The glare returned to Jia Li’s face. He was seriously trying to justify shooting lightning at a squirrel, and she was the one that was unjust and wrong? Just because he was sarcastic and a dick, it didn’t make him right, and she wasn’t about to see it that way. When she was wrong, she could admit it, but this time she wasn’t. The dryad figured he had plenty of practice shutting people down, but she wasn’t going to let him get to her.
“I’m sure you’ve looked for way worse.” It was pretty hard to believe that someone would just “stumble” upon things if they weren’t at least searching for something close. The internet was a big thing with a lot to it. She’d been using it most of her life, and she’d never stumbled across anything freaky. Sure, inappropriate things in general were hard to avoid, but the really messed up things about which she had only heard had been easily avoided.
Jia Li got the sense that he was lying. It was easy enough to figure out things about lightning needing something to bring it to the ground, but the way he’d spoken about it made her think he cared more than he would let her know. “Maybe in high school. After that stage in a kid’s life, people tend to grow up.” Or was it just her that had grown up? Had she really? She hadn’t even gone on a date since she was sixteen. Even so, if she was ever going to find a guy, she wanted someone intelligent who was also nice.
“Acting like an idiot and an asshole will probably give you plenty of stupid women, but I’m sure it’ll also get you plenty of STD’s. I guess you wouldn’t be the type who would care much if the people you screw have any semblance of brains, but I doubt it can really make you happy.” Then again, he didn’t really seem to want to be happy. Sure, he laughed a lot, but the more he spoke, the more it was like he was an actor on a stage. He was false in her mind, and she wasn’t really sure why she was still standing here, exchanging banter with him.
Jia Li didn’t say anything when he asked her how she felt about being outwitted by a drunken guy. He was infuriating, but anything she said would just be turned into another reference or another insult. It wasn’t worth it.
“Don’t take it personally. You may have looked okay, but as soon as you move or as soon as you talk, it evaporates.” She scoffed at him. It was true in her mind. Maybe if he was the nice, science geek he could have been good looking, but as he was, he kind of disgusted her.
The dryad shook her head. Porn wasn’t her thing to watch or to read, and she definitely wasn’t going to participate in it. Of course, he had been right about her being a virgin, but she wouldn’t let him know that. Alissa would probably get a kick out of this guy. Maybe she would even be able to take him down a notch, but Jia Li wasn’t sure she ever wanted those two to meet.
“I’m not Greek, not even a little. Nice try, though.” Just because she was a dryad which he couldn’t actually know for certain, it didn’t mean she was Greek. Sure, humans wrote all about dryads in Greek myth, but just like humans, dryads had lived all over the world. They didn’t originate in Greece just like the humans probably hadn’t originated there.
Jia Li shrugged. “I have class. Some people at this school actually care about taking advantage of getting an education. We don’t all just drink it all away.” With that, she walked away. She didn’t disappear into a tree because she didn’t want to confirm his guesses. He didn’t deserve confirmation.