Jia Li had, as usual, been thinking about what had happened on Saturday with the guy who had called himself Jack Daniels. Her fury over his inappropriate greeting had died down after a while, and she found herself replaying over and over what he had said about choices. No matter how many times she’d thought about it, she couldn’t make sense of it. Did he mean he didn’t have a choice in life sucking? What had happened to him that would make him feel that way?
Deciding she didn’t want to think about him any more hadn’t been easy, but Kay had been a big help in that. When she’d invited Jia Li to a party, the dryad had originally started to decline. After all, she had class the next afternoon. However, the siren talked her into it, and she really did need to try to have fun to counteract her unhappy contemplations.
So it was that Monday, she stood in her room with her closet door open wide along with the drawers of her dresser. What should she wear? She knew she wanted to look pretty, but she wasn’t exactly an expert in these areas. Her mother had died when she was born, and her father had never remarried. Hell, she couldn’t even remember his taking a girlfriend home. Did he even date? It didn’t matter because there had simply never been a feminine figure in her life to teach her hair and make-up tips.
In the end, she worked her toned legs into a pair of skinny jeans and pulled a bright green t-shirt dress over her head. Its hem stopped mid-thigh. She wrapped a wide, dark brown belt around her waist to show the curves the dress itself denied. On her feet, she wore a pair of low-heeled, shin high boots that were the same colour as her belt.
Make-up was difficult on which to decide, but in the end, she went with a touch of eyeliner with a touch of eye shadow in natural tones to highlight her eyes. She decided to go with just a hint of blush, and she smoothed a bit of lip gloss over her lips. Her hair was more difficult, but in the end, she decided to just straighten it. It was easy enough, but it was a change from her usual full-bodied waves. It seemed good for a party.
When she’d finished and looked at herself in the mirror, she thought her make-up looked pretty natural with just light touches here and there. Nothing was too attention getting and definitely nothing trashy. However, she was beginning to rethink going. It was a party which meant that people were going to go there and drink and be rowdy. Parties weren’t her thing. Too many strangers and not enough friends.
Then again, Kay had seemed really excited about it, and she had already told the siren she was going to go. She’d already come to think of the other as a friend, and even though they didn’t tell each other everything, they held good conversations. Jia Li had even told her about what had happened with that jerk! Well… sort of… She’d omitted the fact that he had touched her inappropriately. The dryad had only said that he’d kissed her, and she’d shoved him away, and they’d gotten into another fight. There was no reason to reveal more than that. She decided to go after all.
She made her way across campus to the Shae dorms. Even though the door was already open, the dryad knocked before going inside. “Hey, Kay.” She smiled as she entered the dorm. There were snack foods and beverages all arrayed conveniently. The music playing was pretty good for just regular dancing, and Jia Li knew she could at least have fun doing that much even if she had no intentions of drinking.