5 Vermins in Venus's Head

The rest of the day flew by, and thanks to Liv, Venus was salvaging the remains of a half-baked good day. However, when the atmosphere becomes a pin drop silence, Venus could catch the barely soft voice whispering words of negativity. Such as how wishes wouldn’t come true, and how Venus wasn’t someone cut out for a successful life. That was the thing, you see, Venus wasn’t one to be wishy-washy. She was often viewed to be meticulous, logical, and rational. Nothing about her was dreamy. So Venus ended up ignoring the voice. The longer she ignored, the louder it got until someone would call out to her. In this case, it was someone she had met earlier today.

“Are you done with your assignment?” The same gruff-ish voice spoke, and Venus found herself in the campus garden.

It was her last lecture of the day, and the assignment was pretty easy. Split up into pairs and take a series of shots that would be useful in their final semester project. Being in pairs only helped when it came to experimenting and assisting each other. Liv never liked photography, which explained why Venus was stuck with Mr. Hoodieman again.

“I’ll need to take two more shots,” Venus replied, taking strides past the awkward lanky man.

The temperature had dropped drastically as the last hour of the day began to stand still. There weren’t many students left on campus, only the ones who were heavily involved in clubs and projects. Venus had no clue how to execute her last two shots — an extreme close-up and framing. Sighing, she ventured deeper into the garden, careful not to trample on any delicate plants. Black eyes maneuver around, searching for any creatures to capture.

Her hearing hadn’t been the best, but she noticed something cool about it — whenever her surroundings went still, it was as if she could hear the slightest ruffle. Maybe it was due to heightened sensitivity. Maybe it was a magical superpower that Venus was bestowed upon at the age of twenty-one. No one would know.

“You’re useless,”

“Coward,”

“Go kill yourself, Stinx,”

“Your parents don’t even like you,”

“Drop dead bitch,”

“Javerson thinks you’re a horrible designer,”

“Do you think Liv likes you?”

Slowly like a bunch of vermins, the voice only grew louder with each punctuation. Venus shook her head. This wasn’t the time to get distracted, especially with Mr. Standoffish waiting for her impatiently. Trying to block out the voices, Venus positioned her camera and brought her face close up to the viewfinder to focus. All she saw was a small petite girl with long flowy brown hair. Dressed in a tattered white dress with ink blotches, familiar sharp black eyes staring intensely at Venus.

How did she get into Stanford?

“Get the fuck away from me!” Venus yelled, her hands swatting away the voices in her head and little Venny in front of them.

Her foot subconsciously backtracked a tad too fast, and her entire vision was a quick dolly zoom upwards. Venus quickly shut her eyes, hands firmly covering her face as she trembled miserably while anticipating the impact. However, after what felt like minutes, Venus realized she wasn’t going to fall to the ground.

“Are you alright, Venus?” The same voice asked, causing Venus to sneak a peek between her slender fingers. Above her was the same pair of coal-black eyes and tousled black hair that greeted her. Unlike before, his eyes held a look of concern. Very much similar to a particular pair of oceanic blue ones Venus was accustomed to.

“Didn’t you see her?” Venus half shouted half pleaded, her fingers pointing at an empty space accusingly. Eden arched his eyebrow. She definitely wasn’t okay, and maybe it was time to wrap things up.

“There’s no one here but us… should we wrap this up?” He asked, pulling Venus into a sitting position. Her brown eyes were filled with fear and confusion, yet Eden was sure that they were the only ones here in the garden. Were girls always this melodramatic?

“Yeah, um let’s wrap up for today!” Venus agreed, jumping away from his warm arms. How did he manage to catch her so quickly? Could it be… maybe he was secretly The Flash?

“No, I’m not the Flash. I was watching you and when I heard you screaming I came to save this,” Eden stated, holding up a slightly damaged Canon camera in his hand.

Venus groaned, casually ignoring that she had vocalized her thoughts. Again. It was one thing to slip up an embarrassing habit in front of people but towards the resident loner? Venus could just dig up a grave on campus and bury herself 6 ft deep. Then, it dawned on her that being embarrassed was her last concern - she had to fork out three grand again to get a camera replacement. How marvelous.

“Thanks, Eddie, I’ll let Eric know about the damage caused tomorrow, so let’s head home now,” At this point, Venus was expecting Eden to drop the damaged Canon camera and leave her alone.

Instead, the lanky man stood in front of her. Hovering over her as his face stared sternly at the damaged camera. Venus watched his fingers tinkering along with the buttons and external parts. Watched as he dismantled the camera, parts by parts, inspecting and muttering to himself about the cost of repairment. Eden even gave the camera body a few hard shakes, sounds of broken bits moving around only made Venus cringed with regret.

“I can fix it for you tonight, and it’ll be ready by tomorrow,” Eden said, his coal-black eyes blazing with hardened passion. All Venus could do was nod.

He was a decent man who spoke little. However, when it boiled down to the camera and gizmo, his eyes twinkled like a child on Christmas morning. It was a side of him that Venus rarely saw, much less even knew he was capable of making other expressions. While they walked out of campus together, Venus absentmindedly forgot about the girl and Eden subconsciously murmuring under his breath about the different approaches to fix a Canon camera, they were oblivious to their impending impacts on each other.

XXX

Oddly enough, Jasper and Amey weren’t picking up their calls. She had brought Eden out for a dinner treat as a token of gratitude for the camera. It was a ramen restaurant near campus, assuming that Eden would enjoy such food (he was obviously an American-born Chinese, and well, they would enjoy ramen too, right?) . However, even after a few hours of awkward silence and calls diverting into voicemail, Venus was beginning to get impatient. It was unlike Jasper to be late on the job, what more if he happened to be unresponsive?

