When I opened my eyes one morning, there were a million pairs of eyes staring back at me. It took me a few moments to piece together the piercing eyes, the frozen stances, and the hands holding electric guitars, but the dull headache from lying on concrete for hours on end told me exactly where I was, even if my worn out brain couldn't figure it out.

I had fallen asleep in the garage again.

I slowly got off of the ground, found my keys, and headed toward the car, but I still felt like I was in a daze. Thankfully, it was still early - the zoo wasn't even open yet. I had some time to get ready for school. I hadn't missed any classes, but I still hurried to the car and quickly drove back to Egmont College.

This had been happening more often lately. It was a combination of Blake-induced insomnia and the fact that the garage was the only place in the world that felt safe anymore. When I didn't have class or D&D, I spent all of my free time in the garage, reading textbooks, writing papers, filling out worksheets, listening to music, and planning out adventures for our D&D group. I told myself that it was only natural that I would forget to go home sometimes.

I ate breakfast in the dining hall by myself, since Aditi had texted me the night before to tell me that there was a meeting for students going abroad during the spring semester that she needed to go to. It was lonely eating by myself, and it reminded me a little bit too much of high school, but I didn't mind too much. It gave me some extra time to proofread my Environmental Policy essay before I had to submit it. I also sent Sydney a quick text, asking how she was doing, but she didn't respond.

I went through my daily routine without thinking too much about it. Nothing interesting happened in Environmental Policy, and Florida Everglades: Ecology and Conservation went similarly. Jonas mostly just gave us time to work on our lab reports, and for once, Joyce and I actually got something done on the report. After class, I talked to Jonas about my paper and his turtles for half an hour or so, which was actually a nice distraction from everything else that was going on, and then I drove back to the zoo.

I took a deep breath as I entered the garage once again. At last, I was at home. I sat down among the posters, comic books, and more character sheets that I'd ever need, and I started working on my homework. I quickly finished it all, so I took the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual, and I worked on the D&D campaign for a while.

Before long, I was piecing all kinds of ideas together, bookmarking my favorite monsters and designing some fascinating NPCs to guide the players through the world that I was creating. Building a new world and making up new adventures was almost as exciting as playing the game itself, and I was soon lost in it. I couldn't stop working on the campaign. It was like the game was consuming me whole.

That was when the door creaked open. I turned around suddenly, terrified of whatever was about to happen. Even the garage isn't safe anymore, I thought to myself as I reached for my copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, fully prepared to defend myself with a seven hundred page book if I needed to.

It turned out that I didn't need it. I set the book down when I saw Joyce's round glasses, soft, wavy hair, and smooth, brown skin. "Joyce?" I said. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to check on you," Joyce said. "You've been kind of quiet in class lately."

That much for true, but it didn't quite explain Joyce's sudden appearance. "How did you know about the garage?" I asked, still a little bit alarmed by everything that had happened.

"I talked to Aditi, and she said that you might be here," Joyce said. She looked around for a moment. "This is a really cool place, by the way."

"Thank you," I said. My heartbeat had slowed, and I was feeling far less nervous now. "My boss said that my coworker and I could have this space, since they're not using the garage for anything right now. Tommy decided not to use his half, so now the whole place is mine. It's a nice job perk."

"Yeah, this is neat," Joyce said, still admiring the garage. "What were you working on when I got here?"

"Dungeons and Dragons," I said. "I'm helping Aditi with the campaign."

"She mentioned that she was the new Dungeon Master, but I'm not quite sure what that means."

"It means that she's in charge of the game," I explained. "She controls everything except for the actions of the other characters." I gave her a confused look. "I thought that you weren't into D&D."

"I'm not, but I know you are," Joyce said, smiling.

I smiled back and then said, "Anyways, I'm taking over as DM after Aditi goes to London."

"I feel like everyone in our class is going abroad next semester except for me."

"Me too! I'm probably going to be the only junior on campus next semester."

"That's not true. We'll have each other."

"You're right," I said as Joyce gave me a small smile.

"You know, I'm glad that you were in my bio class this semester," Joyce said. "I don't know how I would have survived without you."

"You would have been fine," I said.

"No, I wouldn't have," Joyce said. "You did most of the work on the lab report."

"You did a lot of the data collection, and you wrote the entire discussion on your own."

"My point still stands. I'm just really glad that you were my lab partner, and...well, I wish there was a better way to say this, but..."

