Chapter 6
"Wouldn't you enjoy doing that more with your little Piltie freinds?" She says, getting up to stretch before walking over to your to put on her slippers.
"You mean Mel?" You ask, watching Jinx. "She's nice, actually. And she helped me with the lab when you weren't there."
"Yeah, whatever." Jinx rolls her eyes. "Miss Perfect and her two perfect boyfriends."
"Are you jealous of Mel?"
"What? No!" Jinx stands up too quickly, nearly stumbling. "Why would I be jealous of some Noxian princess?"
"Because she was helping me with the lab?" You raise an eyebrow. "You did get pretty weird that day."
"I wasn't weird." Jinx grabs her jacket from where she'd tossed it. "I just didn't like how she was... you know what? Never mind. I need to go."
"Hey," you catch her wrist before she can bolt. "Friends talk about stuff, remember? No running away."
Jinx looks at your hand on her wrist, then at you. For a moment, you think she might pull away, but she lets out a frustrated sigh instead.
"Fine. Yes, I got jealous. Happy now?" She tugs her wrist away. "But it doesn't matter because we're ‘just friends’, right?"
"Right," you say, even though the word feels strange in your mouth. "Just friends. You admitting that is a good first step though.”
"Cool. Great. Awesome." Jinx heads for the door. "I'll see you in class then, friend."
She emphasizes the last word in a way that makes your stomach flip, but before you can respond, she's gone, leaving only the lingering scent of her perfume behind.
Friday finally rolls by, and somehow you got Jinx, Ekko and Mel to all agree to a sleepover. You were giddy with excitement as you laid out snacks and extra pillows (Definitely not Jinx's idea) and some board games. You'd made sure to finish all your homework early so you had nothing to worry about or lose sleep over as well.
You sit on the bed, picking at your chipped nail polish before there was a knock at the door. You jump up and open it, happy to see Ekko at the door.
"Hey, glad you could make it!" You say with a big smile.
"Well, you and Jinx told me to come so..couldn't really say no. But your room looks awesome." Ekko says as you let him in. "How does Jinx manage to be late when she literally lives down the hall?"
"I don't know. Maybe she's bringing something special." You say with a shrug before closing the door.
"What's up with all the pillows?" Ekko asks.
"Um, Jinx was complaining that there wasn't any." You say with a little laugh.
"Oh, so that's what you guys do together." Ekko mumbles.
"Wait, don't get any weird ideas. We were just sleeping—nevermind." You facepalm. "Let's move on. Do you want any snacks?"
"Sure, but I also bought some of my own for you guys to try too. Bet you've never had candy from Zaun!"
You hum. "Actually…I have. Not in a long time, but I have."
Ekko raises an eyebrow. "I thought you were from Piltover?" He asks, and before you can answer there was another knock at the door.
"Hold that thought." You walk over to the door and open it to see Mel and Jinx at the door, at the same time, holding the same tiger plush.
"Um, are you guys matching on purpose?" You ask.
"No!" Jinx yells. "This chick definitely copied me."
"I didn't copy you! We just happen to have similar taste I guess…" Mel says awkwardly.
"Why don't you guys just come inside.." You let them both in, but Jinx can't stop glaring at the back of Mel's head.
"I'm really glad you were able to come, Mel. I was worried you were busy."
"I can always make time for a friend. Besides, the semester end is coming up anyways. Are you all excited for winter break?" She asks.
"Break means going back home." Ekko shrugs. "Not much excitement there."
"Yeah, same." Jinx flops onto your bed, spreading out like a starfish. "Vi's gonna be all over Cait the whole time and I'll be stuck third-wheeling."
You sit on the edge of the bed. "You could always visit me."
"In Piltover?" Jinx scoffs. "Pass."
"Actually..." You fidget with your sleeve. "I'm heading back to Zaun for winter break."
The room falls silent. Mel's eyes widen slightly while Ekko straightens up from his slouched position against the wall.
"Wait, what?" Mel props herself up on her elbows. "You're from Zaun?"
"Yeah. I moved to Piltover when I was fourteen. My mom and dad seperated. My mom's a doctor and my dad…well, he does odd jobs here and there." You pick at your nail polish again. "Never really told anyone here."
"That explains the accent slip-ups." Ekko nods. "I knew something was off."
"Accent slip-ups?" You frown.
"Sometimes when you're tired or excited, you sound more Zaunite." Jinx adds. "I'm surprised other people hadn't noticed."
"Most people don't unless they're from there." You shrug. "It's not something I advertise."
"Why not?" Mel asks, genuine curiosity in her voice.
