We're just friends...? (Jalen)

[JD Paerson]

[Note: This is a continuation thread from Forgetting is Best]

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"Minivans are for soccer moms. They are big and unwieldy and they don't have any oomph. You can't get any decent speed in a minivan." JD much preferred small cars, which could go fast and maneuver easily around corners.

As he carried her bags out to the car, JD worked to defend himself. "Yeah, I care about what people think. And they'll think I'm dumb for letting a pretty girl do the work when she's already done me the favor of--" he paused for half a moment "--spending the day with me." He was going to say of cooking me dinner, but anyone watching wouldn't know that. But his argument was still valid. All he really knew was that it was his job to carry the bags. Simple.

JD started pulling all the groceries out of their bags and laying them out on the counter, which was thankfully clean. He couldn't say so much for the dishes, but as he glanced around the kitchen he was glad to see that it wasn't completely filthy. He marveled as she pulled out dishes--he hadn't even known what some of those were for, but she seemed to be up to date on the whole cooking scene.

"Mac and cheese is easy," he said shrugging. "Do you need me out of the way? I can do the dishes or help or...something..." He felt really dumb just relaxing while she was cooking. What was he supposed to do, start playing video games while she was busy? Something told him that probably wasn't the best idea. But she had told him to relax, so he stood awkwardly in the middle of the kitchen, waiting to be told what to do.

[Jalen August]

“Yeah okay, you have a good point. The only good thing about minivans, is that they can haul a lot of stuff, not necessarily haul ass,” she smiled at her own wit, and waited for JD to appreciate it as well. Jalen smiled as he loaded up her car with the goods, taking a few key points from what he said. “So you think I’m pretty? Good to know,” she said, before getting into the driver’s seat and tearing through the town.

While manoeuvring around the kitchen, Jalen bumped into JD a couple of times, who was standing there just watching her. Her dark eyes looked up at him and smirked after the fourth time. “Seriously JD, either get out of the way, or wash the dishes, which would still be getting out of the way,” she was grinning, and it wasn’t as though she really minded running into him numerous times. Her hands managed to find an apron hanging on a tiny, jutting out piece of wall. She put it on, and assumed it was just for decoration, as the thing was fluorescent pink and glittery.

“Does this bring out my eyes?” She asked, very sarcastically as she pulled her ponytail through the loop of the apron and tightened it. Jalen went back to peeling most of the potatoes by the time JD had decided on what to do, and was currently filling a large pot to boil them all, followed by unwrapping the two steaks and setting the oven to ‘broil’. “Mac and cheese gets tiresome,” Jay said, suddenly remembering she hadn’t commented on what had been said before. She smiled at him, before her attention went back to the steaks, seasoning them before putting them into the oven, reaching for the corn next. That would be the easiest part.

[JD Paerson]

"Exactly," JD said, smiling at Jalen. "I'm glad we can see eye-to-eye on the minivan thing." Jalen, of course, waited until he was in the car before reminding him about the "pretty" comment. He tried to figure out, once again, what the correct response here should be. "Well, yeah. I'm fairly certain no one could disagree on that point, not without being completely blind." It wasn't like it was a debatable issue, the same way that no one could deny that Robbie was an ignoramus, or Zac was egotistical.

In the kitchen, JD sidestepped awkwardly while Jalen moved around him, but it only seemed to make him more in the way. "All right, I can take a hint. I'll get on the dishes." And he went over to the sink, cleared out some of the crud that had accrued in the plug, and began filling it with warm water and soap.

Turning around, he saw Jalen tying on the glittery apron. He snorted. "Maybe if your eyes were pink and albino-like they would. Honestly, I don't know when we even got that thing. I think everyone was just too scared to touch it to get rid of it." He had a vague notion it had been left behind by some girlfriend or another of a past roommate, but there was no definite proof.

"Mac and cheese is delicioius," JD argued back. "Though I will admit even I get bored of it sometimes. But that's when I suck it up and go the extra mile to the cafeteria, or, heaven forbid, into town to grab something. Other times I'm willing to cope. It will be great to have something more filling tonight, though." His stomach grumbled again. "Right on cue," he muttered under his breath, stupidly pleased.

Glancing over at Jalen, he saw the pile of potatoes. "You know, I think we have just a regular peeler here somewhere..." The pile of peeled potatoes. "...but I guess you've already got those covered." She was incredibly fast putting that all together. Meanwhile he had washed all of three plates. He turned to focus on what he was doing, determined to finish before anything finished cooking.

