College life helped Sarah get through the days and weeks without thinking about him too much. But the weekends were different. Jareth had apparently made it his mission to get involved with every female who wanted to get involved with him. And there were quite a few. He was in high demand, and the fact that he was a good-looking man made it a lot easier for him.
Whenever he noticed that Sarah saw him with a girl, he was happy. He would smile to himself and try to convince himself that he didn't care. He had fun with all the flirtations and enjoyed the attention of the female sex.
Sarah, on the other hand, noticed that something was different. She was jealous. Or was she just disgusted by the way he acted and used his charm and charisma to get what he wanted? She thought about it a lot and finally realized that she was actually jealous. But why, she couldn't quite figure out. Had she fallen in love with him? Maybe she had already been then, but hadn't fully understood it due to a lack of experience?
Then it would make sense that he had appeared in her dreams so often. They weren't dreams, as you might think now. She wasn't prudish or anything. Not at all. But that had never been something she had associated with Jareth.
But now, in college life, she saw him in a completely different light. She saw how good he looked. She saw his mismatched eyes and when he laughed it was almost like the ringing of bells. She also perceived his body differently. He was tall and very slim, had long fingers (which she always found very attractive in men) and he looked very well trained for his slender build.
Sarah sometimes caught herself just staring at him and every now and then he caught her doing it too. At first he found it very amusing and over time he noticed things he didn't want to notice.
One evening the common room was full of people and Jareth looked around the room. He could feel a pair of eyes resting on him. He turned around abruptly and looked into the most beautiful pair of green eyes. Sarah opened her eyes wide and quickly turned away.
But instead of being amused, he noticed his heart rate doubling. 'No,' he thought. ''No. That can't be. That mustn't be.'
He took a few deep breaths and managed to calm his pulse. But when he turned to Sarah again, it started beating faster again. He didn't understand. He had carefully packed all of that in a Box and locked it away. Why hadn't he forgotten that feeling a long time ago?
Before he could think about it any more, Amber came running.
"Jareth, my love," she chimed and he turned to her. Her attention was enough to distract him from his inner conflicts. His thoughts were now elsewhere, which pleased him greatly.
It was a welcome moment of escape. He didn't want to have to experience everything all over again – to have his heart broken again. Nobody could hurt him here. If one of his acquaintances didn't want him any more, there were plenty of others who did. He had a choice.
After a while, Jareth and Amber had retreated to a corner of the common room and were only occupied with each other.
"Jareth! What are you doing? That's not okay!" Amber kept complaining in mock horror, followed by a horrible giggle. Jareth seemed to like that, and it was easier to concentrate on this fleeting distraction than to deal with his own confusing thoughts.
Sarah couldn't take it any more.
"Deb, I'm going to the bathroom," she said curtly and disappeared behind the bathroom door.
When she got there, she burst into tears. She didn't understand anything any more. Did he do that just to get back at her for turning him down back then? Did he not realize that she was too young to understand his advances? She hated him for that.
"That's not fair," she cried into a towel. She hadn't said that sentence in a long time.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Omg. That can't be him, can it?
"Sar?" Debbie's worried voice rang out from outside. "Is everything okay in there? Can I come in?"
"Hm-Hm." Those were the only sounds Sarah could make. The door opened and Debbie stepped into the bathroom.
In front of her she saw a completely tearful Sarah. Debbie got down on her knees and hugged her best friend.
"Is it because of Jareth?" she wanted to know. Sarah just nodded and a new wave of tears reached her.
"I...don't...know...what...this...is...supposed...to...mean" she sobbed.
Debbie just nodded and handed Sarah a tissue. Sarah blew her nose and continued.
"You remember what I told you? Back then," Sarah asked her in a hoarse voice?
Debbie answered: "You mean Jareth, his strange labyrinth and how you had to save Toby?"
Sarah nodded and added: "And the things he said to me before I defeated him? The part about 'and I will be your slave.'" She had to pull herself together so that she didn't start crying again.
"It was only much later that I understood what he was actually trying to tell me. What he wanted from me. I don't know if my answer would have been different if I had understood it back then."
She looked in the mirror and dabbed her eyes with a fresh tissue.
"Oh Sarah," Debbie spread her arms and the two friends hugged each other tightly.
"Are you feeling better? Jareth and Amber left ten minutes ago, by the way. So the danger is over for now." She smiled at Sarah and they left the bathroom together.
They didn't stay in the common room for long because they were getting tired. But Sarah's thoughts lingered, for a long time, on what she had felt. Her head was a jumble of feelings and questions.
