Wanna Dance By the Water

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Adrian's blue eyes were wide as he stared at the scene before him. This wasn't at all how he'd expected his trip to the cafeteria to end up. Now, with the amount of alcohol in his body, it made the experience a little less straining, but he wasn't more than slightly tipsy, so it was still exhausting. Now, that wasn't even mentioning what had just happened:

He'd been in his own world, his own thoughts focused entirely on a girl whose thoughts had been crying louder than most of the others in the cafeteria. She'd been upset about her boyfriend cheating, or rather, she thought he'd been cheating. The girl had then spotted her boyfriend with another girl in the food line and her mind was practically screaming -- which had caused Adrian to walk straight into a group of boys, who from the look of things hadn't been particularly pleased by getting milk spilled all over themselves.

He could feel one of them thug at his collar and while his buds were hollering, Adrian felt his body being tugged towards the exit. Because he focused more on the thoughts rather than the actual words the boy spoke, he had to admit that it was a little puzzling. The guy didn't actually want to beat him up, but he was afraid he'd look weak in front of his buddies.

High school in a nutshell.

Adrian issued a low 'oof' as his back was slammed against the wall. The other boy, the one who'd gotten milk spilled all over him was saying something, tightening his grip around Adrian's collar, but the blonde simply blinked dumbfounded at him before catching himself.

"What?" he muttered, brows furrowing. Just as the boy was about to repeat himself, one of his friends poked his shoulder and pointed at someone approaching. Not that it seemed to deter the boy - because moments later, Adrian's eyes went wide again as he felt the sudden stinging pain against his jaw.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina was making her way to the cafeteria for some sub-par food since she was way too damn lazy to make her own right now and came upon a less than impressive scene. With a college kid? Seriously? Those boys needed to find some other place than the hallway where anyone could walk by and see them to beat the shit out of someone. She was going to continue walking by and leave them to it. Really. She so and totally was.


    Then one made eye contact with her and another hit the kid and she just… They’d already seen her anyway so…. there was a high chance she’d be dragged into it whether she wanted to be or not. Besides, witnesses were loose ends or something, sooo she would enter the scene on her own terms. Selina walked up to the boys as boldly as ever and asked in the least confrontational tone she could manage, “Children, isn’t there something better you could be doing? Like jacking each other off, comparing your non-existent sexual prowess or something like that?”


    Ok, maybe not exactly the best way to forge peace… or maybe she was feeling a bit more into a fight than she’d originally thought. Besides, if one of them dared to lay a hand on her, everything from that point onward was self-defense. She didn’t pity them in the slightest. Besides, even if she lost, the teachers would be along quickly enough before things got too bad, and she would get in quite a few nasty hits before then that these boys wouldn’t forget for weeks to come.

[Deleted]

Instinctively, Adrian's hand came up to touch at his hurting jaw. The hit hadn't been hard enough to break the skin, but he wouldn't doubt that he'd get a pretty nasty bruise. The skin around his jaw tightened as he pressed his lips together, blue eyes moving from the approaching girl, whose intentions seemed to be breaking the fight up and back to the boy still holding his collar. If life had taught Adrian anything, it was to remain quiet and wait it all out. Surely, there was no need for the girl to get involved.

And then she spoke, and the guy who'd punched him grunted in response. With his grip still around Adrian's collar, he turned his gaze towards the girl and Adrian followed suit, blue eyes glowering slightly. With the constant thoughts pouring out from all the people around, Adrian hardly caught what the guy said, but it was something along the lines of "mind your own business". Clearly, they hadn't at all liked what the girl had said, though, even Adrian had to admit that it was rather amusing. And it had him grinning - which in turn, the guy didn't like. At all.

He felt the grip around his collar tighten even further and once again, he was slammed against the wall, much lighter this time. "Don't you have anything better to do?" one of the guys sneered at the girl. Adrian flickered his gaze to him and tilted his head curiously. Reading his thoughts, the guys didn't seem all that pleased about the girl arriving. It made them feel uncertain.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina wasn’t too surprised that they'd told her to back off, but really, she’d sort of been hoping they’d start a fight all on their own accord. Ahhh well. She’d work with what she had. Besides, she didn’t really have any particular desire to get in trouble. As much as Selina was itching to beat the shit out of somebody, she wasn’t going to be stupid about it either. “Not really,” she responded with a shrug in answer to his question. “I’m procrastinating eating the shitty cafeteria food for as long as possible,” she explained with a sigh.


    “Besides, you do realize that a teacher could walk around the corner at any time right? Like you’re not exactly in the best place to beat up your friend there,” she offered with a glance behind her to emphasize the point before turning back to face them. “Really boys, think about yourselves, since you’re apparently too dumb to think of anything else,” she said in a patronizing tone, as if she were talking to three year olds.