"You know how Pilties can be." You gesture vaguely. "Especially at this school. Plus, my mom kind of forced me to take manners classes and stuff once we moved."
"Yeah, bunch of stuck-up-" Jinx starts.
"Hey!" Mel interrupts, but she's smiling.
"Present company excluded, obviously." Jinx rolls her eyes, but you can tell she's joking.
"Which district?" Ekko asks.
"The Sump." You answer. "Near the old chem-baron territories."
"No way, that's where I grew up!" Jinx bounces on the bed. "We probably passed each other like a hundred times!"
"Really? I wonder what you were doing at 14." You nudge Jinx.
"Probably blowing stuff up or stealing." Jinx says with a shrug.
"Why'd your parents separate, if you don't mind me asking?" Mel asks quietly.
"No, I don't mind. My dad really wasn't very dedicated to parenthood. He didn't want to change, to do anything really. My mom wanted to be a doctor and she went here for her degree while also working and raising me." You explain.
"So why are you going to see him then?" Ekko asks. "I take it you don't like him?"
"He's a lot less uptight than my mom. Apparently he started a business and 'turned his life around', and wants to see me." You shrug. "I don't mind going. If anything goes wrong I'll just go home."
"Hopefully all goes well then. Why don't we play a board game?" Mel asks, seeing the sad look on your face. You perk up and nod.
"Do you have Uno?" Jinx asks.
"Yeah, it's here. But I want to play Monopoly." Ekko holds the cards away from Jinx.
"Monopoly is gonna take hours, Ekko! Let me smoke you in Uno first at least!" She argues.
"I think Uno sounds fun as long as Jinx doesn't cheat." Mel hums.
"Me? Cheat? What do you know about me cheating?" Jinx asks, crossing her arms.
"I've just heard some things from Vi and Caitlyn."
"Cait doesn't know a thing about real Uno, that's why she's jealous."
You all agree on Uno and sit in a circle. To your surprise, Mel wins 3 times and Jinx wins 3. You and Ekko didn't stand a chance against the two of them.
"Okay, tie breaker. We can't play Uno all day." You huff.
"I can play Uno all day. But fine," Jinx sighs. "Come on Medarda, you don't wanna go out sad in front of Y/N, right?"
Mel rolls her eyes, before placing the first card down. They go back and forth for a while, and eventually you watch in disbelief as Jinx slams down her last card with a triumphant yell.
"Ha! Eat it, Medarda!" She jumps up and does a little victory dance.
"That's impossible." Mel stares at the pile. "You had five cards left!"
"Nope, I'm just that good." Jinx flops back onto the bed next to you.
"That was probably the most anticlimactic game of Uno I've ever seen. Can we watch something now?" Ekko asks, already reaching for the remote.
"Oh, I saw this new horror movie on Netflix." Mel takes the remote from Ekko. "It's about a haunted Hextech core that possesses people."
Your stomach drops. You'd seen the trailer for that movie and it wasn't helping your apprehension towards horror films. "Um, maybe something else-"
"No way, that sounds awesome!" Jinx cuts you off.
Before you can protest further, the movie starts playing. The first scene shows a student working late in a lab - alone. You pull your knees to your chest as the lighting grows darker and darker.
When the possessed core starts floating and emitting an eerie blue glow, you grab the closest thing to you - which happens to be Jinx's arm.
"Scared already?" She whispers, making you jump.
"No." You lie, but your grip tightens as the student turns around to face the core.
The core suddenly flies straight at the screen with a horrible screech. You yelp and bury your face in Jinx's shoulder.
"Okay, maybe we should watch something else." Mel says, reaching for her tablet.
"Or..." You peek out from Jinx's shoulder. "We could play truth or dare?"
"What are we, twelve?" Ekko laughs.
"Better than watching Y/N have a heart attack." Jinx pats your head. "I'm in."
"Me too." Mel turns off the movie. "But no dangerous dares. I don't want another incident like last time."
"Last time?" You ask.
"Don't worry about it." Jinx waves her hand dismissively. "Who's going first?"
"I'll go first," Mel says, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Y/N, truth or dare?"
Your heart races a bit. "Um...truth."
"Do you have a crush on anyone in this room?"
You feel your face heat up as Jinx shifts beside you. Ekko raises an eyebrow, clearly interested in your answer.
"I...uh..." You stammer, suddenly very aware of Jinx's arm still pressed against yours. "Well, um.." You glance at Jinx, who smirks. "Can I opt out of this question?"
Mel notices your worried face and nods knowingly. "You can, I suppose..but in return you have to do a dare."
