"Where are you taking me?" I asked confusedly as I followed Jason down the sidewalks of the nice suburban part of town. It was a friendly looking neighborhood, but I couldn't figure out what we were doing there.

"To a friend's," Jason said, his gaze lazily gliding over the area in front of us as he stuck his hands in the pockets of his dark grey jeans.

I turned my head to look at him, briefly admiring the way his leather jacket hugged his torso. I hugged my arms self consciously as I looked away. He pulled off the bad boy look so well, and here I was in a plain sweater and blue jeans. I'd never really cared how I looked before, but now... I don't know. 

Jason stopped abruptly in front of a small white gate. He opened up the mailbox that was directly beside him and started sifting through the handful of letters.

I furrowed my brow in confusion as I watched him shift a few to the bottom before he seemed to remember I was there. 

He glanced at me briefly before he reached over the gate and unlatched it from the inside, pushing it open as he gestured for me to follow him.

We walked up a small cobblestone path that lead to the front porch of a quaint, but cute house. The siding was a sky blue, and was accented nicely by the white trim around the door and windows.

I wondered what kind of friend Jason could have, but somehow, the appearance of the house itself made me feel more at ease about meeting whoever it was. 

The front steps creaked as we walked up to the door, and with three loud knocks, Jason called out "Marilyn!" before opening up the door and walking inside.

I followed cautiously behind him, curiously taking in the home as we passed through. It was very small, kind of cramped, but it still felt homey.

"Is that you, Jason?" a frail voice that I wasn't expecting called from further in the house.

"Yeah," he called, following the voice into the living room where a small elderly woman sat in a small, colorful recliner. "And I brought a friend with me."

"You have friends?" she asked with a small smile, her head angling toward us as she spoke, but she was looking at something the wall.

"No need to be so rude about it," he scoffed, and I noticed he seemed to be adjusting his tone more consciously as he spoke. "Anyway, this is Cole. Cole, this is Marilyn."

"Hi," I said softly, waving my hand. 

"Come closer, Deary," Marilyn held her hand out, and I looked at Jason.

Placing a hand on my back, he urged me to get closer, and I soon found my hand in the elderly woman's. I had to crouch a bit, since her chair was kind of low.

"How old are you?" she asked as her other hand came forward and rested on the side of my face.

"Fifteen," I said with uncertainty as I watched her face. Her eyes were on me, but they didn't seem like they saw me. 

Then it hit me, and I nearly face palmed at my stupidity. She was blind. 

"I'm only fifty two," she winked coyly at me as she released me. I smiled at her, chuckling slightly as she was obviously in her eighties or nineties.  "It's lovely to meet you, Cole."

"It's lovely to meet you too, ma'am."

Jason stepped forward, grabbing Marilyn's hand as he crouched beside her.

"I grabbed your mail," he told her. "Your check came in, and it looks like some of your appointments need to be scheduled." 

"Thank you, Dear," she smiled and placed her hand on top of Jason's. "Will you read them for me?" 

"Of course," he said with a smile, then turned to me. "Cole, could you get Marilyn some water from the kitchen? She needs to take her afternoon pills."

"Yeah," I said, blinking as those electric blue eyes finally released me from his spell. I turned and walked back through the house, turning at the doorway I figured led to the kitchen. I found it easily, looking through a few cupboards before I found a glass. After filling it up with water, I returned to the living room and gently handed it to Marilyn.

Jason had just finished reading her mail to her and stood up.

"I'll be right back," he said as he disappeared down the hallway.

I sat awkwardly on the floral patterned love seat beside Marilyn's chair, waiting for Jason to return.

"So how long have you two been dating?" Marilyn asked out of nowhere.

My face lit up scarlet as I struggled to make words. "What? I- we're not-" 

"Relax, sweetie," she chuckled. "I may be blind but I can see how he looks at you."

My face went redder as I snapped my mouth shut, sure that if I said anything, it would only make it worse.

Just then, Jason returned, took one look at me and then sighed, "Are you embarrassing him already?"

Marilyn simply shrugged, looking quite proud of herself. 

A large clunk had me turning back to Jason, and I nearly did a double take when I saw he was setting down an acoustic guitar case.

Holy Hell. He's a musician too?

Marry me.

I blushed again when I saw him smirking at me and quickly looked down at my shoes. 

"I'm going to go busking," he announced.

"What's busking?" I asked curiously.

"Playing on the street for money," he said simply, "We need to eat, so we need cash."

"Oh," I said, feeling stupid.

"I expect a song when you get back," Marilyn said.

Jason rolled his eyes, "I know."

Stooping down and picking up the guitar case again, Jason glanced at me and said to Marilyn, "I'm leaving Cole here. He'll do anything you need as long as you pay him in money or food."

I raised my brow at him, unaware that any of this would be happening. He smirked and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. 

Pinching it between his lips, he called "Have fun!" and started walking towards the door, already fishing for his lighter.

I frowned as I watched his back, not looking away from where he'd disappeared from my vision until I could hear the front door creak open and slam shut.

Then I looked to Marilyn, who was lightly rocking in her chair.

This was sure to be interesting.

×××

A/N

Whoa, sorry it's been forever since I updated! I seem to be trapped in a perpetual loop of exams. I've had six exams in the last month and I only have five classes. What part of that makes sense? Turns out that they're spread out just enough that as soon as the last class finishes the first exam, the first class to have one is ready for its second!

And I'm dead inside.

Speaking of dead inside, what are you guys dressing up as for Halloween? (If you're dressing up)

Fun fact: Halloween is my all time favorite holiday and last year I had to take an exam on Halloween so I dressed up as Sherlock Holmes. The classic Sherlock Holmes too, not the BBC one (though he is bae). I had a trench coat, a deerstalker hat, and a plastic pipe. It was amazing! I tried to get my best friend to be my John Watson, but that didn't work out. *sad face*.

Other previous Anon Halloween costumes: Sims character (super easy DIY), the floating shopping list from the Smitty Werbenjagermanjenson episode of Spongebob  (also a great DIY) (I don't buy Halloween costumes ever. My closet is enough of a freak show that I can just make costumes out of thin air.), and a few others I'm struggling to remember. Since I don't have access to my freak show closet this year because I've been forced into a tiny room with another human being that I have to share space with, I'm probably going to be a badass rock and roll skeleton with a top hat (like the lead singer in that band from Hocus Pocus), because yes, I did bring my top hat to college.

Anyway, happy National Coming Out Day! I figured I should probably post something to celebrate (even if it is late and I'm dead inside).

Y'all have a good life now,
-Anon