"Joyce, what are you trying to say?" I asked while she stood there, blushing and stammering.

"I like you a lot, Dani," Joyce said. "I think that we would be good for each other, and I'd love it if you would go out with me sometime."

My heart started beating faster again, but it wasn't because I was afraid. "I'd love to go out with you," I said, already imagining an evening out with Joyce. I wasn't sure what a beautiful girl like her saw in me, but I wasn't about to turn her down, not when the mere thought of her made me smile.

"There's this cute bookstore in town, and I think you'd like it," Joyce said. "Maybe we could go there."

"It's across the street from the zoo, right?" I said. Joyce nodded. "I've never been there, but I'd love to check it out with you."

"Maybe we could go tomorrow."

"Perfect."

"For now, I wouldn't mind hanging around here a little bit longer," Joyce said as she lay down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. I went back to my D&D campaign, but it was impossible to focus when Joyce was there. She took up every neuron in my brain, even though she wasn't doing anything other than admiring the garage. Occasionally, I asked for her feedback. "Should I make the party enter the Blue Dragon's lair or the Red Dragon's?" I asked her at one point.

"What's the difference?" she asked.

"There are slightly different rules for each dragon."

"Is there a gold dragon? Gold is a pretty color."

"Actually, yeah, but gold dragons are Lawful Good."

"You should have a gold dragon helping the party defeat one of the other dragons."

"That's not a bad idea," I said as I jotted it down on a piece of paper. I looked over my notes and then said, "Also, I've got this character who's trying to take over the clergy, and I'm not sure if she should have a love interest or not."

"Give her a cute girlfriend," Joyce said.

"Like you?"

"I'm not that cute. Besides, you'd have to give your character the flaw of Is About To Fail Biology."

"We've been over this! You're not failing!"

Joyce and I both laughed, and in the distance, we could hear the dolphins splashing around. It was a perfect day, and when we finally left the garage, my hand in hers, I felt happier than I had in a long time.

After both of us were done with class the next day, we met in front of Douglas Hall, and we walked to the bookstore together. We got a little bit lost along the way, but neither of us minded. It was just more time for us to chat and crack jokes with each other. After nearly an hour of wandering around Egmont Beach, passing by fancy restaurants and expensive cars, we finally found the bookstore.

Joyce was right. It was the most charming little bookstore that I had ever seen. Joyce immediately headed to the Fiction section, while I stopped for a moment to take it all in. The shop smelled like freshly printed paper, and there were all sorts of nice places to sit down and read. I could see why Joyce loved this place.

I followed Joyce into the Fiction section, and she started talking about all of her favorite and least favorite books, from the ones that she couldn't put down to the ones that she was forced to read for class and couldn't stand. She suggested more books for me than I could possibly read, but I made a mental list of her all-time favorites, and I promised myself that I would read them. I wasn't usually much of a reader, but it was the least that I could do for my favorite girl in the world.

We wandered into the Fantasy section, and I suddenly found myself talking a little bit more. When I did get a chance to stop and read a book, it was almost always an epic fantasy novel, preferably with dragons, fairies, magic, elves, dwarves, wizards, and grand adventures that could never happen in the real world. I had torn my way through The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire, and as Joyce admitted that she hadn't read some of my all-time favorites, I gave her a few recommendations of my own.

As we continued to look around the shop, Joyce spotted a box filled with multicolored dice. She pointed them out to me, and I opened the box and held each die in my head, admiring how beautiful they were. "These are amazing," I said.

"Do you want them?" Joyce asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "I don't know why, but I always seem to lose my ten-sided die."

Joyce took the box and said, "I'll buy this for you."

"You don't have to do that."

"Your birthday's coming up soon, right?" I nodded, and Joyce said, "Consider it an early birthday present."

"Thanks," I said as Joyce entered the checkout line with an armful of books and a wooden box with those gorgeous dice nested inside. Once she had purchased everything that she wanted, Joyce and I found a secluded corner of the bookstore, and we just sat in the comfiest chair in the store and talked for a while, enjoying each other's company. However, words soon became superfluous as she wrapped her arms around me. I leaned into her, and it felt like I was falling in love all over again.

As the sun began to set over Egmont Beach, Joyce and I walked back to campus. We stopped at the Javawocky on the way, and as the sky shifted from purple to black, we approached Wallace Hall, both of us still sipping on our drinks. "I'm really glad that we did this," Joyce said.

