chyp: Alas, the world proves to not be so one-sided after all. I'm glad you picked up on that, friend. I like to think that it makes the story seem more realistic.
"And Matt told him that for every hour he stays on the computer," James said to Sam with a smile, "he'll lose five months of his social life."
"Poor guy," Sam responded, smiling broadly. "Seems like you two pick on him a lot."
"It's all out of love," James said. "Besides, the youngest always gets that kind of treatment."
"So I take it you three are really getting along, then?" Sam asked.
"I think so," James answered. "It's only been a little over a year that we've been brothers, but we've been through a lot."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked suddenly waveringly as something unnoticed by James caught her attention.
"You know," James said, thinking of a way to avoid talking about witchcraft. "Just…stuff."
"Sounds like a big secret to me," Sam said slyly as her attention diverted itself again. "I need to go to the powder room. Will you excuse me for just a second?"
"Don't be too long," James said as he watched her leave for the restroom.
Sam walked away from the table, but her steps gradually quickened to a jog by the time she reached the restroom. Thankfully, no one else had the urge to powder their noses at that time, so after checking the room once more, she hastily turned on her heel, disappearing as she did so.
"It was nice meeting you, Karen," Matthew said as he stood up and excused himself from the table. The bell had just rung, signaling all the men to move to the next table.
Matthew finally felt at ease with the whole situation. After six bell ringings, Matthew found the calm part of himself that had been hiding from him earlier that evening. It was mostly thanks to Ariana, girl number one. Without her even knowing it, she managed to help him feel more comfortable. In fact, hers was the quickest two minutes of the night. But he felt that he should finish the night, especially since round one was still going. He sat down at the next table and choked on air as he saw the person sitting across from him.
"Stephanie?" he asked, remembering how rocky her relationship with Wesley had been a year ago.
"Oh my God, Matt!" Stephanie replied, equally surprised. "I completely wasn't expecting you to be here!"
"Same," he said. "What brings you here tonight?"
"More than likely the same thing that brought you here," Stephanie answered. "Seriously though, I'm just looking for something…new. Oxford's such a small school and you get to know everyone there so quickly, then before you know it everyone's all in your business."
"Right," Matthew agreed. "So how has your night been so far? Find any good ones?"
"A couple," she said. "You?"
"Same," he replied, "but it took me a while to get into it."
"I was the same way!" Stephanie said. "At first I was pretty skeptical, but now I'm comfortable with the whole thing. It's actually kind of fun now that I think about it."
"Yeah," Matthew said. "It's really a good thing to do now that I think about it. These days it's so hard to find people who you can trust. It's nice to see that there are still people who are into the whole old-fashioned way, even though this is hardly old-fashioned. You know what I mean?"
"I understand," she said. "You're right about that. People are so afraid to be themselves that they end up putting on this front, which just makes everything worse when the front wears off, which it usually does."
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Matthew said, smiling and taking her hand, which lay on the table next to the flower decorations. "I wonder…"
The bell suddenly rang and the sounds of shuffling seats once again filled the air, but at that same moment, something else drew Matthew's attention away from the entire evening. Upon contacting Stephanie's hand, his mind instantly filled with images of somewhere else. His head throbbed slightly and he took a quick breath as the premonition came to him without warning. Wesley is talking to three men, of which two are holding someone against his will, as evidenced from his struggling. Wesley raises his hands to freeze, but a light seemingly blocks his power and he is thrown backwards…one man is saying something to him and they all suddenly disappear. Matthew looked uneasily at Stephanie, who smiled in return. Why had this premonition been triggered by Stephanie? Putting his priorities in order, he returned Stephanie's smile with one of his own and hesitantly stepped out of the club without saying another word.
