Hello, Sarah.
The stinking words were plastered across the projector screen when she crept quietly (and late) into her twelve o'clock literature class. The lecture hall was small, but filled almost to the maximum capacity with students and her teacher Professor Martin. Said teacher was standing just beside the door, but partially concealed by the garbage can. Some college professors do not have the time to make embarrassing slideshows with greetings for their late students; many would think that was a thankless task. But no, not Professor Martin. No, he was already laughing when Sarah tip-toed in, coffee in a ceramic mug evidence of her late morning.
Ordinarily Sarah would laugh this off, but today was different. She was not having anything from anyone. When she had woken up in the morning it was with a naked male in her bed, one she did not remember inviting there. Her first response was, of course, to scream, thereby waking her bed-mate and her roommate in the bed above her. Winnie had jumped out of her bunk faster than a solider and Sarah tore free of her sheets so fast she ripped them.
"What's going on!?" Winnie, full name Winnifred Jones, was wearing her boyfriend's t-shirt and almost nothing else. She had two fists up and was waving them everywhere about her face, her eyes covered by waves of tangled, honey-colored hair. Sarah had landed on her butt when she sprang out of bed, dressed similarly to Winnie, in a t-shirt and underwear.
The Goblin King in Sarah's bed however seemed quite naked. But the girls would not have this confirmed for them until he rolled over in waking up and mooned them.
"What the hell!?" Sarah stood up, almost ripping out hair from her head when she pulled it out of her face.
"Who are you!" Winnie screamed.
The king, looking quite bitter about being woken up, frowned at them. He pulled himself up, careful to keep Sarah's torn sheets over his precious crystals, and smiled at them.
"Good morning." He said.
"Sarah!" Winnie hollered at her. "Sarah! Sarah!"
But Sarah could do nothing but stare. Her mind was in some strange metamorphosis of epiphany: she had not figured out how or why the king was in her bed, but she knew one thing, he was in deep goblin crap with her now.
"Sar-uh!" Winnie poked her stomach, still wild with confusion.
"Sorry, oh crap," Sarah blushed. "I'm sorry, Win. This is… Jar..eth." She looked at the king as her voice tumbled away from her.
"Pleased to meet you." The naked king said.
Winnie stared.
"Can I ask you for a minute alone with Jar.. Jareth, Win?" Sarah asked awkwardly.
Her roommate stopped staring and nodded at her. She fumbled for the door and nearly forgot to throw on a pair of pants, thankfully on the floor, before stumbling away.
Once alone Sarah collapsed to the floor again.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She barked.
"You wished me here, darling." He lay back down, looking quite at home next to her stuffed bear.
"No way in hell would I do that!" She charged back. Repulsed with the audacity of him she flushed in rage and turned her face away violently.
"Of course you did, or else I would not be here." He cradled his head with his hands and leaned back.
"Are you wearing glitter in your armpit?" She felt like sniggering at him, the hair under his arm was shimmering, covered in frothy sparkles.
"I am the Goblin King, glitter accumulates."
"Can you leave?" She asked.
"You wished me here!" He laughed. "I expected you to have something for me to do."
"You were awake when you came here…"
"Yes, and arrived quite ready to grant you a wish." He said, sounding grumpy. "But when I saw you were asleep I decided to wait for you."
"In my bed!"
"You looked cozy." He smiled warmly.
Sarah was ready to smack him, but she realized, with a jolt, that the sun was shining too brightly in her western facing window. It was close to noon.
"Damnit! I have class!" She jumped to her feet and began bustling. She tore pants up from the laundry pile, a new shirt from her closet and put her hair up in a ponytail. All this the king watched, pupils dilating in delight.
She spun around violently while her coffee brewed loudly and pointed a finger at him. "You wait here until I get out of class!"
He put his hands up in surrender.
"And put some clothes on." She grumbled, spilling coffee in her mug and snatching up her bag. She dashed away and ran off to class, grumbling the entire way. She thought that going to class might resolve some of the tension she was feeling after her horrible morning. After the embarrassment of having her name across the board though, she was no longer certain that the day could get any better.
Thank god that it was Friday, and her only class was this: literature of the 18th century. Once she had had her fill of this and it was finally one fifty she left with a dread in her heart for what waited for her at her dorm. Breathing slowly she unlocked the door to her small room and was about to holler at Jareth to leave when she came upon a bizarre scene.
Winnie, sitting on her chair pulled up to the edge of Sarah's bed where she was casually conversing with the Goblin King… Who was still naked as a newborn goblin and sprawled comfortably over her bed pillows. Sitting on his stomach was Sarah's own green bowl, filled with brightly colored cereal and milk. Her spoon was being twirled delicately between his tan fingers.
"Sarah!" Winnie smiled wide and waved eagerly at her friend.
Sarah's own hand came up slowly and the fingers wiggled in a confused response. Her roommate turned back to Jareth and smiled.
