DANCIN' ► DUSTIN HENDERSON [1]

1/3

THE FOUR STARED at the mysterious girl in wonder as she sat silently on Mike's couch, his giant rain jacket draped over her shoulders. She refused to meet any of their questioning eyes, her hard gaze glued to the floor and her breaths coming out as heavy pants.

"Is there a number we can call for your parents?" Mike asked, his loud voice startling the girl. She looked at the raven-haired boy, puzzled by his words.

"Where's your hair? Do you have cancer?" Dustin demanded.

Jasper whirled around and slapped him on the arm, sending him a warning look. Dustin giggled, but nodded to show he understood.

"Did you run away?" Lucas questioned.

"Are you in some kind of trouble?" Mike inquired.

"Is that blood?" Lucas murmured, reaching out his arm to touch her.

Jasper's hand lashed out and wrapped around his arm, causing him to freeze. "Can you guys stop with the questions? You're freaking her out."

"She's freaking me out!" Lucas fired back.

"I bet she's deaf," Dustin theorized, looking at her strangely. He held out his arms and clapped loudly, causing her to recoil in shock. "Not deaf," he shrugged lightly.

"Seriously Dustin?" Jasper glanced over at him with a disapproving look.

"Sorry," he apologized timidly, letting out a light chuckle.

"That's enough, all right? She's just scared and cold," Mike held out his hands, stopping the other two boys.

Jasper walked away from the others, digging through a bucket of laundry. "There's got be something..." she mumbled to herself.

"Jas, what are you doing?" Mike asked curiously, his eyebrows furrowing together.

"Getting some dry clothes for her, genius," she spoke over her shoulder, pulling out a pair of pajama pants and a sweatshirt that belonged to Mike.

"Here," she gently handed the clothes to the confused girl. "These are clean, okay?"

She shyly accepted the clothes from her, feeling the fabric with her cheek. Slowly, she threw the jacket off her shoulders and stood, beginning to peel the wet shirt off her skin.

The boys relapsed, spinning around in disgust and shouting a string of "No's" and "Oh my God's". Jasper held out a hand, blocking the girl from removing the shirt more. "Can you guys chill the fuck out?" Jasper hissed, eyeing the boys.

The girl's dark eyes examined Jasper, looking her up and down. It wasn't hard to see the overwhelming fear in her gaze.

"Come with me," Jasper gently took the girl's feeble hand. When she flinched away, the redhead only sent her a comforting look. "It's okay," she held out her hand again, allowing the girl to take it by choice this time.

The three boys watched as Jasper led her to the bathroom. "You can change in here. For, you know, privacy," Jasper gave her a crooked smile.

The girl observed the bathroom, her eyes floating around the small space.

Jasper grasped the doorknob and tried to close it, when she felt the girl's hand slam against the wood to stop it. "You don't want it closed?" she asked.