The Stranger I Met

The Actual Encounter

* photo of Jason*

"Oh come on Aurora, tell us more please, how did he look like? Any hot features other than his hair." Molly says teasingly.

She deliberately picked up this topic in front of all our friends just so the attention would shift to me from her new boyfriend, which I must say I had been enjoying a lot until she opened her mouth.

"Come on tell us." Caroline says. The seven of us: Caroline, Molly, Ryan, Tyler, Stella, Jeremy and I are sitting in our favorite hang out place, 'The Hideout' café. It's not a large café, and our group is hogging the only eight seated circular table. I say hogging because we haven't ordered anything for the last half hour. But because we are regulars, the waiters aren't giving us a stink eye.

"I don't think she'll open up in front of you Ty." Speaks Jeremy, the douche. Tyler stiffens a little remembering our history.

"Jer, shut it. It's nothing. Molly just likes to make a big deal out of nothing." Even though frankly it was everything. I hadn't even seen him properly but I still couldn't stop thinking about him.

"Ok fine honey, " Caroline says, "Let's get back to Molly. So who's this newbie you've got up your sleeve, huh?" She wriggles her eyebrows and tilts her head a little, hungry for information.

Like on cue, the bell on the door chimes as someone enters the café. Molly turns towards the gate and smiles. "Here he is, my newbie, I mean boyfriend."

Excitedly I turn around, and I have no idea how but I am rock solidly sure.....it is him.

He approaches our table carrying his 6.2 foot build with an amazing grace and confidence. He is wearing a grey half sleeve t-shirt and a black pair of jeans.

Molly introduces him loud enough for the whole café to hear her. "Everyone, this is my boyfriend, Jason Miller."

"Hi guys." It was the same baritone voice that had rejected me two days back. He comes and stands next to where Molly is sitting. Now I get it why she pushed Ryan away from next to her. She wanted to keep that seat free.

"Hi you." Caroline says too sweetly, instantly kicking off with her flirtatious tone. "Please join us." He sits between Molly and Tyler and exactly opposite to me.

"He is new in town and needed to mingle, so I thought who better than you guys, right?"

"Of course sweety." Caroline agrees, and without delay starts with the introductions.

"First things first, all of us are in our senior year-"

"Oh I forgot, he too is a senior and will be going to the same school." Molly interrupts her.

"Wow! Great, can I finish now, Molly." Caroline snaps at her, which makes me grin. No one can boss within even a five mile radius of Caroline. She was the mother hen of our group, and none of us really minded when she got snappy at us. 

While she continues, I look up to see Stella staring at me. She raises her pierced eyebrow, reading my tensed face. I decipher that she is asking me if Jason's my guy as well. Realizing I should answer back, I nod. She gasps clearly understanding what I meant and shakes her head slightly for only me to notice. 

"Earth to Aurora!" I come out of my day dream to my name being called probably the third or fourth time by Caroline. "And finally that's Aurora." 

"Yeah, that's me, Hi!"

"Hi Aurora." Oh my good god, was it just me or did he just put a little extra strain on the ' r' sound. Guess just me. How could I even zone out with his baritone voice hovering over me.