Stephen Dene slid his hands under his glasses and rubbed his face tiredly. His eyes had begun to hurt from the white light of his computer screen compared to the darkness around him. He checked the time in the corner of his laptop. Almost three in the morning. He sighed and continued to scroll through twitter. Of course he did not have an account for himself; he was only doing research.
He came across a picture he found almost embarrassed to look at, but he clicked on it anyway. She had posted this for whatever reason so hopefully it could give him some sort of insight. Her hair was a bit shorter, and she had much less clothing on than she did days earlier when he met her. This had been taken in October of the year prior, and the caption said "Voodoo Fest with only the best!" On her head was a tiara of flowers. She was wearing what looked like some sort of lacy bra and ripped jean shorts. A tall, tan boy had his arm around her naked waist and a girl with beautiful dark skin had an arm over her shoulders. This girl he recognized from many other photos she'd been featured in. On Twitter, Aurora Deveaux's screen name was RoryDeBest. There she was the opposite of how she had appeared to him. Stephen thought she was pale with dark hair when he met her. In the pictures, her skin was darker and her hair was lighter.
He clicked another tab that was open. On Facebook she was a bit more conservative, most likely, he thought, because her parents were friends with her on here. On here, her name was just Rory Deveaux and she was clothed completely in all of her pictures, unless they were taken at the beach. They did not seem to have uniforms at her school in Louisiana. There weren't only pictures including her friends, but her family as well; many of them were of her and her grandmother, although the woman seemed too young.
Among these two sites, Stephen had been researching many of Aurora's other social networks. He decided to take a break from stalking her. Callum had only been teasing Stephen when he had said that, but now Stephen could not get that thought out of his mind, which was disturbing. He did not know what he had been expecting of Aurora Deveaux to be like, but it was most certainly nothing like this. In every picture, though, he could not help but pay close attention to her eyes. The ones this false Ripper wanted to pluck out. If it had not been for that one statement, Stephen would most likely not have had to worry about Aurora this much.
"You still up, yeah?" He looked up to find Boo standing in his doorway. He pulled his sheets up. Though he was in a t-shirt and boxer shorts, he felt exposed. "Alright?"
"Yeah," he said, watching her come over and sit beside him on his bed. From what he'd gathered, she wasn't much one for personal space. "Why are you up?"
Boo shrugged. "Couch isn't comfy."
"I'm sorry," he sighed. "Soon you'll at least have your own bed, even if you don't have much privacy."
"That's fine. I'm not really used to having lots of privacy anyway. Lots of family. Little house. Is this her?" Boo reached over and pulled the computer off of Stephen's lap. Stephen nodded. "She seems fun. Really pretty." Stephen was unsure what to say, although he agreed with her sentiment. He just nodded again as he looked through the pictures with Boo. Boo eyed him. "Just wonderin'... You got a girlfriend?"
Her question caught him off guard. "Um… No."
"You ever had one?"
His brow practically collapsed on itself. "Technically. If you count primary."
Boo smiled. "I don't. You ever been kissed then? On the lips? With tongue?"
His face felt hot and he was just glad his room was dark. "Why are you asking me this?"
"Trying to get a feel for you. I got my first kiss when I was 13. It was alright. He was 16. Had braces though, and was kind of sloppy. Pretty sure I was in love, but it didn't work out. Few weeks later saw him getting off with some girl on the Tube." Stephen stared as Boo laughed. "I got over it. The next relationship went much smoother. So anyway, you never really kissed anyone?"
She had caught him off guard. Stephen could not stop himself from saying, "I didn't say that. I've never really been in a relationship is what I said."
"Ohh, Stephen's a player," Boo laughed.
He adjusted his glasses, ending the conversation. "When you meet her, you can't call her Rory, which seems to be what she prefers. You are not supposed to know anything about her so just call her Aurora. Like she'll call you Bhuvana."
Boo absorbed this, but decided to continue on with what she was saying. "And a gentleman, too. Won't kiss and tell."
Stephen sighed and took back his laptop. Boo took this as her cue and hopped off his bed. "Boo," he said just as she reached the door. "You can do this. You're a people person. If anyone of us can get close to her, you can."
Boo bit her lip and shut his door. She could not tell just yet, but she thought maybe Stephen was starting to warm up to the idea of letting people in. He just needed a little push.
AN: Hello my lovely friends. I have not posted anything on here in a while, and for that, I am sorry. I cannot promise this will not happen again. Encouragement would help so PLEASE REVIEW. I will try to work on something for OIFAN and ETS also. Love ya! (p.s. god I would love to see someone make a trailer for Name of the Star. I would esp like to act in it but mostly I'd just love to see it. I love book trailers.)