“Uh.. thanks for the food, Venus,” He spoke softly, placing his pair of chopsticks on the table.

Eden had removed his hood and now his tousled hair stood high with volume. The temptation to chop off his hair and make a winter jacket out of it seems appealing. Fluffy, soft, and huge in volume, Venus was certain that she could even start a fashion line with just his hair alone. He raised his eyebrow at the fashion student questioning, causing her to flush in embarrassment. Venus muttered out her thoughts. Again.

She let out a cough, trying to divert the topic away, “No worries, thanks Eddie for..,” Venus gestured towards the broken camera, “... that. It’s the least I could,” Venus said, waving her hand casually at the compliment. While her other hand was busy redialling Jasper’s number and watching the call going into voicemail for the umpteenth time. Were they mad that Venus decided on dinner without them? If that was the case, Amey would’ve called to scream her ass off hours ago. Right now, both weren’t answering at all. What was the goddamn deal?

“Is everything okay?” He asked, somehow making that gruff voice of his come off softer, more concerned. Venus felt intrigued - she never knew he was capable of sounding sincere. Was he secretly a gentleman?

“My driver isn’t answering my phone and I have no way to get back home,” and it was true. Venus had never left the house or used any of the public transportations because there wasn’t a need to. Even on nights, she went out with Liv and their friends, Jasper was always there to ensure she would get home safely. But now, she felt stumped and lost.

Where the hell was Jasper?

While Venus was stuck in her thoughts, Eden was staring at her with a gaping mouth. He knew about his classmate’s status. Knew that she came from an ultra-wealthy powerhouse family, whose family owned many shares and businesses across the globe. However, it would always come as a shock to him how sheltered these kids could be.

Pampered. Spoiled. Oblivious. The thought that they were having overpriced ramen for dinner made Eden’s skin itched uncomfortably. He knew she suggested this place because she assumed his ethnicity but he wasn’t complaining - free food is good food, no matter who was feeding or paying. If tolerating her for an $80 bowl of basic pork ramen that tastes like convenience food, Eden guessed that popular kids weren’t as bad as the gossip he’d heard.

While he stared at his classmate who was fervently redialling the same number, a part of him wanted to help her out. Maybe he could accompany her back home. Maybe he could offer his place, although that would only promote his “creepish” stalkerish influence. Yet, another part of him wanted to mind his own business. Since he was a photography major, he had a lot of editing to do for his assignments. On top of that, there was the broken camera as well… If he accompanied Venus back home, and traveled back to his, he would only be back by the wee hours (assuming that Stanford to Manhattan had a traffic jam, and from Manhattan to Queens wasn’t near either).

Eden sighed. What a troublesome situation.

“I’ll be heading back now, see you tomorrow Venus,” Eden’s mind was finally made up, grabbing his backpack and pulling his hood over his head. It was colder now than it was during the day, and having his hood up made him feel safer. Camouflaging within the public’s eye made Eden felt reassured and safe.

Venus nodded in acknowledgment, eyes focused and fingers jabbing away on her keypad. The dinner was for formalities’ sake, so Venus didn’t understand why she felt upset about Eden. It wasn’t like they were friends or anything. There wasn’t any reason why Venus assumed Eden would have suggested sending her home.

He wasn’t Jasper, and he could come close to her favourite chauffeur. In fact, she was surprised that he even agreed to dinner with her as well. But Creepy-Stalker-Yet-Genuine Eden was the least of Venus’s concerns - now all she could think about was Jasper and Amey. What if they were both caught in an accident? What if they couldn’t get back to her messages and calls because they were rounded up in the city hospital?

“Maybe they just don’t want to have anything to do with you,”

“You’ve always been a brat,”

“Do them a favour and get lost,”

“Jasper will never like you,”

“Shut up!” Venus screamed, slamming her fist onto the table. The voices faded and Venus knew she had to get out of there.

Ignoring the stares in the restaurant, Venus grabbed her Louis Vuitton bag and ran out from the restaurant. She didn’t know what could’ve happened to Jasper and Amey. Eden had already left without her (what a jerk). As for Liv, Venus was aware that she was busy tonight. Glancing over at her lock screen, the digits “2030” flashes over. Fuck.

Absentmindedly, Venus hailed for a cab and gave the driver her address. Whatever it was, getting home was a priority. Figuring out what could’ve happened to her chauffeur and caretaker will have to wait. For now. While the driver nodded and drove without question, Venus started scrolling through her phone. The silence in the cab grew thicker, giving the vermins in her head some avenue to grow louder.

“You’re useless,”

“Spoilt and pampered,”

“What a bratty bitch,”

The feminine voice kept echoing at the back of her head, as Venus scowled annoyingly. She never heard voices in her head before, and yet the ones she started hearing today were annoying. It felt like they were stuck in her mind, and there was no way out. However, Venus noticed how the vermins knew how to shut up during her dinner with Eden. Whatever, Venus thought as she plopped in her Airpods. All she wanted right now was to get home, figure out where Amey and Jasper were, and perhaps get some extra credits done to get into Javerson’s good books.

Little did Venus know, she was going to plunge rock bottom soon.

A/N: I hope you’re enjoying WAYMV so far! the chapters are insanely short and it would’ve been easier to consolidate all 5 chapters into 2 and a half instead. But I was rushing them out for publication date while juggling between work and classes. There’s a lot going on in just five chapters, and it's only going to get longer, wordier, and intense. I look forward to any and all criticism & feedback! See you guys in the next chap, au voyage

You can find me on Twitter @feejae !