“Henry!”
With a sudden jolt of fright, Henry looked up from his book and met eyes with his friend and colleague, Oscar, who was watching him closely as if he were waiting for some kind of explanation.
Henry looked around perplexingly, lowering his book and searching for something out of place. And when he found nothing, he looked up.” W-What?”
“Come on now, we’ve been studying for two months, you especially! Nothing but papers, books, and lectures. The medical exam is in two days and we both know we’re ready for it!” Oscar took a seat at the opposite end of the table. “So, let’s go get a drink and celebrate.”
Henry was quiet and unable to wipe the fake smile from his face. He tried to think of a proper excuse or a damn good reason that going out in a strange city seemed like a terrible idea. “We could…stay here at the hotel and have dinner? I’m sure they have drinks.”
“Don’t give me that,” His friend smiled with the tilt of his glasses. “We’re going out and we’re going to have a little fun. We’ll have dinner and find a pub after. So, put the book down and freshen up.
Henry knew he lost when Oscar walked away without another word, He had such an adventurous characteristic, something Henry was both envious and frightened of, depending on where they were and what they were doing. But, the man was was right, Henry often lost himself in his books and neglecting his friend who was always willing to put up with him. And there was no good reason to deny him.
“Oh, alright, alright,” Henry sighed, standing and cracking his neck with a sound of relief.
“That’s the spirit!” Oscar said with a bright smile, which helped Henry be more content with his decision.
After they readied themselves, they headed down to the lobby where the hotel clerk gave them directions to a restaurant he’d enjoyed, though he did not recommend any pubs, he did give them directions on where to find the lot of them. And they headed out for the evening.
Dinner was exceptional, and they managed to find a pub with a friendly bunch afterward, enjoying drinks and great company. Henry kept his alcohol intake to a minimum and Oscar didn’t seem to be overindulging himself either, and that put him at ease.
They stayed longer than expected and left after the gaslights were lit.
“See? Now that wasn’t so bad, right?” Oscar said with good cheer and his all-knowing smile as they walked along the cobblestone road.
“Yes, yes, it was rather fun,” Henry said with a small sigh. “I’m sorry, Oscar, I’ve been a dull friend and overbearing colleague for the past…well…alright, so I’ve been like that for a while. I hope you can forgive me, I’ve just been dreaming about this since the day we decided to study medicine together.”
Oscar smirked, not mockingly, but in agreement. He nodded a few times and patted Henry’s back. “I don’t think you’re dull and you’re only a little overbearing,” The two of them exchanged glances and smiles. “But, I’m only worried you’ll lose your life to work, and I want you to enjoy yourself when you deserve it. And you deserve it now.”
Henry smiled, feeling a little overwhelmed with his friend’s kind words, allowing them to sink in. “Well, I think we both deserve it and I’m glad we went out tonight. I just wish I had brought my coat, it’s getting cold.”
Oscar laughed, and when they looked ahead, the two of them slowed their steps. The road and sidewalks around them lost luster, the glowing windows of storefronts gone and replaced with the faint light above. They glanced around, trying to figure out where exactly they were.
“I could’ve sworn the bartender told us to go this way and we’d be at the hotel within minutes.” He said.
“Maybe…we should go back?” Henry suggested, taking Oscar’s shoulder and turning him around.
“You two lost?” A sweet voice purred from the alley, creating a flinch of panic in Henry and a perk of curiosity from Oscar as two women stepped out of the shadows.
To say they were beautiful was an understatement, they were angels lost in the night; their silk and ruffled dresses wrapped low around their breasts and tightly around their corseted waists. Their eyes shaded with color and their lips painted red, one allowed her hair to fall straight down against her shoulders and the other held hers together with pearl-tipped pins. Oscar was taken, Henry knew it when the man straightened himself and removed his hat to fix his hair.
“We’re just out for a stroll, meeting new people and making friends.” Oscar smiled and Henry shook his head.
The two women smiled at each other and approached them, they surrounded Oscar and each hooked one of their arms into his.
“How about a little fun now?” One said, leaning forward and becoming a kiss away from the man. The other glanced back at Henry and winked.
With that jolt of nervousness, Henry hurried over to his friend and pulled him away from the women, who let go with no resistance. A few steps away, Henry leaned closer to Oscar. “What are you doing? They’re…woman of…well…”
“I know,” Oscar said with a chuckle and grabbed Henry’s shoulder. “It’ll be our secret…and theirs.”
