I'm just gonna sit here and willfully ignore that it has been six months since I last updated.
"Well, this is the place," Jinora said, hoping against hope that Fen wouldn't find it too weird.
Turns out she did. "A skate park? Something else you haven't told me?"
Jinora sighed. "I didn't tell anyone, it just sort of... happened. Kai found out, and he..." She stopped talking there, knowing how bad it would make him look, but her best friend would never leave it there.
-"And he what?"
"He kind of... blackmailed me into our first kiss to keep it quiet. We didn't get together right there and then, don't worry, and he has changed. It's not as bad as you think it is."
Fen chuckled. "Wow, who would have guessed that you'd trade making out for favors?"
Jinora shook her head. "Just drop it, okay? Let's just go and find the people running this joint." They went into the mass of people there, but she managed to spot Korra in the crowd soon enough and walked over to greet her.
-"And who did you bring with you?" Korra asked, eyeing Fen up.
"This is Fen, my best friend since second grade," Jinora answered. "Fen, this is Korra. She's one of the organizers here."
Korra narrowed her eyes at the mention of her name until the bell rang. "I remember you. Jinora's told me about you before. Nice to meet you." She extended her hand to her.
Shaking it, Fen blinked, slightly surprised by the gesture. "Oh. Well, Jinora never mentioned you to me, so I guess this is kinda awkward." She paused before adding, "Though, she also didn't say anything about a skatepark before today and I only found out about her secret boyfriend three weeks ago."
This made the older girl chuckle, though Jinora just rolled her eyes at that. "Shall we just get some drinks in you?"
-"I do like the sound of that."
Korra had this whole thing perfectly set up, with massive amounts of beer for the guys and shots of vodka for the girls. It was the same cheap, awful stuff that she had served Jinora on her birthday, but if she just added some soda, it wasn't that bad.
It didn't actually take that long for Jinora to catch herself having fun. The rap music that was normally playing here was replaced with techno dance crap that was even worse, but it did have a nice rhythm to it. She spent most of her time on the makeshift dancefloor with Fen, and she hadn't even been actively looking for Kai much.
She had already spotted Asami dancing and drinking with Korra as well, and so were Bolin and Opal. Jinora deliberately didn't hang out with Kai too much, just a quick kiss to greet him, and then they went their seperate ways, where he hung out with his friends, and Jinora with Fen.
But all of that would change when it was around midnight, and Jinora was about to suggest to go home again, when Kai interrupted them. "Hey, babe. Still enjoying yourself?"
"More or less. I was planning on going home not too long from now though."
-"Well, I have something better for you. Korra invited us over to her place, unwind, and just chill for the rest of the night. Sound good?"
That actually did sound pretty good, Jinora had to admit. This party was getting a bit tiring, so something a little more intimate with just a few people she liked did sound appealing. "What do you think?" she asked Fen.
-"I say we check it out, if we don't like it, we can always leave from there."
"Fair enough."
They set off for Korra's place, with Jinora, Kai, Korra, Opal, Bolin, Asami, and Fen making up the entire group, and it wasn't actually that far between the park and Korra's house. Turns out it looked nice, just a stand-alone house with a large lawn and presumably backyard too. "My parents are out, so we got the place all to ourselves," Korra said.
-"Oh God, I already feel bad for your bed," Kai muttered, to which Jinora gave him a chastising slap on the shoulder.
However, Korra hadn't heard it, and just opened the door. "Oh, and word of warning for all of you: Naga gets very excited by new people, but she'll have had enough in five minutes and just tuck up in a place where she can easily get ear scratches."
"Who's Naga?" Came the obvious question out of Fen, and while Jinora knew, she had never actually seen the animal, and wasn't quite prepared. As soon as Korra opened the door, and enormous white furball came charging around the corner, and practically tackled her to the ground, prompting laughter from everyone else while Korra tried to discipline her dog. "Down, girl! Not in front of everyone!"
Turns out she had been telling the truth, the dog sniffed everyone's hands and butts, save for Asami and Korra who she already knew, but then just resorted to following them around as Korra led them to the garden where they all found some comfortable seats. Bolin brought a cooler full of beer up from the basement on Korra's instructions, Opal revealed that she had pinched a bottle of vodka from the party but she paid for it anyway, and Jinora and Fen decided to pull up an intelligent face to try and get the firepit going, but ultimately it was Kai who ended up doing the bulk of the work.
