Black Castle 🖤 E. Mikaelson

Chapter Thirty. Wallflowers & Seeds

Chapter Thirty. Wallflowers & Seeds
ARABELLA
{My Side Of The Fence by Dan+Shay}

🖤
So I ain't looking over fences trying to find a better view. My search for all that ended when I first laid eyes on you. And the grass is always greener. 'Cause the sun shines when you smile. And when I'm holding you the world makes sense.
On my side of the fence
🖤

It felt like a dream when I shot up in my bed, looking around the room to find exactly what it was I was looking for. My breathing was heavy and I tried to catch it before I got up to start my day. I threw my comforter off of my legs and swung them over the side of my bed, I took a deep breath before standing up because I knew the wooden floors would be freezing.
Spring was still fairly new and the air was crisp in the morning, not too overbearing and cold but the floor still felt like an ice cap.
The best way I could describe my life was, boring. It was detailed, and it was organized, and it didn't seem like it didn't fit how I wanted to be but grew used to. My parents were strict, my mother even stricter. I had no choice but to get perfect grades in high school and get into a prestigious college, Harvard was my first choice; become a lawyer for the biggest law firm in New York, then get married and have children. It was all mapped out. I was at the stage in my life where I graduated from Harvard at the top of my class, and I had just started my dream job. I had followed my parents' plans, and I was content with that.
I never wrote about my dreams, but the one dream I've been having had been going on for a while so when they started overlapping one another, that was when I started writing them down. At first, I thought it was from my lack of interactions with the male species because I spent most of my time looking through cases, and I didn't have time for a social life. So when I wrote them down, it didn't take long for my journals to start filling up.
I could've written a book and become rich off of it, but half of the time it didn't make sense. Vampires and werewolves didn't exist, neither did witches and Lycanthropes. And if they had, there were plenty of books of that genre already, the literature world didn't need anything from me. It was hard to focus when I woke up in the morning though because it was all I thought about when I took a shower, and brushed my hair and teeth.
It was hard to focus when I thought about the mysterious man for half of the morning, I had never seen him before except for my dreams, and I didn't think I ever would because dreams didn't work like that. Men didn't just come popping out of dreams, and I wasn't going to start thinking that they did. I wasn't crazy. I was a sound mind, with a great apartment, a nice car, and a fabulous job. I wasn't going to drift away any further than I needed to.
I finished getting dressed, grabbed my keys and purse, then I was out the front door, walking, on my way to work.

The commute wasn't the best, but as long as I made it work on time then there wasn't a problem with traffic, that was why I left so early every morning. I wanted to prove something, I didn't know what it was at that very moment, but I was going to start with being on time always.
Hayley met me at the front door with an extra cup of coffee, when she handed it to me she turned and walked into the building so that we could take the elevator up to the twelfth floor where our offices were.
"So about tonight," She trailed as we squeezed past the guards who usually would have checked our belongings but decided to go against it.
"Good morning Travis and Gary, hope you two have an awesome day." I greeted them casually like I did every morning, and then I answered Hayley before we reached the elevator. "What about it?"
"I think you should come out with us, it'll be great for you to socialize." She brought up her idea of me going out to some podunk bar and singing karaoke. Usually, I would have declined her offer, but something inside of me wanted to take a couple of hours for myself.
"Count me in." I smiled as I pressed the button and waited for the doors to close.
"You're not going to fight with me on this?"
"Nope, I think it's time to have fun. We graduated from Harvard, we moved to our dream place and we're working at the law firm we've always dreamed of, I think it's time I relax a little bit." I shrugged my shoulder and then looked down at my watch. Although I was excited to do something as little as going to a bar, I still made it my life's mission to make it to my office on time.
Hayley looked surprised but excited that I wanted to do something with her. And I don't know, my life was so routine, I did everything by the book that my parents had planned for me. I was a Harvard graduate, my twin sister went on to medical school, and we were doing something so important with our lives, what was wrong with having a little fun? It wouldn't hurt to have one night where I wasn't sitting at home, sitting in front of a TV eating Chinese takeout while looking over my case files for the week.
"Perfect, you'll finally get to meet Nik." She smiled widely, and I couldn't help but look at her confused.
"Who's Nik?" I asked as my eyebrows furrowed.
"He's my boyfriend, I've been seeing him for the last two years. You know, maybe he can bring his brother." The wheel of ideas started turning in her head and all I wanted to do was stop her. I'm sure that she had mentioned him from time to time, but I never made it a thing to meet him since I did stay at home a lot, it was rare that I stayed in the office past the time I was supposed to leave. So it wasn't weird to me that I had never met my best friend's boyfriend. I was just being antisocial as usual.
"He has a brother? Fascinating." I was sarcastic when I laughed, Hayley nudged me and laughed along with me until we had to step out of the elevator and head to our offices.
"Just be ready when we get off, we're going straight to Gino's." She pointed at me as she pulled her phone from her purse and started to text her boyfriend as we walked with confidence. She was going to tell Nik to bring his brother, and it was a whatever situation to me because we could either hit it off well, or we could end up ignoring each other for the whole night. So it didn't bother me too much.
"I'm not going to have time to change?" I looked a look back at her and saw that she was doing what I was thinking. Hayley couldn't wait, so it caused me to laugh.
"Why would you need to? You look fantastic as always." She didn't have to look at me to know that I was wearing one of my best suits. It was like the universe was working for me today because it was, in fact, expensive and beautiful.
"Fine, whatever." I rolled my eyes as we had both been approached by our assistants.
"Miss Marshall, you have mail and Daniel Dwells is on line two." Addison, Hayley's assistant walked up to me and then turned, walking with us as she reached back and handed Hayley her mail.
"Miss Bonavich you have mail waiting on your desk and Jensen Louis is on line one." Olivia appeared on my other side and did the same as Addison.
"Thank you," Hayley and I spoke in unison. Our offices were right next to each other, and sadly we didn't have a window in the middle of our wall, so we couldn't see each other but at least we were able to video chat on our computers whenever we were free. So it worked out no matter what we did.
 
