The best defense..

All eyes were filled with surprise as they looked past Nick to Elizabeth standing behind him. Meanwhile Nick was pretending not to notice their looks and that he was oblivious to what had happened between them in the past, so he lifted his free hand in the air to greet the group and said "Hi, guys. You didn't have to come out to greet little old me now did ya?" with a wink and a cheeky smile. Once Elizabeth turned to see who he was greeting, her eyes shot back to Nick. "What the heck are they doing here? You said you would take me to meet Jason. That is the only reason I came along with you. You never told me his unwanted extra would be here as well nor her meddling friends. Our deal is off. You can stay here all by yourself, hmph" Elizabeth crossed her arms and turned her body side ways and stuck her nose in the air to show her dissatisfaction. Nick showed an awkward smile as he turned to Elizabeth and tried to calm her down. "Oh come on, don't make such a fuss. You said you wanted a chance to make up with him and I promised to give you a chance to talk to him if you would join me on this trip. I held up my side of the bargain, now it is your turn." "Fine, but they had better stay out of my way. I am here for Jason and nothing and no one else." "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your intentions have been heard loud and clear by everyone. Now hurry up and let's go inside. We have kept them waiting long enough. Judging by their looks, they must have plenty of questions for me."

At the same time the group on the other side of the gate had discussed that they would go on to the market and start the shopping and that Jason would stay behind to the both of them. Jenny stayed behind a few seconds longer as the rest had started walking, and held Jason's hand in both of her hands as she swayed it from side to side. Her eyes were fixed at the hand she was holding while Jason stared at her patiently for Jenny to tell him the words that she was holding back. After some silence she said "I-I won't stop you from meeting her. I mean she came all this way to be able to talk to you, but ... " Jenny looked up gently before finishing her words "Don't hurt me okay?" With this Jenny let go of his hand and hurriedly joined the others. Not giving Jason any chance to answer her. However without him answering her, she knew he understood and without her saying all that was on her mind, he understood the meaning of her words. Jenny glanced back once more, before disappearing out of sight.

As the group and Jenny passed Nick and Elizabeth, some greeted neither, some greeted just Nick and others greeted both. With this the villa turned to silence and all that were left were Jason, Nick and Elizabeth. They entered through the gate with their luggage at hand, when they came face to face with Jason. His expression was anything but kind and welcoming. His cold piercing eyes seemed like they could look into their souls, making nick let out an awkward laugh which he quickly swallowed away due to the tension in the air. Elizabeth wasn't even able to meet his gaze and felt like she had been in exile even while standing a few feet away from him. Jason turned abruptly and walked into the villa. Nick looked at Elizabeth and told her to wait for him there for a bit, before he followed Jason inside. Elizabeth had sensed enough of Jason's mood right now to dare test his patience, so she did as Nick asked and stayed outside, where the temperature was sure to be much warmer and more comfortable than inside with him.

The moment Nick entered and closed the door behind him he saw Jason sitting on the living room. He was looking at a point in the room while resting his head on his folded hands. When Nick came close enough Jason uttered a single word "Explain". Nick swallowed once more before he started telling him his reason for bringing someone along that clearly was unwelcome and had even tried to hide it from him.

It seemed that Nick and Elizabeth had gotten a lot closer since their first encounter at Mountforth high. They had seen each other at several of the events organized in the first week of the break and during one of these events, the one where Jason had broken her heart once more, they had both gotten a bit drunk. One thing had led to another and they had ended up kissing one another. This kiss had grown more and more passionate and they had almost crossed the next stage, but Nick had seen how drunk and vulnerable she was at that moment and didn't want to take advantage of her. So he simply held her and slept next to her. This was the first time for him to be sleeping in bed with a beautiful ,almost naked, girl and not having 'slept' with her. However when Elizabeth had woken up the next day and saw that neither of them were wearing any clothes, she assumed the worst and was very upset. Despite feeling upset, she refused to let him see her in a vulnerable state and instead wore her icy thorns to keep him away. Not knowing they had just fallen asleep in a hotel room before anything more could happen. In the days following that night Elizabeth had tried to keep him at a distance at all costs. However, it seemed that this night had been enough for Nick to develop a certain interest in her and much like his friends, once he had set his mind to something, he wasn't one to easily let go.

To him, that day Elizabeth seemed like a stray kitten that had been hurt one too many times, so she lashed out at everyone that tried to come near her or anything she had grown accustomed to. This was her defense mechanism and it was as if he could see this kitten whimpering in a corner of her eyes while she was showing her fangs and murderous look. Despite her strong exterior and her harsh words, she was very fragile right now. Which made her distrusting towards him and somehow that mix of aggressive yet fragile, made him want to be good to her and see if he could restore her faith in others. He figured if he played along first and gave her what she asked for, he could slowly earn her trust and find out what she actually needed and wanted. It was this yearning for familiarity and security that made her hold on to her delusions with such desperation despite no longer actually being in love with Jason. In her mind she had somewhere accepted that he would never like her the way she liked him, but her heart needed him. Needed the sense of protection he gave off. But that was all stolen by Jenny. So she couldn't admit defeat against Jenny, she couldn't show her any weakness, before she robbed her from anything else she held dear. Instead she played the game of the best defense, which was a strong offense.

When Nick heard about what had happened between her and Jason from George and Harry, he felt sorry for her. In an instant she had lost all the people she had considered her friends, she was sent to an unfamiliar class and was kicked from her position next to Jason. This had to be a tough pill to swallow, but her pride kept her from drawing out her white flag. So instead she took every chance she got to fight them so that she could at least remain in their line of sight one way or another. Regardless of the consequences. Much like a small child that begs for attention by misbehaving, because any form of attention is better than no attention. Because they simply don't know any other way to gain attention from the one they want.

Jason was aware of these things, having known Elizabeth for quite some time, as well as in the period in which she was alienated and bullied by the other girls in her class. They were jealous of her good looks and had found her arrogant. It wasn't until she was able to use Jason as a protective barrier that the nasty words turned into those of praise and envy. But Jason's first priority was Jenny, so if Elizabeth was unable to retire her armor, he couldn't allow her anywhere near Jenny. Would a tiger really be able to lose it's stripes?