Escaping a Stalker

Writers: Miriah, Yvonne
Date Posted: 11th November 2015

Characters: Alina, J'ackt, Jerinne
Description: J'ackt has to hide from a stalker.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 4 of Turn 8

Alina

J'ackt

Shard it, he did not want to deal with that girl right now. Glancing
around the corner, he saw the swish of familiar skirts and stifled a
groan. What would it take? He'd avoided her like the a case of bad
firehead, but still she kept coming. J'ackt exhaled and gave a soft
curse as the girl's gaze lit on him. Shaffit! He ducked back from the
corner and hurried down the corridor. He heard footsteps hurrying
after him and quickened his own pace. Shaffit and shard it, he did
_not_ want to deal with her lovesick eyes and clinging arms. He should
never have _touched_ her.

He caught sight of a familiar door around another corner and quickened
his pace to a near jog. He darted around the corner and with a hurried
oath, didn't bother knocking before he thrust it open, whirled and the
quickly but quietly shut it behind him.

"What are you _doing_ here?!" There was a clatter as Alina dropped her
hairbrush and dove for her blankets. The warm weather meant that sometimes
when she was alone in her weyr, she didn't wear quite as much as was proper.
Her tunic barely came to her knees, and after her bath she wasn't wearing
much beneath it. "J'ackt!!"

"Shhhh!" He waved at her for silence, not even paying attention to what she
was doing. His focus was on the door and the footsteps he could hear behind
it. He pressed his ear against it, hearing the soft foot falls go slightly
past the door, turn and then draw closer. He breathed out a curse and jumped
back slightly as a sharp rap sounded. Feck! He glanced around, then at
Alina, shaking his head.

She glared at him, then gestured for him to move away from the door.
"What's going on?" she mouthed.

He pointed to the door and backed away towards Imarith's wallow.
"Jerinne." He mouthed and then raised a finger to his temple and spun it.

Alina sighed and shook her head. Figured. **First he sleeps with
everyone, then he runs and hides.** But when there was another knock
at the door, she gestured for him to duck down behind her bed. Jerinne
could probably hear movement inside. "Who is it?"

"Alina? It's Jerinne. Do you have a moment?" came the voice through the door.

"She's insane." He mouthed before Alina gestured at him. J'ackt dove
for the side of the bed and then ducked, for an instant feeling a bit
chagrined that he was going so far as to hide from Jerinne, but she
just never took any hints!

"Hang on a moment." Alina rolled her eyes, then rolled off her bed and
shrugged on a long, battered knitted cardigan. She went to the door
and opened it a crack to reveal a nervous looking Jerinne on the other
side. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone. I'm not really dressed for
company."

"Oh." Jerinne glanced down at Alina's bare legs and toes peeping
around the edge of the door, and her smile dimmed. "Uh. Well... I was
looking for J'ackt."

The weyrling blinked innocently. "J'ackt? Why?"

"Well.." Jerinne twisted her fingers together nervously. "I thought I
saw him... come this way. I just really need to speak with him. Is
he... with you?" The last was said half-hopefully, as if Jerinne both
wanted and didn't want it to be true.

"No. Why on Pern would he be here?" Alina wrinkled her nose. "Look...
Imarith says Zith says he's in the weyrbowl. Maybe you can catch up
with him there."

Jerinne sighed, and Alina wasn't sure if the other girl had seen
through her lie or not. "All right," Jerinne said after a moment.
"Sorry to have bothered you."

"'Night." Alina shut the door firmly, then lay a finger across her
lips and pressed her ear to the door. After a few moments she heard
the shuffle of feet, and Jerinne was gone. She turned to J'ackt and
pursed her lips, trying to ignore how funny it looked to see him
crouched behind her bed. "All right. I lied for you, so now you get to
tell me exactly what is going on."

J'ackt slowly rose from his crouch, relief visible on his face as he
exhaled. He had listened to her and Jerinne intently, wondering if
Alina would give him away just out of spite. He had been more than
relieved when she had sent the girl on her way. "Thanks." He moved
away from the bed, scrubbing at his face with his hand. "She follows
me _everywhere_. I turn around and she's behind me. She shows up at my
weyr in the middle of the night or she finds me when I'm bathing Zith.
I can't have a minute by myself anymore."