[Jalen August]

Jalen’s grin grew wider as JD snorted a little at her joke. “You should laugh more,” she said nonchalantly as she cooked, finding the boy who was slightly taller than her, that much more attractive when he smiled. She patted her stomach a couple times, shrugging, “Ah well, doesn’t really match anything else I’m wearing, at least it will keep me clean,” she said. Jalen would be the only one with enough gall to wear something so obnoxious, when clearly pink was not her color – at all.

Now it was her turn to laugh, “I never said it wasn’t delicious!” She said, shaking her head. “You really have to argue with me about everything, don’t you?” She asked, flitting around the kitchen expertly. The corn was in the microwave, the steaks were in the oven, the potatoes would soon be boiled – was she missing anything? JD’s grumbling stomach interrupted her thoughts and she laughed again, “Life does have its movie-worthy moments,” she said, liking that way the alliteration rolled off her tongue.

That competitive side of JD was showing through a little bit as he stared down the dishes, Jalen putting her hands on her hips to watch him for a second. “Surprised at my skills?” She teased, looking at the pathetic amount of dishes he had managed to clean. “Am I missing anything, JD?” She said, as though she had all the time in the world. “I mean, the corn’s cooking,” she began counting on her fingers, “the steaks are cooking, the potatoes are boiling, wow, I’m just a pro in the kitchen.” Okay, she was rubbing it in a bit much, but she couldn’t help herself. She was here because she lost, she was determined to win something.

“Can’t use your powers to do the dishes?” She continued to tease, the dinging of the microwave causing her to stop her brigade of competitiveness, putting the warm yellow niblets into a bowl for later. The blonde unconsciously began singing to herself, something she only did when she was truly happy, and it wasn’t because she was ‘winning’ some unannounced battle of who could cook or clean the fastest.

[JD Paerson]

She thought he should laugh more? JD tucked that piece of information away for use at a later point in time. Maybe if enough people kept telling him to lighten up, one day it would finally sink in. "Next time I'll try to get something a little more suited to your tastes. Do you have a favorite color?" Not that there necessarily would be a next time, but it was still a good idea for a gift option. If he got gifts. Was this the sort of friendship where it was okay to get gifts for people? Maybe Christmas. That would be a good reason.

"No, we don't have to argue about everything. If it bothers you, just tell me." Plenty of people had yelled at him to shut up and stop disagreeing with everything they said. He was getting used to it, but it hadn't made him any less argumentative.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," JD said, narrowing his eyes at the pan he was scrubbing. "Jay the Kitchen Whiz. But all food needs at least a little bit of time to cook. And besides, even if it does finish cooking before the dishes are done, we'll have to wait because all the plates are dirty. Except the ones I just cleaned, but still." He finished the pan and moved on to a bunch of silverware.

"No, my powers only work when I'm running. Some people used to joke that I was only smart in school because my brain worked faster than everyone else's and I was able to write faster, but I'm not actually super-human fast. It's just practice for that stuff. And dishes don't exactly get done any faster when you're doing them at 80 miles per hour." The corn came out of the microwave, and it smelled delicious. Everything was smelling delicious, actually. And JD was almost done with the knives, which left only the cups.

Jalen was singing, and though JD couldn't hear any words he thought he could almost recognize the tune. Unfortunately he didn't have any sort of hearing ability to catch it. But it still sounded nice, and he smiled in response. She did have a good voice, at least as far as he could tell. JD began to hum quietly under his breath as a sort of counter-melody to what Jalen was singing.

He finished off the dishes and drained the sink, only then noticing that he'd splashed water all over his shirt. "Crap," he said, looking down. "Hey, Jay, I gotta change. I'll be right back." He went back to his bedroom and took off the wet shirt to exchange it for a clean one. As he pulled on the new tee he went back out into the kitchen. "If you get the food, I can set the table," he said, reaching over to the dish drainer and pulling out plates and silverware. He grabbed some paper towels from off the counter and started to dry off the plates to set them on the counter.

"What do you want to drink? We have milk, water...oh, check that. Just water. And...maybe enough juice for one. You like orange juice?" He was fairly certain that no one had drank straight out of the jug on this one--they all tended to share the juice, and there were some boundaries on sharing food.

