Chapter 3 - Chapter Three

Jet came to visit her about an hour after school. Tia had just finished taking a shower and was towelling her hair dry. Taking a shower really was very inconvenient when one of her legs was wrapped up.

“How did you find me now?” Tia demanded when he knocked on her door and went into her room.

“I went to visit your parents in the café at lunch. They were more than happy for me to come and visit you and keep you company.” He looked up then, his blue eyes flashing a startling shade of blue. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind,” she breathed.

They were getting along fine (her mother even invited him to stay over for dinner, which meant that she must really like him—which shouldn’t matter to Tia, but for some reason, it did) when he asked her a question. The question. (And in case some of the people who are reading this has weird minds, it wasn’t “will you marry me?”.)

“Do you wear your shades all the time?” he asked her, sitting down next to her on the bed.

She looked away. Could he see the stripe? “Uh, yeah.”

“Why?”

She took a deep breath. “Uh…I don’t have eyes,” she said, making a feeble attempt at a joke.

He laughed politely, but they both knew that they didn’t manage to fool the other.

“I have weird eyes,” she said finally, breaking an awkward silence.

“Weird eyes,” he repeated.

“Yes. Weird eyes.”

“Show me.”

“No!”

“Show me.”

“I warned you,” she told him before taking off her sunglasses. She grimaced inwardly before looking up at Jet. He stared back at her, unflinching.

“They’re not weird,” he said softly after a while. “They’re beautiful.”

A shiver ran through her. She regained her dignity by snorting—not exactly a very ladylike thing to do, but oh well. “Yeah right.”

“I’m serious. I think your eyes are beautiful.”

“Yeah, well, you’re weird.”

He grinned. “And it is only now that you realise this?”

She started to put her sunglasses back on again, but she felt a hand on her arm stop her.

“No shades,” he told her.

“No?”

“Not when you’re with me, anyway. Your eyes are nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I’m not ashamed of my eyes,” she protested.

“Then why are you hiding them?” he challenged her, and she looked away.

“It makes people uncomfortable to look at them,” she said finally.

“Then it’s their problem, not yours. From now on, when you’re with me, you’re not allowed to wear shades.”

She scowled. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“On the contrary. I saved your life, so the least I get is to tell you what to do.”

“Fine. No sunglasses when I’m with you and you alone. Other people don’t get the privilege of seeing my beautiful eyes.”

He grinned. “That’s right. Only I am allowed to see those beautiful eyes.”

“Kids,” Tia’s mother called. “It’s dinner time.”

Jet followed Tia down the stairs and into the dining room.

~

“Thank you for having me over for dinner, Mrs. Green,” Jet said politely.

“Call me Charlene,” Tia’s mother said, batting her eyelashes.

Tia suppressed a groan. The age difference didn’t stop her mother from flirting with other guys. The fact that she was married didn’t stop her either. Jet squeezed Tia’s arm gently as if cringing from the eyelash-batting before letting go and sitting down next to her at the table.

Tia’s dad came into the dining room along with Bingo, their energetic golden retriever. “Honey, we need a new dog. This one doesn’t bark anymore. Oh, hello, Jet.” Bingo headed straight for Jet’s crotch area, sniffing tentatively.

“Hello, Mr. Green,” Jet said, gently pushing away the dog’s head. “Mrs. Green invited me over for dinner. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not,” Tia’s dad said, sitting down opposite to Tia. “You’re a nice kid.”

“Yes, he’s such a kind boy,” Tia’s mother cooed, patting Jet’s head before sitting down next to her husband. Bingo leapt up to lick Jet’s face. “See? Even Bingo thinks so.”

Tia shot Jet an apologetic look.

“So, tell us, Jet,” her mother was saying, “How did you come to find Tiana down in the well?”

“Well, according to Tiana, she was—” Tia stomped on Jet’s foot and he yelped. “—she fell down the well by accident.”

“Yeah,” Tia said, ignoring Jet’s pained glare. “I fell.”

“You fell into the well by accident?” her mother asked incredulously.

“I didn’t fall into the well on purpose, if that’s what you want to know,” Tia snapped.