**Serves you right.** Alina bit her tongue and ignored the twinge of
jealousy. Jerinne and J'ackt weren't anything new. "Jerinne's always
been persistent. The last time she had a crush she literally talked
about nothing else for three sevendays straight. And she _really_
likes you."

J'ackt face revealed that he didn't have a very high opinion of
Jerinne's persistence. "Well, she's driving me crazy." He pushed his
hair from his brow in frustration. "I guess I'm just going to just
tell her that I'm done with her."

"That would probably be wise." Alina hesitated, tempted to let him
walk in blind. For all his experience between the bed furs, J'ackt
could still be pretty clueless when it came to actually talking to
people. Caution won out. "Just... make sure to give yourself a lot of
time to deal with her. I doubt that it'll be an easy conversation."

He arched a brow at her. "Okay. Why? I told her I wasn't going to get
serious with her. I told her that in the beginning."

"Maybe you did, but she didn't hear you. Or fell in love with you
anyway. I don't know." She sat on the edge of her bed and folded her
legs beneath herself to cover them a little. "People can't help how
they feel, and Jerinne is _way_ off the deep end when it comes to boys
anyway. Chances are she'll cry and beg and make a huge scene. So... do
it in private instead of humiliating her somewhere public, all right?"

"Ah, shaffit." He pinched the bridge of his nose. She was, as Alina
put it, indeed way off of the deep end. It was getting to the point
where he couldn't stand the girl. "I should have never touched her."
He plopped down on the bed, rubbing his temple. "I'm a fecking idiot."

Alina refrained from rolling her eyes. "Yup. You really need to learn
to be choosy. Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

"Yeah, I'm getting that." He rubbed at his eyes and puffed out a
breath. Then he eyed her. "You didn't have to agree that I was an
idiot, you know."

"Well, you are." Alina pursed her lips. "Look. Do it sooner rather
than later. The longer you put off having a talk with her, the worse
it will be. Like, this is bad, but next sevenday she'll be doubly
persistent because she misses you. And make sure you do your laundry
first. Because last time someone dumped her, I hear she hid a dead
minnow in the bottom of their clean laundry basket. And they hadn't
even slept together."

A look of revulsion swept over his face. "Why didn't you warn me before?"

She arched her eyebrows. "Do I _look_ like your keeper? What you do in
your own time is none of my business. And besides, you never asked."

He snorted, but she was right. It wasn't as though he did checks on
who he let into his bed. He would really have to start. He then
sighed. "Well, thanks for covering for me anyway. "

Her lips twisted into a smile. "It _was_ pretty funny."

He gave a bit of a scowl, but didn't put any ire into it. "I'm glad
you think so." He finally noticed what she was wearing and his brow
arched as he glanced at her legs with appreciation. **Riding does
wonders...**

"Sure. Funniest thing that I've seen all day is you hiding under my
bed." She flipped her braid over her shoulder and ran the end of it
across her fingertips. "Because-- horror of horrors-- somebody likes
you!"

His brows rose, his eyes never leaving the line of her legs. She did
have nice ankles. And knees. He really, really wanted to see if her
thighs matched his imagination. Her comment brought his attention back
to what she was saying and he pulled his eyes away, clearing his
throat. "Obsessed more like."

"Maybe." Alina shrugged. "Either way, you need to talk with her.
Jerinne isn't going to go away on her own."

"I will." He agreed and rose abruptly. "As soon as possible." He ran a
hand through his hair. "I better go." **Before I act on what I
want...and to get back to my weyr and try to figure out a way to
Jerinne out of my hair.**

The greenrider nodded. "See you around, then. And if you ever need
somewhere to hide out, just remember-- you fit under my bed!"

J'ackt couldn't help it. His brows rose at the statement and a slow
smirk twisted his lips. "Tease." He winked and strode out of the room,
hurrying towards his own weyr, but keeping an eye out for Jerinne.

Last updated on the November 15th 2015

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Escaping a Stalker