    She was enjoying this way too much. Really. She should be so much more… lady-like? No. That wasn’t the right word. Something having to do with modesty or humility or one of those sweetly virtues that she seemed to lack completely. Maybe. Or perhaps she should like violence less. That could work too. Selina wasn’t entirely sure what the point of talking to these assholes was, but she certainly wouldn’t make the first move. She never did… unless she really hated someone, but that hadn’t happened in quite some time.

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Looking at the boys, it was more than obvious that they didn't particularly enjoy the way the girl was talking to them, but from what he could read from their thoughts, they'd already started thinking about what she'd said. It was very likely that a teacher could walk past them and then they'd suddenly find themselves in a lot more trouble than what they were now. Casting glances between each other, one of the boys nodded.

The boy holding Adrian pressed against the wall sneered at the girl. "This isn't over," he said with a low voice before giving Adrian's body one last push against the wall. Then he pulled back, brushing his clammy hands off on his pants and together with the rest of the boys, they started wandering off.

Adrian's hand went up to his collar, attempting to smoothen out the frills that had formed against the white fabric. His blue eyes narrowed slightly as he brushed his glance over the girl. For a moment, he wondered if he was supposed to thank her, but then again, it wasn't as if he'd asked for her help. She was likely not even interested in talking to him, as few people were, and had more likely only approached them for the thrill of things, which honestly, from reading her thoughts, didn't seem awfully far fetched.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina let out a low laugh at the boy’s threat, “If you’re smarter than you look, it had damn well better be,” she warned. Seriously. These boys had probably never been in a real fight in their lives. What the hell did they think they were going to accomplish by threatening her? Of course, she hadn’t exactly told people here about what had gone on in Chile… which meant she was far better known for her sexual appetite than she was for her violent history. She honestly wasn’t entirely sure which one she preferred at this point.


    No. She knew. It was why she didn’t mind the rumors going around about her adventures in bed. Not a damn soul here knew about anything that had gone on back in Santiago except for the staff and her boss and his sister, but then she didn’t even want to know all of the different types of information the Conners had access to. She also had every intention of keeping her history in the past where it belonged. She didn’t need stupid people thinking that they could prove something by fighting her.


    Selina glanced at the boy who was fixing his clothes, “Goddamn I’m hungry,” she admitted with a smile as her stomach let out an audible complaint. “Want to go get something to eat with me? I mean the cafeteria’s… lovely,” she drawled, “But I don’t think I can honestly force myself to eat there today. Besides, I just got paid, so lunch is on me,” she offered with a shrug. Eating alone was fine, but sometimes she preferred company.

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He really did try to keep his thoughts to himself. He didn't want to listen in. He didn't want to know the things that ran through the other girl's head, and yet, he couldn't help it. It just happened. As usual, Adrian felt like he was walking on territory that he had no right to. There might not have been anything overly specific, but still, it felt like he was intruding. Perhaps that was one of the main reasons why he hated being what he was - whether he was really crazy or it was true what everyone told him, claiming that he was some kind of mutant.

The girl's voice caused Adrian to snap back into what was happening before him. Blinking, his blue eyes returned to the girl and for a moment, he simply stared at her, dumbfounded. "What?" he asked, even if he'd heard the question she'd posed. Why on earth did this girl want to-- Maybe it didn't matter. It probably didn't. He just didn't understand why she'd say such a thing.

"Err, okay," he said, still looking dumbfounded. The girl wanted company? His company? Why? Why on earth would anyone in their right mind ever want to-- Well, then again, she didn't really know him, and well, she wasn't exactly shy. That much she'd proven already. And yet, the blonde simply stood there, still staring at the girl with a dumbfounded expression.

[Selina Taylor]

    He looked kind of cute when he was confused. Selina almost giggled but she restrained herself. Perhaps he was socially awkward or maybe he just wasn’t used to people like her… whatever that meant. She honestly wasn’t entirely sure herself at this point. Either way, laughing probably wouldn’t help the situation. Of course, the obvious thing would be that he was still shaken up from the boys earlier, but she had a feeling that wasn't the case.

    “Awesome,” she replied when he agreed, her mind already focusing on the possibilities. For a small town like Kalispell, there was a surprisingly diverse amount of restaurants to choose from. “You in the mood for anything in particular?” she asked as she started to lead the way to the bus stop. She knew Maya had offered her the use of her car, but she wouldn’t do that unless it was necessary. As much as she tended to enjoy breaking rules, driving without a license could get her into more trouble than it was worth.

    She could go for just about anything when she was this hungry, though her mother’s home cooking was almost always the first thing she thought of. Selina knew she wouldn’t find anything close here in Kalispell though, so she didn’t focus on the thought long. Her attention was quickly caught by the bus schedule programmed in her phone anyway.

    The next bus was supposedly in five minutes, so she didn’t feel too bad about not having a car to get them downtown. And as confident as she was, Selina had merely expected him to follow her.