When he complied, she turned her back to him and led him inside. There was a chair at her desk, and her bed sat in the far corner. Deciding she really didn’t want to see Jack getting comfortable on her bed, she motioned for him to sit in the chair as she shut her door. She then took a seat on her bed across from him. She crossed her legs Indian style, her hands clenched over her knees.
Maybe instead of studying her textbook, she should have been practicing what she should have been saying to him instead. Now that he was actually here, she felt like she was at a loss for words. Part of her had genuinely expected to not see him, but he was here, in her room, watching her unhappily but also expectantly.
“I didn’t ask you here to blackmail you.” How would she even blackmail him anyway? Turning him in to the police for using illegal substances and drinking while underaged seemed really ridiculous to her, but that was the only ammunition she had against him. She suddenly wondered what was in his bag, but decided it was probably just alcohol or something.
“I wanted to talk to you because I’m worried about you. You constantly act like a jerk, but somewhere inside yourself, there’s something good. You wouldn’t have helped me if there wasn’t, but you acted like you wished you hadn’t. I mean, I get it. Getting stabbed can’t be fun or anything, but you had to have known there was a risk like that before you approached.” She sighed.
“I had to know why you act this way, so I sort of… managed to figure out your name, and I found some news articles concerning you and your family.” Oh, man… What if he thought she was some creepy stalker? Well, it wasn’t like she stationed herself outside his dorm window to watch her or anything, but it took effort to dig up things like that about a person’s past.
“I want you to know that I’m really sorry about what happened to your family, and I know I can never fully comprehend what happened. I do think that’s why you act the way you do, though. You’re pushing everyone away from you, and that is something I can understand.” The dryad uncrossed her legs to let them hang over the edge of the bed. “You once told me that life sucks until the day we day, but you said I actually have a choice in the matter. Do you really want to die so badly? Is that the only reason why you helped me when I was attacked?”