Jane feels like she owes you

Jane becomes embarrassed again. Quickly, she pops open the door of the jeep and slides the laptop into the backseat, then glances at you and shakes her head. "Nevermind."

Jane doesn't say another word to you as she drives you back to your house.

Except, she misses the turn that goes to your house. Instead she drives off onto a side street that winds around the hills into a dead end.

"You missed the turn," you note.

Jane swallows again, hands tightening on the wheel.

The air between you feels off. You decide not to push the matter - it's not like you had any plans today anyway, except maybe meeting up with Pearl again. Ooh yeah. Maybe you do have plans?

Fantasizing about what you and Pearl will get up to when you see her next, you're not paying attention at all when Jane pulls over under the shade of a lonely tree and parks the jeep.

"I see we’ve stopped," you remark.

Jane steps out of the jeep.

Confused, you get out too. The air is warm under the shade of the tree. Wind sweeps through the tall grass of the hills around you. It's quiet here.

Jane comes around the front of the jeep at you, wearing a weirdly determined expression.

"This better not be how I die,” you half joke.

Jane ignores the comment. She opens the rearward door of the jeep and sweeps her new laptop from the back seat into the trunk.

"Look, if this is about me using my powers -"

Jane grabs you by the shoulders and twists around. You're spun about, the back of your legs hitting the side of the back seat through the open door. Before you get your balance, or figure out what's going on, Jane mashes her lips into yours.

"Mmph?!" you say.

Jane winds her fists in the front of your shirt and kisses you more fiercely in reply.

It takes a second, but you get with the program. Jane grinding her mouth against yours feels super awkward, but once you start kissing her back, it starts feeling super ridiculously hot instead.

You've had a crush on Jane for years. And now she's forcing you against the open seat of a jeep on the side of the road, kissing you, all on her own. In your wildest dreams it never went like this.

Jane's tongue swirls dizzyingly around your tongue, your brain spinning headily along with it. Then your skater friend breaks off with a sharp intake of breath. Your mouth tastes like sweet mint. It didn’t a second ago.

You place your hands firmly on Jane's shoulders to control the situation. "Jane, stop. I mean - wow, but, what are you doing?"

Jane’s cheeks go almost as red as her hair. “I know you have a crush on me.”

Your stomach drops. How did she know? "W-what? No way. That's crazy. We’re friends." But, you were friends with Pearl, too, weren’t you? That didn’t stop you.

The redhead squares her shoulders, steeling herself. She lays a surprisingly gentle hand on your stomach, touching you through your shirt. "I'm sorry I never - I didn't think about it. I should've more than I did. Should’ve thought about you. I've been such a bitch and you didn't deserve it.”

Is this a confession? Why is this happening? "You've never been a bitch to me, Jane," you say, in disbelief.

"It was so obvious you liked me," Jane continues, barely pausing. Distress shows on her face. " I've been so fucking selfish. You basically won the lottery and the first thing you do is think about other people. Sully told me what you did for him and Indigo. All you thought about was taking care of your friends, and taking care of me, and spending more time with me - that’s why you took my exercise routine, right?”

While she’s not wrong, now doesn’t feel like the best time to tell Jane that the real first thing you did with your powers, after solving Indy and Sully’s relationship issues as a test, was fucking Pearl into her bed without contraception.

“Well…”

“All I thought about, all I cared about, was myself,” mumbles Jane, darkly, casting her eyes on the asphalt beneath your feet.

You’ve fantasized about kissing Jane a hundred times. Her well-toned body, her freckles and coppery hair, the way she smiles and her goofy, smiling laugh… it wasn’t supposed to go like this. Be like this. The last time she was this miserable, she’d snapped her skateboard in two on a bad landing.

You pull Jane into a tight hug. "Hey, look. I can claim anything I want," you mutter into her hair. "You don't owe me anything. Getting you a car, or a laptop, or anything else? It’s the least I could do. I’m not a saint, Jane. Trust me. But saying ‘yeah that’s mine?’ It’s the easiest thing in the world for me."

She fights free of your hug and fixes you with a serious look. “Not to me it isn’t.”

Jane presses her hands firmly against your chest, pinning you against the jeep again - like she’s worried you might get away before she says her piece.

“Chase, I know you're just being you, and that you think it’s just no big deal as usual,” she says, “but I’m telling you it is. Whatever you say, however damn easy it is for you, doesn’t change the fact I owe you. If I just let this all go one way - if I just let you do all this crap for me without saying how much it matters, without even trying to pay you back and balance the scales - I’d feel like a piece of shit.”

She shakes her head. “Look, I... I know I don’t have money or powers or any of that, but you like me, right?"

You can't deny it. "I do."

Jane nods, as if that makes her path all the more clear. "Then… let me take care of you, too. Just - just this once. For the car and the computer, a-and for today."

You know you shouldn’t accept Jane’s offer.

You ought to insist that claiming jeeps and laptops is not the same as buying said items with your own hard-earned money. Jane’s feelings are obviously a product, a quirk, of how she perceives your sudden claiming powers. Before yesterday, Jane would never have done - or offered - anything like this.

Then again, you also knew that you shouldn't have dressed Pearl like a slut, claimed her consent, and fucked her silly.