Witness

37| Only Thunder

What a week.

With Christmas break fast approaching, Jax, Hannah, Blake, and I had been completely bogged down by papers and studying for finals.

It was only Thursday night, and I was already exhausted, crawling into bed for the night around 9:30. Luckily, my classes didn't start until 10:30 on Thursdays, so I could kind of sleep in.

I was prepared to have a full night of sleep, given how tired I had been, until I awoke to the horrible, horrible sound of thunder around 1:00 AM.

At first, I wasn't sure what I was hearing that had woken me up, but when I saw the flash of lightning, I knew what was coming. The patter of rain drops hitting the dorm windows was nothing compared to the thunderous boom that erupted throughout the sky.

I trembled in my bed, images of the initial crash flashing in my mind. I hated thunder. HATED it. I wanted to hide away under my covers, but felt almost too paralyzed by fear to do so.

I had been lucky up to this point. Though there had been a few storms since the incident, not many had contained thunder this loud, and most of the storms had been during the daytime when I was busy with class, not at night when it was all I could focus on.

As I had mentioned to Jax before, my fear of thunder had always been bad after the accident that took the lives of my mom and sister, but this was a whole new level. I wasn't prepared for how much my current situation and added anxiety heightened my fear; It had been storming the night I witnessed the crime as well.

"Hannah, are you awake?" I whispered. I didn't want to wake her up, but I needed comfort. Back in my old dorm, during my old life, Mel would sit up with me whenever there was a storm. We would watch movies or something as a distraction.

I sat up in bed only to see that Hannah wasn't even home. She often went out with her coworkers on Thursday nights, so it wasn't uncommon for her to just stay with one of them afterwords.

However, knowing that I was alone in the room only increased my fear, and before I knew it, my feet were moving. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was completely terrified, and I needed Jax.

I eased myself out of bed, silently making my way across the hall until I was face to face with Jaxon's door. I hesitated a moment. Did I really want to wake him for this? I had already admitted to him that I was afraid of thunder storms, but now as I stood here in front of his door, it seemed almost childish.

I stayed still, shaking in the hallway as another thunder sounded and the lights flickered. A tear escaped my eyes, and I wiped it away before sucking up my pride and knocking on the door. He would understand. He had already proven that he would never judge me for something like this.

Only a moment passed before Jaxon's shirtless body appeared in the doorway, keeping one hand on the doorknob while he used the other to rub his eyes.

I flinched as I heard another rumble of thunder, distracting me from his perfectly sculpted abs. I would have spent more time appreciating them if not for the gripping terror throughout my body.

"Sky? Are you okay?" He asked. Blake must be home.

I shook my head as another tear escaped my eyes, "This is embarrassing, but I'm seriously freaking out right now, and I need you. Can I please just... I don't know, lay with you until the storm ends?"

Jax immediately kicked the door open, and I could see the realization on his face as he remembered my fear of thunder storms. He was quick to place an arm over my shoulders ushering me inside. "Of course, whatever you need."

I was instantly relieved that Jax was being so cool about the situation. I mean, obviously we had already crossed the line into unprofessional territory, but we hadn't been spending the night in each others dorm room beds yet. I wasn't sure if this was a boundary he wanted to keep from crossing.