Masked Attraction

Chapter 30: Scream Music

I walk to Jess's dormitory and I knock on the door as heavy scream music pumps through the walls making the door vibrate under my knuckles.

I am moderately surprised by Jess's taste in music before she swings open the door her face scrunched up in annoyance. It takes me a moment before I realize the music is coming from her roommate who is lounged across the left, very contrasting side, part of the dorm. Her roommate has a sleek pixie-style haircut and a very pretty heart-shaped face with her arms laced up with sleeve tattoos. Her feet are kicked up on her desk and she doesn't acknowledge my presence nor in my opinion, seem to know the concept of headphones.

"Hey Emma, change of plans!" Jess's voice growing louder and louder. "My roommate unexpectedly showed up! Want to just go down in the lounge area?" She continues to half scream over the music, her eyes roaming over to her roommate with a look to kill. I mutter back that it is totally fine. Her roommate gives us a half-wave still not glancing in our direction as she continuously browses her laptop nodding her head along to this wretched music. Jess slams the door extra hard. I stifle my giggle smoothly turning it into a cough to prevent Jess from directing her anger towards me.

Jess luckily doesn't notice and profusely apologizes about her behavior and change of events.

"Don't even worry about it," I tell her. I am honestly more amused about the fact she never brought it up before.

"How come you never mentioned your roommate?" I ask.

"Ugh, she is so difficult you have no idea. I like to conveniently forget about her," she explains and I laugh.

We walk down the steps to the basement lounge which is set up with a foosball table, vending machines, couches, and tables to study. There are a couple of students scattered about, but it is not too crowded. We settle on picking a couch and she sits down across from me as I ask how everything is. We mutually agree about our classes being overwhelming before I switch tactics.

"So... how are things with you and Jared?" I say wanting to get into the juicy details feeling my inner Jamie spring up.

She blushes and then crosses her legs, "Really well. He's really trying. I've been taking things pretty slow. He keeps calling me his girlfriend and I stubbornly say no and tell him we are in the dating stages which he gets annoyed at. But otherwise, we are good and he is being loyal."

"Why did he even sleep around so much before?" I ask curiously, a thought that's been running through my mind.

"He has never been very happy in general or even close with people, to be honest," she admits and her eyes get extra glossy.

"Jared? Really? He always seems to be in a good mood and sociable," I respond recalling all the instances of him socializing with everyone.

"Well, it is normally the people that appear the happiest that are the saddest."

I consider that over and the longer I think about it the more it starts to make sense. It instantly reminds me of Bash and how he hides his true self from everyone as well. I chew on my lip at that thought.

"Jared is just very withdrawn and puts up this front. He fakes it most of the time." She continues and I nod my head listening. "And well, Jared lost his mom and sister in a car accident as a kid. Now it is just him and his dad." She says and her eyes grow sadder. "They both went through different emotions from it considering they were both in the car. They suffered a lot from it and now their relationship is strained." I make a shocked noise, appalled that he went through something so traumatic and my eyes start to get a little watery too.

"Yeah, so basically he doesn't really connect or like people. He's way more sensitive than he appears," she says and wipes her eyes.

"Anyways, back in freshman year I was for some reason attracted to him and his brooding vibe so I wouldn't let him not be friends with me," she mutters laughs silently. "He kept trying to push me away but he eventually succumbed and then introduced me to Lukas and the three of us starting hanging out. I met Ray later that year and we formed our little group."

I sit there silently absorbing all the information.

"Jared and I always had a bit of a different connection, but I never thought much into it, and then well you know what happens from there," she tells me more positively. I recover from my shock at the story and smile a little about what she is referencing.

"So have you been on a date yet?" I eagerly ask wanting to shift us to happier topics.

"Well, I wouldn't call it a date," her mouth forming into a slow smirk. "But, that weekend night I told you I was going out with him he ended up cooking an Italian dinner for me which was really nice. He's an amazing cook." Her smile widens as her eyes drift off thinking about that night.

"Oooh," I say suggestively and she chuckles. She tells me how they haven't been jumping into things because she is worried if things don't work out it will complicate our friend group. So to his exasperation, they still have not made anything official.

"It is kind of funny that the guy impervious to relationships is begging you for one," I tell her.

"When you say it like that, you make me sound like a bitch," she says giggling again. "Maybe I should just not hold back anymore. I am pretty sure I love him anyway."

I gasp and then squeal super excited wanting to hug her and Jared at the moment. She jokily shushes me which is so unusual for me to be someone to be shushed, but I am so thrilled for her.

"Okay yes, you definitely need to just make things official Jess." I nod my head enthusiastically.

"Okay, okay. I'll think about it," she recites back to me but based on her grin I know what her answer will be.

***
*Author's Note*
Hey lovely readers!! I'm going to write a Halloween chap for the next 2 chapters. Throwback lol... should Sebastien be Luigi, Ron Swanson, sexy firefighter, or ninja??

I also have nothing against scream music lol. (But Jess and Emma do)

P.S. this is a foosball table