It Did Not Happen - Ella Tags Justin

[Ella Tate]

[Happens the day after At That French Sounding Place]

Kicking her feet up on the other chair at the table she was sitting on, Ella scooped up some of the mashed potato she got from the lunch lady into her mouth.

The place was sort of empty so Ella took her time, chilling. Yesterday was pretty dope, she thought as she chuckled to herself, remembering what had transpired between her and Justin. No doubt he was probably thinking otherwise right now.

Speak of the devil.

"Hey loverboy." She exclaimed when Justin walked in front of the cafeteria. She waved at him, winking just to tease him.

[Justin Marshall]

Justin regretted last night doubly when he got called in to take a shift at Hammel. Because he was new and didn’t have a record yet, he figured it was best to agree to work even though he had to take five Advil to feel remotely human.

He took a shower because he didn’t want smell bad, but he didn’t bother to fix his hair. He hadn’t had a chance to wash his uniform, so he pulled it off the floor. It hadn’t gotten noticeably dirty, but it was a little wrinkled. Too bad. He was already doing someone a favor by dragging himself out to the school.

To his surprise, he arrived a few minutes early, and decided the time might be wisely used in the cafeteria to wash down the Advil. The food wasn’t great, but it was better than nothing. He hoped the menu today wasn’t too nauseating.

At the first whiff of delicious, overly processed cafeteria fare, he’d pretty much changed his mind. Before he could turn around and find some nice bland toast in the security office, he heard Ella’s voice.

There she sat, sitting on a table. He briefly flashed back to last night, as he hadn’t thought about it until now. He remembered dancing and then…shit. He couldn’t remember what happened next. Had they…? He remembered being really turned on, and Ella seemed to be feeling the same way.

”Hi,” he replied hesitantly, nervously puzzled. He had to keep himself from taking the cowardly way out and walking away like he knew exactly what was going on. Repressing his instincts and his disgust at the cafeteria smell, he walked towards Ella and leaned with his hands on the back of a chair. ”About last night, I, um…” Wait, what exactly did he want to say to her anyway? He almost wished for some more alcohol.

[Ella Tate]

When he ambled over with that weird look on his face, Ella knew the words that would come out of his mouth and she grinned. But she had to wipe it off her face. No way she was going to let this opportunity go.

And of course, the exact opening words she had anticipated came out of his mouth and she gave him a weird, curious look. Oh this was probably going to hurt her more than him. Hurt her sides that was.

"Hmm? Last night?" She asked innocently, keeping the grin off her face successfully.

"What about last night?"

[Justin Marshall]

Apparently she wasn’t about to tell him. Justin was starting to get a feeling that she was making fun of him for some reason. Horrible thoughts ran through his head. Was he terrible? Had he done something really embarrassing? Average size is five inches, right?

He buried them all quickly, swallowing. ”What…happened last night? He wasn’t really in the mood for games. He supposed he should have thought of that last night before letting Ella seduce him. He didn’t exactly trust her, and he wasn't about to assume too much. He suspected he wouldn't be corrected if he was wrong.

[Ella Tate]

It was quite unfortunate that Justin was not in the mood for shenanigans because Ella was all about her shenanigans. She could never give anyone a straight answer when they're in a panic and wanting for answers. Yes, she was direct and much too honest for people's own good but when people actually need to know something, she would very much likely never answer properly.

Much like this situation right here.

She had two options here. One, she could play the "You don't even remember? How could you?" card or she could also play the "We didn't even meet up last night dude." card. Either one would have entertained her greatly. But which one would frustrate Justin more?

After much deliberation, Ella figured she actually would like to make him frustrated rather than make him think he'd lost his mind. Having her powers on high mode, she looked up at Justin with a slight frown, making it look as convincing as possible, she replied. "Wow...I know I'm the resident slut but even I remember the people I slept with." She threw the plastic container on the table and kicked back her chair.

"So I guess you don't need to know what happened last night. Son of a-" her voice trailed when a younger girl bumped into her just as she was about to get up. She let the girl pass before grabbing her drink from the table and walking away in a...controlled huff.

She wasn't expecting Justin to follow though but it would help with the drama a little, in her opinion.

[Justin Marshall]

Justin stared as she slammed her food down, a little bit dumbfounded. She was really going to be mad at him for this? She wasn’t lying. Justin rubbed at a spot between his eyebrows with his thumb. He’d almost forgotten about her power. She could be playing him all the way to the finish line and he might not know it.

His first instinct was to ask if she was using her power, but he immediately realized that was a stupid waste of time. She could lie freely about that too. Maybe he should stop complaining about being a lie detector if he was going to use it as a social crutch so much, Justin thought.

She got up to leave, and he opened his mouth to say…something. But she ran into someone, and what came out was more of a stifled laugh. He couldn’t help it. Even if she really was pissed, this situation was ridiculous. She continued to walk away even after the incident, and he managed to wipe the smile off of his face. ”You should be happy I remember anything about it at all. Do you know how much I had to drink?” He called after her. He was paying for it now. He didn’t even care if a bunch of students overheard anymore. He was not going to run after her like a smitten puppy. He’d thought it was a casual thing, and if she wanted to play games he couldn’t really do anything about it.

[Ella Tate]

The girl bumping into her was indeed one that brought a grin on the power suppressor. So did the whole situation she had created.

However, she did not expect Justin to respond the way he did. It brought out a surprised laughter from the recruiter as she turned to respond. "Excuse me for your intolerance to alcohol, Marshall." She said as bitterly as she could muster without giving away her glee.

