You Decorated My Universe (Stevencest)

FIVE

I walked over to them, unready of what to say. My hands shivered in uneasiness as my body chilled to the bone. Connie has no idea that I'd be coming here at Jayhawk. How is she going to react? Commonly, a sudden surprise would be a high probability. What about the other one? Perhaps a dubious look, questioning who I am.

I made the first impression. "Hey, Connie."

She rapidly turned to look at me with her brow furrowed. Her expression shifted into a blankly surprised one, along with an open empty-worded mouth. "Steven! What are you doing here?"

Huh, I wasn't expecting that greeting from her. I thought she would be joyfully happy to see me, but no. She did it in a curiously odd way as if I suddenly came out of nowhere like she didn't want me to be here. "What, you don't wanna see me?"

"No, it's just you gave me a surprise. I didn't know you're gonna be here."

"The restaurant's closed for the day because my boss has gone out for a vacation in Nebraska," I told her as I held her hands. "So I decided to visit you here. I've missed you, Connie. I've been trying to reach you, but you weren't answering."

"Oh, about that," she pulled out her hands off of mine. She unzipped her bag and pulled out a brand new phone she's using. "I needed to get a new phone because I accidentally dropped it on top of the building. Plus, I barely use my phone because we were rushing to finish the thesis. Luckily, it's done and already submitted to our professor a few days ago."

"Is that so?" I said, tucking my lips as I looked to the side. "I was just, you know, worried that you haven't responded to my texts and calls."

She apologized. Later on, she gave me her new phone number.

The guy—Charlie—looked at me obliviously, peering behind Connie. Connie took a step back to pull Charlie to introduce himself.

Connie said, "Steven, this is Charlie, my co-partner and one of my friends here in Jayhawk." She turned her head to face Charlie. "Charlie, this is Steven, my boyfriend."

Charlie reached his hand for a handshake. He plastered a soft smile on his face as a warm and formal introduction. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." I reached out my hand as well to shake his hand.

He checked his watch. "Hey, Connie, I have to get something from the library. I'll be right back."

"Okay, see you later."

Charlie left as soon as Connie replied.

Connie and I took a walkabout the Quadrangle, looking at students playing football, reading books in the grass, throwing disks, playing songs with a guitar, and so on. Watching them is so calming, at least for me. I never got to do that when I started working, plus, who am I going to play with? Pretty much, everybody surrounding my house is full of elders ages eighteen and above. It's pretty boring.

Connie opened a topic, "So what was it you wanted to tell me?"

Thankfully, she decided to talk about our last conversation. I've been eager to tell her regarding Pink being separated from me. "Oh, yeah. Glad you reminded me about it. Don't freak out, okay?"

She nodded as her response.

I lifted my shirt and showed her my body. She couldn't believe her eyes to what she witnessed. Her eyes widened along with a gasp and her shoulders slightly lifted.

"Holy cow! Where's your gem?" She asked in a worrying tone.

"Back home."

She held both of my shoulders as we sat down on a bench beside us. "Are you alright? Does it hurt?"