But it had to be said: this was what Jinora considered to be good fun. Her boyfriend on one side, her best friend on the other, and circled by the rest of her friends. She was sipping away at a vodka coke while leaning up against Kai, who was smoking a cigarette, though no one cared enough to say anything about it. Heck, Opal even joined him.
-"You know, I can't help but feel that I'm a bit of a... seventh wheel here?" Fen said, looking around at the three couples who were all cuddled up together in seats that may or may not have been too big for two people. Naga had picked up on that, who decided that Fen was the one least occupied and therefore most likely to give her ear scratches. A correct assumption, it turned out.
"You were the one who dumped Tu," Jinora none-too-subtly reminded her.
This made Kai laugh. "You dated Tu? How did I not hear about that?"
It made Fen blush a little. "Yeah, for like two weeks. And Jinora wasn't exactly stopping me when I told you I was going to dump him. Turns out he's a douchebag."
Kai chuckled. "You needed two weeks to figure that out?"
Jinora was actually pretty amused by this exchange. It was nice to see that now that she was less hostile to Kai, maybe Fen could follow in Jinora's footsteps. "And that's why I didn't stop you." She let her head rest back on Kai's shoulder, feeling slightly comforted by the smell of smoke now clinging to probably both of them.
-"Hey Ope, you notice something about Jinora?" Korra asked. "There is something off, and I just can't put my finger on it."
-"You noticed it too?" Fen cried out in surprise. "I knew she was hiding something!"
Jinora sighed. "It's nothing, okay? I don't even know what you're talking about."
-"Just how you're so relaxed, and..." A massive knowing smile crept over Korra's face. "You had sex!"
"What... I..." Jinora stammered while going bright red, internally berating herself for being so obvious. That was the second person to have figured it out in under a day, and while it wasn't something she was dead set on keeping secret, she would have preferred it if Korra hadn't belted it out in front of everyone, including Fen.
A brief glance over to Kai told her he wasn't too bothered about it, which made more sense for him than it did for her. His reputation preceeded him, to say the least. But at this point, there was no way for Jinora to deny it any longer, so she might as well own up to it. "Yes, we did. Got a problem with that?"
Korra raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding me? Of course not! Just not something I'd have expected from you so soon."
-"Well, we have been dating for the better part of a year now," Kai came to their defense. "So it's not exactly 'so soon' if you ask me."
Fen decided it was her turn to pitch in as well. "Fair enough, but, Jin, it is time for you to spill some details. How big is he?"
Kai choked on his drink, and Jinora was equal parts surprised and annoyed by that question. "Dude!" he yelled out. But to save face for both of them, she just held her fingers a considerable distance from each other, to which Kai laughed and pressed a kiss on her cheek. "Thanks, babe."
-"I don't believe you," Fen said.
"Well, tough, you're not going to make Kai drop his pants in front of everyone. That's for my eyes only," Jinora chuckled.
-"Good, 'cause I'm already feeling inadequate as it is," Bolin commented.
-"You probably should," Kai added, to which Jinora gave him a chastising smack on the shoulder. Just because she wanted to shut Fen up didn't mean she wanted to give Kai bragging rights.
Asami's thoughts mirrored Jinora's. "God, I thought a dick-measuring contest was only a metaphore."
"I wish it was," she wistfully sighed.
-"Ahem," Opal coughed, getting everyone's attention. She clearly felt that they had been yapping about dicks for long enough now. "If we can move off of who is the best equipped here, I've brought us a little party favor." She pulled a little ziplock bag from her pocket, and after a brief moment, Jinora saw that it was probably weed.
It made her a little nervous, but clearly Kai and Korra were very excited, judging by their whooping. Jinora shared a brief look with Fen, who must have felt the same way. Neither of them were huge party animals or anything, and while Fen was a little more prone to experimentation than Jinora was, neither of them had ever done drugs before.
-"Is that going to be enough for all seven of us?" Kai asked.
-"Well, I was planning to save it for me and Bolin later tonight, but it's easily enough to roll like, three joints, so yeah, I think it'll work for us."
But Korra wasn't having that. "We aren't gonna roll any joints, I never liked that shit. Be right back." She jumped up and ran back into the house, startling Naga even, leaving the group confused.
"What are you thinking?" Jinora softly asked Fen, hoping the rest wouldn't hear it.
-"I dunno, good opportunity to try, right?"
