Jia Li rolled her eyes and offered, “Maybe you think it’s ‘kick-ass’ because messing with creatures that can’t really hurt you back makes you feel like a big man, all exhilarated by another’s suffering.” She shook her head.
“Just because I don’t drink or throw squirrels or throw lightning at squirrels doesn’t mean I have a stick up my ass. In fact, I could probably dance circles around you while you just stand there, shifting your weight and thinking of that as dancing. It takes a pretty relaxed body to be able to dance well.” Jia Li countered, almost in challenge. She wasn’t trying to be funny, and she knew her comment probably wasn’t, but if there’s one thing in which she could without a doubt excel over him, it would be dance.
The dryad averted her eyes, jaw clenched when he mentioned that she got red-faced every time he got close to her which had been all of once to that point, but still. He couldn’t understand, and there was no way she would even try to make him understand. He’d probably just make fun of her for having been stupid enough to get involved with someone who would try to kill her or for being stupid enough to ever show someone for whom she cared her tree.
In reality, she’d already beaten herself up over it time and again for years. How does someone protect themselves from someone like that, someone who had seemed so nice only to be a huge psycho? Jia Li’s only defense against it was keep herself closed off physically and mentally, to keep herself from revealing too much about herself, from getting too close to anyone. It was the smartest thing she could do in her mind. There was no other way.
She was so absorbed in her fury that she didn’t even immediately realize he’d just called her pedophile, so she had no reaction to it. It didn’t matter anyway. He was just trying to goad her again, anyway, to piss her off. He was pretty damned good at it, too.
Then he got close to her, and looked at her with wide, mocking brown eyes. She hated him for reading her so well. She hated herself more for giving him something to read. Why couldn’t she just place a mask over her face and her body that would effectively disguise exactly what she felt? Hell, even just being aloof would be preferable to just being stiff. At least then, this jerk wouldn’t have as much fuel for making nasty comments about her. She only hated herself more when she felt her face redden when he commented on her probably being a bad kisser.
Then he moved away, and they commented about the bet that hadn’t been accepted, about confidence in one’s abilities. “No. That’s not confidence, that’s cockiness, and there’s a big difference. You say you would have caught the squirrel even if I’d tripped you, but you have no idea. I don’t think you’re the sort who can read into parallel universes.”