Born Under a Bad Sign

My first class at Ohio University was Sociology at 12:30. I checked myself in the mirror at about 11:00, just to make sure I looked all right. Since it was still August, and still extremely hot, I unleashed the mane, and let it be as wavy as it wanted. I wore jean high waist shorts, with a loose white V-neck tucked in, with a white pair of Keds. After completing my usual makeup, I ventured downstairs and Sam and Dean were already fully dressed, their typical garb, sitting at the table.
“Good morning.” Sam greeted cheerfully.
“Yeah, not a morning person.” I replied as I scrounged up a bowl of Captain Crunch. “Any classes today?”
Sam glanced at Dean before answering, “Yeah, actually I already had class this morning and Dean doesn’t have anything until 4:00, so we have a lot of time to kill.” Dean nodded in agreement.
“Well, ready to go Sammy?” Dean got up from the table and pulled the straps of a green duffel bag around his shoulder.
“Yeah,” Sam got up to follow his brother “We’ll see you later, Ren.”
Nobody had called me that since my most recent ex, but it was one of my favorite nicknames.
“Yeah, I’ll see you boys later. Have fun.” I closed the door behind them and straightened out the carpet, only to find something red underneath. I lifted up the carpet and there was a circle with odd markings around it. Demon trap, I remembered from my days at the Wright State class all about the occult. Seriously?
I waited until I didn’t hear the engine of the Impala anymore, and went upstairs. I was on a mission to find out who these people really were. Dean and Sam Winchester my ass.
First I entered Sam’s room, it was neat and very clean, basically like no one had lived there yet. I went to the dresser, and found that nothing had been unpacked, so I hit his suitcase. I unzipped it and flipped around, with no luck. There were only normal living essentials, clothes, underwear, socks, etc. There was nothing unusual. Next I sighed and went next door to Dean’s room. His suitcase was wide open and empty in the middle of the room. His room was a little more lived in. His drawers came out clean as well. They acted way too weird to not have skeletons in their closet. I sat on his unmade bed in exasperation, and something hard was under my butt. I stood up and there was a black laptop underneath the blanket.
I smirked and opened it, surprisingly and luckily, there wasn’t a password. I pulled up the browser and checked the history. He was looking at disappearances of teenagers about my age around the state in the last 6 months. The pictures were the faces of Elysia, Parker, and Macie, along with all the others I met on Saturday. He was also looking at the weather, probably something to do with the lightning storms he was talking about. So, Sam and Dean were here to hunt demons? Then why even waste time and live in a college student’s apartment? They could just stay in a cheap motel and eat diner food and take care of whatever these things were before the weekend was even over. I deleted my history and set the laptop back underneath the blanket before heading downstairs to grab my MacBook. I checked my campus e-mail, just in case I had gotten any updates on the bill, classes being cancelled, etc. But instead, I received an e-mail from the company who owns the apartments I was staying at, and since m roommate, singular, wasn’t moving in until a few weeks later, I would be given a break on the rent. Sam and Dean were not my roommates. They were squatting? Why? I googled each of their names, and were reported dead 6 months ago. Apparently these boys had gotten in a lot of trouble exhuming bodies, arson, trespassing, forced breaking and entering, the list went on. I was captivated. Exhumation of bodies meant either one, Sam and Dean were completely insane and had a weird fetish, or two, going along the lines of demons, were salting and burning the bones because the spirit of the deceased was haunting a person, house, anything, and was causing trouble. I closed my computer and checked the time. It was noon. I packed up my backpack and walked to class in the perfect 80-degree weather. I took a seat in the large lecture hall toward the front, and pulled up Facebook on my computer to pass the time before class started. Not 5 minutes passed before I heard a familiar voice say my name.
“Lauren?” I turned and looked. It was Parker.
“Hey…”
“Do you mind if I sit?”
“No, not at all. Knock yourself out.” He took a seat next to me and pulled out his computer as well.
“So, how do you like OU so far?” His beautiful face was pointed in my direction.
“It’s great, I finally got to meet my roommates.”
“Oh, who are they?”
“Their names are Sam and Dean,” I paused, and he seemed suddenly interested. “Winchester.” I added, and a smile slowly crept onto Parker’s face.
