one point perspective private complete

@Jack Burnett

Gem had no response for Jack anymore, he'd told him just about everything he was willing to offer, and he certainly wasn't going to break his back trying to help the worst kind of nihilist ruin his day -- though, that seemed unavoidable, didn't it?

"What do you mea-" His words were cut short by a peck on the cheek, his eyes wide, nearly popping out of the sockets. His body tensed up, and for a moment, it was like all the reason he'd had slipped from him like a sheet of paper under the crack of a locked door. Objectively, he knew this was no big deal - the problem was, he didn't care. He didn't care that it wasn't a big deal, he didn't care this was just a ploy to get a rise out of him, he simply didn't care; and when Gem didn't care, things fell out of proportion, and consequences became the very last thing he considered, if he even considered them at all.

While Jack's hand was still in his hair, he grabbed him by the wrist, his nails digging into his skin deeper and deeper the harder he squeezed, like a boa constrictor seizing its prey. He stood up, too, looked the Slytherin right in the eyes - it wasn't the soft, gentle gaze he'd had before; it was cold, hard, and deep. Just like his dad.

"Don't you ever fookin' touch me again," He snapped, his grip becoming more vice the more venomous his words grew. "Not wivout my permission, not when I make it explicitly clear that I'm happy where I'm at, right? Never. Ever... ever do that again." Like icing on the cake, Gem set his book down on the bench, and knocked the side of Jack's face with the back of his hand, which might not have hurt if he hadn't had such big, bony, wiry hands - and to add insult to injury, spat on him - a skill he'd learnt from, guess who, his father. "If you ever come near me again, I'll ruin your time here. I swear to God, I swear on yer life." He'd had enough of people like that, and he had... friends, friends who knew a thing or two about roughing people up. He had no remorse left, and especially not when he picked up his book and left to be by himself.

Gem has left the thread.

To Jack's great shock, Gem only seemed to process what he did and said up until the point where he took action. After that, the Ravenclaw seemed to throw all sense of reason and composure out the window.

His soft brown eyes completely transformed into piercing weapons that threatened the Slytherin within an inch of his life, and that was nothing to say of the grip with his nails. They bit harder into the skin of Jack's wrist as Gem gave him an angry command. It was all the Slytherin could do to bite back a whimper of pain.

So much for giving him a better perspective of the Slytherin house, Jack couldn't help thinking, finding some grim amusement in the irony of it all. Still, in spite of being grabbed by the wrist, stabbed with biting fingernails, intensely threatened, back-handed in the face, and spat on, the first-year thought he was in much better condition than he had been when Gem had been being nice to him. Kindness was something he couldn't take. Pain, rage, and loathing? That was easier - especially when he felt he deserved it.

"Well...mission accomplished, I guess," he sighed quietly to himself, wiping off the spit and watching Gem's back as the brunet departed. "Got two perfectly kind-hearted, caring people to hate my guts in the course of an hour. Must be some kind of record..."

And yet, he couldn't help feeling more guilty than ever. There didn't seem any way to win - either they hurt him, or he hurt them, and Jack was a survivor. He had resolved to choose the latter from the start, but this was becoming even more difficult than he'd imagined.

You'll ruin my time here? the redhead thought, recalling Gem's words. Too late for that. It's already ruined.

But it wasn't a complete loss, Jack tried to tell himself. He had learned some valuable information. Evidently, Gem could lose all reason and resort to violence when he was angry - just as Rafa could actually use logic and psychological tactics to fight than his favor with fists suggested.

So...both boys had subverted Jack's expectations of them, really. Gem Stuart wasn't who he had originally thought, but unlike in the case of Rafael D'Spacito, this was probably a good thing.

Picking up his robes, the Slytherin put them back on before heading inside to wash up in a restroom. I'm curious to know what you think you could do to me worse than you already have, Stuart, he thought with a despondent smirk, trudging along in his weakened state of being with lower spirits than ever. At least you're not likely to show me any kindness again. That's all I could ask for.