20TH OCTOBER.
ORION ACADEMY:
APHRODITE AND YUMI'S DORM ROOM.

WAKING UP TO a phone call early in the morning was not how Aphrodite pictured her Thursday morning to begin. The last thing she wanted was someone interrupting her beauty sleep. Her hand reached for her phone that buzzed on the nightstand. Her eyes squinted at its brightness. She was about to decline the call but her vision adjusted and saw the name flash on her screen.

Joshua ㋛

She huffed and swiped to attend the call. "What the hell, Josh? It's seven in the morning. Why are you torturing me?" Despite being dehydrated and woken up less than two seconds ago, her voice was surprisingly good.

I wish I had that power.

Her step-brother chuckled. "Because I need to talk. Are you free today?"

"No," she lied. She had finished her assignments on time. She had just three lectures today and had no test scheduled for the next two weeks but she wasn't going to give him what he wanted so easily. He disrupted her sleep, he shall suffer.

"C'mon, man. It's important. Can we get lunch together?" Joshua's voice was desperate which meant only one thing; he wanted something from her.

Had he found out about Aphrodite being the successor of The Black Hole? How could he? That's not possible. From what her brother had told her, The Black Hole was very strict about being an extremely private society. But keeping the secret away from her brother, who was obsessed with the Black Hole, was hard. They always crossed paths in the hallways. He would give her a chin-down nod, acknowledging her existence and in return, she would smile. But for the past three days, her smiles had been dry. The secret was growling in her stomach. Regardless, she couldn't risk slipping out of the Black Hole because she couldn't keep a secret.

"You and me. Together at lunch. In college. That's new." She used humour to deflect from the serious question.

She pictured him rolling his eyes. "It's important, Aphrodite."

Babe, you have no idea what's coming.

"It's about Peter." He finished.

There ya go.

At the mention of his name, Aphrodite sat upright. Her throat tightened as her mind wandered off to all possible scenarios that explained what the hell Joshua knew about Peter. It was the last thing she expected coming out of his mouth. And it was arguably worse than him finding out about The Black Hole.

"How...tha--" She croaked. The voice that stumbled from her mouth was unrecognisable. Unlike her smooth buttery voice a moment ago, it was dry and throaty. She cringed at that sound.

"I know."

After a long pause, she answered, "I'm having lunch with my roommate. Meet me at 5 p.m., today at your residential quarter's cafeteria."

"M'kay." He hung up, leaving Aphrodite with her thoughts. She swallowed and checked the time. She was getting late for her lecture but her mind was too loud to focus on anything right now. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. She couldn't let anyone see her like this--hollow eyes, broken smile and pale skin so she plastered the best of her fake smile, glanced at the sun rays pouring through the window and jumped from her bed to get ready.

Allow me to tell you something about our lovely Aphrodite. She pretends to be calm and collected all the time. People think she has everything figured out. And usually, she does. She knew what she wanted on her fifth birthday. She knew she had a crush on Chris Lee in third grade. She knew how boring her last relationship was. She knew what she wanted to major in. But she didn't know what to do about Peter. The blue-eyed, brown-haired womaniser named Peter.

It was going to be a long day.

•••

"Look, man. Waking up three days was enough but it's the fourth day and still, no message from you-know-who feels like a disaster. Did we do something wrong?" Karan said while stuffing his mouth with a few curly fries.

Aphrodite and Yumi were peacefully having lunch and getting to know each other better before Karan spotted them and decided to call his two friends to have lunch together. Aphrodite didn't want to socialize today--she was happy with having casual conversations with Yumi and having her mind away from her next meetup--but with the boys around, she was constantly reminded of The Black Hold and the Black Hole reminded her of her brother and her brother reminded her of Peter and Peter--well, let's just not get started.

Yet.

"We did what they asked us to," West replied. "We sent them a picture of the items as proof." He stabbed a broccoli with his fork and shoved it in his mouth.

"Maybe we shouldn't have left it on the doorstep. What if it was needed for the next tasks?" Aphrodite reasoned. Karan and West--who sat opposite to Aphrodite and Lex--exchanged unreadable looks. Lex side-glanced at the boys and sipped his diet coke.

He was about to open his mouth to voice his opinions when a buzzing noise spread in the thick canteen air. All of them exchanged a mixture of looks but one emotion remained prominent--excitement.

Hurriedly, they took their phones out.

"Sorry, it was me," West said and everyone but Yumi frowned.

Another sound echoed. Assuming that it's one of West texts, they silently munched their food.

"Goodness Gracious," he muttered. "It's... it's them."

In a matter of seconds, everyone's phones were out. West volunteered to read the message to them in a low voice.

•••

LEAVING THE ITEMS WASN'T THE MOVE AT IT'S BEST,

BUT YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO REDEEM YOURSELF, JUST TAKE A LOOK AT THIS QUEST.

BRING IN YOUR WILD SIDE,

AND BE CAREFUL 'CAUSE IT'S GOING TO BE A BUMPY RIDE.

PLAY A SILLY PRANK ON MR. WILLOW,

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS EGG HIS PRECIOUS LIMO.

~ the black hole

•••

"Unbelievable," Yumi muttered with utter disbelief.

"Who is Mr. Willow?" Karan asked. For someone who is terrible at remembering names, Aphrodite was asking the same question to herself.

"It's...he is our Business Management Professor," Lex said as his eyes met Aphrodite's, assuming that she knew who Mr. Willow was since they shared that subject.

"Wait...hold on, Mr. Willow is what the students call--"

"The Monster, yes," Lex said followed by a sigh.

Finishing each others'-

Sentences. I see.

Yumi peered at Aphrodite. "That sounds...bad."

"It is worse."

header image by John-Mark Smith

*in my horrible bri-ish accent*
aloe, love! would you like some tea? with a hint of lemon?

how was the chapter? who do you think is Peter? any guesses? side-note: writing the texts from The Black Hole is one of my favourite parts of writing Let's Talk About Murder haha.

I hope you enjoyed reading. until next time!

{ don't forget to vote and comment!}