That was kind of the answer she had been afraid of. Jinora had done more than berate Kai in the past for smoking weed, and now it was right in front of her. Was it expected of her? Kai once told her that the whole reason he started liking her more was that she had much less of a stick up her ass when she was at the park, so refusing this would then only put that stick back.
-"Babe, you alright?" Kai asked. "You know you don't have to do anything, right?"
Jinora sighed. "I don't know. I've never done it, how would I know if I like it?"
Kai shrugged. "Only one way to find out, but like I said, it's up to you."
Korra came back out of the house with a bong in her hand, partially filled with water. "Well, Ope, since you were good enough to bring it, I'd say the first hit goes out to you."
-"Why thank you." Opal stuffed a bit of the weed in the appropriate place, pulled her lighter out of her pocket and lit the herb a few times to get it smouldering. The next step was to put the bong up to her mouth, and breathe in while burning the weed. "Ohh, that's good stuff," she said while breathing out the smoke again. She relaxed into her seat and Bolin, who was eager to take the bong from her, and took a hit of his own.
The smell was rather strong and very distinct, and Jinora recognized it from the few times people had smoked it in the park. It wasn't allowed in public, but that didn't stop everyone. After Korra and Asami had their turns as well, the bong was passed to Kai, but before he lit up, he looked over to Jinora and spotted the worried look on her face. "Babe, if you don't want to do it, I won't either, okay? Solidarity. I can take it or leave it."
She smiled. "That's really sweet of you, but you don't have to leave it for me. I'm just still not sure if it's my thing."
Kai thought for a moment. "Do you trust me?"
This question puzzled her a little bit. "What? Of course I do."
-"I can give you the light version first. See if you like it without the risk of it kicking you in the chest."
That sounded a lot more appealing to Jinora. Plus, it was Kai she was with. It wasn't so much the peer pressure she was following now, it was her own trust in him. "Okay."
He nodded, and took his hit, but instead of blowing out the smoke straight away, he instead lined his face up with hers, bringing them very close together. Jinora opened her mouth a little bit, and Kai gradually blew the smoke in, upon which she breathed it into her lungs, causing a pretty big coughing fit from her. "Not exactly what I was expecting," she said.
-"Don't worry about it, happens to everyone the first time around," Korra put her at ease.
But this was about the point where Jinora started to feel the effects somewhat, her arms and legs became somewhat heavier, and relaxing into the couch felt better than it had before. "Whoa..." she breathed out along with the last of the smoke, getting a chuckle from the rest of the group.
Truth be told, Fen didn't fare much better. She also started coughing hard, but in her defense, she took the full monty, as opposed to Jinora's more watered-down version.
But once the effect actually settled in it wasn't really anything that special. Maybe it was that she got a diluted dose, but with the way that alreayd irritated her lungs, she didn't really feel like going for it straight from the source. Instead, she spent the rest of the night taking two more hits from Kai, both of which slightly amplified the effects, but nothing too big, and just declined for every following round.
It was very evident that Fen and Asami were struck down hardest by the weed as they was barely able to stay awake, something that greatly amused Kai, who in turn got clingier to Jinora, something that was received with eyerolls from everyone else. Bolin and Korra became extremely hungry, though Jinora didn't exactly turn down the popcorn either. She could have gone for something fried, but deepfrying stuff in their current state was a bad idea for everyone. The pizza they decided to order was a great way to split the difference, and killing the waiting time for that down by playing cards was a great way to do that.
Contrary to what she would have expected after the end of the concert, Jinora had had a great time here. So much so that she completely lost track of it, and only when she checked her phone after everyone had basically sobered up again from the weed did she realize it was almost three in the morning. "Oh, crap! I told my mom I was gonna be home by ten!"
-"Ahh, little bit later, who cares?" Korra casually said, not thinking straight because the empty bottles next to her suggested she had tried the hardest tonight.
"This counts as more than a little bit, I think it's best I go. Fen, you might wanna think about doing the same."
-"Hmm, I might. Don't wanna leave this couch though," she said, her words slightly slurring.
Jinora looked over to Kai with a worried look, who rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Yeah, that's not good."
"We can't just leave her here."
He sighed. "Fine, we'll take her home." Being the most capable and strongest between the three of them, Kai pulled Fen to her feet, who seemed reluctant to stay on them until Jinora helped her along. After thanking Korra for the night and telling her to send the bill later, they were on their way to Fen's place, which thankfully wasn't too far.