He didn’t let go of the man’s arm. “Oscar, let’s head back to the hotel, this isn’t a good idea.”
The man shook his head and removed Henry’s hand. “Relax, my friend, and trust me. Head back to the hotel or wait for me.”
With that, Oscar stepped away and headed back into the waiting arms of the two angels.
“Join us?” One asked with a small grin.
“N-No, no…I’ll wait here.” Henry waved them off nervously and watched his friend walk into the shadows and fade away.
Cautiously, Henry glanced around, he noticed a few other women standing on the corners and watching him with suggestive smiles, but he looked away quickly. He found a bench next to a vacant building and took a seat under one of the few lamps giving light to the dark street. Wishing he really had remembered his jacket, he reached into his back pocket, removed a travel-size book with some written notes and began to read.
Only a few sentences in, a sour voice crawled down his spine.
“Whatcha doin’, boy?”
Henry dropped the book and stood, wiping his sweating palms as a stranger stood a few feet from him on the street; he wasn’t a large man, but he was a frightening one, his eyes were large, almost unfocused, and shaded with an old hat that pushed back long greasy hair. He scratched his beard and pointed at him. “Got anything nice on you?”
“N-No, nothing,” Henry said.
“Wallet? Money?” The man was getting agitated. “Come on, let’s see your pockets!”
He drew a knife.
Henry’s heart nearly stopped and he swore under his breath as he clumsily fumbled for his wallet. When he removed it, he handed it out with a shaking arm, which pleased the man, who licked his lips and stepped forward.
“Causing trouble, are you?”
A new, softer voice called out to them.
Henry looked to see a young man standing against a building with his arms crossed, half-consumed in shadows. The man backed away, but not in fear, a gesture to try and get a better look as he squinted his eyes.
The figure pushed off the brick wall and walked under the light.
Henry inhaled.
Though the young man was watching the mugger, he was breathtakingly handsome, beautiful even. Such fine features; the curve of full lips and high cheekbones framed by strands of black hair. And his eyes, so dark and enticing, like sirens hiding in the shadows. He stood, unafraid and in front of Henry, who was starting to feel worried for them both.
“Get out of here before I kill you, boy!” The man spat.
“A drunk like you?” He answered.
His words enraged the man, who ran forward with his knife ready to cut whatever was close enough to its filthy teeth.
Henry gasped, bracing himself for the worse, but his eyes widened as the young man dodged the knife and kicked the man’s wrist. The mugger cried out in sharp pain, his knife landing a few feet from them just as the young man struck him across the face, sending him to the ground instantly.
Henry’s savior stood, looking down and crossing his arms again as the wimpy robber scrambled to recover his footing. “Leave. Now. Or I’ll break more than just your pride.”
The man peered up at him, and to Henry, the look promised pain and death, it was clouded by gin and rage. After he finally staggered to his feet, the mugger spat blood and spit at their feet. “Watch yourself, whore.”
Then he fled.
Once he was out of sight and after several seconds of terrifying silence, Henry let out the gasp of air he’d been holding in and rested his hands on his knees. He inhaled, trying to calm himself down. “Oh, god, I-I’ve never been that scared in my life.”
His savior laughed softly and picked up his booklet, handing it back to him. “This isn’t exactly a library, what are you doing out here?”
“Mm, w-well, I um…m-my friend…he..um…” Henry tried to find his words, tried to put them all together as he pointed his book towards the alley Oscar had disappeared into. His savior looked.
“Ah, Danielle and Scarlett.” He said, glancing back at Henry with his raven eyes, a beauty mark resting just below the corner of his right eye. “Don’t worry, he’ll be okay, the only thing they cut open are pants. Come on, you can wait at my house.”
Henry watched the young man wave him along, but he hesitated. “I-I should wait f-for…him.”
“Then you’ll be waiting all night, they like to take turns…long turns.” The young man stood near the corner and when he saw Henry was still cemented to the sidewalk, he whistled at one of the women who had been watching the chaos. “If his friend doesn’t last, send him my way.”
The woman nodded and Henry looked back to his beautiful savior who motioned him closer, smiling softly. “Come on.”
He looked around awkwardly then took a slight breathe and followed his siren’s song around the corner.
His home wasn’t far and it was small, only a single room with little to it. The fire was lit and it was warm, but somehow, it still felt very cold.
“Have a seat, I’ll get you some water.” His savior said, walking to the counter with a graceful sway of his hips. He was dressed rather plain, but every piece of clothing he was fitted into showed off the sensual shape of his body. And Henry was staring.
