it girl | jaya

Chapter 14

Nya's POV

"So, where do you wanna start, then?"

Jay had given me a ride as promised but I was silent the entire time, staring glumly through the window. Now we'd set up in his dad's garage, ready to build our creation: Project Lady Iron Dragon.

I shrug in response to the question, curling up against the chair. Jay spreads out all our tools and materials, before crouching on the ground opposite me, "What's up?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter."

"Nya..."

"Jay..."

He stood up, "All right, you don't have to tell me. But you do seem mad, so do you wanna take out your anger on hammering down some metal?"

"Sure." Jay hands me a hammer and pulls me up from the chair, nudging me towards the workbench.

I bite my lip, examining the metals laid out in front of me, "Lloyd looked through our messages while we were together."

"What?"

"That's why they locked me in the closet."

"You were locked in a closet?!" Oh right. Jay didn't know what happened that night. I recap the events as I bang the hammer down on the metal, forming the ridges and curves with a blowtorch.

Jay seemed blown away by the time I'd finished, "Shit. I had no idea, I'm so sorry."

I shook my head, "It's fine. What's done is done, right?"

"I just don't know how someone is able to stoop so low."

"Well, that's Lloyd for you."

We continue building in silence, until Jay speaks up, "What do you call a bear with no teeth?"

I raise an eyebrow in confusion, "Toothless?"

"Gummy bear."

From the corner of my eyes I feel him staring at me, a grin on his face, "What do you call a priest that's become a lawyer?"

"Uh...law-priest?"

"Close. It's father in law."

A smile pulls at my lips. Jay continues, "What kind of cheese isn't yours?"

I chortled lightly, "Nacho cheese?"

"Ayy, you got it!"

The jokes continue, until we finally put together the exterior of the creation, now fixing up the engines. They'd been taken out of Cliff's old cars that don't run anymore, and we were rewiring them with new cables.

"I have one. Um...Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were going camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. In the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said, "Watson, look up at the sky, and tell me what you see." Watson replied: "I see millions and millions of stars." Holmes said, "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson replied: "Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it's quite likely that there are some planets like Earth out there. And if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." And Holmes, finally irritated, snaps: "Watson you idiot, it means that somebody stole our tent.""

Jay snickered, "Okay, that's a pretty good one. What else do you have?"

I ponder over it, remembering the weird jokes my teachers used to crack, "A man told his wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high, and she looked surprised." My partner smiled at me, eyes filled with adoration. Putting down the soldering machine, he stepped forward, "You feeling better now?"

"I guess so...yeah..."

"Just a little bit glum?"

Nodding slightly, I sigh, "Yeah."

He took my hand, "Come on. I know what we can do."