[maidstone] When the night comes { jae }

Gabrielle looked up when she heard her name, eyebrows raised politely. She glanced at Lottie, the Hogwarts seventh year student who'd invited her to the party, on her left. “Sorry?” she asked, turning her head slightly as the other girl explained what was happening. Seven minutes…? Her grey eyes flicked past her friend to the boy on the other side of the room who she was supposed to spend time with in a cupboard, or something? Her eyebrows raised a little further up her forehead.

It was interesting being here, she thought, in an environment where people didn’t really know anything about her. Even though she had a lot of friends in Beauxbatons — and still went to all of the parties and everything, of course, she wasn’t a nun — there was just something a little sour about spending time with people who she’d known basically all of her life. In comparison, the anonymity here was exciting. The attention was different.

Of course, she’d been hoping the crowd would be a little older, but, whatever.

Gabby reached for her nearly-finished drink and finished it, much to the delight of the crowd. She got to her feet elegantly, passing her empty cup to Charlotte, an amused smile on her lips. “Okay,” she said, nodding at him as she waited for him to lead the way.

This was dumb.

This whole party was dumb. Jae was even willing to concede that he was dumb and he honestly didn't know why he had stayed this long. His eyes strayed to the dark-haired Gryffindor currently canoodling with her boyfriend on the couch across from him. He tried not to snort in disgust as something tightened in his chest. Why should he care what she was doing? She clearly didn't give a shit about him. He glanced down at his nearly empty cup with both disgust and irritation. While truth and dare had gone in rounds around the room, he found himself drinking more and more even though the taste still wasn't something he actually liked. There was no limit to the number of time he had called himself an idiot tonight.

And yet, apparently idiocy was his anthem tonight because when it popped back to him for another truth or dare, he picked dare with a lazy sort of irreverence that a tiny voice told him he might regret tomorrow morning. Or maybe immediately. 'I dare you to do seven minutes in heaven with someone who's way out of your league' one of the older kids had said and Jae fought against the embarrassment in the phrasing, choosing instead to bluster through it with an eye roll and a smirk. He might have even glanced around the room and made a snarky comment that no one was 'out of his league' but the other guy had pointed out the beauty with the silvery-blonde hair like spun silk who had apparently used a skin glowing charm or something??

Jae regretted his very existence.

He glanced at her as she whispered with a friend and he felt his heart beating in his ears when the thought occurred to him that she might turn him down. Yep, Idiot of the Year right here. He should've picked truth. So when she stood in that graceful way of hers that reminded him of water and gave him an 'okay', Jae stood up immediately and tried to be as casual as possible as he walked across the room, feeling the eyes of everyone on him, as he glanced down the hall and then strode to one of the doors. He pulled it open and then peered it, a closet, great. He held the door open and then swept an arm to allow her to go first, trying not to notice how her eyes seemed to be pale violet. Was she wearing charmed lenses??

On second thought, he glanced in and realized it was a little dusty and not very 'welcoming' and with a glance at her clothing he didn't think she would like that very much. So he rushed to grab a footstool across the hall and then glanced around and found a bucket in the back of the closet which he upturned then again waved his hand for her, wondering why he cared at all if she sat in the dust.

Gabby watched as he stood, too — oh, he was shorter than her. Okay. She glanced at Lottie, still sat on the ground, and gave her friend a bit of a smirk, before following the boy as he led her out of the circle. She rolled her eyes at nothing in particular, or maybe at the cheers from the crowd. So mature, she thought, feeling rather amused and above it all. The energy was different, here.

He ushered her towards the closet, then scrambled for makeshift seats or something, before letting her inside. She stepped past the door, then turned, waiting for him to join her. Once he’d stepped inside, someone closed the door from the outside, with a probably-immature comment that she hadn’t caught. Her english was good, but it was loud in here, and much harder when she couldn’t see the person that was speaking.

“Um,” she said, not sitting. He hadn’t introduced himself yet, so she decided to. “I’m Gabrielle,” she said, holding her hand out for him to shake, in the small, cramped space. It was far more symbolic than practical, though; they were standing too close for a regular handshake. She could feel the footstool against the back of her calves.

Was she floating through the air when she walked? How did she look like she was dancing and walking at the same time. Wancing. Dalking. Hell, what was he going on about? It's like his brain couldn't function when she was this close, someone having slammed the door shut and made a rude comment that made him grimace, blush, and glare all at the same time. Look, not drunk enough that he could pull off those three at once. Or, well, he hoped it didn't look like constipation. Shoot, don't think about that when you're stuck in a closet with a girl!