"What kind of dare?" You ask skeptically.
"Show us your search history." Mel says, and you roll your eyes. Fine, that was easy. You were sure you hadn't looked up anything strange in the past few days anyways.
You sigh and grab your laptop, opening it up and navigating to the search history, not even sparing the screen a glance before you turn the laptop toward them to see.
"See? Nothing weir-"
" 'How to get someone to stop being confusing'?" Ekko says, and your smile drops. You slam the laptop closed before anyone else can continue reading.
"Um. I did it, so can we move on now?" You ask with a laugh.
The entire room bursts into giggles, including Jinx. You cross your arms and shake your head.
"Okay, Ekko," You say mockingly. "You go next then since it's so funny. Truth or dare."
"Truth," Ekko says with a confident smirk. "I've got nothing to hide."
"Okay, who's your least favorite professor and why?"
"Professor Heimerdinger, hands down. Man talks for hours about theory but can't explain a simple equation without going on tangents about his 'revolutionary discoveries' back in the day. Did you expect me to say Caitlyn? I thought she didn’t count."
“Honestly, I was expecting Caitlyn.” Jinx says with a snort. You give her a look, but you know she’s right. You’ve had classmates complain to you about her.
Everyone nods in agreement, and Ekko turns to Jinx. "Your turn. Truth or dare."
Jinx hums. "I say dare. There's been too many truthers in this group so far."
"Yeah, yeah. Normally I'd dare you to kiss Y/N or something, but I'm sure you've already done that," Ekko says, and you roll your eyes, but can't help your cheeks getting warmer. "So go down the hall and knock on a random door and try to convince them they stole your pizza and you want your money back."
"That is by far the most random dare I've ever heard." Mel says, a bit surprised. "But it's Jinx, so she'll probably manage to pull it off somehow."
Jinx laughs and gets up. "Alright, but don't be surprised when I come back with 20 dollars." She opens your door and walks down the hall and you all peek out the door to watch her pick a random dorm room as her target.
She knocks on the door, waits, and it opens.
You watch from your doorway as the door opens to reveal a tired-looking student with messy hair and glasses.
"Can I help you?" He asks, clearly annoyed at being interrupted.
"Yeah, actually. You ordered pizza earlier right?" Jinx crosses her arms.
"No? I've been studying all day."
"Really? Because I delivered a large pepperoni to this exact room and you never paid me." Jinx leans against the doorframe. "That's twenty bucks you owe me."
"What? I didn't order any-"
"Listen," Jinx cuts him off. "I've got three other deliveries waiting and my boss is gonna kill me if I don't collect. You gonna pay up or what?"
"But I didn't-"
"Fine, I'll just call my manager and let him know you're refusing to pay. He'll probably send someone else to collect..." Jinx pulls out her phone.
"Wait!" The guy holds up his hands. "Look, there must be some mistake but...here." He disappears into his room and returns with a twenty dollar bill. "Just...please don't send anyone else."
"Thanks!" Jinx pockets the money and skips back to your room while the confused student closes his door.
"No way." Ekko shakes his head as you all hurry back inside. "You actually got the money?"
"Told you I would." Jinx pulls out the bill with a flourish. "Never underestimate the power of confidence, threats and a bad reputation."
"That's actually impressive." Mel admits. "Slightly concerning, but impressive."
"I can't believe that worked." You laugh, settling back onto the bed. "Poor guy probably thinks he's going crazy now.”
"Nah, he'll figure it out eventually." Jinx shrugs. "But for now, who wants pizza? My treat." She waves the twenty with a wink.
You all order pizza— a normal pepperoni pie with Jinx’s spoils of war. As you eat, Ekko and Mel exchange stories about projects and life, you and Jinx…well you sit and stare at each other as you eat. She was looking at you like the cat who’d got the cream, knowing not only that you had been looking up ideas for how to talk to her but also that you had a crush on her.
Okay, well she knew that, it was obvious. But it was funny to see it had gotten to this degree. But she couldn’t be one to talk when she’d suddenly become so cautious around you. She didn’t want to fuck this ‘freindship’ thing up, so she was basically walking on thin ice while you continued along like everything was normal.
“So..whatcha’ doing with that prize money?” She asks, and you look up from your phone playing a youtube video while you ate.
“Um..I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll go shopping, I could use the new clothes.”
“I don’t think you need prize money to do that. Being a..rich Piltie and all.” Jinx says, and you roll your eyes.
“I know my mother has the money now. But I feel bad asking for extra allowance, not to mention using my allowance at all.” You explain. “The only time I was inclined to spend a lot of money was with Caitlyn giving me.an unlimited budget for the project.”
