The Beast of Fox Hill

Thirteen

After accepting Cassander's offer to go on a date, we made our way to the living room. Cassander took a seat on the couch and I stood awkwardly next to him, my hands fidgeting together.

"Is there anything else I can get you? Water? More blankets?" I asked with a small smile.

"Unless company for a little while is something I can ask for, then no I'm good," he says with a smirk. He knew I would not deny him my company and I rolled my aegean eyes at him before taking a seat on the opposite side of the couch.

"When I came here earlier, I asked if you were okay. Did you tell me the truth?" Cassander asks as if he saw through all of my masks I have placed on myself. I look at him confused as to how he was seemingly looking right through me, and I sighed. I might as well have someone to confide in.

"Honestly I was thinking back on a memory of high school," I answer truthfully.

"A bad one?" he asks, his face showing no judgement and only concern. I purse my lips and nod.

"What happened?" he says, meeting my eyes with his own emerald ones.

"I was asked on a date and of course I went like the idiot I was. It was winter, and he drove us out to this forest. We got out and he guided me down a trail and he stopped us like a good hike down and pretended to hear something. Turns out that something was his asshole friends throwing buckets of snow on me," I say shaking my head and look down into my lap.

"And then the worst part came. They left me there. In the cold of winter by myself. No lights, no way of knowing how to get home. It took me hours to get back," I say.

When I finish my story, my eyes flicker up to meet not the emeralds that I am used to seeing on Cassander, but dark almost black circles. His face looked as if he were ready to tear someone apart and his fists were clenched in his lap. My lips part slightly in confusion, but nowhere in my body did I feel fear.

"Your eyes," I say almost in a whisper. He stays quiet for a moment before shaking his head and they magically return back to normal.

"What about them?" he asks as if nothing had happened. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, I think to myself.

"Nothing, it was just the light," I say, covering my embarrassment. He still looked slightly angry, but there was less signs of it.

"Is that why you rejected me to begin with?" he asks as if he just put the pieces together.

"Yeah," I admit with a light sigh.

"I would never hurt you, Jasper," he says. My eyes meet his and I can see he is being completely genuine when he says this.

"I believe you," I say softly and his mouth morphs into a small satisfied smile.

I did mean what I said, I trusted that he would not hurt me. He has shown multiple times that he would not and even protected me and helped me when I was injured. That spoke enough about him that I took his word for its face value.

We sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, and as it seemed we were both absorbed in each other's eyes. His, the sparkling emerald green seas that completely captivated me. Mine, a blueish gray ocean that he was caught in the waves of. Those few minutes pass and it is I that breaks the icy silence.

"So you live on Fox Hill?" I ask, cracking the peaceful quiet we were just in. He hums in response, keeping his eyes glued to me.

"Alone?" I question.

"Alone in my house, yes. My family and friends such as Booker and Zane are my neighbors so it is never quite alone," he says, a small smile peeking through his lips. "What about you? Where are your parents?" he asks. I hear a slight hesitance as if he is afraid to ask about their whereabouts.