Page 3 of Shrouded in the Dark
“Nice, Star Wars fan? Jango, right?” My mouth felt like it had cotton balls in it, but the look of shock on his face was priceless. I was a nerd. “It’s nice to meet you too. Are you a football player like Axel?”
Our hands separated as he put both of his in his front pockets. “You are the first girl to get that reference!” He looked at Axel. “Where have you been hiding her?” He looked back at me. “To answer your question, hell no. This idiot takes enough whacks to the head for both of us. I’m in the engineering program.”
Smart, nice, nerdy, and gorgeous. This guy was the total package, technically both of them were, I’d noticed as girls went in and out of the kitchen, most of them wouldn’t take their eyes off of these two. It’s a good thing Felicity was too busy staring at Axel to care.
“Hey,” Felicity interrupted, “we’re going to go dance. Jasper, don’t let this one go hide in a corner and read.” She shook her finger at me as Axel, with his arm around her waist again, pulled her toward the living room where it was loudest.
I flushed as she left before glancing up at Jasper with an awkward laugh. “Sorry about her. I’ll let you get back to partying.” I turned to go find that corner when Jasper grabbed my hand. I stiffened.
“Hey, you don’t have to go.” He tugged on my hand before letting it go. “I’m not much of a partier. Would you care to keep me company and talk? Promise, no pervy moves.” He chuckled low.
I wasn’t surprised about the promise for no pervy moves, but company would be a nice change at one of these things. “Sure. No pervy moves on either side.” I winked at him. His smile almost split his face. I might not have a lot of experience with men, but I knew how to flirt when I felt like it. Didn’t mean I wasn’t awkward.
“A sense of humor. I thought those were rare, like tanzanite, amongst your kind.” Jasper waved his hand, having me follow him through the back door in the kitchen.
“Like the tanzanite, it’s the most revered amongst gemstones,” I replied straight-laced.
His shoulders shook in silent laughter as I followed him.
We dodged our way around more students, couples gyrating on each other in the middle of the walk way, and a fight that had broken out. Jasper made sure I was on his other side as we passed the fight, so that if something happened, he’d be the one hit and not me. That was surprisingly chivalrous of him. He didn’t even know that I was already so anxious about being separated from Felicity, I’d started to see black around my eyes, but that single act of kindness helped even my breathing.
He led us to the corner of the yard where there was a stone garden bench under a small, open-sided gazebo. There was a small flower garden around most of it.
“I didn’t expect to see this in a boy’s frat house,” I spoke without thinking as I gazed around the gazebo. It had small lights hung around the inner area.
“Honestly, if it weren’t for our landlady, it would probably be dead grass.” He sat on the stone bench. “But, this will be the last place most of the guys will come, unless their bedroom is locked and they need a place to have sex.”
I scrunched my nose at him. “Ew. Do you have any disinfecting wipes for that bench?”
The smile hadn’t left his face since we left the kitchen. The amusement clear with his next words. “You’re safe. No one’s had sex out here for a few weeks and the sprinklers have cleaned it up. Come sit.”
I sat on the other end, making sure my leg didn’t touch his. I had big thighs and some people got annoyed or antsy if they’re touched.
“You know you didn’t have to hang out with me, right? I was going to go read in a corner.”
“Nah, you seem to be the only one who wasn’t interested in drinking or finding a hook-up. Not to mention, you got my reference. Most girls just look confused.”
I leaned back slightly on the bench, my hands behind me, gripping the back. “Most girls weren’t raised on Star Wars, Star Trek, and anything nerdy sci-fi you can think of. I hated Cartoon Network, except when they had Sailor Moon or Inuyasha playing.”
“No shit?” Jasper copied my stance on the bench but his legs stretched out in front of him. The guy was tall.
From there, we talked about shows that we both liked. Turned out, a lot of my favorites were his too. Jasper told me about the classes he was taking. It went over my head, but he seemed passionate about it, so it was fun to listen to him. He listened as I told him about my art, which I told him about with a lot more enthusiasm than I usually did with strangers. We were talking about favorite types of restaurants when the sun finally disappeared. I hadn’t even been paying attention to anything other than talking to Jasper.
My vision had been getting progressively worse through the evening as the sun’s light disappeared but now, with it gone, I couldn’t see. Nyctalopia was a bitch that I had suffered with since I was a baby. I can’t see in the dark, which is why I always carried a few flashlights with me. I even had a mini-battery powered lantern in my purse for when I do go out in public. If the streets were brightly lit, I was usually ok as long as I had someone with me. If there were some lights, I could see them like they were really far away and looked fuzzy. Unlike most people who get diagnosed with nyctalopia, my doctors had never been able to fully make it go away. I was nearsighted, but even eye surgery didn’t help my night vision.
I hadn’t even noticed how dark it had become until my vision just went black. I’d been too engrossed with our conversation.
“Becca? You okay?” Jasper’s tone was concerned since I suddenly just stopped talking.
“Uh, yeah, but do you mind if I turn on a flashlight?” I’d already had my hand in my pocket that held the flashlight.
“Oh.” His tone was confused now. “Are you afraid of the dark?”
I barked out a self-deprecating laugh. “Something like that.”
I could hear him shifting where he was. I’d just pulled out the flashlight when there was a click and the lights in the gazebo turned on. I needed to blink to focus. It wasn’t the greatest light, but as I looked around, Jasper was in front of me, frowning.
“Is that alright?”