“Can I come?” Jinx blurts. She didn’t mean to be so forward, she wanted to smack herself for not even replying to anything else but she wanted to spend more time with you without there being anyone around or any weird emotional shit. Just two ‘friends’ shopping.
You blink in surprise at Jinx's sudden request. "You want to come shopping with me?"
"Yeah, why not?" She shrugs, trying to play it casual despite her earlier eagerness. "Someone's gotta make sure you don't blow it all on boring sweaters."
"My sweaters aren't boring!" You protest, tugging at your current one defensively.
"They're not exactly exciting either." She reaches over and plucks at your sleeve. "Come on, let me help you pick something fun."
Mel clears her throat. "Should we give you two some privacy?"
You hadn't realized how close you and Jinx had gotten, heads bent together in conversation. You scoot back quickly while Jinx just rolls her eyes.
"We're just talking about clothes, Medarda. Not everything's a soap opera."
"Sure." Ekko smirks. "Just like that search history was just about-"
You throw a pillow at his head. "Okay! Yes, Jinx, you can come shopping. We can go tomorrow after class?"
"Cool." She nods, then steals the last slice of pizza before you can grab it. "But I'm not carrying your bags."
"I wouldn't expect you to." You laugh, watching her devour the slice in two bites. "Though maybe I'll make you if you keep stealing my food."
"Make me?” She raises an eyebrow, challenge glinting in her eyes. “That’s funny coming from you, since I earned this pizza.”
"Children, behave." Mel interrupts before things can escalate. "Some of us are trying to finish this movie you were so jumpy about.”
"Like anyone’s watching that crappy CGI.” Ekko points out. "We're all just watching these two flirt badly."
"We're not flirting!" You and Jinx say in unison, then look at each other and quickly away.
"Right." Ekko stands up, stretching. "Well, this has been fun but I should head out. Got an early class tomorrow."
"I should go too." Mel gathers her things with a smirk as you look up at her hopelessly. Did these two PLAN this? "Thanks for having us over, Y/N. Have fun storming the castle, Jinx.” She nudges her arm with her hip as she follows Ekko out the door.
“I thought I said sleepover!” You yell as they leave.
“I have a quiz tomorrow!” Mel pops her head in the door before it closes with a wave.
You stare at the door before back at Jinx.
“So, what was that search history about?” She asks, smirking.
“It was nothing. I was um..actually looking it up because well, I’ll be talking to my dad soon…”
“Oh yeah? You’re a terrible liar, by the way.” Jinx hums.
“I’m not lying!” You yell.
Jinx smirks and leans in close. “If you’re not lying can I see the rest of your search history?”
You laugh nervously. “No. You should believe me anyways. We’re friends.”
Jinx purses her lips. “I don’t know. You don’t have the best track record with telling the truth.”
You gasp dramatically, pressing a hand to your chest.
“Really?!”
“Yeah, really. Remember when you stole my hexcrystal?”
You look away from her, guilty. “I..that was different.”
“What were you planning to do with that anyways?’ Jinx asks, and when you look back at her she’s staring right at your face, almost intently.
“Inconvenience you, I guess.” You shrug. “Those things are kind of hard to get ahold of. I was going to give it back, just so you know.”
“Yeah, I knew you’d give it back. You’re a good girl.” She hums. “But it was still..kind of out of character for you.”
Your stomach does flips at her calling you a 'good girl', heat rushing to your cheeks. You fidget with the hem of your sweater, trying to calm your racing heart. The way she said it - casual yet loaded with meaning - makes your breath catch.
"I'm not that good," you manage to say, voice coming out shakier than intended.
Jinx's eyes narrow, catching the tremor in your voice. She leans back, a knowing smirk playing at her lips. "Oh? Did that get to you?"
You shake your head quickly. Too quickly. "No! I just- I mean-"
"Your face is red." She points out, clearly enjoying your flustered state.
"It's hot in here," you lie, tugging at your collar.
"Sure it is." Jinx stretches, deliberately casual. "You know, for someone who claims to want to be just friends, you're really bad at hiding your reactions."
"I'm not hiding anything!" Your voice comes out higher than normal.
"No?" She raises an eyebrow. "So if I called you a good girl again..."
Your whole body tenses at the words, and you grab a pillow to hide your face. "Stop it!"
Her laugh echoes through the room. "And here I thought you were supposed to be the composed one."
You peek out from behind the pillow, trying to glare but probably failing miserably. "You're doing this on purpose."
"Maybe," She shrugs, but you can see the amused look on her face. " but it's fun watching you squirm."