kryptonite

Burned Out

VIOLET

It was now two in the afternoon, and Violet had been lying in the bathtub for more than twelve hours. After she almost killed the frat boy and some weirdo with a bedsheet thing almost killed her last night, she hauled herself back into her own lonesome apartment and locked herself in a bathroom. She had shared it with her best friend when they were freshmen, but now Lyla's moved in with a boyfriend.

Trying to relax, Violet ran a hot bubble bath, complete with a rubber duck and a cup of lemonade with one of those crazy, loopy straws. It would've been wine, but she decided that she'd already had too much alcohol.

Sinking down into the warm embrace of a bubble kingdom, Violet closed her eyes. Why did guys have no sense at all? First, one tries to grope her, then another tries to smother her? At this rate, Violet was having low hopes for her soon-to-be roommate too. He was definitely a looker, but beneath that fair facade, he could very well be twenty rats in a suit.

Or a snake. Men were usually either snakes or rats.

Speaking of her roommate who could really pull off the twenty-rats-in-a-suit look, she had said she would move in by five that night and they could go out for dinner and get to know each other. Which would not be happening if she didn't get out of the bath soon. With a heavy sigh, Violet forced herself up and out of the still-hot water (because what was the point of being a human torch if you couldn't heat up stuff like water and leftovers at will?).

Quickly drying off, she began to pack. Hopefully everything would fit in her car.

As a matter of fact, everything did not fit into her car. Violet ended up making two trips, the first time with her clothes, and the second with all her plants.

"Jesus Christ, what are you ever going to do with so many succulents?" cried Jacin, who had come to help her move in, and did not seem excited at having to carry a trunkload of cacti and aloe. "Nope, Jacin is JacOUT!"

"Oh, come on!" Violet complained, rounding from the driver's seat to the trunk of the car. "Jace, please! How am I supposed to carry, like, ten of these things by myself?"

Jacin gave a laugh, genuinely seeming to enjoy Violet's struggle. He stood on the stairs leading into the apartment complex, keys twirling in his hand as the other rested on the doorknob. "Sorry, I have homework!" He called back, not moving as a wicked smile lit his face.

"You aren't actually doing homework now, though!"

"Eh, schematics."

It was then Violet decided that Jacin was in fact twenty rats in a suit. She hurled a small cactus at him.

To her surprise, Jacin caught the pot with one hand, the other still aggravatingly twirling keys. He looked at the pot in his hand, setting it down by entrance of the building before walking back to help Violet with some of her bigger plants. Grabbing two in his arms, he headed up the stairs to open the doors to his flat.

"You better be paying for dinner in thanks!"

They didn't actually end up going out for dinner. Wyn College was a small town college that hardly saw anyone from out of state—or even just out of the area—so its "fine dining" consisted of a single restaurant called "Diner" that Violet didn't trust to not give her food poisoning. Instead, they opted to order pizza, which Violet still ended up paying for, of course.

They sat on the couch, an awkwardly wide distance between them as they mindlessly watched some movie. Or rather, Violet was mindlessly watching; Jacin was utterly engrossed.

"Hey Jace," she began, wanting to actually talk to her roommate, but was promptly shushed.

"Hey Jacin." she tried again, before Jacin shoved a finger towards her lips in a universal gesture for be quiet.

Her temper flared. But reluctantly, she pushed down the feeling to set him on fire. If she did, Curtain Man might show up again. Oh wait, he called himself Techno. She tried to keep quiet, until a scene with a suspicious lack of clothing came up. Violet gave a slight cough to draw Jace's attention back to her, before the cough got caught in her throat as the scene turned more graphic. Instead, Jacin was the one to let out a hacking cough, his face turning red as he watched the characters on screen tumbled on a bed. Promptly, he picked up the remote and turned off the television, embarrassment still tainting his cheeks as he glanced at Violet.

"So, uh, you wanted to talk to me?" He asked, his voice still rough from choking on his own spit.

Violet shrugged, feeling a little less willing to talk after what she'd just seen. "I dunno. Tell me about yourself, I guess. I just want to learn a little about you before I completely commit to this roommate thing by spending the night."

Jace said he was boring, and if Violet was being honest, he definitely was. Like many of the other four thousand "Wynners," he was born and raised in Wynville itself. He had an older brother who worked at his father's law firm. He himself was hoping to go into criminal law at his father's firm, and was currently studying pre-law at Wyn College because his mother was a professor of psychology here and he got free tuition because of it.

"You're truly the epitome of American, aren't you," remarked Violet. "Your house have a white picket fence too?"

Jacin laughed, "of course. I like to tinker in my free time, though. Invent stuff, toy around, y'know. What about you? You aren't from around here, are you?"

Violet tensed, but forced herself to shrug casually. "Nah, not from around here." There was no need to say where she was really from, or delve into her past. Abruptly, she stood up. "I'm a little tired, I think I'll go rest now. Talk to you tomorrow?"

If Jace was surprised by her abruptness, he didn't show it. "Oh, yeah, of course. Later." He turned the TV back on, and Violet took her leave. She could only hope the nightmares of her past didn't come back to plague her tonight.