[Jalen August]

Jalen laughed lightly, patting down her apron. “Next time?” She smiled, looking at him for a moment. “You want to buy me an apron for next time?” She continued to smile, there was going to be a next time? “How about you buy yourself one too then?” She suggested, some hair slipping out of its ponytail and into her face, before she went back to watching everything cook.

Draining the potatoes, Jalen put them in a bowl and found a masher amongst some other random utensils for cooking which didn’t seem to be used much. “It doesn’t bother me JD, it’s pretty fun actually,”she said, considering she wasn’t being serious about anything they were fighting about anyways. “Besides, I don’t think you could stop even if you wanted to.” She smiled over her shoulder at him, going through the fridge finding margarine.

He was finishing off dishes, and talking enough for the both of them, but Jalen was as good at listening as she was at talking. “Alright,” she said simply, looking at the disgusting milk in the fridge, which she put back before running to her dorm room to get some. They would need it for the potatoes, and she also brought a 2 litre of Coke she had for something special.

Getting back before he redressed, she had ran to and from and luckily knew where everything was. She checked the steaks, “How do you like your steak done? I’d say they’re about medium-rare,” she said, eyeballing the steaks before going back to adding her own milk to the potatoes. She glanced at him from the corner of her eyes and thought he was pretty cute as he set the table, before she took the steaks out using some equally pink oven mits.

She took the carton of milk from the counter and put it in his hands, “I brought my own while you changed, you can help yourself if you want,” she said with a grin, going back to mashing the potatoes, silently wishing she had taken a shower before any of this happened. She sighed, “Orange juice is my favorite!” She said happily, seasoning the steaks before looking back at JD.

“So we’re all ready to go?”

[JD Paerson]

"Yeah, sure sounds great. What color? Or doesn't it matter?" JD asked. Sure. He could get aprons. That wouldn't look weird. Where did you even buy aprons, anyway?

JD scowled. "I could...stop..." he said, then slowly realized what he was doing. Yet again. Rolling his eyes and mumbling about how he didn't have to argue about everything it just so happened that this one particular time he had to disagree in order to show that he could agree didn't that make sense, JD continued scouring the pan.

"Medium-rare is fine with me." He would eat food no matter what it was at, though at home it had always been cooked medium. Dad's favorite, and thus everyone else's. He watched Jalen add milk to the potatoes--did people always do that, or was it some sort of secret recipe? "Whatever you like for the meat, I guess."

He accepted the milk and took a moment to stare at the carton before waking up again. "Okay then, OJ." He stuck the milk into the fridge--he preferred water himself. He grabbed a few glasses from the dish drainer and shook them to remove some of the extra water droplets, filling one with ice water and the other with the last of the orange juice. These he set on the table and stood next to one of the chairs.

"Yeah, that looks like everything." He pulled the chair out for Jalen before moving over to his own seat. "Which one goes to who?" he asked her, looking at the two steaks. "It looks like the ribeye is a little bigger than the t-bone. How hungry are you feeling?"

JD looked over the spread in front of him. "Thanks for the meal, Jay," he said, helping himself to some mashed potatoes. "I don't think this dorm has ever seen something this amazing. All my roommates will be jealous." He finally started to dig into his food. He took a bite and sat back in his chair, closing his eyes and smiling. "Ah. That is delicious. And, I think, well worth everything else."

[Jalen August]

Jalen laughed, nodding a couple times, “Okay, you pick out a couple aprons,” she said, grinning from ear to ear as she tried to imagine the taller boy in one, “and you can chose the colors, surprise me.”

The blonde shook her head, looking over JD. “You realize I have supersonic hearing, right?” She remarked, as he muttered about arguing over trying to prove a point. Jay wouldn’t change a thing about him, not if it was part of who he was anyways. “It’s okay to let me be right once in a while anyways,” she added with a smirk as everything cooked to perfection.

"Medium-rare it is," she said, her taste buds watering over the smell of everything cooking. Jalen sighed, it was going to taste so good, she wouldn’t even know what to do with herself. Jalen mashed the potatoes and added a little salt to them after the milk, and repeated the mashing motion until the potatoes were smooth and creamy.

Putting the potatoes in a dish before setting them on the table, Jalen wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and took the offered chair. “Thank you,” she said, scooting it closer to the table, her eyes on the steaks. “Well the bigger one was supposed to be for you, so,” with that, she scooped up the ribeye with her own fork and knife and set it on JD’s still damp, but clean, plate.