"Jae," he said shortly, glancing down at her hand before shaking in easily, noticing a faint accent and wondering at it. Even her skin felt silky smooth to the touch, like flower petals on glass. He dropped his hand immediately when he realized he had held it longer than was normal. Merlin, he needed to get a hold of himself. But because she didn't sit, they were standing pretty close to each other and he couldn't help but notice the height difference. Plus the obvious fact that she was older than him. Should he feel lucky to be stuck in here with her? He hadn't exactly played this game before so what the hell were they supposed to do in here? Going off the rude comments from Isaac's friends, he could make some assumptions. And while he was much better looking than most people at the party even with his blonde hair that he half regretted, she still seemed like the kind of girl who didn't hang around people his age much.

He glanced down at the bucket behind his feet and then glanced at her again, noticing how pink and full her lips seemed. He didn't even want to notice really, but how could he stop looking? Had it been seven minutes yet? It felt like it'd been an hour already. "So, uh, are you graduated or something? You don't look familiar," he said, trying to figure out where to put his hands, opting for double pockets so at least he didn't fidget.

She’d said her name the French way, because it sounded so much nicer than the English way, even though she just knew that he’d shorten the ‘a’, and gloss over the ‘r’. “Jae,” she repeated. She watched him when he spoke; it wasn’t very well lit in here, but she caught every word. Amusing that he thought she didn’t look familiar; she wondered how old he was. Even if she was a graduate, she doubted that he wouldn’t have noticed her in the past couple of years. That wasn’t conceited, either, just highly likely.

...Unless he thought she was like, twenty-four or something, in which case she should be offended.

The blonde reached up to brush some hair behind one shoulder, deciding to settle on a cool smile. “Oh, I attend Beauxbatons,” she told him politely, wondering if she should add in France at the end of it. “How old are you?” she asked, lowering her hand to her side again. It really was difficult to tell; he could be her age, or a couple of years younger. If he was an old-looking fourteen year old or something, though, she'd strangle Lottie for letting it happen. She wondered if someone outside of the cupboard was actually timing this, wondered if she should expect someone to burst in any moment.

She repeated his name and it sounded so nice, he almost caught himself asking her to say it again. What was going on with him? Merlin, he needed to get out of here. Would she take offense to that though? Probably. But he also didn't want to move an inch either. In the dark, being so close to her, felt thrilling and daring and all they were doing was standing here with mouthbreathers probably waiting outside to hear something.

Gabrielle, the name repeating in his head with the accent and all, as his brows raised. "Oh, Beauxbatons?" he said, his French accent feeling rusty as he tried to remember something he could say in her language, but all he could remember were the words 'baguette' and 'maison'. Not very helpful, Kim. "Sixteen," he answered immediately and then wondered if he should have lied to make himself seem older and cooler. But that was quickly discarded as she brushed her hair over her shoulder and he lost his train of thought for a few moments. He managed to wrangle something together so he didn't look like a complete, blithering idiot. Hopefully.

"So what are we.." Jae frowned and abandoned that thought, but then was speaking a second later, a need for information or answers or some kind of clue as to what the hell he was supposed to do here with her looking at him like that?? "Do we.." Hell, that sounded even worse. She probably thought he was twelve. Yeah, yeah, he was a freaking giant like Buckley, he got it. Speaking of, he glanced again at her, noticing again she had a few inches on him. Maybe it would be less awkward if they were sitting. He tried to gesture again toward the little seats he had brought in, a cool, careless quip on his lips to maybe tell her to relax or something. "You're tall so--" What. The. Hell. Why had he said those words. Yes, he had been thinking them, but that's not what he meant to say?

Jae wondered if they'd find his dead body at some point in the future in this very closet because he felt like passing away in that moment.

Oh, Beauxbatons?

“In France,” Gabby added helpfully. Well, this was a fine start, she supposed, glancing up at the ceiling, then following the lines of the mostly-empty shelves back down. There weren’t a lot of places to look, she thought,  if she wasn’t looking at him. She met his eye again as he told her his age.

Sixteen. Gabrielle wondered if that was a fifth-year sixteen or a sixth-year sixteen. It might seem like a trivial distinction, but it wasn’t. Either way, though: so young. “Year six?” she guessed. He was short, but they were standing close enough now that he definitely didn’t look like a fourteen year old.

