At the Stroke Of Midnight...Part 1

Shaun sat at his desk staring at the wall infront of him…his mind raced with a thousand random thoughts and suddenly he felt numb; as if his brain had gotten stuck in a time warp. He continued staring at the wall as if lost in a trance…not blinking even once…his eyes began to water and a silent tear rolled down his cheek. The wall clock ticked away providing an eerie background score to the otherwise silent dorm room. His watched beeped and suddenly Shaun realised – it was midnight…he stared blankly at the screen of his cell phone; expecting it to start ringing any moment. It did not. He got up slowly from his chair and looked around the room – as if seeing it for the first time. He never noticed how messed up his side of the room was. His roommate had gone back home for the long vacations leaving Shaun the whole room to himself. “Its been 2years”, he thought out loud. “2 fucking years and these bastards don’t even remember its my fucking birthday!”…He didn’t realise how loud he had said that till he heard a giggle by the door. It sounded like a girl – “you are delusional dude”, he said out loud to himself – he lived in an all boys hostel and the only female presence he had seen there had been that of the janitor lady.

Just as he was about to flop onto the bed and start listening to his deafening music collection on his old walkman he heard a faint knock at the door (which he had purposely left ajar). “Who is it?” he yelled out loud expecting his friends to come barging in and start pounding his ass. Shaun stared at the doorway and his jaw dropped as he gaped at the stunning figure standing infront of him. “Katrina!” he managed to splutter…His mind racing as he made a mental note…Name – Katrina Peterson…Age: 20…Occupation: Med Student…
“Stop it! Stop it! You aren’t doing a medical diagnosis for chrissake! Ask her why she’s here!” he thought (His brain would yell at him at times but he never felt this tongue tied before).
“What are you…?” He began...
“Hey you! It was your birthday and I figured you would have buried your pansy ass under a pile of books or you’d be all sad and philosophical and I wasn’t going to let that happen so I thought I would sneak over and…” Her voice trailed off as she scuttled about the room like a crab. Shaun just stood there, his senses were benumbed her presence. Almost acting out of instinct he shut the door and bolted it. When he turned around he saw Katrina staring at him with her characteristic eyebrow raised.
“And just what do you think you are doing mister?” she questioned in a teasing manner…
“I…I thought…I mean I didn’t think…I figured…if anyone saw you I’d get screwed so I…” Shaun was stuttering…he felt like a complete idiot.
What was she doing here in his dorm? How had she managed to get in? Questions plagued his mind, which just refused to think. All he did was stand and stare…stare at the female form, which moved about clumsily infront of him. He had never noticed it before but Katrina was a very beautiful girl; she wore a blue hooded sweatshirt with dirty denim shorts and her signature canvas shoes.
“Damn she has nice legs…if only she wasn’t such a tomboy” Shaun thought as he stared at her. “Shaun stop acting like you’ve just seen a ghost and go wait in the bathroom for 10minutes.” She commanded (Shaun hated the way Katrina pushed him around all the time).
“Huh? Wha…” Before Shaun could protest he was shoved into the bathroom that was attached to his room and the door bolted from outside.
“Hey! What the…! Let me out you crazy woman!” Shaun yelled as he banged on the bathroom door.
“Calm down pansy, this will only take a minute,” She yelled back.
“Great, what a way to spend my birthday…I get locked up in a loo by a girl…a psychotic girl…” Shaun thought gloomily as he sat on the pot – wondering what fate awaited him.After what seemed like an eternity the bathroom door opened and Katrina slipped inside. Shaun’s heart began to pound as he felt a bead of sweat roll down his temple. “What the hell is this stupid girl doing?” He thought to himself.
“Ok now don’t be afraid I’m going to blindfold you and take you outside ok…” She said in a re-assuring kind of way. Had it been any other chick Shaun would have been like – bring it on baby…lets get some BDSM going. But this was Katrina – she would probably blindfold him and feed him to a pack of hungry street dogs. Shaun felt his heart race as he nodded his head and almost whispered affirmation. She tied a silk bandana over his eyes and held his hand to guide him out of the room. Shaun didn’t realise how ice cold his hands had become until he felt the soft warm skin of Katrina’s hand over his.
