me. I smiled at him and introduced myself.

"Hi, my name is Naomi Campbell and I will be your volunteer coach this year. Follow me to these tables and we can get checked out to leave." I started in my customer service voice.

"Rowan," He said unphased. At a closer glance, his face was weary with lines of stress etched across his forehead and around his eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Rowan, is there any reason you decided to start volunteering? I for one enjoy helping the community" I spoke softly trying to lighten the mood. He didn't respond right away making me question whether he heard me. The speaker had begun calling out names again and the other people in line were pretty chatty as well.

"Not of my own free will" he finally responded, sounding withdrawn from this conversation as a whole.

I took that as my queue to shut up and continued to wait in line like the rest of the people in the room. It took about 5 more minutes and then it was our turn to sign our name and grab the correct badges. When I was finished with my tasks I looked around to see Rowan already heading out the door. I did a light jog to catch up to him.

"Since we are going to be working together it would probably be beneficial for me to grab your number in case you need any information on where we will be meeting and what clothes you should wear" I stated after quickly catching my breath.

"Type your number into my phone and I'll text you." He responded. I did as he said and gave him his phone back. Without a goodbye or thank you he walked away again. He is definitely an interesting person. I let my eyes linger on his disappearing body before I returned to my senses. 

I went back up to my office to grab a few things I didn't want to haul to the ballroom. Afterward, I headed home as quickly as I could. I was in desperate need of food and a nap.

The bus ride home wasn't long. We purposefully chose a spot near campus for this reason. At least until I can afford to buy a car. When I walked inside I could smell the scent of Chinese lingering in the air.

"Li, did you get takeout?" I asked from the door. She walked in and sat down on the couch.

"Yeah I figured you'd be hungry by the time you got off work so I got us some. I already ate though."

"That's ok thank you for thinking of me," I said before analyzing the situation a bit deeper. "Wait a minute, what's got you in such a good mood?"

"Boy, am I glad you asked. So, I was at the cafe hanging up a few of the pictures I've taken this past couple of weeks when this girl walked up to me. She all like 'Wow I love your work you are so amazingly talented.." I roll my eyes at Li's obvious exaggeration. " then she goes ' I come to this cafe all the time and I have never seen you here.' and I was like ' I just moved here I'm actually from new york."

"Li, the point? Can you get to it?" I say.

"My fault, my fault. Eventually, she asked me out and I said yes. She was hot too. I'm talking 5'4 or shorter, light skin, long hair, and a fat ass."

"She sounds like a wonderful girl. I'm glad one of us is getting some action soon." I say with a satirical pouty face.

"Whatever happened with the bartender?" she asked.

" We've been texting and he alright. Cute, not dry, and he replies fast." I respond.

"So what seems to be the issue?" she continues.

"I'm not sure. He is cute but he isn't dashingly hot. You know? Like for example, I have a volunteering gig with the school. With that, we are getting partnered with other volunteers. I got picked to work with a guy named Rowan I believe. He was ridiculously hot. Tattoos, gold chain, super fucking tall. " I started describing.

"Do you remember his last name?" she questioned pulling out her phone to be the little detective I know and love.

"Um..." I thought back to the name-calling at the ballroom. "Black I'm pretty sure. Yeah, his name was Rowan Black."

She started typing away before showing me a picture. "Is this him?"

"Omg yes" I replied.

" Bro, he's the one that owns that nightclub! You should totally tap that and I'm saying that. So it means more." she said with a smile. I laughed and shook her off.

"You want to watch a movie or something while we eat?" I said changing the topic.

"Sure but can you grab me a snack?" She said as she grabbed for the remote.

"I thought you said you just ate?" I questioned.

"Yeah, but I'm hungry again," she whined. I swear this girl is eating me out of a home.

I grabbed my food and a few snacks then headed back to the living room. Lianna had put on Transformers and was watching intently at the opening scenes. I tried to focus on the movie in front of me but my mind kept thinking back to Rowan. How his eyes held a melancholic gaze, filled with the mix of desperation and exhaustion. Overall, I kept thinking about how he still looked so mesmerizing.