Jayme was a friend of mine, but I thought of him as so much more.

I remember the first time I had seen him…It was midnight, and I was walking home from a party at a friend’s apartment. Mine was not far from hers, and gas isn’t exactly cheap so I walk wherever I can.

Turning the corner, I remember seeing something slip into the shadows of the alley. Terrified me quite a bit, let me tell you. Curiously, I peeked into the alley, stupidly calling out into the darkness.

“Hello? Is there anybody there?”

No reply. I strolled quietly down the rest of the alley, continuously calling out. What in the world had I been thinking anyway? What if it was some kind of murderer, or anything along those lines? I was not one to think things through, the fact was apparent as I shivered at the memory.

Then, I heard soft footsteps, but couldn’t decide exactly where the sound came from. I had looked around cautiously, and my pace quickened. Not so interested anymore in what I had seen, I tried to run in the direction of my apartment, but it was difficult. High heels were definitely not my friend at the moment.

I heard more footsteps, and tripped in my attempt to run. A low chuckle came from somewhere, and instantly terrified, I stayed down. How loud could I scream? Would anyone hear me if this didn’t go so well? I took in a large breath and readied myself to start screaming. I saw a shadow flit past my line of vision and let out a deafening scream. It didn’t last long at all, mostly because whatever had been terrifying me was now suddenly towering over me.

I could see the shadow of a man standing there, yet the only facial features I could see from down on the ground was his mouth. Amazingly, it turned up into a smile.

“Any particular reason you’re on the ground, screaming?”

His conversational tone completely took me by surprise. “Oh. Uhmm, well…you scared me. A lot.”

“Well I’m sorry then.” He crouched down to my level. “Hello, my name is Jayme. Jayme Chaos.”

I gasped suddenly. This man was very handsome. Not in your traditional way, but in his own unique way. He had jet black hair that swept over his eyes and went down to his ears. He was lean, and tall, with the prettiest, and lightest blue eyes I had ever seen. He had his ear pierced-actually, I think gauged was the correct term-and tattoos that covered his forearms. Jayme wore a red t-shirt made by some popular brand I knew from a friend, and dark jeans that helped him blend in with the shadows.

What surprised me the most was the fact that I found myself unable to look away, even though I didn’t even know him.

“Miss?” He could obviously see me gawking at him.

“I apologize. I’m Chelsea May. Nice to meet you, I suppose.”

He laughed a soft, quiet laugh at my expense. “I guess it can’t be called nice. I almost gave you a heart attack.”

I blushed at that. “No, it’s fine. I think I’ll manage.”

A hand flashed in front of my face, which I took to help me get up. “Well either way, nice to meet you too. Where were you headed?”

“Home from a party. Oh, shoot.” I looked down to see my leggings were torn, and my knees were scraped and bloody.

“I think you’ll need more than a band-aid for that. I’m sorry again, and I owe you a pair of leggings, too.” For some reason, he stared at my legs much longer than needed.

“Oh no please, don’t worry about it. I have more at my house.” Not really, I thought to myself.

He rolled his eyes. “Chelsea, right? I’m pretty positive it wouldn’t be hard to get a hold of a pair.” The man named Jayme flashed me a smile, and his teeth were bleach white, a beautiful contrast against his dark hair.

“Whatever you say. Look, I should probably get home.” I didn’t want to leave, but it would be weird to stay. I didn’t even know this guy.

“Right. Well, I do hope to see you again Chelsea May.”

“Okay, see you around.” I smiled a bit too friendly, and waved goodbye as he had disappeared back into the darkness of the night.

What an odd way to make a friend.

But here I am, constantly finding myself in Jayme’s presence. It was pathetic at first. I had gone home that night and thought about him. It was so weird, considering he was a total stranger. Either way, for the next few weeks, I always tried to keep my eye out on my way to work-work was also close, so again, I just walked-but I never saw him. Stupidly, I checked in every alley I passed, but I never saw a sign of his jet black hair or bright baby blues.

So for awhile, I had given up. But then I always got my hopes up again every time I saw a man that resembled him.

What is wrong with you? I thought to myself one night. Of course he isn’t interested, there’s nothing special about you. Your just another blonde, who dresses in overpriced clothes. Nothing special there. He’s probably seen a hundred of you over and over again at some concert gig he had. I bet he does play in a band after all. Girls probably throw themselves at him. Why should you be anything other than an untimely stranger?When I was finished bashing my self esteem into the ground, I usually just went back to doing whatever I was doing before I had been talking to myself.

Oh, and of course I had a theory that he was in a band. I’m not sure why I thought that though. Maybe it was his look…the long hair, the tattoo’s, the brands of clothes.

After awhile, I gave up on finding him. I stopped thinking about him all the time, stopped seeing his face at the back of my eyes, in my dreams.

Of course, that all went out the window the second I saw him again.

Me and a friend, Alya is her name, were driving home from a shopping trip one night. It was well after eleven, and all the good stores had closed by now. The trunk was full of bags filled with clothes; I tended to spend too much money sometimes.

The car was mostly silent except for some music playing in the backround. Alya began to doze off in the passenger seat, and I just watched the city fly by, lights blurring into lines outside the windows.