As Sarah dropped her bag and sagged into her own chair, sighing deeply. She should have remembered her roommate, the ever bubbly extrovert, who could befriend a doormat if she wanted. In her haste to get to class she had forgotten to warn Winnie off, so the girl had wandered back to their room.
"I made your boyfriend some cereal!" She giggled. "Why didn't you tell me you were dating someone!?"
"Because I'm not." Sarah rubbed her face with her hands, thankful she hadn't put on any makeup that morning.
"I would like to say we are informally engaged." Jareth corrected and took a loud bite of his breakfast.
"That makes sense." Winnie said. "She never directly said no."
Sarah's eyes widened in disbelief. She felt her body stiffen in some horrible mixture of horror and anger.
"What are you talking about?"
"I cannot believe, precious, how secretive you are about your life," Jareth said. "Luckily, Winnie quite understands circumstances of this nature."
"What?"
Winnie interrupted. "Like, the Underground and stuff. Jerry here told me all about how you wished your brother away and everything and it makes sense and all. I still can't believe that you didn't accept his offer straight out!" The blonde girl smiled widely.
Sarah took a solid five minutes to register everything that had been said. And by the time she had figured out what had been said, realized that Winnie was now privy to her deepest secret and figured out why Jareth was really here, the only word that could come out of her mouth was:
"Jerry."
Jareth smiled that crooked grin at her, baring his wicked teeth and scooping up another spoonful of cereal. Winnie smiled encouragingly at her.
"Well?"
"Well… what?" Sarah moaned a little.
Winnie whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. "Isn't he the mysterious man you said you loved when you were fourteen?"
Sarah felt her cheeks turn red and her eyes glaze over a little in anger and embarrassment.
"Loved?" Jareth smiled even wider and set the now empty cereal bowl on the floor with a gentle lean.
"Winnifred Hayley Jones." Sarah's voice was low and her heart was beating wildly in her ears.
"Yes?" For the first time that day Winnie paled a little in fear.
"You better start running."
It was five o'clock that evening when Jareth was finally clothed, Winnie was finally quiet and Sarah was finally out of her murderous mood. The trio was all assembled in the girl's dorm room, each in different corners, and was quietly arguing.
Winnie was trying to convince Sarah to go out with Jareth for dinner, to which Jareth was arguing in agreement, while poor Sarah, outnumbered, was trying to persuade Jareth back to the Underground.
"I swear I did not wish you here!"
"You did, or else I would not be here."
"You should go to Palmers for dinner! I have a coupon!"
And so on, until Sarah found herself sitting at her desk while Winnie braided her hair in preparation for the dinner date at Palmers Bar and Grill. The green eyed girl slumped in her chair and stared bleakly at her hands in her lap.
"Please try to have fun," Her roommate said. "He seems nice."
"He stole my brother and made me solve a giant maze to find him!"
"He grants you your wishes."
"He is old."
"He is immortal."
"He is a fairy king who rules over a kingdom of Fae freaks!"
"He has a nice ass."
"He plays with crystal balls."
"Okay, come on Sarah!" Winnie tied off the end of the braid. "He showed up in the middle of the night when you called his name."
"You heard me?" Sarah turned pink.
"I hear you every night…" Winnie turned her face away. "I know you aren't really happy."
Sarah winced.
"Sarah," Winnie sighed. "I've known you since we were a pair of grubby freshmen just learning how to drink coffee. And I have known the whole time that you wanted something better than this liberal arts school from hell."
Sarah laughed in spite of herself. The two girls shared smiles.
"Now," Winnie took her shoulders in her hands. "You will go out with this man; you will forget your bumpy past with him and admit to yourself that you have a thing for him. I have never seen anyone who looks at you like that. Now, do you need protection?"
"Winnie, shut up." Sarah hugged her roommate and rolled her eyes. She was sad to realize how well Winnie knew her, and embarrassed that she had been heard crying in the night. She peered at her quietly, wondering now for the first time how perceptive this girl with the shiny, gold hair was.
And as annoying as Winnie was, Sarah knew she was right. Goblin King or not, Sarah was not happy here. A tap at the door sent a chill up her spine, the physical confirmation of her thrill. Smoothing her pale yellow dress one last time, she adjusted the bright smile on her face into a dreadful frown.
She opened the door and gave Jareth a stern look.
"I'm not making any promises," She said. "I make no guarantee that I will go home with you tonight or Underground or whatever. I am not calling you Jerry, and no one else is ever going to again. Now, you better have some mortal cash on you, because I am not paying for food."
Jareth held his arm out for her to take. "Of course, precious."
He smiled at her in his kingly way and the two took their first steps together into the bright evening.
Let me know what you think! This was a fun little story that I day dreamed up one day when I was late for class. This is currently intended to just be a one-shot, but... I make no promises ;)