“Hey don’t be afraid…you’re as cold as a corpse…I won’t kill you you know,” she teased.Shaun expected the worst as he walked out of the room being guided like a blind man. He sniffed the air…it smelt peculiar…he couldn’t put his finger on it but his room smelt nice – it smelt like a girl! Slowly, Katrina undid the bandana and whispered Happy Birthday and slowly kissed his ear. Current ran through Shaun’s entire body – the touch of her lips on his ear did something to him…he began to feel turned on. “Control yourself you idiot!” He thought to himself. Before he knew it Katrina pranced about infront of him, taking him on a mindless “guided tour” of his room. Her voice seemed like it was coming from afar. Shaun looked around his room and flew into a trance. There were about 50 candles in the room…all lit up…the lights were off…Katrina seemed to glow like an angel in the candle light. Her soft brown eyes glistened as her skin radiated a glow.
“Hey what if my bed catches fire?” Shaun blurted out without thinking. There was a short pause followed by a non-stop Katrina giggle-a-thon.
“Nice one smart ass! What if my bed catches fire!?!?! DO YOU GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR BED??? You’re really an expert at blowing up all your chances!” Shaun thought angrily to himself. His train of thought was interrupted by a tug at his hand. Katrina sat cross-legged on the bed sheet she had laid on the floor.
“Sit down dumbo, lets cut the cake!” Shaun sat down absent mindedly…he had no clue what was going on but whatever it was – he was loving it. It was way better than getting his ass pounded to pulp by his rowdy friends.
“Ok now make a birthday wish and blow out the candles” She chirped. Shaun didn’t realise how long he had been staring at her – not taking his eyes off her face…She looked like an angel. “Helloooooo…Earth to Pansy…Earth to Pansy…Do you read us?” She was waving her hand infront of his face. Suddenly he broke out of the spell and looked at the cake. Feeling visibly embarrassed for the nth time now. Katrina sang as happy birthday and handed him a plastic knife to proceed with the dissection. He cut the cake clumsily; she fed him a large piece and smothered all the chocolate icing on his face.
“There! Now you have a cake-pack!” She chuckled. Shaun was tempted to lick her fingers to rid them of the icing but he knew he would probably get kicked in the balls if he tried that… She bounced over to the dilapidated stereo and turned on some music…MLTR…Shaun couldn’t recognise the song but the words seemed meaningful.
“Ok now lets sip Champaign and then we can dance,” She said merrily.
“Champaign?” Shaun blurted (trying very hard to recall any sentence he had spoken clearly since the time she walked into the room)
“Well not exactly…” She smirked as she pulled out two Champaign flutes from her sweatshirt pockets and rolled out a bottle of cider from her bag.
“It’s a dry day today you idiot where was I supposed to get alcohol from?”
Shaun sipped at the cider slowly, all the while staring at Katrina. She was a full-bodied girl; she seemed strong – he wasn’t going to find out by testing her strength.
“God you’re beautiful,” He said in a mesmerized tone as he stared into her beautiful eyes. He wanted to say so many things to her – he had a conundrum of emotions flowing through his head but that was the best he could do. She continued to stare at him – not saying a word. Slowly she held his hand and began caressing it. Shaun felt himself tingle as her warm skin touched his hard cold hand.
“Why are you so cold?” She asked.
That question caught Shaun completely off guard and he began to babble – “Because I think you’re so cute but I know you think I’m a geek and I never think of girls but I do and I really like you and I had never noticed how hot you are till now and I have no clue why you are doing this for me but I’m really enjoying it and I have no clue how to thank you for this because I don’t think I ever could and…”
Her giggles suddenly interrupted his train of thought. Shaun felt flushed. He had succeeded in making a complete fool out of himself yet again. She poured him some more cider and started talking. Shaun wasn’t listening to a word she was saying – he was in a state of delusion.
“Come on let’s dance!” She heaved Shaun off his feet and held him close to her body. He almost shivered as he stood holding her waist as she buried her face into his shoulder. Shaun caught a whiff of her shampoo and before he knew it he had buried his nose into her hair. She didn’t seem to notice. Time flew by…the clock ticked on…song after song they danced. “I could do this all day,” Shaun thought to himself...