The Girl With Five Watches

4: Night Out

"OK Jimmy, it's your turn to open your next gift," announced my mom that Christmas Morning with a cheerful smile and a camera ready to go.

Our family sat in a circle as each one of us took a turn to open our Christmas Gifts. "Oh, it's from Grandma." My eyes looked towards my grandma as she gave me a smile. My fingers barely found themselves trying to unwrap the paper. To my shock, my hands began shaking and my breathing grew heavy.

"Grandma hates you," announced a young girl's voice in my head. "Grandpa is dead because of you."

"Everything OK Jimmy?" asked my mom who placed her hand on my shoulder.

"Can you open this for me?" There was no way I'd be able to open it. My fingers wouldn't cooperate.

My mom agreed and opened it from me. It was a one hundred dollar gift card to Barnes and Noble. My grandma claimed that it would come in handy for next semester.

"You OK?" asked my roommate who brought me back to reality while sitting at my desk looking out the window in a deep and long stare.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I took a deep breath and stood up. "When did you get back?"

"Right now," his bags fell to the floor. "How was the break?"

"It was fine I guess. Maybe it was a little too long for it being three weeks. Glad to be back though."

He nodded and invited me to the student union for a game of pool. The second we made it to the student union, a familiar face was noticed which happened to be Sara. My heart began beating faster and my face couldn't help beam up. It looked like she was hanging out with a friend and playing pool. 

"Roger!" shouted the voice of the friend of Sara's

"Karla!" my roommate shouted back. "So good to see you."

They both hugged each other and gave each other a kiss. And it turned out that they had started dating during the break. The eyes of Sara caught mine and she gave me that famous smile. At that moment, I couldn't help but laugh. She did the same.

"Hey Jimmy, it looks like your roommate is dating my roommate," she laughed leading us to both hug. "How was everyone's break?"

We all nodded and things got a little quiet leading to an awkward pause until Karla suggested we all go out for sushi. And we all found ourselves in her new car with her new license zooming her way to get sushi. The restaurant was nicer than what I was used to. There was even a dance floor. We all found a table and sat down. Moments later our waiter came with the menus. When we ordered, I noticed that the roommates both ordered Apple Cider. Meanwhile, Sara ordered Pomegranate Vitamin Water and to nobodies surprise, I had ordered water.

"How'd you guys meet?" I asked my roommate while taking a sip of my clear drink.

He laughed and kissed Karla on the cheek. "We met at freshman orientation. You remember how I was gone that entire first weekend?" My head nodded. "After freshman orientation, I invited Karla out for dinner. One thing led to another and we found ourselves at a dance club that evening. We spent the rest of the night that Saturday walking around campus just talking and connecting."

"And he even drove out of his way to come see me during the break," commented Karla. They both kissed again.

"Awe, that's so sweet," commented Sara. Her eyes were precious with the way she admired our roommates. At the moment, I wanted to take a picture. I loved that look in her eyes. It was so innocent and pure.

We kept eating and talking for the next half hour. In that half-hour, we found out that Roger and Karla were both business majors interested in social media. They also had big families as they were one of many siblings. They really were the perfect couple. After we finished eating, they wanted to go out on the dance floor and dance. That left me alone with Sara.

"What a world," I commented. "Who knew our roommates would end up dating?"

She laughed with another nice smile and for the first time, it came to my attention that she had perfect teeth. "You interested in dancing?" she asked. "I'm a little interested, but I kind of want dessert first."

Dessert sounded good and we both ordered vanilla cake. While waiting for our dessert, it only made sense to light the candle at our table. As soon as the candle was lit, the smile laid on Sara vanished. Her smile was more of a frown. For a moment, she looked directly at the small burning fire with a couple of deep breaths.

"Are you OK with not having a candle?" she asked while looking across the room.

"Yeah, that's fine." Without hesitation, I took out the fire. "Everything OK?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I just feel a little uncomfortable around fire sometimes. No big deal."

Not wanting to ruin the evening, I avoided any question about her uncomfortableness with fire. Another time perhaps. Our cake didn't come for about another two minutes. The cake was amazing. And thankfully the cake warmed Sara up relieving her of the frown she had moments ago. Dang, I couldn't get over that smile. We both finished our cake at the same time.

"Ready to dance?" she asked looking at one of her watches.

"I guess, but let me just warn you, I suck at dancing."

"That's OK." She stood up while lifting out her arm for me. "I was voted the worst dancer in high school."

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Hope you're ready for dancing! Don't forget to comment, vote, and share!

Thoughts on Jimmy and Sara's roommates dating?

Thoughts on Sara feeling uncomfortable around fire?

This chapter is dedicated to @BookdragonAS Thanks for taking the time to read this story!