“T-Thank you!” He said a little too quickly, too abrupt. “I-I’m Henry.”
“Jasper.” He responded, bringing a glass of water to the table where Henry sat and took a seat across from him. “Can I ask what you were reading?”
“O-Oh, of course.” Henry slid the book over to Jasper, allowing him to take it and look through as he wished. “They’re notes for my medical exam.”
“Medical exam?” Jasper asked, looking through the notes with child-like wonder. “That’s…amazing. You must be incredibly smart.”
“Ah...heh, well, I am at the top of my class,” Henry said, blushing at the compliment, and when the bashfulness faded, he quickly added. “B-But, but all my colleagues are intelligent, I’m lucky to even be able to pass them.”
“So modest.” Jasper smiled and glanced back down at the notes. “What’s this word?”
Henry looked as the young man pointed to his notebook, but he didn’t move or even allow Henry to glance at the page. He rubbed his mouth and stood, slowly moving his seat closer to Jasper and looking down. “Hemochromatosis. It’s..a genetic disorder resulting...in abnormal iron accumulation in the liver..” His words came out too soft and he felt his heart skip when Jasper moved closer against his shoulder. “So, what do you do, Jasper? Do you work..close to home?”
“I’m a tour guide,” Jasper looked up at him with a mischievous smile “A nightly tour guide.”
“Oh…Oh!” Henry’s eyes went wide for a moment as he looked away and rubbed his neck awkwardly. Luckily, Jasper went back to shifting through pages of his notes and hand-drawn pictures.
“I could never remember any of this nor be this smart.” He said softly.
“Don’t say that,” Henry’s voice became instantly still and clear, he took Jasper’s hand and squeezed it. “Anyone can learn with the right teacher and the right motivation, you shouldn’t give up before you’ve even tried.”
Their eyes met and locked for several long seconds.
A blush crept across Henry’s face and he immediately removed his hand.
Jasper was smiling.
“Have you…or were you ever interested in school?” Henry managed to ask, trying to pry his eyes away from the young man’s smile.
“Of course, but…I never finished, I had to work and several jobs later I tried something new.” Jasper ran his fingers over the elegant pen strokes. “I haven’t told anyone this, but I wanted to write for the longest time, publish books with scandalous subjects that make people long for something more in their mundane life. Mm, but things change, people change, and life gets in the way, I suppose.”
“I’m sure I can help find someone? When I take my exam, I can ask around for tutors or—“
“No one is going to want to teach me, Henry.” He interrupted softly with a sad smile. “Thank you, but I’m not the kind of person they want in their well-respected establishments.”
“Then they’re not fit to teach.” The words came out firmer than he intended as if the thought of anyone being unkind to Jasper or turning him away infuriated him. “If I lived closer I’d spend every free moment I had with you—uhh teaching, I mean teaching you.”
He laughed.
“Your wife must miss you.” He said softly.
“Oh, I’m not married.” He responded with an unsure smile.
“Engaged? Courting? Interested?” Jasper asked, with every word he leaned closer and closer.
“No, no, and unfortunately, no.” He sighed softly, not sadly, but hopelessly. “I lose myself in my studies often, so much so that I’m constantly ignoring everything and everybody around me. I fear having a wife or children would only hinder my ability to help people.” He chuckled. “It sounds foolish, maybe a little selfish, but I want to save people and care for them. I want people to live and not suffer because of a disease or illness or mentality. Everything I am, I want to give to them.”
When he noticed he was ranting about nonsense, Henry stopped, and he glanced at Jasper, who was watching him with such wonder, dark eyes glistening in the firelight and lips parted as if he were waiting to be kissed.
Henry swallowed a little, so drawn in by this young’s man’s gaze that it almost hurt trying to resist. And when he leaned in a little closer as well, Oscar’s words overpowered the voice in his head telling him of not to go any further than talking. “Thank you, for helping me, if I can do anything to repay you, all you need to do is ask.”
“Is that so?” That smile softly returned and Henry was glad.
He nodded.
Jasper’s eyes lost their erotic gleam, it seemed the mask had come off and he was truly smitten, or Henry was just imagining things and being too easy on himself considering his inexperience in the art of flirting or any kind of courtship.
Slowly, Jasper touched his leg, not hard or eagerly, but tenderly, almost lovingly. And his lips parted again.
“Keep me company tonight?”
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