He could try to disappear. It wasn’t like he didn’t have enough money. The problem? He was well known. Everywhere. It would only be a matter of time before Samuel could locate him. It would be easy enough. If he disappeared, his location would be a hot news story to anyone who ran into him, no matter how remote. They would know the information to be valuable. He couldn’t run, and he no longer believed he could quit. He could, however, ensure his ass was covered. Which meant recording as many of these conversations as he could.
Keeping a record. So, when the time came and the authorities were alerted to what Samuel was doing, he could distance himself from the man and provide evidence he wasn’t involved. It was the best he could do. Anything else could put him at the mercy of Samuel, or worse, the woman. Which was something he most definitely wished to avoid.
Chapter 5
"Does love always feel like this?" Jason Randal asked his buddy, Mike.
"Lust you mean?" Mike smirked back.
"I'm in love, you idiot."
"You don't know her, Jason. I mean…really know her. You have been staring at her since what? The third grade? Have you ever talked to her?"
"I mean, first, it was grade school, and then it was the same high school," Jason went on, ignoring what Mike had asked. "Then the same college. It must be fate, right?" Jason glared over at Mike. "What?" Noticing Mike's expression of frustration.
"If it's fate, why the hell haven't you gone over to her and asked her out? Do you know how annoying it is to hear someone drone on and on about the love of their life for ten years or more?" It was obvious Mike was a little ticked off. "You're an adult now, for pity's sake, act like one. Go over to her and ask her out! Or I'll do it!"
"You'd ask her out for me?"
"No, you idiot. I would ask her out for ME. She is rather hot, and if you are gonna sit on your ass and not do anything about it, I might as well have a shot at her."
"You wouldn't?" Jason demanded, eyes widening to never before seen lengths.
"Why not?" Mike shrugged. "It's not as if you are ever going to do anything about it."
Jason was about to respond, his mouth opening a little, and he snapped it closed. Mike was right about one thing. He hadn't done anything about it.
He watched Stephanie Boles, who sat across the student union at Tennessee State. The room wasn't at all crowded right now since it was late in the day and most people took classes earlier. He had a clear shot of her. A tiny thing, perhaps five feet tall in heels, she couldn’t weigh hardly one hundred pounds. Lithe and yet, she still appeared feminine, like a miniature version of a runway model. All the right curves in all the right places. Rusty brown hair, was cut short, a little above her shoulders and she had part of her bangs teased down in front of her left eye.
She had a pale complexion, but not so pale as to be white. Just pale enough to show some slight freckles, like fading stars in the early morning light. Eyes were a light brown, almost amber, and always sparkled when she laughed.
Jason had loved Stephanie since grade school. In the third grade, she sat in front of him and she would always smile at him when she took her seat. His heart was claimed by that smile, and had been ever since.
Mike was right about something else. Stephanie and he had possibly exchanged a half a dozen sentences in the past decade. Jason was extremely shy and apart from saying hi and hello, he did nothing but stare at her, as if willing her, by mental force, to come over to him and say something. She never did.
Jason had been a dorky looking kid, at least in his opinion. Taller than most in his grade, not filled out, just tall and gangly. Over-sized tortoise-color framed glasses with wide thick lenses, sat awkwardly on his face.
A lot less dorky now, he still felt he appeared a little dorky. In junior high, everyone caught up to him and passed him in height, so he was no longer taller than everyone. He was average height for a man, thin with a little bit of a gut from college drinking. His hair was cropped short, almost army cut. A somewhat average looking guy, nothing striking about him in any way.
Because of all of this, he knew there would be no way Stephanie would be interested in a guy like him. Of course, it's not like he knew what kind of guy interested Stephanie, but he was sure it wouldn't be a guy like him. Irrational he knew, yet it always stopped him from trying to talk to her. The sad thing is, until two years ago, she lived only eight houses from him. This year she moved in with her friend, Beth, somewhere here on campus.
He kept staring at her till she glanced in his direction, as soon as their eyes met; Jason quickly glanced away, back to his buddy Mike, who was staring at him like he was some pathetic loser… which he was.
Mike stood up.
"What are you doing?" Fearing Mike at long last had enough of his stupidity and was going to go over and ask her out.
"Calm down, Casanova, I've got a class to get to." With that, Mike left Jason alone.
Jason peeked back over at Stephanie, who was still gazing at him. Jason glanced away and pretended to scan the rest of the student union as if he was people watching and not purposely staring at her. He still glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, though, and watched as she gathered up her books and slipped them into her blue and gray backpack. Standing, she slung the backpack over her shoulder and made her way to the exit, once again, walking out of Jason's life.
Enough! Not this time, Jason decided and gathered up his books, and headed for the exit as well. Walking briskly towards where he had seen Stephanie leave. She had rounded the corner up ahead and would leave the building through the glass doors at the entrance to the student union. Yet, when he turned the corner and scanned out those doors, frantically scanning outside, he didn't see her anywhere.
"You know," came a voice from his right. "I wait here every day for a minute to see if you would try to catch me."
