The Library of Powers

Chapter 6 - Part 2

By the time Melanie returned to the corner Connor and Damien had procured, the two of them were sitting there in awkward silence. The two of them being Connor and Jackson. Damien had gone off some time ago to use the restroom, and hadn't come back. Jackson imagined he was puking his guts out in there. He definitely didn't envy Selina for the cleanup she would have to do tomorrow morning, especially because her parents were probably in the dark on the whole thing.

"Wow, you two sure are the life of the party," she snickered.

Jackson was surprised to see her bantering so lightheartedly, especially after how cold she had been only a little while before. "Yeah, this is the party haters club," he responded, "Want to join?"

She pretended to think, putting a finger on her chin. "Sure, sounds like a riot. Scoot over."

She plopped down on The couch next to Jackson, which garnered a shocked expression from Connor.

"What. You won't sit next to me?" he feigned, with the kind of voice used to mock actors.

"But then Jackson would get jealous," she explained, taking on the same voice as him.

"Well then, it seems like the only way to settle this would be to sit directly between us," Connor concluded.

Jackson butted in, perplexed. "On the table?"

"Why yes, that sounds like an excellent idea Jackson!" Connor said, playing along. This only confused Jackson further.

Melanie got up from her seat. "Well, it's settled then," she stated, moving slightly to sit on the side table cornering the two couches. It was only now that Jackson had the forethought to smell for alcohol on her, but surprisingly couldn't find any, neither on her or in her hands. She did smell faintly of lilacs, which Jackson thought was impressive of him to detect in such an odorous room. In fact, the room was a lot of things. Loud people milled throughout, bumping into each other inadvertently and purposefully. In the corner of his eye, he noticed Lillian and Jennifer talking to Ivory. He hadn't known that Ivory was here, or that she knew those two. Jackson was about to comment on it to the other members of the Party Haters Club when Lillian shouted: "Where do you think you're going you little bitch?"

Instantly Jackson shot up, which surprised both his compatriots and himself.

"Do you... know her?" Melanie asked him.

"Yeah, she---" he was about to tell them about their meeting in the alleyway, but realized that Ivory might not want others to know she has powers. She wasn't in Superpower class, that's for sure. "---'s a friend. What are your friends making a fuss about?"

"Those two? I wouldn't call them my friends." Melanie scoffed.

"Really? Then why did you tell them about my power?" Jackson snapped, meaner then he had intended to. He had meant it as a witty retort, but it came out as a resentful attack. Maybe that was secretly still how he felt about it.

Melanie's demeanor instantly shifted, similar to the cold one she had when Jackson first entered the party. "Well then," she replied, "Why don't you stop my friends from harassing your friend."

"Maybe... Maybe I will!" Jackson said, to which he then followed up on by heading over to Ivory. As he left, Connor whistled a low note and told Melanie "Wow that boy holds a grudge."

Jackson made his way over to the group, who had started heatedly whispering something he couldn't quite make out. Well, he knew one thing for sure now, Ivory wasn't their friend.

"What's up?" he said as he approached the three of them. It was only now that fear hit him. Why was he now suddenly being so confrontational? He didn't think he had anything to drink, and wasn't even sure if that's how he would act is he was. Calming himself down, he decided to just go with his instincts and worry about it later. There was the possibility he had somehow subconsciously decided to start being more extroverted, but he doubted it.