“Well, it’s a good thing that Jet happened to stop by,” her mother continued, ignoring her daughter’s rudeness. “This should be the kind of boy you’re dating, Tiana.”

Tia flushed bright red at the same time while Jet grinned, obviously amused by her atrocious family.

“I don’t think that was at all necessary, mom,” Tia said after a while, her cheeks still hot.

“You should date a nice boy like Jet,” her mother continued, totally ignoring her. “He’s better for you than that Norman boy.”

“It’s Sherman, mom,” Tia said through gritted teeth, “And I broke up with him.”

“That’s good.” Her mother brightened up. “Now you’re free to date Jet.”

Tia bit down hard on her fork to stop herself from screaming and leaping across the table to strangle her mother. Was that woman totally insane?

Bingo placed his front paws on Tia’s lap under the table. She fed him a piece of whatever kind of meat her mother had heated up in the microwave.

“Sorry,” she whispered to Jet. “My mom can’t cook to save her life.”

“It’s okay,” he whispered back. “This is better than what I usually eat every night.”

“And also, sorry about the whole…dating thing.”

He grinned. “I didn’t particularly mind that, either. You didn’t tell me you were dating Sherman Guest.”

She shrugged. “We weren’t actually dating.”

“Were you two exclusive?”

“Does us two being exclusive mean that he can go around sticking his tongue down Cheryl Bailiff’s throat?” she asked him dryly.

He choked on his food.

“Are you alright, Jet dear?” Tia’s mother asked him.

“I’m fine, Mrs. Green,” he choked out, “Thank you.”

“Sam,” Tia’s mother turned to her husband, “Go get Jet something to drink.”

Her dad muttered something about being a slave before getting up and pouring Jet a glass of water.

“Thank you.” Jet sipped gratefully at the water while Tia tried to control her laughter.

“Tiana!” her mother scolded her, “It’s not nice to laugh at people when they’re choking. Surely you should know that. I’m sorry, Jet, she may not seem very nice right now, but once you get to know her—”

“Mom, this is what made Jet choke in the first place,” Tia interrupted. “I’m done.” She turned to Jet. “Are you done?”

Jet nodded. He had a thoroughly amused smile on his face.

If they weren’t with her parents right now, she would have slapped the smile straight off his face.

“Jet and I are going to head upstairs.” She proceeded to drag Jet up the stairs.

“It’s not nice to drag people up the stairs, Tiana,” her mother called up to them. “Why, Jet probably thinks that you’re a rude and aggressive girl. How do you expect him to be your boyfriend when—”

Tia slammed the door shut.

“Sorry about that,” she muttered. “My mom likes to play matchmaker.”

“Evidently so.”

She changed the topic to something less embarrassing and soon they were talking about anything they came to mind: music, books, and favourite subjects etc. etc.

“I can’t do Maths to save my life,” Tia groaned.

“I find Maths easy,” Jet mused.

“Yeah, but you’re clever.”

“I can help you with your Maths, if you like.”

“Wow.” Tia brightened. “Does that mean you’ll do my Maths homework for me?”

Jet grinned. “No, it means I’ll help you understand Maths so you can do your Maths homework properly instead of writing down random numbers.”

“So…you’re going to do my homework for me, right?” She looked hopefully up at him.

He laughed. “You wish, Tiana.” He looked down at his watch. “It’s nine. I should leave now.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. I hope you don’t get into trouble with your parents.”

He looked a bit startled, but afterwards he gave a cold laugh. “My parents? No, I’m not going to get into trouble with them. My parents don’t give a shoot.”

Tia raised her eyebrows but smiled anyway. “Okay. Well, goodnight.” For a second she thought he was going to lean in and kiss her on the cheek, but he only leaned in to tap her left leg lightly.

“I hope you get better soon,” he said, smiling. “I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He frowned. “Oh. I’m…I’m not going to be at school tomorrow.”

“Oh? Why? Do you have more girls to rescue from the well?”

He laughed. “Maybe. Goodnight, Tiana. I’ll see you around.”

“Around,” she repeated. “Yeah.”

He shut the door close behind him and Tia was left on her own.

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