“I see.” The smug smile was still plastered on his face. “Maybe I’ll get to meet them soon?”
“Yeah, definitely.” I was hoping for spontaneous combustion or smoke coming out of the mouth or something. I was disappointed when all he did was pull out his phone and start typing. “Well, what about you?”
“Yeah, I had a pretty great time on Friday.” He winked at me.
Oh my god, I had sex with a demon.
I smiled awkwardly at him and averted my attention to the wheelchair bound professor that was making his way in the classroom. He gave an interesting lecture, but all I wanted to do was get out of the classroom. At 1:50 when it was finally over, I hurried out of the classroom, only to have Parker still find me.
“So, when am I going to see you out of class again?”
“Probably this weekend…”
“Alright, I’ll see you then. And try to bring your roommates, I think we all would love to meet them.” He winked and walked away. I hurried to my next classes, Greek and Roman culture at 2:00, and Calculus at 3:30. Thankfully, no one I had met on Friday were in my classes.
At the end of calc, a blonde girl approached me and smiled.
“I just have to say, I absolutely love your outfit.” She beamed. She was wearing dark jeans tucked into brown riding boots, and a grey loose-fitting tank.
“Oh thanks, I try.” I replied dryly. She was still as smiley as ever.
“I’m Jo, and you’re?”
“Lauren, I’m Lauren.”
“Awesome. I’m starving, do you want to get dinner?”
“Yeah, sure that sounds great.” My stomach had been growing at me for the past hour.
“We can just go to the Hangar, if that’s cool with you.”
“Sounds great.” We headed toward Allyn Hall, which housed one of the only cafeterias with good food. I grabbed a personal cheese pizza and a cherry coke zero and joined Jo at a table next to a window in the corner.
“So, what’s your major?” I asked.
“Eastern Studies.” She beamed at me and took a bite of cheese sticks she apparently grabbed. “You?”
“Parapsychology.”
“Oh, cool. Like ghosts and demons and monsters, right?”
“Yeah, it’s really interesting.” I couldn’t even begin to tell her how true it was.
“What got you into that?”
“It’s going to sound insane.” When I told people, they usually gave me weird looks or laughed and thought I was joking.
“Try me.”
“Well, when I was a kid I used to see black shadows and people with black eyes, and other weird things like that and it freaked the hell out of me of course, and I had never met anyone who saw what I did, and I don’t want to be the only freak on this planet.”
Jo studied me, as if to read my mind to see if I was lying. “Cool, have you seen anything lately?”
“Not really, not since I got here…” I took another bite of my pizza.
There was a guy interrupting everyone outside, yelling about how we were all on the fast track to Hell.
“That guy is so full of shit.” I rolled my eyes.
“Right?” Jo replied. “Well, sorry to cut this short but I have to attend to some business. It was great meeting you and I’ll see you on Wednesday after class?”
“Sure, yeah.”
She nodded at me and quickly picked up her things and walked out, immediately pulling out her phone as she left the table to make a call.
I shook my head; people in this town were so weird.
I finished my pizza and headed home before it got too dark. I opened the door and was greeted by a splash of water to the face.
“What the hell, guys?!” Sam was holding a jug of water with something hanging out of it and the brothers had the same expression on their face that just screamed, oops.
“Uh, welcome home, yay! We missed you!” Sam pulled me into the living room.
“Seriously. What the hell.” I set my backpack down on a dining room chair and pulled my wet hair out of my face.
Sam laughed nervously and looked at Dean, who shrugged and sat on the couch.
“We’re sorry, we thought you were going to be someone else.”
“Who would you splash water on upon arrival into your apartment?”
“A buddy of ours we met today.” Dean chimed in.
“Okay, whatever. Are you guys planning on doing anything tonight?”
“Well we’ve done all we can do for today, so no, not really.” Sam and Dean exchanged glances.
“Well, since Dean and I went out and had a nice little talk on Saturday I think it’s your turn to experience Ohio University for yourself.”
“Ren, I’m not the party…”
“Yes, I know. I know this really great restaurant that’s one-hundred-percent organic and vegan.” Sam looked at me, with a quizzical look in his eyes. “Yes, I know you like healthy food.” I smiled sarcastically at him. “So when will you be ready?”