-"You better make sure she remembers in the morning who practically carried her most of the way here," Kai groaned as he dropped Fen basically on her porch. She could walk the remaining distance to her room on her own.
Jinora chuckled. "Don't worry, I'll send her a text once the worst of her hangover has cleared."
He smiled. "And what about your hangover?"
"Don't know. Isn't the best idea to drink water before going to bed?"
-"Sure is. So you go do that, and we'll worry about Fen again in the morning, shall we?"
Jinora pulled her boyfriend into a tight hug, because she knew they would be going their seperate ways from here. He smelled like smoke and weed, and when she kissed him, tasted like the cheap beer he'd been drinking throughout most of the night, and yet, she couldn't find it within herself to care. "Let's. And I'll see you later."
Jinora knew that on the one hand, it would probably be safer to climb in through her window, but on the other... in her current state, precariously balancing on narrow ledges over a paved terrace wasn't such a good idea. Besides, it was the dead of night, if she did everything quietly, no one would ever know.
Or at least, that was the plan. Just as she closed the front door, the door to the living room opened, revealing her mother behind it. (Fuck...) "Hey, Mom..." Jinora cautiously said.
-"Let's talk." Pema walked back into the living room, followed soon enough by her daughter. She knew this was going to be one hell of a lecture. "Jinora, I am disappointed. You were going to stay out until ten, and then you send me a text that it's going to be a little later, okay, nothing to worry about. But's it's three in the morning now, that's more than 'a little later'. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Jinora sighed, because there wasn't much to defend there. "Not a lot, I suppose. We ran into Kai, and stuck around for a while longer. I just lost track of time."
-"You lose track of time by five minutes, not five hours. You've been drinking, that much is obvious, so how do you explain that?"
"I was with people I trust! Look, this wasn't some sleazy bar in a part of town you wouldn't want to leave your car, this was perfectly safe, with people who would never hurt me, and I didn't even have much." Once again, it was Jin bending the truth a little, though it wasn't an outright lie. Now she just had to drive it home.
Her mother looked like she was about to give in, but then she changed her mind as she sniffed the air and stepped closer to Jinora. "What is that smell?"
"Smoke? You know Kai smokes. I was with him the entire time, he lit a few up." That was one thing she didn't even attempt to lie about. She'd been fulminating over that ever since she learned he picked up the habit, no reason to start denying it all of a sudden.
-"I know what cigarette smoke smells like, and this is not that." Pema's eyes went wide at the realization. "Jinora Gyatso, is that weed I smell on you?"
(Damn it.) There was no way out of this now, not without lying to her mother, and that was not an option anymore. It's nearly impossible to lie to someone expecting to be lied to. "Yes, it is," she admitted.
Her mother sighed and threw her hands up in defeat. "Damn it, Jinora! You're supposed to know better than that!"
Sure, she could try and make all kind of arguments for herself, she didn't smoke directly, it was a bong, not a joint, but none of that would really help her here. She had smoked weed and that was the end of the matter. "Am I? Like I said, I was with people I trust, and I don't think it's reckless."
-"It's drugs, Jinora. Alcohol I can understand, but weed is a step up from that."
"So I did. I didn't really care much for it, the effects have long since worn off, and I'm not aching to go again. I really don't see the big deal here. As far as I'm concerned, this was a one-time thing."
This actually seemed to soften her mother up somewhat. "That doesn't mean I have to approve of this." She took a deep breath, thinking of an appropriate punishment. "From now on, for the rest of the summer, you will be home by ten, alone. Do I make myself clear?"
"Mom..." Jinora tried to argue, but it was to no avail.
-"If you think that's unfair, you're welcome to explain the situation to your father and see what he thinks."
Well, that would be a fucking wasted effort, so Jinora just sighed. "Fine."
-"Good. Now hang your clothes in the bathroom and open the window. No need to give anyone else in the house brilliant ideas like yours."
She ignored the obvious sarcasm in that sentence, and instead just slumped up the stairs and did as she was told, though Jinora knew damn well that it could have been much worse.
On a more serious note, I've been having a bad case of writer's block owing to a variety of personal factors and plot bunnies that just won't die, so this kept on getting pushed off. It doesn't help that writing people in social situations is not exactly my forte, so if it shows, I'm sorry. I've already got a significant chunk of the next chapter written, so hopefully I can get that out a little faster. (That's setting the bar in the flipping basement, oh well.) Take care!