“Bon appetite!” She said, smiling over at him. “You’re very welcome, I stick to my word and made you a meal you won’t soon forget,” Jalen took the smaller steak now, and cut into it and had a bite before taking anything else. “I think the whole dorm will be jealous,” she said, remembering it was all boys. She laughed a little to herself, as a picture of many males surrounding JD’s dorm door infiltrated her mind. “So jealous.”

The blonde was beaming, mostly because she was a little sweaty but JD enjoying her cooking was nice. “I’m glad you think so,” she said, taking potatoes and corn now. “Oh! I almost forgot,” she got up quickly, took off the hideous pink apron, and grabbed the bun bag. “The infamous buns,” she said, sitting at the table and unravelling the bag, “let’s see if these are as good as they advertised.”

Dipping into the margarine with a clean knife, Jalen looked over at JD, and kicked his leg playfully to get his attention, as he seemed pretty intoxicated with the food. “Hey JD,” she said softly, waiting for him to look up, “thanks, for spending almost your whole day with me.” She smiled, and then looked back at the bread in her hand. Why was it so easy to flirt, but not express true gratitude? She sighed, going back to cutting open the bun, and taking a bite.

“Oh wow, these taste,” she made a sour face, “disgusting!”

[JD Paerson]

JD stopped grumbling when Jalen mentioned her supersonic hearing. He had forgotten that. He opened his mouth to complain again, but shut it with an audible snap. After a few moments of trying to fish for something non-argumentative to say, he finally settled on a monotone "Okay. You're right." And went back to his dishes. Because there was really no way to win that argument.

He eyed Jalen as she made the mashed potatoes. "It's just milk and salt? It doesn't look very hard." For some reason he'd always assumed mashed potatoes were difficult to make, primarily because he'd only ever made them from a box before. Shows what he knew.

Grinning, he looked at the gleaming ribeye steak and the pile of mashed potatoes. Everything looked good. "You're probably right. I'll get people from all through the hallway trying to cut in. Guess that makes me pretty lucky. But I always knew you'd keep your promise. I trust you." Which was a bigger deal than he was letting it sound--JD rarely let himself trust anyone.

He was busy stuffing a huge bite of steak into his mouth when Jalen kicked him under the table. Still, he forced himself to chew and not choke when swallowing. It still took a moment for him to get his mouth clear enough to reply. "Not a problem. Thank you for coming along with me. It's not every day I get to spend the day with someone as..." He searched for an appropriate adjective. Nice? Beautiful? Funny? Intelligent? All true, but was there a word that summed it all up? Failing to find something, he settled. "...As great as you." Which sounded like he could be describing anything from a lemon to an ice track, but whatever.

JD reached over and grabbed the bun out of Jalen's hand. "They can't be that bad. They're food, right?" And he tore off a piece of bread and tossed it in his mouth. Then he promptly gagged and grabbed his drink, washing down the stale bread. "Good lord, what did they use to make these? Vinegar? That's it, no more supermarket special buys for me." He took another drink. "At least the rest of the food is good. And we can go without bread."

[Jalen August]

Jalen grinned triumphantly. How many times had people won against JD anyways? Probably not that many. The boy had unknowingly stroked the girl’s ego, not that that was a bad thing, just that she was never going to let it go – ever. Go figure that she would have to talk about his stubbornness, and draw truth to it in order to win a verbal joust. Huzzah to the extreme.

“And butter,” she said over the potatoes, pointing the masher at the boy, before carrying on with a chuckle. “And, they taste waaaay better than those boxed ones, which taste like cardboard,” she said, making a sour face as a joke. JD would learn that Jay could be very animated at times, if the situation called for it. “It’s well worth the extra bit of effort,” she said, filling the potato pot with hot soapy water so it wouldn’t be a pain to clean later.

“I’m glad you trust me,” Jalen said, leaning towards JD, “because I locked the door so you don’t have to worry about anyone stealing your grub.” The blonde was doing what she always did when things were getting to heavy, she joked around and toned things down a notch. Jalen smiled as she pushed around the food on her plate, before eating it. “You are lucky! You won the gaming challenge didn’t you?” She was challenging him again, but she couldn’t help it. He was being a little bit sentimental, she was being playful.

Jalen smiled at the ambiguity of JD’s words. He would never be as eloquent with words as she was, but that didn’t bother her, she felt as though she knew what he was trying to get at. “Well I mean it, I thought I was going to implode this morning,” she said, thinking of the moment as though it had happened weeks ago. Weird, had that really happened just today? She had been crying over Cody and had forgotten him through the course of the day. If that wasn’t healthy, she didn’t know what was. “And you got a meal out of the whole thing, so that isn’t so bad right?” She asked, putting her mind back in the present.