"Me too," I said as I took one last sip of my drink before I tossed it in the recycling bin. "We should do it again some time. Maybe you could come to the zoo, and I can introduce you to the dolphins."

"That sounds amazing," Joyce said. All of a sudden, she stood on her tiptoes and gave me a quick, gentle kiss, and for a moment, everything felt like it was going to be okay. I could forget about my family and the dolphins and Blake, because I had Joyce Nielsen.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Dani," she said, and before I could say anything else, she was gone. I was frozen for a moment, still spellbound by the feeling of her kiss. Eventually, I found the energy to go inside and return to my dorm room, but Joyce was still on my mind.

The next day, Joyce and I finally submitted our lab report. I wasn't sure what Jonas would think of it, but we had done our best, and in my opinion, the paper had turned out well. It made some interesting points about how different fish species affected each other, but I was really banking on Jonas giving me extra points for referencing Star Trek in a scientific paper.

"We should celebrate now that the paper's submitted," Joyce said after class.

"I think so too," I said. "Do you want to head to the zoo?"

"Sure," she said, and the two of us started walking toward the parking lot. "I'm so glad that we're finally done with the lab report. You wouldn't believe the stuff that I have to write for my English class."

"Yeah, that must be rough."

"I have two essays due in the next month. One of them is about Pride and Prejudice, so that should be fun. It has one of my favorite quotes in it."

"What's your favorite quote?" I asked.

"'In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you,'" Joyce said with a smile. "Say what you will about Jane Austen, but her books have some of the very best love confessions out there."

"That's so sweet," I said.

"It's how I feel about you," Joyce said. As I held her hand in mine, she added, "Emma has a good one too. 'If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.'"

"Do you have any more?" I said. My heart felt like it was about to burst with delight, with Joyce's words singing in the air.

"I don't just memorize Jane Austen novels!" Joyce exclaimed.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Okay, sometimes I do when I get really bored, but that's only because Jane Austen is the greatest person who ever lived." She sighed and then said, "There's one more. It's from Persuasion. 'I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own... I have loved none but you.'"

I smiled and then said, "I don't think I've loved anyone but you either, Joyce."

She kissed me one last time just before she climbed into the passenger seat of my car, and we headed toward the Egmont Zoo. When we got there, we wandered through the zoo, admiring the elephants, monkeys, lions, birds, bears, and zebras. Finally, we got to the dolphin exhibit, and I avoided the crowds of people pressed up against the glass as we made our way to the back of the exhibit.

Spock and Kirk were waiting in the pool in the back, taking a break from entertaining visitors. As usual, Spock was floating at the top of the water, and Kirk was deep underwater, flinging himself at the pool wall. I whistled, and both of them swam towards me, sending out irritated clicks and chirps as they approached Joyce and I. "Hey there," I said to the dolphins, and then I turned to Joyce. "Joyce, these are two of our dolphins, Kirk and Spock."

"Which one's which?" Joyce whispered to me.

"Kirk's larger, and his head is shaped differently from Spock's," I explained.

"They look the same to me."

"It might just be because I work here. I see these two every day. Isn't that right?"

Kirk and Spock both chirped simultaneously.

"Are you some kind of dolphin whisperer or something?" Joyce said. "It's like you're talking to them."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they've figured out what I'm saying. They're pretty smart."

Kirk suddenly dove down to the bottom and then swam into the other pool, while Spock floated in place. He didn't seem particularly interested in what Joyce and I were saying.

"Do you need anything, Spock?" I asked.

He didn't respond, but as Spock floated listlessly, McCoy bounded into the pool. When she approached Joyce and I, she let out a long series of sharp, high-pitched noises.

"Joyce, this is McCoy. She spends a little bit more time with the visitors than the other two dolphins, so I doubt that she'll be here long," I said. "McCoy, this is my girlfriend, Joyce."

"Why is she named McCoy?" Joyce asked. "I thought that McCoy was a man on the show."

"The keepers at her last zoo thought that she was male," I explained.

Joyce nodded and then said, "It's neat that you get to hang out with these dolphins all the time. They seem cool."

"They are cool," I said. "Do you want to try playing with them?"

"Sure," Joyce said. I went into the supply closet, found a beach ball, and then tossed it to McCoy. She bounced it off of her snout and passed it to Joyce, who caught it and passed it back to McCoy.