Jason turned to see Stephanie leaning up against the wall, next to a glass trophy case where she couldn't be seen by someone coming around the corner.
"Well, almost every day.” She peered out the double doors. “Sometimes I am too late for class and I can't wait. I always worried it was going to be one of those days you’d chose to try and catch me, and I wouldn't have time to let you,” Stephanie said, glancing back at him.
She smiled at him, eyes slightly cast downward. His heart skipped a beat.
"Umm...ah...I wasn't, I mean, I didn't...umm. You were waiting for me?" Jason sputtered out.
Stephanie giggled a little bit. It was the sexiest thing Jason had ever heard, he ignored the fact she was giggling at him.
"Yeah, I was. It sure took you long enough. I thought you would have said something our junior year of high school."
"In fact, it would have been third grade."
"Wow." Eyebrows raised, mouth parted slightly as Stephanie took in this information. "I started to notice your interest in high school. Wow. You're way shyer than me. I didn't think it was possible." Stephanie gazed at him while leaning against the wall.
"It would seem, it is," Jason said smiling, rocking slightly from foot to foot.
They stared at each other for what was like an eternity. Neither of them knew what to do with the acknowledgement of their interest in each other. Jason was going to be damned if he was going to let this moment pass. Since the third grade, he had dreamed of this day.
"So... Do you have some time to talk? Or do you have to get to class? It’s okay if you do, I understand. We can always talk later," the words, scrambling to get out of his mouth, spilling out like an open firehose.
"I do have to get to class," she said with a frown, angling her body towards the door.
Jason deflated in front of her, shoulders sagging and head drooping slightly. He felt as if he was losing his one chance with her.
"But..." She turned back towards him. "I would rather talk to you than go to class, so let’s go back inside!"
"Really?"
"Really." Approaching him, she linked her arm around his and turned him back to
wards the Union.
They made their way back to the table he had been sitting at, since hers was now taken.
"Third grade, huh?" Peeking up at him with her amber eyes.
"Yeeeeaaahhh...umm," glancing down and peering away.
Stephanie giggled again and Jason's heart melted a little more.
They reached the table and Jason sat, Stephanie sat next to him, not across from him as he had expected. It was an unexpected delight.
"So, what took you so long?" Stephanie enquired.
"I don't know," Jason told her. "Well, not entirely true. I do know. I thought you wouldn't be interested in a guy like me."
"Why? What's wrong with a guy like you?" A little peeved at his answer.
"I don't know," Jason shrugged. "I am a bit of a dork."
"Maybe I like dorks. Did you ever think of that?"
"Oh, come on. You are beautiful, sexy and amazing. Why would you be interested in dorks when you could have any guy you wanted?" Jason asked her.
Stephanie searched his eyes for a moment, finding nothing but innocent sincerity.
"First, thank you for the compliments," she told him with a smile. "And secondly, why do think because someone can have something, they are going to want it? I also discount your belief I could have any guy I want. I'm not that beautiful. I'm too short. I don't like to wear girly clothes or makeup. I like to keep my hair short not flowing like some Barbie doll." She ranted for a moment as her voice got a little louder as she spoke. "Did you ever consider just because you seem to think of me as beautiful, doesn't mean every other guy does?"
"I don't understand what you are saying," Jason told her flatly.
"Are you telling me you have never seen some hot girl with some ugly guy and wonder what the hell does she see in him?"
"Are you saying I'm ugly?" Jason teased, knowing now where she was going with her point, but couldn't pass up the opening she had left.
"No... That’s not what...I wasn't saying that," she stumbled over herself to explain to him, and saw his small smirk he was trying to hide and slugged him in shoulder.
"You know what I mean!" She yelled at him, trying to sound put out, but hiding a laugh.
Jason rubbed his shoulder where she had slugged him. He didn't have to feign hurt, she packed quite a punch.
"Yeah, I know what you mean, Stephanie. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?"
"More or less. I think people are attracted to different things. I don't think because you appear a certain way you are attracted to those types of people."
Pondering this for a bit, Jason had to admit she had a point. Unfortunately, it meant he had wasted all this time when he could have been with Stephanie since the third grade, or at least high school.
His expression sank, the muscles in his face slackened, his lips dipped downward at the corners. His sadness must have been noticeable, for Stephanie seemed to understand what it meant, and took his hands in hers.
"It's okay, Jason, we have from this moment on. We might not have been ready to meet before this point. Maybe there were things we had to experience in life before we experienced this."
Jason smiled. He also believed sometimes things in life don't work out because we try them too early, or perhaps too late. If we don't experience certain things at certain times, they are doomed to fail. Glancing over at the girl he hoped to be with all his life, sitting there holding his hands in hers, and gazing into his eyes, he was happier than he had ever been in his entire life.
"Would you like to go out on Saturday?"
Her smile lit up his heart. "I would love to, Jason."
