Jia Li’s eyes narrowed at Jack as he mocked her. She hated him so much… No, that wasn’t really true. While she severely disliked him, hate was a strong word, and only one person she’d ever met had earned her loathing. That had happened after he’d disfigured the flesh of her leg. It was something for which she would never forgive him, and if he had succeeded in killing her, she felt certain she would come back as a ghost and make life miserable for him. As it was, she was still alive, and while she couldn’t let go of what had happened, she was glad to be able live a life in which she never had to see his face again.
Jack, on the other hand, was a different story. Even though she didn’t see him all that often, each time she did was an infuriating blow. Their seeing each other at all was always random chance, and with how big the school was, she should have easily been able to live a life in which they walked completely separate paths, never seeing one another.
“Like I would fantasize about you. Any redness in my face is just because you’re so infuriating.” It was sort of true. She didn’t fantasize about him, but she had reoccurring thoughts about what happened, things that were said. Of course, the real reason why she blushed around him was because he embarrassed her.
“Get over yourself. I wouldn’t stalk you if my life depended on it.” She growled softly, trying hard to keep herself from yelling. “And I’m not going to dump this over your head because I don’t want to mess up the couch, not because I care about any social stigmas attaching themselves to me.” It didn’t make her spineless. He was just a prick. If anything, it proved that she was the bigger person.
Jia Li shook her head. “I’m trying to get you to leave. I wouldn’t care if every seat on the skank-train was taken because I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole.”
Then he answered her question and asked her what she was doing there, adding a bit of speculation as well. Her jaw clenched, and she tried hard to keep her face from flushing. However, her face was already red from what they’d been talking about before this, so she just hoped her face hadn’t gotten any redder.
He had a point, though… sort of. She didn’t drink, and she didn’t hook up with random guys. “I’m here to hang out with my friends. I was invited by Kay.” That was a good enough reason. She did like to dance, too. Then he brought up the stalking comment again, and she shook her head again.
The dryad was actually just about to walk away when Kay approached… and sat right on Jack’s lap. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she felt her gut clench painfully. Her face lost the flush that he had caused. “This is the same jerk I told you about. How is that possible?” She didn’t even care that she’d just announced that she’d spoken about Jack to someone else. She was just shocked. This couldn’t be happening, could it be? The way Kay had described him, he’d been a jerk, yeah, but he’d also been kind of appealing. She’d said he’d fallen all over himself, but she’d never seen Jack stumble over his words once.
Jia Li felt like she was in a nightmare, and emotions were rolling through her that she couldn’t explain, and she didn’t want to examine them. Suddenly, alcohol didn’t seem like such a terrible thing. She took the can of beer from Kay’s hand, knowing the siren probably wouldn’t care, and took a large gulp of it before returning it to its owner. It tasted awful, but it was at least sort of familiar.
When she had been fourteen, Jia Li had gone to a party, and she’d gotten really drunk. She hadn’t been so drunk that she couldn’t remember anything, but she had been drunken enough that she’d been incredibly happy and cuddly and loud. It had been fun until the next morning, and she hadn’t had a drink since then. However, now seemed like a good time for that. The alcohol curled warmly in her stomach, and she realized she wanted more.
“Thanks.” She said to Kay about letting her drink her beer. “I, uh… I’ll leave you two alone.” With that, she moved away from the couch and toward the beverages. She still had her cup of ice, and she filled it with Captain Morgan and coke before moving back onto the dance floor while she sipped her drink.