She had a huge smile on her face, and I knew that she loved the dolphins almost as much as I did.

That night, I fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of the way that Joyce had smiled when she was playing with the dolphins and the way that she had passionately kissed me afterwards. It felt like nothing could possibly go wrong, not when I had Joyce by my side.

When I woke up the next morning, there was a piece of paper waiting on my dresser, right where the maneki neko had once been. I got out of bed, and before I did anything else, I shuffled over to the dresser and read the note.

I know about your little girlfriend. If you don't come back to the band, she'll be next.

Love,

Blake

I crumpled up the note and tossed it in the recycling, but my mind was racing. How did Blake know about Joyce? What would he do to her? I hurried through my morning routine, trying to figure out how to stop Blake. I didn't care what he did to me, but I couldn't let him hurt Joyce.

I didn't know what to do yet, so I went through my day, always on the lookout for a red Mazda or a pair of shutter shades. I never saw Blake though, so by the time I got to Jonas' class, I assumed that it was just an empty threat.

I was running a little bit late, so I didn't get a chance to talk to Joyce before class. We spent the class period reviewing for our final exam, which didn't seem like it would be too difficult, but I was nervous anyways. I had tests or papers coming up for all of my classes, along with work, D&D, and figuring out what Blake was up to. It was all too much.

After class, Joyce came up to me and said, "You won't believe what happened this morning."

"What happened?" I said, already feeling anxious, but I told myself there was nothing to worry about. Joyce was probably just going to tell me a funny story, something that had nothing to do with Blake and his note.

"I went to breakfast, and then when I left the dining hall, there was this weird guy standing by the door," Joyce said. "He was wearing this hideous neon jacket, and he had this awful-looking pink haircut. The weirdest part was that he was wearing shutter shades. I thought those went out of style years ago!"

I tried to laugh, but it came out wrong. "Yeah, that's really weird."

"It gets worse," Joyce said. "He started following me. I walked in circles all around campus, but he wouldn't stop. It started freaking me out, and I was about to call Campus Safety, but eventually, I just went into the instrumental storage room in the GUAC, and he didn't have the code, so he couldn't follow me there."

"What happened next?"

"I don't know. I called Campus Safety after Musicology was over, and they said that they would get back to me, but I haven't heard back yet."

I didn't know what to do. Clearly, Blake's note was more than just an empty threat, and even if Joyce didn't quite understand who Blake was or what he was doing, I did. I wanted to hold her, to save her from whatever was up Blake's neon-colored sleeve, but I couldn't protect her from everything.

Joyce trusted me enough to tell me about her stalker, and I wished that I could do the same for her. I wished that I had the guts to let everything spill out and tell her about everything that had happened during my junior year in high school, but I was the same girl who had scoured my Twitter page before following Joyce, wiping away any evidence that I had ever been in the Love Martyrs. I was afraid of what she might think of me if I told her the truth, so I kept my secrets.

"I'm sure it will all work out," I finally said to Joyce. "Campus Safety is usually pretty good about handling things like this."

Joyce shrugged and then said, "He didn't seem particularly dangerous, but he did creep me out."

"He sounds creepy," I said. "I mean, he was wearing shutter shades! Who still thinks those are fashionable?"

Joyce laughed, and for a moment, everything seemed like it was going to be okay. However, when she said that she needed to go to the library and write a paper for her English class, leaving me all alone, I realized that I needed to do something about Blake. I took my phone out of my pocket, found Blake in my contacts, and sent him a text message. I didn't know how long it had been since I had last texted him, but it must have been years. "I'm not joining the Love Martyrs again," I wrote.

A few seconds later, Blake texted me back. "You'll change your mind," he wrote, followed by a smiley face.

I scowled and put my phone back into my pocket, feeling hopeless as I left the Rhodes Center. I walked around the Egmont Panther and then headed for the parking lot. Once I was in my car, I cranked up the music until I couldn't hear myself think, and then I drove to the Egmont Zoo and walked past every animal until I made it into the garage.

I spent hours on end plotting and planning, coming up with all kinds of crazy adventures for my D&D group. I played some of my favorite songs through the speakers that I had set up, and sometimes, I sang along. In the distance, I heard the dolphins going about their day, unaware of what was going on around them. However, I knew that no matter what Blake did, he couldn't hurt me here, in the only place where I belonged.