Control

A Memory, Part II

I grabbed all of my things and walked out of the room. "I'm ready to go." He nodded at me and walked to the door. I did a quick check to make sure everything was turned off and then I locked up. When we got outside I saw a car pulled in front of the driveway and I assumed that it belonged to Malakai. He helped me down the steps to make sure I didn't trip. He then walked in front of me and opened the door for me. I gave him a small thank you as I sat down in the car.

On the outside I was calm and collected but on the inside my inner self was running around with excitement and screaming, "OMG HE IS SUCH A GENTLEMAN, MARRY HIM, MARRY HIM." Yeah I see it didn't really take much to win her over. I rolled my eyes at myself and tried to focus on not making myself look like a fool. When we arrived at the building where the showcase was, I got ready to exit the car but Malakai's voice stopped me.

"Don't. I will open it for you." His tone sounded so commanding and I couldn't help but shudder in my seat. I knew it was just the sub in me trying to find anything to use as an excuse to submit. I had to catch myself before Malakai noticed and thought I was weird. He opened my door and helped me out of the car.

"Thank you, but you don't have to do all of this. I can do it myself." He smiled at me and I took that as my cue.

I started to walk away but before I got too far I could've sworn I heard him say. "With me you don't." But I decided to shake it off thinking that my ears were playing tricks on me. We were instructed to stand next to our pieces so that once the introduction was over we would all do our big reveal at one time.

It was 5:15 PM and I had just arrived on time. I went around to say hi to some of my classmates. A little while later Cecile came out and told us to get into our positions because we were going to be starting soon. People started to file into the room and that was when I noticed my parents and Venus with a guy who I presumed to be Zion. Right behind them I saw Malakai and he was the first person to notice me and gave me his soul taking stare as usual.

I looked away from him when I noticed my mom waving at me like crazy. I laughed at the sight when my dad tried to calm her down but she just brushed him off. I waved at them and then focused my attention back on Cecile once they took their seats.

"Good Evening ladies and gentleman, I am honored to welcome you to this year's showcase and I thank you all for coming out to appreciate the hard work of your friends and loved ones and a thanks to anyone who is just here to enjoy. The artist will be revealing their artwork in a few and I ask that you leave all of your ideals at the door and come with an open mind. If you do not like someone's work or find it uncomfortable I ask that you refrain from commenting and simply just move on to another piece. We allow for constructive criticism but we do not allow for ignorance. With that I would like to introduce this year's theme. Control."

On that cue we all removed the white cloths that were covering our work to let everyone see. There were alot of gasps. I felt someone staring at me. So I looked in that direction and I noticed that Malakai was looking at me. He had a look of confusion on his face before returning it to his regular blank stare. For some reason with him looking at me I felt shy so I looked away quickly and focused on Cecile once again.

"You all may now go and browse. Feel free to ask the artist questions they are here to answer any question that you have. Take note that they also do not have to answer any of your questions. Thank you everyone. I do hope that you enjoy yourselves." With that everyone got up and started heading towards the artworks they found interesting.

I look back towards the direction everyone was sitting and see my parents, Venus, Zion, and Malakai making a straight bee line towards me. I knew they were all curious about my work since none of them knew anything about it. I was really surprised when I found out what the theme of the showcase was going to be this year. It was as if the universe was taking this opportunity to give to me. I had a hard time trying to figure out what I wanted to express through this piece and it took many weeks to figure out. But once I got it I was so engrossed in my drawing that I barely knew what was going on around me for hours.

When they reached me no one said anything they took the painting in. After a while of silence they were making me nervous since they were all so quiet. I decided to look at it with them to ease some of the tension that I was feeling. Hung on the wall was a large easel that was painted in black and white and depicted a woman in a chair that was bound to it with rope. Her hands were bound behind her back over the chair with rope that beautifully wrapped around her skin. 

Her legs were spread apart with ropes keeping them from closing. Surrounding the large easel were smaller ones that had uncolored sketches of hands held out freely in different positions and directly below the large easel was another set of hands,these were different because they were the only part of this piece that was in color. This smaller easel depicted a hand that was holding two hands that were bound together tightly.

My mother was the first to speak. "Oh honey, this is beautiful." Hearing her words made me smile. I saw my dad nodding along at her words with a smile on his face. I was glad that my parents didn't find it weird or question me. I know that that is their lifestyle so it is nothing new to them, but they do not know that I know. I looked at Venus and her mouth was hanging open. I laughed at her. I know she was a little surprised that I decided to let everyone in a little on how I was feeling. She came over and gave me a hug.

"Wow Ny! This is great. This has to be your best work so far. I'm proud of you." I decided to look over at Malakai to see if he had any more reactions when I noticed he was staring at the little description card we had to place under all of our works. I walked over to him, and when he noticed that I was near him he started to speak.

"We can be bound by the ways of life, or we can be bound by the ways of the soul. Some like to be in control, while others like to be controlled. Which side do you choose to live on?" I listened to him as he read the card out loud. When he was finished he looked at me while narrowing his eyes. "I would ask you which side you choose but I think I have my answer." He smirked at me, and in that moment I knew that he had figured me out.

Before I could make a comment we were interrupted by some other people who wanted to ask me questions about my work. Malakai gave me one more look and walked away. When he was out of my sight I felt like I could finally breathe again. For the rest of the night I answered everyone's questions. I was surprised that everyone had positive things to say about my painting and that a lot of people actually liked it. The showcase would go on for a few more days and would be open to the public. Today was exclusively for friends and family to get the first view. Once everything was over I found my parents, Venus, and Zion waiting for me outside. I didn't see Malakai anywhere so I assumed that he left already.

"Nyra I wanted to introduce you to Zion." I looked over at Venus to see that she was waiting expectantly. I looked at Zion and smirked.

"Oh so you're the one she cheated on me for." I gave him a once over. "Mm I guess you are okay. Not better than I am though."

Zion cracked a smile at my words and Venus smacked my back and glared at me. I just chuckled. "Oh so you're the other woman. I thought I at least had some type of competition but I see now that I had nothing to worry about." Venus smacked Zion's chest.

"Zion! You too." She huffed.

We both started laughing and I gave him a nod of approval letting him know that I fuck's with him and also silently telling him that if he hurt her I would break his wrist and he would never be able to play basketball ever again. He cleared his throat and I knew he got the hint.

"Okay Zion, you have my approval." I took a pause and he smiled. "For now." Venus rolled her eyes and walked away dragging him along a waved bye to them and turned my attention to my parents.

My mom hugged me. "Aw baby I want you to know that we are so proud of you and we will support you in everything you do." She gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"We also want you to know that you can come to us for anything we know a lot more than you might think we do." My dad said as he joined the hug. I know they were both silently telling me that they were okay with the lifestyle I decided to follow and that I had them to back me up and help me out if I ever felt confused or had any questions.

"I love you mom and dad. Thank you for taking the time to come." I hugged them tight

"No problem honey you know we wouldn't miss it for the world." They hugged me back tighter

Now having my parents approval and the showcase out of the way I knew that I was ready to start exploring this new lifestyle. The only thing that I had to figure out was who would be the lucky candidate that would explore it with me.