"And why in the hell would I be happy you remembered nothing of what we shared?" She walked back to Justin and leaned down towards him with her palm flat against the table. "I told you I loved you, Justin." She almost cracked a smile at that but maintained her composure before continuing her little made-up drama.

"God, trust me to finally crack down my walls and the person doesn't even remember. Whatever. Serves me right for even trying." Ella ran a hand over her neatly pulled hair.

[Justin Marshall]

Justin couldn’t make sense of this. He might expect this sort of thing from desperate younger women, as he’d learned years ago after a particularly stupid night. But Ella? This didn’t seem like her style. He knew what he’d said was extremely rude, and he could have been nicer. The whole love thing seemed a little unbelievable, though. She seemed sincere enough, but how would he know for sure without his power? He was tempted to tap a random kid on the shoulder and ask them to tell him a lie to test it out, but felt it would be weak to do so, for some reason.

”You seemed happy about my alcohol intake at the time,” he muttered, glaring at her. ”And if you really love me, you should stop. I am not lovable.” He didn’t really know how to deal with this. If she was being truthful (which he strongly doubted), she needed to hear it. If she was playing with him, she deserved it. ”I don’t want to play games with you unless you have a magical hangover cure,” He added, hoping against hope that the situation would change if he begged. Escaping by running off to work was starting to look like a better option.

[Ella Tate]

It was really a shame that Justin was the way he was. Were it anybody else, Ella would have continued and it would have been entertaining. Justin was way too serious for her liking so she rolled her eyes and kicking out the chair opposite of him and plopped down.

"Dude, you are way too serious. Cut yourself some slack." She drained her can of soda and crushed it on the table with her hand. "Nothing happened. If it did, you'd remember." She shrugged and chuckled lightly.

"I'd give you some magical hangover cure I have stashed in my cubicle drawer but that would just make you more irritable. I'm afraid you're gonna have to run laps to get rid of that hangover. Serves you right for drinking too much." She purposely tapped his shoulders heavily.

[Justin Marshall]

She rolled her eyes at him, revealing that she had been toying with him. He almost felt bad he’d ruined her fun, but he was still too annoyed to care.

”Yeah, I know I’m too serious. Why do you think I was at a bar alone?” Besides his passion for extremely scary physical activities, that was really the only way he had fun around people these days. He pulled out a chair next to her and lowered himself into it, leaning his elbow on the table and his forehead on his palm. He was not going to start baring his soul to Ella, of all people. She’d feed it to the wolves. ”Wanna see me having fun? I’ll tape a camera to my helmet next time I go skydiving.” In his head he added, or next time we meet in a club, something should happen. He’d already been rude enough for the morning, and he found it easier to contain his annoyance now that he didn’t feel so threatened.

”How do you know it would make me more irritable? It can’t possibly be that bad.” He meant that as more of an insult to himself than to her supposed magical cure. He wasn’t sure if she pushed on him to tease him or because she was actually peeved, so he only nodded in agreement. Everyone who drank too much deserved their hangovers, in Justin’s opinion. It was called self control, and obviously he’d been missing his last night.

[Ella Tate]

"Because you wanted to create an illusion that you were the tall, dark and mysterious type?" Ella teased, playing with her crushed can. She looked up at the challenge he posed and snorted. "I'd rather be the one pushing you off the plane, man." She admitted, though she probably would also love the chance to skydive herself. Her schedule just doesn't fit that kind of lifestyle.

"It makes me irritable and I'm a lot more pleasant than you are." It had more to do with the taste of the Bloody Mary that she made than it was the cure itself. "Hey, if you still want it, you can come over to the office. But I'm warning you, I make mine a little different but it works twice as fast."

[Justin Marshall]

((OOC: SORRY this took so long, I came back and was immediately weirdly busy and I've been down to like one post a night. Attempting to do them all in the order everyone replied. I may be slow for a few more days...<3 ))


”Obviously,” He cracked a grin at that one. No need to get into his lack of a social life. Could he magically fix his mood if he pretended it didn’t exist? ”Are you saying I’m not tall, dark, and mysterious?” Terrible at acting, he couldn’t fake poutiness like Ella, and he didn’t try. The corners of his eyes crinkled slightly with amusement. Who said he couldn’t flirt while sober?

”And you can push me off a plane anytime, as long as I’m attached to a parachute,” he added in a similar tone. There was a grain of truth to this, actually, as he never minded getting to show off his apparent fearlessness occasionally. Speaking of which, how bad could a hangover cure be, compared to the sweaty palms of outdoor bouldering or the nervous anticipation before jumping out of a plane? ”I may be that desperate, if those painkillers don’t kick in soon,” he answered seriously. ”As long as you don’t put tar in it or anything…”

[Ella Tate]

Leaning back in her chair, she sized him up and shrugged. "I'll give you tall. Maybe." She smirked.

"Oh, challenge accepted." She narrowed her eyes and grinned. "Next time I get an off day, I'm shoving you out of a plane."

Shaking her head at the 'tar' comment, Ella played with her can before answering. "I wouldn't call the black stuff I put in tar." She teased.

"Anyway. Glad we had this conversation. You really ought to get used to alcohol. It's what makes this town so much more fascinating." She gave him a silly look and stood up, ready to leave. "Bye Justin."

[OOC: Shall we wrap these two sillybirds? ^^]