She wasn’t especially interested in hearing his odd little half-sentences, but she frowned slightly, as she watched him speak, making sure to catch what he was saying. She looked down at the step behind her. Tall? Well, sure. Gabrielle adjusted the bottom of her dress as she took a seat as he’d indicated. Her dress was a bit short to sit like this, so she stretched her legs out beside his, one crossed casually over the other. There wasn’t much space; her legs touched his as he took his seat.

“I’m here with Lottie — Charlotte,” she told him, extremely uninterested in sitting here for the next six minutes in silence. “And Steph,” she added. “They are in year seven?”

"I know where it is," he said a little more sharper than he had intended. Did she think he was an idiot? Of course, she did. Who didn't know where Beauxbatons was and could he blame her? He hadn't said one intelligent thing since he had come in here. He was never coming to a party again. He didn't care if Mae looked at him with those puppy dog eyes that were so much different than this blonde girl's. Gabrielle. Shoot. He was staring again.

Jae forced himself to look away from her, but the closet was so small that it felt like she was everywhere. He couldn't quite decipher the different scents in her perfume he was picking up. He tried not to stare at her long legs as she stretched them out next to him and he did the same, pretending to ignore the way he accidentally brushed against her. He imagined he looked much less cool than she did. Why was he in here again? Oh yeah, seven minutes in awkward hell. "No, year five," he answered automatically, wondering hopefully if her guess meant he looked older.

He tried to take a breath to steady himself and get his brain cells back on because otherwise, what was he going to do? Stammer through another six minutes and then run out of here? No, to hell with that. She was just a girl. A very pretty girl who was weirdly distracted. Since when did he like blondes anyway?

"Oh.." he said as she answered his unspoken question. "Gryffindors right?" he guessed, thinking he knew who she was talking about. Focusing on facts helped. "How do you know them?"

“Oh,” She replied, nodding. Well, she couldn’t kiss a fifth year. There was obviously some kind of expectation — maybe not from Jae, who’d made extra effort to give them little chairs to sit on, but from the group — that something like that would happen in a game like this. Gabrielle wished she had a watch, and tried to be subtle as she glanced at his wrists before looking down at her own hands. She had an internal countdown for the end of the most boring seven-closet-minutes-session ever.

She nodded when he spoke. The Hogwarts houses all had such silly names, she thought. Hufflepuff was the one that sounded like a desert name to her, and Ravenclaw’s symbol was an eagle, rather than a raven? Ridiculous. Then again, what could one expect from a school named hog warts. “I think that’s right,” She said, though she was fairly sure Steph was in Ravenclaw house.

“We met at camp a couple of years ago,” she replied with a smile. “Lottie’s birthday is in Summer and mine’s in winter, so we’ve been going to each other’s birthday parties since then.” She was quiet for a moment, then leaned forward slightly. “I’ve been to your school, you know,” she told him. Fun fact. She really didn’t want to sit in silence for the next few minutes, and it was clear that he was no conversationalist. “When I was really young — do you know the Triwizard tournament?”

Jae nodded. And then nodded again. Gryffindors, cool. For some reason, he was having a hard time remembering what he had read about Beauxbatons in the book he had read about the top elite wizarding schools around the world. What was it about closets and sitting so close to this blonde girl that made every sane thought slide right out of his brain? He was annoyed at himself and yet, he couldn't help but notice how perfectly dainty her wrists were.

Merlin, what was wrong with him. Noticing her wrists now? He wanted to punch himself in the throat. And yet.. her dainty wrists led to elegant hands with long, tapered fingers and..

Had it been seven minutes yet? When was he going to get out of this paradise-- no, prison. Jae nodded again about her camp stories, somewhere in the back of his mind, he had something interesting to say about the camps he had gone to (at least the ones he had gone to before his mum decided she wanted him home for the summers instead of 'off at at another magic school'), but he was having trouble remembering what those interesting tidbits were.

"You have?" he finally managed to string a couple of words together. He frowned at her. "When?" He hadn't remembered any foreign exchange student program, at least not recently. But then she clued him in and his brows went way up. "Wasn't that almost.. ten years ago? They let you come to Hogwarts for that?" He was surprised and not in a good way. Everything he had read about the Triwizard Tournament hadn't been good, especially after a Hufflepuff had died during the final task. Yes, he knew there were bigger things at work like Voldemort's return, but the track record of the tournament wasn't stellar and it seemed like another thing adults did to try to impress each other while putting student lives at stake. The fact that she was there too only seemed to prove his point.