A few weeks pass and Octavia and I are settling in to college life. I haven't seen John again since that first week. Octavia brought me over to her house again and we hung out with Bellamy a few times, and I hoped a little that John might be there but he wasn't. I don't even know why I wanted to see him again. The two times we met he just seemed like he was the type of person that doesn't judge easily. Most people make me nervous, but Murphy makes me calm.

"Emoriiiiii!" Octavia calls when she walks into our room causing me too look up from my desk.

"Octaviaaaa!" I mock her a little.

She plops down on my bed. "You're always in our room, you need to get out and meet some more people."

I shrug, "I'm just not great around people. I've never had a lot of friends."

"Well we are in college now, it's time to start."

"Any chance I'm gonna get out of this?"

"Not even a teeny chance,"

"What did you have in mind exactly?" I ask her hesitantly.

"Well…I may have gotten you a date…" She cringes, waiting for the reaction she knows I'm going to give her.

I get up from my desk chair nearly knocking it over. "WHAT?! A date? Octavia you can't just set people up on dates without their permission!" I yell louder than I mean to.

"I'm sorry okay. It's just I know you get along really well with Harper and Jasper and Monty and they're your friends too now. But you never really go out or hang out with anyone new, so I thought a date would be a good way to get to know someone else."

"You're making it sound like you've set me up with some random guy, do you even know him? What if he's a murderer?"

She rolls her eyes, "Emori he's not a murderer…wait does that mean you're agreeing to go?" She is way too excited about this.

I sigh, "Ugh do I really have a choice? I suppose if you already told him I would go it would be quite rude to cancel."

"Yay! He'll be here in an hour, I'll help you pick something to wear." She hops up off my bed and starts to pick through my closet.

"An hour? Thanks for the notice."

"Well, I know you're sort of shy with other people and I didn't want to give you time to back out, because I know you'll have fun."

"So who is this guy anyway?"

"He's the TA for my bio class. His names Jackson. He's going to become a doctor." She tells me throwing clothes all over my bed.

Sounds impressive. Okay, maybe a date isn't that bad of an idea. I'll wear my gloves the whole time so there will be nothing for him to be weirded out by. Octavia makes going on dates sound like a lot of fun, I just worry that guys won't want to go out with me.

"Here, I think you should wear this. I've never seen you wear it." She holds up a dress I've never worn.

"That's why it was in the back of the closet. I don't really like dresses. My moms bought that for me." It's a plain red cotton dress, that falls just below my knees. She's picked out a small black jacket to go with it.

"And I'm sure they'd love to know you wore it on a date. Now put it on, and then I'll do your hair."

30 minutes later Octavia has curled my hair, which I'm not a big fan of but she thinks it's cute. She says he will be here any minute.

"Wait, are you going to wear your gloves on the date?" She asks me.

I look down at my hands. What do I say? Ugh, think, think…"Uh yeah I um have to. I have a skin condition." I am such a terrible liar but I'm hoping she doesn't see through that and doesn't press it further.

The door knock saves me from her inquiry. Octavia jumps up and opens the door. "Hi Jackson! This is Emori." She gestures to me.

"Hey, how are you?" he asks not moving from the door frame.

"Hi, I'm good thanks."

"Okay, go have fun!" Octavia says and pushes me towards the door.

Jackson and I walk downstairs and out of the dorm building. He leads me over to where his car is parked and we get in.

I feel really awkward and don't know what to say. I haven't been on many dates. "So, what do you wanna do?" I ask, unsure how much of this date he has planned out.

"Do you wanna just get something to eat? I've been grading papers all afternoon and I didn't have a chance for dinner."

"Sure, that sounds good. Octavia told me you're a TA?"

He nods and gives me a quick glance from the driver's seat, "Yeah, she's in my class. I'm learning a little bit about teaching and I'm studying to be a doctor."

"That sounds wonderful, my mom is a doctor actually."

"Oh yeah? What kind?"

"Neurologist."

"Cool, I'm thinking cardiology. Have you decided what you want to study?"

"Oh well I'm an anthropology major. I'm not sure what I want to do with that yet though."

"Sounds good."

We stay quiet for a couple minutes and I start to feel weird about the silence, like I should say something. We pull into a restaurant after another moment though. I'm hoping there are no more awkward silences while we're eating.

Jackson shuts off the car and faces me, "Is this alright? It's my favorite place."

It's a small cute restaurant, nothing fancy. "Yeah it's great. I haven't been to many places around here yet."

"C'mon you'll like this place." He says with a smile and we both get out of the car and go inside.

We sit at a table in the corner of the restaurant. It's a cute place. Jackson is pretty cute too. I've only had one boyfriend so I guess I don't know what guys I like. He seems really nice though. Maybe he wouldn't mind my hand. He hasn't stared at my birthmark…doesn't seem phased by it like most people. A waitress comes over and we order.

"So Octavia told me a little bit about you Emori. That's an interesting name by the way."

"Thanks, um I like it. My birth parents picked it out. It means hardworking leader, but I wouldn't say that describes me. I'm a follower, not a leader."

"Eh I bet you could be a leader if you wanted to be. Are you adopted? You said birth parents…"

"Yeah I am." I don't want to elaborate on that. I probably shouldn't have said birth parents.

The waitress brings our food and we continue to talk and tell each other about ourselves. I learn he's from Chicago, his mom was a doctor. She died young and he always wanted to become a doctor like her. I thought that was really sweet.

I get up from the table, "I have to use the bathroom, I'll be right back."

I go in and thankfully no one is in there. I need a minute to think by myself. I look in the mirror at my hair Octavia did, it's actually cute. The date is going okay, he seems like a nice enough guy. But what happens when the gloves literally, come off. He's nice, but I think I see him as more of a friend than a romantic interest.

"You look really nice." A voice startles me making me jump. I didn't hear anyone come in.

I turn towards the door to see who it is. "Murphy? Oh geez you scared me. And this is the ladies room you know."

He raises one eyebrow. I never understood how people did that. "I don't get a 'thank you'?"

I'm confused, "What?"

He steps closer to me, "I said you look really nice." Did he just blush? He doesn't seem like the shy type. I got the impression at our last meetings that he's the opposite of shy.

I also blush at the compliment. It's not often anyone says that, and if they do its one of my moms. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he's looking at me with intense eyes. I like it, but it also makes me uncomfortable. He has nice eyes, I'd guess they're hard to resist for most girls. "What are you doing here anyway? I haven't seen you around." Was he looking? Nah, he wouldn't be looking around for me.

"Octavia set me up on a date." I say shyly.

"Ouch."

"Ouch?"

He smirks, "Yeah, I mean you probably didn't want to come on this date. Octavia is the kind of person that would set you up without asking first."

"You pretty much got it spot on there. I know she was trying to be nice though. I appreciate that."

"Well, I gotta get out of here. Have fun on your date." He turns to leave. As he opens the door to walk out he turns his head around and says, "Ya know if I took you out I'd take you to a place a lot nicer than this…and you wouldn't have to wear those stupid gloves around me."

I just stand there with my mouth open, shocked by his forward comment as he disappears behind the door. I wait a second and go back out to the table. Jackson and I talk some more and finish eating and then he drives me back to the dorm.

For the rest of the night I'm thinking more about my five minute conversation in the bathroom with Murphy, than the entire date with Jackson.