You cowered before me, and I was frightening - 2

Someone opened the door at the front of the pub and entered. Sarah instinctively looked over as she had done every time that night when someone entered. Her heart froze in her mouth. The stranger - or was he? - locked eyes with Sarah for a moment before cooly looking away. He swayed into pub with the air of owning the entire building.

Sarah could hardly believe it, but she couldn't pass it off as an overactive imagination or mere coincidence. That aloof gaze, that hair that, though slicked back, still held the promise of being wild when not gelled, that bearing of royalty, and most of all, those mismatched eyes. It had to be him.

He made his way to the corner of the room, where she just noticed for the first time that there was a small stage and a guitar set up. He entered the stage and picked up the guitar. An employee approached and whispered something to him. He nodded. The lighting in the pub changed, and he began to play a song.

Sarah hid her face in her hands. Although there was really no way anyone else at the pub could possibly know about their history together, she felt as though everyone was watching her, waiting for her reaction. Or maybe it was just the feeling of one certain person waiting for her reaction. She peeked out from between two fingers and looked. He was staring off into space, strumming his guitar and signing something about a "starman" or similar nonsense. She let her hands drop to the table, but her face was still flushed red out of embarrassment. Life in the pub continued as normal, she was safe for now.

The song ended and he started a new one. Sarah flirted with the thought of leaving right then - technically, she was done with her homework and even if she hadn't been, she didn't think she would possibly get anymore done now. But, though she would never say it to his face, she kind of liked the songs he playing, and if she left then she might never know for certain if it was really him.

Her certainty had begun to waver. He played five more songs and hadn't looked at her once. She kept ordering Sprite after Sprite so the waitress wouldn't kick her out. He got to the end of his set and the spotlights on him turned off. He unplugged the speakers and began putting his guitar into its case.
Her conviction was proved correct as he made his way through the room in a roundabout fashion only to end up in front of the booth Sarah was sitting in. He ran his hand through his hair and smirked.

"Surely such a clever young woman isn't too stressed over something as trivial as a little midterm?"

Sarah was stuck between hissing out a "what are you doing here?" and asking him how he'd been in the years since she'd seen him last. She opted instead for a dumbstruck silence.

He motioned to the other side of the booth.

"Do you mind?"

She gave her head a single shake. He sat down and pulled her textbook over to look at it. He flipped through the pages nonchalantly and asked "How many credits?"

"T-twelve." she swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Then you have plenty of time for between studying."

"Hey. It's three hours of study for each credit, plus the time I have to spend in class-"

"But surely you... Wish, for more time, don't you Sarah?"

She was quiet, thinking.

"Don't you wish you had something - someone - to take you mind off classes? Someone to go places with you when you tire of your little college friends and their immature shenanigans?"

"Well... Yeah..."

"I thought so. After all, I heard your wish myself."

She grew a crumpled straw wrapper at him. The waitress returned, this time with two Sprites.

They sat in silence for several minutes, each one drinking their soda an staring the other one down.

"Why are you here, after all this time?" she blurted out at last.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Do you wish for me to leave, miss Sarah? Because I can if you'd like." he began to stand up from the booth.

"No! No."  she blushed, embarrassed at how quickly she responded.

"Well then." he extended his hand to Sarah to help her up from the booth. "There's a whole world out there just waiting to be discovered. Shops that stay open late, and movie theatres that never close. Who knows what we might find." he smirked.

Sarah took his hand and the two of them left the pub and ventured deep into the night.