Scheduling Conflicts

It was Saturday by time Jace could confront Hazel, and he had to do it in such a way that she wouldn’t realize she was being confronted until she was being confronted, or he’d find himself ignored as she walked away, hips swinging very purposefully. He understood why so many of his loved ones despised her, but… well, frankly, he couldn’t understand why he didn’t. Why he never had.

Some people (Scotty) looked at Hazel and saw a raging bitch with no empathy. Jace looked at her and saw… emptiness. She was hardly some sad put upon puppy, just barking at anyone who comes near, no, that was definitely not Hazel Hightower. She may have her reasons, but they didn’t make her innocent. Jace was pretty sure he saw her from an angle that nobody else did. He’d known her for years, and while they had never gotten particularly close emotionally, he’d seen her in different situations than her average classmate.

He’d seen her getting perved on by some old manager guy, and Hazel didn’t know this, but he had gone up to the manager after Hazel had left for the day and berated the man who was around three times his age. Jace didn’t know why he’d done it, really, but he couldn’t stand seeing Hazel getting perved on so blatantly. He’d never told her about it, of course, she’d bite his head off, probably, telling him very truthfully that she wasn’t a damsel in distress. She was perfectly capable of fighting her own battles, she just couldn’t fight this one because he was her boss. Jace was pretty sure his mother had seen though, because Danielle had taken him across the city to his favorite pizza place after that.

But back to today. Today, as aforementioned, was Saturday, which meant Hazel was off school grounds and doing a photoshoot at Grayson Global. Jace had asked Danielle if she could get him an opportunity to talk with Hazel, and she had grinned and told him she’d see what she could do. Jace had turned up expecting to jump out behind something and catch Hazel off guard, maybe. He had not been expecting his mother to place a camera in his hand and tell him with a smirk that the photographer for Hazel’s photoshoot had miraculously fallen ill.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jace had laughed and nodded.

Which brought him to now, sitting in an empty studio waiting for Hazel to finish getting ready. The time Dani had given him was fifteen minutes ago, and he was beginning to wonder if Hazel had made an executive decision to not show up when he heard her voice. Not a quiet one, that Hazel.

“Look, bitch, I’m perfectly capable of fixing my own hair. Get your oily hands off me.” he heard her snap, and a much less audible voice that said something like. “Yes, Ms. Hightower.” Or possibly “Guess this thigh power.”

One of the two.

He heard heels clicking because of course she was wearing heels, and then the door opened.

“Oh, I hope you weren’t waiting too long.” Hazel said in the most unconvincing voice ever. Jace, unable to resist a good bit, turned around and smiled.

“I’ve been expecting you.” he said, and Hazel stared at him completely blank-faced, her eyes flicking down to the camera in his hands. She was looking phenomenal for the shoot, in a short black dress with gold straps that popped off her caramel complexion. Her black hair was in waves, unlike its’ usual straight raven curtain kind of look, and her eyes were lined with a hint of gold eyeliner, giving her brown eyes a weird gold-touched look that they didn’t usually have without the eyeliner.

“What the fuck?” she asked very simply. “I thought I specifically asked for a competent photographer not some two bit amateur who’s never touched a camera.”

“Hazel, that’s all you have to say?” Jace asked incredulously.

“What do you want me to fucking say? Thanks for breaking into my job on one of the two days I can actually do work and causing problems?” Hazel snapped.

“Well when you ignore me for two fucking weeks, I have to take some drastic measures!” Jace exclaimed. “What the hell did I do to you that made you go all cold shoulder on me?”

“Aww, did poor Jace get lonely?” Hazel purred mockingly.

“Hazel, I don’t even know why you’re so pissed at me.” Jace said impatiently. “At least tell me how I fucked up.”

“It’d be easier to list how you didn’t fuck up.” Hazel shot back, and she started counting on her fingers. “You started making goo goo eyes at my fat assed bitch of a roommate, you completely ignored me, you ate my fucking cupcake, stopped by my room when I wasn’t there to hang out with my fat assed bitch of a roommate, oh and. You. Ate. My. Fucking. Cupcake. You-”

“Don’t call Victoria that.” Jace cut in. “She’s not a bitch.”

“Oh, right, my mistake, knight in shining armor. Didn’t realize you had a thing for blondes. I bet you gave my cupcake to that fat ass, didn’t you? Not like she needs it.” Hazel snapped.

“Victoria and I aren’t a thing! I don’t know where you got that idea in your head, or why you’re so jealous, but-” Jace shook his head.

“I’m not jealous.” Hazel exclaimed viciously. “I just don’t like Victoria.”

“Is that why you made her cry by embarrassing her in front of the whole cafeteria?” Jace retorted. “Because I’ve never seen you do that to anybody else, and you seem to have a real grudge against Victoria. So either she’s a really messy roommate or you’re jealous of her.”

Hazel stared at him, fury blazing in her eyes. She opened her mouth, presumably to tear Jace’s head off, but before she got the chance, the door opened, and Hazel wheeled around, and all of a sudden, the arguing pair were staring at the newcomer with identical expressions of frustration and disbelief. Well, Hazel’s was a little more… vicious than Jace’s was, but the emotions were there.

The photographer who Jace could only assume was actually the photographer meant to be taking pictures of Hazel blinked seeing Jace there. His eyes flicked to Hazel, and then down Hazel, and Jace’s fingers twitched, his hand closing into a fist and squeezing then releasing it. Jace couldn’t keep the scowl off his face though, watching this bastard so shamelessly check Hazel out.

“I don’t allow guests during my photoshoot.” the photographer told Jace, who took an angry step forward almost out of instinct, not any actual desire to attack this guy.

“I don’t believe it’s your photoshoot.” Hazel snapped. “This isn’t my guest, he’s my photographer. You were late, I found somebody willing to suit my schedule.”

“Excuse me?” the pervy photographer scoffed.

“Did I fucking stutter?” Hazel raised a perfect eyebrow, hand on her hip.

“Sorry, Ms. Hightower.” the photographer sneered. “I was booked for this, I’m not gonna leave just because the ‘talent’ said so. There’s a million hot girls in this city, I don’t need you. Nobody needs you.”

Jace couldn’t stop himself from butting in, seeing the slight part of Hazel’s lips. It was an almost imperceptible thing to anyone else, but Jace had known Hazel for years, and her lips only parted like that when something truly stung.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jace said, putting his hand on Hazel’s shoulder. “There’s not any other girls like- uh, Ms. Hightower anywhere in Prism Bay. I think you’re confused about something here. Anybody can push the button on a camera, hell, she could put it on a timer and take the picture herself. Hazel’s the irreplaceable one, not you. And if you have a problem with walking away now, I’d be happy to call Mrs. Grayson down here. I’m sure Mera would be happy to hear from me.”

The photographer’s jaw worked, but the name Grayson held a whole lot of power in this building, and he might have recognized Jace’s teal eyes, and realized that Mera Grayson’s blonde bombshell best friend had identical eyes.

“Fine, kid. Have it your way.” the photographer scoffed, and walked out of the studio, shaking his head.

Jace turned to talk to Hazel but she was turning away to grab the camera off the desk and shove it against his chest.

“We’re already almost thirty minutes late. Get to snapping or I will put it on a timer.” Hazel said, and without another word, she walked over to the set to get into her first pose.