“I’m ready right now…I guess.”
“Well, let me go fix my makeup thanks to you, and then we’ll leave.” It took me about 5 minutes to fix a very small smudge in my eyeliner, then grab my purse I had used on Saturday, and returned downstairs.
“Ready?”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Sam grabbed his tan jacket off the table and Dean winked at him before we left.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” He chucked as the door closed behind us.
“It’s like a ten minute walk this way.” Sam followed and soon caught up to me. “What did you guys do today?” I inquired, looking up at Sam.
“We attended to some business.”
“Business, huh? What kind?”
“It’s a family business, we’re mechanics.”
“Is that right? Is that why the Impala is in such great shape?”
“Yeah, Dean fixed it up a couple months ago.”
“Cool, it looks great for being a 1967.”
“Yeah,” Sam shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry if we’re being odd, I just think it’s the best thing right now.”
“It’s cool, I’ve seen weirder.” Sam laughed and looked down at me and shook his head. To be honest, I was a little annoyed. These boys were directly impacting my life, anyway.
“I doubt you’ve seen weirder than my family.”
“Try me.” Using Jo’s words from earlier.
“You’ll have to experience it for yourself.” He looked up at the sky. “So I heard about you and Dean...”
“Oh, the kiss?”
“Yeah, he told me all about it. Said it was the best he’s been kissed in years.”
“Huh.” I have been told that I’m a pretty great kisser. “Yeah, that was nothing. I usually kiss every boy I meet.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, it really tells a lot about who they are. I mean Dean kissed me immediately, which means he’s confident in his charm, his looks, you know that whole deal. But if someone pulls away then I know that they’re special.”
“Has anyone pulled away?”
“Nope.” He looked at me, with a sad look in his eyes. “Yeah, it’s no big deal. Here’s the restaurant.” He opened the door for me and we were seated in a corner booth.
“So, what happens if this said person you kiss, kisses you first?”
“Well, that hasn’t happened yet so I’m not sure. All I know is, I’ve met one person where I didn’t immediately want to kiss the crap out of them and that’s rare.“
Sam nodded his head and started to look at the menu. He ordered a salad wrap thing, and I ordered a burrito. Sam was great at keeping up conversation; we talked about his travels, which were a bit vague if you ask me, and finally, the big question came as our food came out.
“So, what got you into parapsychology?”
I gave him the same speech I gave Jo, and his eyes widened.
“Really!” He seemed genuinely interested. “I thought I was the only one!”
“Seriously? You too?” I was in shock. Out of all people, it was my roommate.
“Yeah, ever since I was a kid.” A gorgeous smile spread slowly across his face. “I’m so glad I’m not the only freak here.” I took another bite of my burrito, and his smile got wider.
“Me too.” We finished our dinner with continued conversation, and Sam paid for me. When the waitress returned with the check, we both stood up and I grabbed my purse as we exited the booth.
“Thanks for dinner.” I nudged his arm as we walked out of the restaurant.
“No problem.” He smiled back at me. I needed to spend more time alone with this boy.
“Do you want to see campus?” I asked, “I mean, you are going to school here.”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “Sure.” I took him on the grand tour, stopping at the quad.
“When Matt Lauer went here, he said it was the most beautiful campus he had ever seen.”
“Is that right?” Sam replied, looking around at all the trees.
“Yeah, I learned that when I came on the tour.” I gave him thumbs up and he nodded.
“Lauren…” He had a kind of important tone in his voice.
“What?”
“I really don’t want to keep you in the dark anymore.”
“What are you talking about?” He was finally telling me why him and his brother were here!
“I can’t tell you right now, but when we get back, Dean and I will tell you everything.”
“Okay,” I studied him. He had a painful expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’m going to be okay, I’m not going to get hurt, whatever it is, it’ll be okay.” Although I was only up to his shoulders, I reached up and touched his cheek. He flinched for a second, then held his hand over mine, and welcomed the touch.
I smiled reassuringly at him and we stood there for a minute in silence, before I pulled my hand back. “It’ll be okay.”