Watching JD try the bread for himself, Jalen had a big smile on her face, an eyebrow raised. As soon as he started laughing, she started giggling, closing up the bag which contained the rest of the demon buns. “Maybe these can be put to good use yet, like as hockey pucks or something,” she said, throwing the bag on the floor where her shoes were parked. “I’m glad that was the only screw up,” she said, taking a hesitant sip of her orange juice, which tasted just fine to her. “Yup, OJ is just as it should be,” she grinned, “but I’m glad you’re not a human garbage disposal, there’s hope for refining you yet.” Jalen had no idea what she meant by this, but it would be interesting to see where it went.

“You sure this is gonna be enough? Do we need to make a trip to the cafeteria yet?” She asked, watching as the food was slowly disappearing while she was still on her first plate and probably wouldn’t want seconds, she was already full. “Oh wait, the ice cream!” She said happily, glad that that problem was solved. Jalen wondered if JD found it funny that she answered her own questions. “And then, the fun part,” she said, raising her eyebrows dramatically, “dishes.”

[JD Paerson]

The old mashed potatoes tasted like cardboard. Good to know. He'd always been fairly certain they tasted like potatoes, but then what did he know? "All right, I'll have to try it myself next time. Supposing I find another time when it makes sense to make just potatoes."

He wondered why she actually would have locked the door--would there be another reason? "Well thanks, but remember that RC, Gabe, and Uriel can still get in. They have these handy things called keys, remarkable devices really." He was glad to have the conversation toned down just a bit. It wouldn't be good for things to get uncomfortable.

She was going to...implode? That sounded far worse than she had seemed all of today. Which was either a good thing or it meant she was exaggerating. Something about the way she was saying it made JD believe she was being honest, which made him wonder just how bad this break-up had been. "A meal and a nice hike and some good advice. All in all, I think I probably came out extremely well," he said with a smile.

"Oh goody, I definitely needed some new hockey pucks," JD said, his face still screwed up. "It's kind of you not to suggest feeding them to the fish--we'd probably end up with a pond of dead animals."

He did his best to look affronted. "Hey, whoever said I was a human garbage disposal? Black hole, sure, land mine, okay, but garbage disposal? C'mon, give me some credit here." Then he cracked and let out a grin.

JD dug in for his third helping of potatoes and scooped more veggies onto his plate. He was almost done with the steak but was holding out to finish it at the very end. Looking around at the table, he gently patted his belly. "I think we'll probably be okay. Unless you were hoping to finish off the rest of the corn." He nodded sagely when she mentioned the ice cream. "Well, it's probably a good thing we got the big one, then. Because it means you might have left-overs to take back with you tonight. I think I'm full enough that I won't need to eat the whole two gallons."

JD gave Jalen a desperate look. "But I just did the dishes!" he insisted. "Can't we let it rest until tomorrow or something?" He gave her a sad look, hoping that the same method that he tried with his mother when he was ten would work now that he was past his baby-face stage.

[Jalen August]

“RC, Gabe, and Uriel, gotcha, the people whose names I should remember in case they try to get at the food,” she said with a small grin. It wasn’t like Jalen didn’t know he had roommates, she just didn’t think they would walk in and make themselves comfortable. Now that would be uncomfortable. Not that the blonde was an unfriendly person, just that it would be awkward, and weird to have people she didn’t know just sit down for the meal with them.


Jalen chewed, “Good advice?” She asked, an eyebrow raised. Had she missed something? “Were you giving the advice? Because I’ve never given good advice,” she said, carrying on with the meal. And then she looked around for the fish, before her dark eyes settled on JD, a crooked grin on her face. “You don’t have any fish, do you?” She asked, feeling like an idiot. He was probably referring to the fish in the pond on the school grounds, but she had looked for some kind of tank in the room anyways.


“Black holes and land mines sound way more badass than garbage disposals,” she said, waving her fork around the boy, “not sure if that’s an adjective to describe you.” Jalen smirked, picturing the boy in some leather getup and sunglasses, and she burst out laughing. “You can borrow my leather jacket some time, see how you fair in that, although I doubt you’d fit in it, your shoulders are a lot broader than mine.”

