Addicted to Your Light

Jenna walked out of her biology class, excited to finally be able to get away from her professor with the monotonous voice that always bored the class day after day. She laughed at something her lab partner, Naomi, said, but the smile on her face immediately fell when she saw a familiar face leaning against a tree, staring at her.

"I'll see you on Thursday," Jenna told Naomi before making her way over to the man. "What are you doing here, Jared? You don't even go to this school," she stated the obvious. Jared was a hockey player she had met through her roommate when she had gone to a party with her at the beginning of the year. Jared had been at the party, and while the two had hit it off, Jenna had been in a relationship at that time and she knew nothing could ever happen between her and Jared.

But, then a few months ago, Jenna had gotten her heart broken, and Jared had been there to watch it happen. Since then, he had been trying to get her to go out with him, claiming he was a different type of guy than her ex-boyfriend had been and that he wasn't going to hurt her. But, Jenna already had built up the walls around her heart, and she wasn't going to let them down any time soon, especially to Jared Staal.

She stared at him, waiting for his usual witty remark. "I came to see you," he told her, and she rolled her eyes at him, starting to walk in the other direction towards her dorm room. "Jenna, wait," he called out, but she didn't slow down, causing Jared to speed up to catch her, grabbing her arm. "Why won't you just give me a chance?" he asked, putting on all of his charm.

"Jared, I've told you a million times, I'm not going to go out with you. Why do you keep pursuing me? Is it the challenge? Is it some sort of game to you?" she questioned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Because let me tell you right now, you're not going to win. I'm not going to give in," she stated.

"I'm not giving up," Jared replied as he watched Jenna walk away, this time not attempting to stop her.

Jenna wanted to turn around to see if he was going to follow her, but she resisted the urge. What did he mean when he said he wasn't going to give up? Why was this so important to him? Did he have some sort of agenda? All kinds of questions were running through her mind, and before she knew it, she had already made it back to her dorm.

She walked up the three flights of stairs and down the hallway to the room she shared with Marie. She checked the door handle to find it unlocked and walked in to see Marie at her desk, music blaring from the stereo system next to her.

"He was there again," Jenna stated, not needing to give anymore details for Marie to know who she was talking about. Marie turned the music down and turned around in her chair, a smile on her face. She had always been supportive of Jared's antics, continuing to tell Jenna to just give him a chance, that he couldn't be that bad of a guy. And, when Jenna didn't listen to that logic, Marie would remind her that Jared was a hockey player, well on his way to the NHL.

"And?" Marie pressed for more details.

"And, it was the same old thing. He wants me to go out with him. I told him no," she said plainly.

"Why won't you just go out on one date with him?" Marie asked, something she seemed to ask on a daily basis. "Just give him one date, and we both know that he'll back off," she pointed out.

Jenna fell back on her bed with a sigh. "Fine."

"Wait, what?" Marie asked. "Did you just say fine?"

"Yeah," Jenna sighed.

Marie jumped up. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe you're going to go out with him. Finally! Here, let me give you his number so that you can call him and tell him you'll go out with him!" she said excitedly. She went through the phonebook on her phone, trying to find Jared's number, and once she finally found it, she recited it to Jenna.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Jenna mumbled as she punched in his number, while Marie hovered over her, doing what appeared to be a happy dance. "Hey Jared, this is Jenna," she said when he picked up the phone.

"Jenna?" he asked, and she wondered if he was trying to figure out which Jenna he was talking to. She was sure there had to be more than one Jenna in his life.

"Jenna Clarkson," she clarified.

"Oh! Jenna!" he exclaimed. "Uhhh…" he trailed off, trying to figure out what to say next.

"I was wondering what you were doing Friday night," Jenna told him.

"Friday night?" Jared asked. "I can free it up for you," he said, and Jenna just imagined him, sitting down, his feet propped up on a desk, a smirk present on his face.

"Good," Jenna replied with no emotion in her voice whatsoever.

"Wait," Jared told her. "Are you asking me out on a date or something?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I just…It's…Why? I've been asking you out all this time, and you kept turning me down, and now you're asking me out? I just don't get it, really," he told her.

"Listen, if you don't want to go out with me, that's fine," she interrupted him.

"No, no, that's not it!" he quickly interjected. "I'll pick you up Friday night," he assured her.

"Great," Jenna said in an unenthused voice, hanging up the phone. She looked over to see Marie staring at her. "What?" she questioned.

"Why do I feel like this isn't going to be a regular date? Like you've got something up your sleeve?" Marie narrowed her eyes at her.

"Because this isn't going to be a simple date for Jared," Jenna replied.

"Jenna! What are you thinking of doing?" she questioned.

"Nothing," Jenna said with a sly smile on her face. "I'm just going to make him work a little bit if he wants to date me, make sure he really wants to date me and it's not something for show," she shrugged.

"Jenna," Marie said warningly, but Jenna seemed to ignore her, heading to her desk and pulling out her biology textbook, beginning on her homework that was due the following day.

~~~

Jenna had it all planned out as she waited for Jared to come pick her up for their date. If he thought this was going to be a simple date, he was wrong. Jenna was going to make Jared work for everything. When she heard a knock on the door, Marie quickly got up to answer it first, and moments later, Jared was walking into their room.

"Hey," he smiled at her, taking in her appearance, which consisted of a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt.

"Hey," Jenna replied, not returning the smile, even if she was compelled to do so. Jared's smile was so infectious, but she had told herself that she wasn't going to let him charm his way into her life. She had let that happen with her ex-boyfriend, and she wasn't going to repeat that with Jared.

"You ready to go?" he asked her, and she nodded her head, grabbing her purse, before saying a quick goodbye to Marie. She quickly pushed Jared out of the room before she could hear what Marie was going to say, which Jenna assumed would be something along the lines of 'Don't go through with your plan'.

Jenna didn't say much as Jared drove to the restaurant, mainly listening to him talk about his life, growing up with his brothers and how he had gotten into hockey. She couldn't help but like him just a little bit more when she heard him talk so lovingly about his family, but once again she reminded herself of her plan.

He had asked her multiple questions throughout the drive, but Jenna never gave in depth answers, always pushing the conversation back to him, which he seemed to always be fine about when he talked about his family, but when she would ask a question directly about himself, whether it be his personal life or about hockey, he would seem to shy away from talking. This was the exact opposite of her ex-boyfriend, who always liked the attention on himself, and this made Jenna wonder if maybe Jared really was different.

As their dinner was nearing an end, Jenna's mood had unintentionally changed. Without her even realizing it, she seemed to be warming up to Jordan, and the walls she had built up seemed to be falling down. They were laughing about each other's embarrassing moments, and they were having a great time.

"You know," Jared said, his laughter slowing down, but the smile staying on his face. "You seem to be a different person than when I picked you up. I was worried that you didn't really want to go out with me tonight, that maybe Marie had forced you into it."

Jenna couldn't help but smile at him this time. "Let's just say I wasn't too keen on the idea of a date with you in the beginning, and I was hoping this would be a one and done kind of thing, that you'd give up your plans of dating me if I went out with you once," she admitted.

Jared's eyebrows raised. "Really?" he inquired.

Jenna nodded her head. "Yeah," she admitted. "But something's telling me that maybe I was wrong about that," she said slowly.

"So, you think maybe you want to go out with me again?" Jared asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I'd like that," she replied with a smile, figuring this was a risk she wanted to take.