It was around six by the time we left and it was early for us on a Wednesday night. The two of us walked two blocks until we were in front of a bar that read Gino's, once inside we ordered two beers and found our seats in the corner by the bar, it was small but the atmosphere was homey. So no complaints came from me while we laughed at certain things that went on throughout the day, and we waited patiently for our other friend to arrive with her husband.
I didn't know who Nik was so I didn't know where he was when he walked into the bar, and I was sure that I wouldn't be able to pick him out of a crowd if I wanted to. I knew of Hayley's type, but throughout college, she surprised me with the various choices she used to bring around me. She talked about this guy as if he hung the moon and the stars so that meant that she was crazy about him. And she should be, her happiness was all that mattered and I couldn't take that away from her even if I tried. So when Nik and his brother decided to arrive, I wasn't paying attention. I was on my phone checking my emails, it wasn't until Hayley nudged me that pulled me out of my distractions. My eyes landed on Nik, who had messy strawberry blond hair that was almost red, and his eyes were bright green. He was devilishly handsome and he knew it, his smile became stuck when I stood straight and went around the table so that I could shake his hand properly.
"Arabella this is Nik, Nik this is my best friend Arabella." She smiled at me, silently hoping that I would approve of him, and I did. He was handsome, and the way that he looked at her, anyone could tell that he loved her.
"Lovely to meet you." His smile didn't falter, his eyes were boring into mine. "And this is my brother Elijah,"
He moved out of the way without releasing my hand, exposing his brother who was looking up at a TV, a baseball game had been going on over the bar and he was distracted easily. He wore a suit that looked expensive, opposite to what Nik had been wearing but that was also what drew me to Elijah. His hair was done stylishly and his jaw was chiseled. He looked like he was marbled from stone, and he belonged in an art museum for how godly he looked. Women all around the bar were staring at him dreamily but he paid no mind to any of them. When Nik nudged Elijah again, his brother looked at him, turned his head slightly, and met my gaze. For the first time, I held my breath.
"Hello, I'm Elijah." His attention was only on me and the way they stayed, I wasn't sure if he was making me feel small or hot. Either way, I released the breath I was holding in and placed my hand in his.
"I'm Arabella." I couldn't hide my smile.
"It's nice to meet you." He spoke softly, and Hayley snuck a glance at Nik because she knew that the two of us would hit it off. "May I buy you a drink?"
"That isn't necessary," I shook my head but a smile stayed in place while I looked back up at him. "Because I would love to buy you a drink."
His smile widened as he looked away, that was how Hayley knew that we were perfect for one another. She couldn't explain it but she could see the chemistry between us.
We walked off and found another seat at the end of the bar, I went to look at him but three women captured my attention as they stared down at us, clearly trying to figure out why Elijah was with someone like me. It didn't bother me because Elijah wasn't with me, he was having a drink with someone he just met. There was nothing wrong if he went off and talked to those women. I silently hoped he wouldn't though.
He was a gentleman, he looked at the bartender and told him what he wanted to drink, his attention was back on me, and his grin, which was very sexy, was focused on me again and I almost blushed. When his beer was sat down on top of a paper coaster, he nodded to the bartender and picked it up, before he took a drink he looked at me and smiled again.
"So, you're a lawyer?" he sipped at his beer, but he continued to look directly at me.
"Suit gave it away?" I scrunched my face up as if I had been joking and he was too. His laugh was authentic when he looked at me.
"No, it's New York, you can be anything while wearing a suit." His smile was so beautiful, why was I secretly crushing on this stranger? What was so special about Elijah that made my heart beat ten times faster? Was I infatuated with him? I had no idea.
"That... is very true." I couldn't help but laugh again. He was funny, and I didn't know why he seemed so familiar to me, maybe it was because he was so easy to talk to, and maybe it was too soon to tell but, Elijah felt like home.
We were at the bar for no more than an hour after I met Elijah, and all of us were ready to head home. Hayley and I were always busy on Thursdays and we needed the rest to be focused for the next day. While standing outside the bar, Nik had his arm wrapped around Hayley's waist as Elijah stood behind me, prepared to say good night to his brother and Hayley. Cristina and her husband had left half an hour earlier, so they weren't standing with us.
"Would it be alright if I walked you home?" Elijah didn't look at all awkward when he asked me. He was so confident with himself, that he thought it was the right thing to do since we did spend half of the night getting to know one another.
"You want to walk me home, over all of these beautiful women who've been dying to get your attention?" I joked with him a little bit because I will admit that I was slightly intoxicated, but it wasn't enough to make any wrong decisions.
"Yeah, well, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen has already gotten my attention." He was smooth, but I could see the truth in his eyes, and honestly, that scared me. So I managed to joke about it.
"Wow." My eyes had gotten wide as I chuckled lightly.
"So how about it?" He was waiting for my answer, I didn't think he was serious. And he was, that was why I stopped and smiled at him before answering because when was I going to get an opportunity like this again?
"I would like that."
"I'll see you in the morning, Ara!" Hayley called after me, and when I looked back she looked about ready to squeal with excitement, but I turned around before I could laugh at her.