It's actually not easy to catch her alone. That girl, Jasmine, she's always surrounded by her cheerleading posse, her friends, and most annoyingly – her boyfriend. What does she see in that clean-cut, boring, average-looking teeny-boy, Jackson simply cannot understand. He's a vegetarian, for Christ' sake! Does that still count as male, anyway? Like, come on.

But the moment comes, and he sees her sitting on a bench all alone.

"Hey there, girlie", he sits casually next to her and flashes her one of his well-rehearsed easy smiles. Chicks dig a confident guy.

"Do I know you?", she shoots him a blank look. Handsome guy, she thinks.

She's so painfully pretty. Even more stunning when I'm this close to her.

"I'm new here. Jackson", he offers her his hand for a handshake, which she ignores. Rude. Defiant. A little fight in her. I like that.

"Oh, you're that guy!", she smiles shortly with recognition crossing her face. Aw crap. Handsome, but I heard the worst about him., "Fuckboy."

"Uhm, come again?", Jackson's brows drop. I must have misheard.

"Well, us girls talk.", Jasmine tells him as if he was a particularly slow toddler. He's too good looking for his own good. He thinks he can treat girls like garbage only because he's oh-so-charming. Time for a lesson, pretty boy.

"Ok, so..?", he's slowly realizing his flirting attempt is quickly turning into a minor catastrophe. Come on, beautiful, don't play hard to get.

"So, Becky, Donna and Cheryl..? And Kumiko, too, right..?", she smiles gleefully when she notices Jackson blushing.

"Those are girls I dated..", he tries lamely. And I fucked only Donna who basically threw herself on me. I just fooled around a little with the other girls.

"No, those are girls you took out for a burger, then fucked in the back of their own cars since you don't even have one of your own, and then forgot they even existed. That's not dating. Is it, fuckboy?", she elaborates. My boyfriend, on the other hand, protects my virginity. Mostly because he's gay and he uses our relationship as cover, even he would never admit that to me-as if I didn't know his colours right from the start.

"I mean, what is to you?", he's getting defensive. I don't owe her any explanations or apologies for anything! Still, she's so damn pretty and smoking hot. I would explain the entire world to her and apologize for anything ever done by anyone.

"To me, it's a fair warning.", she smiles again. Because I could fall easily for you.

"Aren't you full of..assumptions.", he sighs. Her assumptions are correct, to be perfectly honest.

"Take a hike, fuckboy.", she simply says and then keeps on texting, effectively letting him know that the conversation is over and he may go away. Somehow, I hope you'll try again.

…

It's Donna, of course, who pesters him the most. Donna is particularly mad at him for pulling the old wham-bam-thank you ma'am and keeps on bashing him via all possible social media for a while.

And now is her moment to gloat. She fills his inbox with text messages:

OMG I can't believe you tried to pull Jasmine LMFAO

she's like royalty. her bf is a rich genius and his dad is a judge. i mean come on

you're a nobody. who's your daddy? LOL

you don't even have a car. your not even in any sports team

not even the chess club

sorry ass loser,

you can be lucky i gave u any time which i regret btw

and you talk weirdly

whats up with that accent. its not cute u sound like some Russian criminal

and your shit in the sack tbh

as if you could ever land her LMAO

i cant believe you landed me

you really got lucky but lemme tell you that was that one time only

anyway don't bother to even look in my direction byeeee

He refrains from answering, but re-reads the messages a few times. He is new to the States, and kids here are not the same like the kids back home. Their priorities, wishes and values differ drastically from what he is used to.

So, Donna, who he uses as an example of the average teen, thinks that Jasmine is above his league. Mostly because Jasmine's current boyfriend is richer and his dad is some big shot. Jackson does not see any real problem with that: his family is wealthy enough, and his dad is like…come on. My daddy is the god-damned Joker. Try to beat that. Next item, Jasmine is supposedly out of limits because Jackson doesn't have a car. Apparently, having a car is a huge thing over here. Ok, I need to get a car somehow. I'll probably need a job. I really don't feel like having a job. Shit. I guess I'll have to endure. I don't see myself flippin' burgers, though. Moving along. Donna mentioned he's not in a sport team. That is also a big thing over here. Everybody tries to be part of some sports team, and he finds that annoying. But, apparently, if you're in a team, you're someone, and he wants to move from the position of fuckboy to the position of oh-look-it's-our-star-athlete. He sighs. Maybe they have some marshal arts club, or wrestling, or box, something like that. I could do that. Maybe then, she'll cheerlead for me. Her fuckboy.

