Grace; misanthrope // Jai Brooks

Chapter 6

I finally worked up the courage to leave the bathroom and head to detention. As soon as I walked in I spotted Jai sat in the very back of the room. I rolled my eyes and took a seat in the front row. Mr. Herman was stood in front of the chalkboard.

"You're here for an hour," he addressed us. "I have work to do in my office, but I'll be back to relieve you by 3:40. Don't leave the room, don't make a mess, and please, just behave yourselves," he pleaded, before leaving us alone.

As soon as Mr. Herman left, Jai threw a crumpled up piece of paper at my back. It bounced onto the floor. I ignored him. Again, he threw a crumpled up paper at me.

"What do you want?" I asked, eyes locked on the clock on the front wall.

"Why won't you look at me?" he asked, flatly.

I spun around without saying a word. We studied each other momentarily.

"I'm sorry I got you a detention," he says.

"How many times are you going to keep apologizing?"

He shrugs.

I sighed, turning back around to stare at the clock. "I don't care. Besides, I chose to pour the paint on you. This is my consequence."

"Why do you hate me?" Jai asks.

"I don't," I say. "Surely you must hate me, judging by the way you treat me."

"I don't hate you. I hate that you're the only girl who doesn't gawk."

I turned back around to look at him, eyeing him carefully. What the fuck was he thinking?

"What are you on about?"

"What happened to your face?" He asks, completely ignoring my question.

I bring my hand to my cheek, having briefly forgotten all about it.

"Emma Cabot," I say.

"Emma Cabot," he repeats. "that's a girl I can hate," he says.

I smile for just a moment, before I remember I'm talking to Jai Brooks.

"Her and David Waters. The both of them wouldn't last a week being treated the way they do everyone else,"

"Yeah," I say, agreeing with him. "It's like they think they own the school or something."

"Exactly," Jai says.

We were quiet for a moment. I ponder two things— that Jai and I are having a pretty civil conversation about mutual enemies and also his previous statement about not hating me. If he hates that I don't gawk at him, does that mean he wants me to? Is he just bitter that I'm the only girl not giving him attention?

I somewhat expected us to talk forever about how we couldn't stand our preppy air-headed classmates but before I knew it, Mr. Herman came back to the room to relieve us and detention was over. Jai and I went our separate ways. What a strange day, really. Thankfully when I got home, my mother had taken my sister to soccer practice and my dad kept detention between him and I. So, I somehow survived the day.