She smiled, “Might have leftover ice cream?” Jalen teased, playing with her food now instead of eating it. “You better not eat the whole thing, I sort of want some, and I’d also hate to see you get sick.” Usually she didn’t speak while she ate, so she blamed her chattiness on JD. “If you really want to leave dirty, crusty, dishes ‘til tomorrow, be my guest,” she said, pushing her plate away finally, a happy face made of corn facing JD. “But if you’re as smart as I think you are, you’d take an extra pair of hands to do them tonight, because I’m pretty sure the only one doing them tomorrow, will be you.” And with that, she rose from the table and refilled the sink with hot water and soap.

Collecting all the dishes, she waited for JD to come help, scooping up a handful of bubbles with a grin, looking at him with intention in her eyes.

[JD Paerson]

"Sure you did." JD took another bite of food. "You taught me how to cook. At least how to make potatoes." There were other tidbits he'd tucked away during the course of the day, but they weren't worth sharing. "No, the fish out in the pond. I assume there are fish out there, anyway. I always see people trying to throw bread in there, but maybe it's just the birds that get them."

JD puffed himself up. "Hey! What are you trying to imply?" Okay, so maybe most people wouldn't describe him as badass, but surely he wasn't completely the opposite or anything. Like a total wimp. That wouldn't be right either. "No thanks, I'll pass on the leather. I have a feeling it wouldn't look right on me, anyway. Besides, leather always brings up slightly bad memories." He shivered, remembering some of Zac's different outfits, and then immediately banished all thoughts of Zac from his mind.

"I'll leave you some. Don't worry too much about me, though. I don't get sick." He finished off the last of his food, then glanced over at Jalen's plate of happy corn. "Fine, fine. We'll do the dishes," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'd ask if you're always this bossy, but I think we already know the answer," he said with a small grin.

He helped her grab the rest of the dishes and take them into the kitchen. Eying the bubbles she was holding, he stepped back. "Hey now, careful with the soap. This is a clean shirt. I'm just here to rinse and dry."

[Jalen August]

Jalen laughed, "I didn't really teach out how to cook potatoes, but if you think I did I hope they turn out for you." She smiled, "I hope that the birds eat some of the bread the students put in there, otherwise that pond would be a mess." The blonde had seen the state of the pond during the warmer months, and she wasn't impressed by how stupid some of the students could be by overloading it with food. But enough about that.

"I'm just saying!" She tried to explain feebly, "You don't seem like the type who can pull of that image, but I'm not gonna challenge you on it, I was just making an observation." Jalen shook her head, and more laughter ensued. She could only imagine what Larousse had put JD though. "Alright, calm down, no leather for you, but seriously, you don't look like someone I should be afraid of," she offered, a sort of half-ass compliment.

Her jaw dropped a little, a hand on her hip, "I am not bossy!" only contradicting what she said. Now he was in for it. "And I won't get your shirt dirty, bubbles aren't dirty," she said, a smirk on her lips. Jalen grabbed another handful and charged at him, her mission clear as she aimed for his face. The dishes could wait.

[JD Paerson]

JD raised his eyebrows at Jalen. "I'm having trouble figuring out if that's supposed to be a compliment or an insult," he said with a small smile. "I'm glad you won't force me into leather. But does that necessarily mean that I can't be seen as any sort of threat? And here I thought this height would count for something. I mean, what's the point of being over six feet tall if you can't use it to be imposing?" Please don't let everyone think of me as nothing but a giant teddy bear, he thought to himself. He'd always thought he'd come off as quite impressive. Or was it only his friends who thought he was some sort of lovable stuffed animal?

"As I remember, you do look good in a nice leather jacket. But then, you're probably one of those people who would be able to make a paper sack look good. Oh well, we can't all be perfect. I'll just stick to my t-shirts and jeans. They're more comfortable, anyway."

JD grinned, glad to be on the winning side of this conversation. "Right, and I'm not argumentative." He backed away again, though, as he saw the mischievous grin she had. "Hey, watch it!" he said as she came toward him with hands full of bubbles. Putting up his arms to try to deflect her away, he managed to twist around and end up near the sink He grabbed a handful of bubbles himself.

"Ha! Now I'm armed. And if you come closer I'll..." He looked next to him and saw one of the clean cups resting in the still-full dish drainer. Grabbing it and filling it with soapy dish water, he held it dripping in his other hand. "There. I'll splash you. I have no qualms about fighting a woman, not in a water fight." Then he cocked one eyebrow, silently daring her to continue the battle.