Awakened: Book One of the Mind Agents series

Awakened: Book One of the Mind Agents series, Chapter 20

"Jack," Maya's voice whispers on the other side of the door.

Jack springs out of bed and carefully opens his door so the bolt doesn't make a loud noise.

"Hey, what's up," he says, glancing down at her pajamas: a baggy T-shirt, short sweat pants and bare feet.

"Were you asleep?"

"Not at all," he says, honestly.

He looks back at the clock by his bed. It's two-something.

He rubs his hand across his head, realizing his hair is pretty messy, but he doesn't care. He marvels at Maya's hair looking so beautiful and bushy. It's a force of nature—rich, full, and bursting with life.

"I couldn't sleep," she says.

"Come on in," Jack opens the door wider, squinting from the bright hall light.

She remains in the hall. "Wait, I was thinking about something, and it was making me a little crazy. I had to talk to you guys about it."

"Guys? I'm one guy." Jack wasn't sure where she was going with this.

Maya lets out a nervous laugh, but Jack sees that she's anxious. He tries to calm her.

"I mean, I didn't mean that," he tries to recover. "I mean, what's on your mind? Let's talk about it."

"Let's go get Chris," she says with a tilt of her head.

Jack likes the excitement of Maya coming to his door in the middle of the night, not that he expected anything to happen, but it was out of the ordinary, and a little thrill for that reason alone. However, the idea of bringing Chris into it was a buzzkill. Nevertheless, he knew the best course was to be supportive, and see where she wanted to take this.

"Yeah, sure. I'm practically naked. Let me grab . . ." he looks down at his gym shorts, and then reaches in his room to pull his shirt off the floor.

"You're fine," she says. He tries to find some double meaning in her words, but it doesn't seem to be there.

He's warm enough, so he forgoes the shirt. He grabs his room key, puts it in the pocket of his shorts, and then steps barefoot into the carpeted hallway with her. They almost hold hands as they walk the two doors down to Chris's room. Their fingers lightly brush against each other. Jack feels a rush from the contact. Maya shoots him a fleeting smile.

"Feels like we're doing something wrong," Jack whispers. "Sneaking around in the night."

"I know, right?" Maya lets out a soft titter. As she does she leans into him and puts her hand on his bare chest, and then quickly pulls it away with an awkward "oh, sorry," and a nervous giggle.

Jack only wants more.

They get to Chris's door and Maya raises her hand to knock. Before she does, the door opens.

"What's going on out here?" Chris says.

"Oh, sorry, Chris. Were you up?" Maya asks.

"Well, I heard all this giggling. Am I missing a party?" he sports a big smile.

"No, no," Maya says. "Can you come with us?"

"Yeah, sure." He grabs his key. He's wearing a tight white T-shirt, which makes Jack feels slightly more self-conscious shirtless.

They slip into the exercise room and Maya turns on the harsh fluorescents. "This is good."

Jack checks out the cameras in the upper corners. "A good place to give security something to peep at."