Stephanie Boles applied lipstick to her upper lip and pursed her lips in a kiss towards the mirror. Her round face was almost doll-like. Taking a moment, she examined herself in the mirror. She was a small girl; she always thought she appeared like a gymnast, though she was shapelier than one. Gymnast tended to lack the curves of a woman and she wasn't lacking in that department.
She had full B-cupped breasts which were perky, her body thinned down in her waist a slight flaring out at the hips. Her ass was heart shaped and firm, since she spent hours in the gym to make it so, and legs were shapely and slight. Freckles dotted her cheeks and upper chest, but they were faint and hardly noticeable, she considered them highlights.
Tonight, was her first real date with Jason.
Of course, they talked every day on the phone and met in the Union between classes. It drove his friend Mike nuts. They were practically fawning over each other, she knew, but she couldn't help herself. Every time they would say sweet stuff to each other and Mike was there, he would groan or make gagging sounds. Jason and she laughed, but they toned it down till Mike left for a class.
It was amazing, after all this time of being near someone and never really meeting, you could find your soul mate. It sounded stupid, even to her, to say, but she honestly felt an amazing connection to him, as if they were meant to be.
"If you glowed anymore we’d be able to save money on the electric bill." Beth said, stepping in lightly from the bathroom doorway.
Stephanie looked at her and smiled more. Beth had been her friend since the first year of College. She was quite different from Stephanie in many ways, she was tall, light skinned, for a black girl, but still darker than Stephanie. A shapely girl as well, but where Stephanie was thin and shapely, Beth was a bit fleshier. The only down side was Beth’s long face. It gave the impression of a high forehead and a long chin. Good-looking, not beautiful.
"If the light bothers you, there is a pair of sunglasses in the drawer," Stephanie told her and smiled, yet again.
Beth walked to the counter and began applying a little mascara to her eyelashes.
"This Jason better be nice to you lil’ sis."
Little sis was the nickname Beth had given to her when they first met, when some guy at the bar was trying to be funny and asked if they were sisters. Beth glared at the guy and told him off.
"Right, this is my lil’ sis. Now get lost." They laughed over it and became fast friends. From then on, she was Beth's lil’ sis.
"You don't need to worry. Jason is a fantastic guy and so terribly in love with me there is no way he would ever try to hurt me."
"Well, he better not, or I'll have to take him out back and whoop his ass."
Stephanie laughed, only because she was sure Beth could most likely whoop Jason's ass. It wasn't as if Jason was a wimp. He just wouldn't do anything to hurt anyone, even if he was getting his ass whooped.
"Don't worry, if for any reason, Jason hurts me, there won't be anything left for you to whoop. I'll have torn him to pieces," Stephanie assured her.
Beth smiled at her. "I'm happy for you, I honestly am, lil’ sis. I know you have been diggin' on this guy for quite some time, I'm glad he at long last made a move on you.”
"Me, too. I didn't know if he was ever going to. I didn't think he was interested in me, and I was beginning to think maybe he thought I was freak, which was why he kept staring at me. I mean, he never really made eye contact. If I glanced at him, he would glance away, so perhaps he was disgusted by me."
Beth snorted. "You realize you were telling yourself that so you wouldn't go over and talk to him, right? It was your rationale so you never had to risk putting yourself out there and converse with the guy?"
"Well, I know now..."
"Bullshit. You knew it then. You kept ignoring what you knew was the truth cuz you were scared. After all, you are hot girl. Who the hell would be disgusted by you?"
Shyly, Stephanie glanced down. Beth was right, she should have gotten up the guts months, no, years ago, to go over and talk to Jason. She always tried to be in the places he was, waited for him to say or do something. Going to Tennessee State, in part, was because she knew he was going here. Though, that was one fact she would never tell anyone. If anyone found out, especially Beth, they would throttle her.
It wasn’t like she couldn't get the education she needed here. She could. It wa
s a fine school. But, she was an excellent student and could have gotten into a much better school. It was Jason who made her decide to come here. In the end, it seems, it worked out for the best. She was doing quite well in school and she now had a date with Jason.
Now she knew he was as shy as her and had been hoping she would make a move. She wished she had. Even though she told Jason it might have been because they weren’t ready, she still longed for all the possible time they could have spent together. Shaking her head to clear those thoughts; there was nothing she could do about it now, she thought. The past was the past.
"You're right Beth; it was a silly way to handle myself. I should have asked him out a long time ago, but there is no reason to beat myself up about it now. After all, I have a date to get ready for."
Beth smiled again at her. "That's right, lil’ sis, you get ready and go out and have some fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do," she told Stephanie as she turned and smacked Stephanie on the ass as she left.
Stephanie gave a little yelp and tried to kick Beth as she scooted out of her reach.
"Maybe, if you had some length to those legs you might have got me, midget," Beth shouted back to her.
"Bitch!" Stephanie yelled at her with a smile.
Stephanie could think of nothing but love for Beth. In many ways, she was Stephanie's big sis. Stephanie never had a big sister, and never knew what it was like to have an older sibling. Beth was always looking out for her and was never afraid to tell her the truth, no matter what.
The Awakening [Part Two] Page 12