Chapter 16

Everything that had happened that night was too much for Jasmine to process. Her mind was blank as she silently followed Joshua. Joshua drove her home, and as they reached the building, she noticed that he was heading toward the stairs and looked at him in confusion. "There was a temporary power outage in the neighborhood tonight, so the elevator isn't working," he explained. Jasmine nodded and followed him up the stairs. Joshua turned on his phone's flashlight and walked ahead. Noticing she seemed a bit out of it, he gently offered, "If you want, you can hold onto my sleeve." Noticing the sincerity in his eyes, Jasmine nodded and reached out to grab his shirt sleeve. He glanced at her before continuing up the stairs. Jasmine followed him, feeling oddly reassured by his presence. When the two of them reached the sixth floor, she let go of his sleeve, pulling out her keys to unlock the door. "Jasmine," Joshua called out. Jasmine turned around and asked, "What's up?" "Are you afr