Then suddenly, something jumped in the way of the car. I smashed my foot into the brake to keep from hitting whatever it was. Alya was pulled out of her sleeping trance with a start, and looked around with wide, terrified eyes. The tires of the Honda screeched along the street, making an awful, high pitched squealing sound that hurt my ears.

The car finally came to a complete stop, and it was turned sideways, taking up both of the lanes. My eyes focused on the object that had probably ruined my brakes, and my breath came in a gasp.

“Jayme?” My voice was just a hushed whisper, one that Alya couldn’t hear.

Jayme looked furious, his posture tense as he stood before the small, black car. Then slowly, he walked to my side and tapped on the window. I rolled it down cautiously.

“Chelsea.” He said my name slowly.

I searched for words. “Yes. Jayme, correct?” Of course it’s correct. You would never forget his name.

He mouth twitched up at the corners, as if fighting a smile. “That’s right.”

Alya sat unmoving next to me, her face twisted with confusion as she took in the good looking man who had just jumped in front of my car. She didn’t say a word.

“What is your problem!?” I shouted at him, something I hadn’t meant to say out loud.

“Excuse me?” Now he was confused too.

“You just stopped in front of my car! Are you suicidal or something? Did you want me to hit you? What the hell! Well, I stopped in time not to kill you, but if you want we can go back and try again, I just won’t stop!” Why was I ranting at him like this?

“Chelsea, it was just an accident. Calm down. I didn’t mean to put you in danger like that.” I couldn’t see his face well enough to read his expression.

“Put me in danger?”

“Yes. I could of very well made you go off the road or something like that.”

“Oh whoa, not go off the road.” Each word was full of sarcasm. “Heaven forbid I go off the road a bit.”

“Fine. I guess I’ll just see you around then. You obviously have no business talking to me.”

“No, Jayme wait…I’m sorry, okay? I just get angry easily. Not one of my best qualities.”

“Apology accepted. But I really must be going. Unless…No I have to go.”

“Unless what?”

“It’s nothing, forget it.”

“Unless what?” I pressed.

“Well, is it possible to get a ride?” He smiled and I couldn’t help but stare.

Alya pinched my arm and I snapped out of it. “Right, ride. Uh. Sure, hop in the back.”

I rolled up the window and quickly looked at Alya.

She just smiled and simply said “You know him? Man, he’s cute!” Then she looked away, for Jayme had begun to open the door.

He slid silently into the back and sat, smiling to himself. His looks made my car look like a heap of scrap metal.

It was completely silent as I got the car back into the right lane and drove toward Alya’s apartment.

After a few minutes Jayme surprisingly spoke up and introduced himself to Alya. He leaned forward to her seat and whispered in her ear.

“Sorry to scare you before. I’m Jayme.”

Alya jumped and laughed nervously. “Oh, well, it’s nothing. I’m uh. Alya.”

He chuckled quietly. “What a pretty name.”

She blushed and looked out the window so he couldn’t see. But I didn’t miss it. I giggled to myself at how flustered he had made her. She heard me and smiled to herself.

Jayme, obviously pleased with himself, leaned back in the seat and the silence crept up again.

We arrived at Alya’s house half an hour later. She thanked me and said she had fun, the usual thing a good friend would say. I helped her carry her bags inside and said goodbye.

“Here are your things. Make sure you tell me if you want to take that blouse back or not, okay? I don’t mind being the chauffeur for our shopping trips.” I said as I placed the last of the bags in her living room.

“Ha, I may just take you up on that. But you need to get to bed, we’ve got work tomorrow.”

“Right, well I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

She saw me out to the door and watched as I got into the car. She smiled once toward Jayme and then eyed me speculatively before turning to go inside. I rolled my eyes.

As I started up the car, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. I jumped, and to my surprise, Jayme had climbed into the passenger seat while I was gone.

Noticing my alarm, he smiled. “Oh, I hope you don’t mind. I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. Maybe I should..”

“Oh, no, it’s fine.” It’s more than fine! I shouted inside my head. “You just scared me. You’re very good at that, you know.”

“Good at what?” He asked oh-so-innocently.

“Scaring people. Well, scaring me and Alya anyway.”

He laughed and it was a lovely sound. “Yeah, I noticed. Your friend Alya seems jumpy. But her reactions are priceless.”

I couldn’t help but laugh along with him. I was oddly at ease around him, stranger or not. I tried to start small talk, but I wasn’t sure if I could think of anything not stupid to say.

“So what did you do today?” Stupid, stupid, stupid. What kind of question is that?

He didn’t seem to mind though. “Not much. Just stayed in today.”

“You didn’t have any concerts today?”

“What?” He looked at me curiously.

Crap. Why did I say that! I kept my eyes straight ahead, avoiding his gaze. That was definitely something I didn’t want him to hear. How was I supposed to explain that?

“Um. Never mind. I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Why did you then?” I could tell by his voice that he was dying to know.

“I thought you were Alya for a moment.” What an awful lie?

“Chelsea, come on. Both you and I know that you’re lying.” He kept staring, waiting for an answer.