…

„Take it off, or I'll vomit all over you", I tell Jack as soon as he enters our bedroom. It's late at night, and mostly dark in the room, but I can smell his awful grease paint a mile away. Another questionable perk of being pregnant.

"That is, uh, that is one of the most convincing and uh, effective, threats that I have ever received", he mockingly bows in my general direction and continues in the direction of our bathroom.

His voice is a bit nasal, so I know he was up to no good tonight, again. I sigh and turn around in bed. I don't need to know. I don't want to know. I won't turn on the television tomorrow.

He comes out a few minutes later, after one of his ridiculously fast showers. The smell of clean male hits my nostrils and I make a little satisfied nod, all covered up in blankets. Still, he doesn't miss even this small movement of mine. A second later, he crashes his entire weight close to me.

"Better?", he asks as he shoves his wet hair into my face.

"Better", I laugh.

"..I know your threat was empty, though. You didn't vomit for two days in a row, and you ate a lot.", he taunts me.

"My first trimester is almost over, so thankfully the nausea is finally diminishing.", I confirm, feeling really happy about the fact that I stopped throwing up all over the house and its inhabitants, yet irritated by the rest of his observations, "What do you mean, I ate a lot?"

"The pancakes, and then that giant pizza, and also the ice cream's gone, don't think I haven't noticed", he laughs at the offended expression on my face, "I'm just saying, if you continue to…"

"..and if you continue that sentence, or try to separate me and my food in the following six months, you're done. Do you hear me? I will hurt you.", I cut him off with visible murder in my eyes.

"Geez. Will you be this crazy the entire time?", he widens his eyes.

"That really rich, coming from you!", I half yell and half laugh, "First of all, you're the one who is guilty of putting me in this situation! And second of all, really, you are telling me about crazy?!"

"I'm not crazy", he hisses at me, and I see that fun and games are over – without really wanting, I hit a tender spot.

"I didn't say you were", I say in a softer tone, "But, you have to admit, between you and me, you're the more likely candidate."

"Hmph", he agrees without actually saying so. Still, I can feel the tension between us, and I hate it, so I turn towards him to snuggle up to him. That close, I can see really nasty fresh bruises on his neck.

"Oh God, Jack!", I yelp.

"It's nothing", he's already rolling his eyes.

"How can it be nothing?! It looks like someone tried to strangle you!"

He just shrugs his shoulders and avoids my eyes, so I realize that I was right.

"Did someone try to strangle you?!", I ask, astonished, and then I realize just how absurd that sounds, "No, wait, someone tried to strangle you? Who would try something so crazy? I mean, you had the paint on, they knew it was you - I mean, the Joker?"

He actually laughs at that.

"He sure did know it was me. No mistake there."

"Was it some cop?", I ask dumbly. As if any cop would dare touch him, let alone try to hurt him.

"No.", he says, leaving me guessing.

"Maybe one of your clowns..? ..got crazy..crazier than usual..?", I don't know why I always play part in his guessing games. He loves leaving me in the dark, guessing.

"Nope."

"The gangster guys? The Italian guy in the nice suit?", I can't help it, I have to taunt him a bit. I mentioned once how nice Sal Maroni dresses, and the jealousy that flashed over Jack's face was so visible, and somewhat enjoyable to me.

"I can crush that wop with the little finger of my left hand, any day of the week, and make him eat that suit that you like so much.", he spits angrily, and I can't help but giggle a bit.

"Ok, ok, duly noted", I kiss his neck lightly, "So who was it, then?"

"Ah. It's not really important, now is it?", he tries to shake me off.

"I really want to know who dares to touch the father of my children", I tell him seriously, as I actually feel some fury towards the person who tried to hurt Jack. In the same time, deep down I am aware of the numerous people Jack has hurt.

"You wanna go after him, and kick his ass?", he chuckles a bit.

"I just might do so", I say, obviously not meaning it.

"Then, my sweet lady, you'll have to find him first.", he smiles enigmatically., "Which is almost impossible. Even I have trouble finding that guy. He loves hiding in caves."