Some people might've minded the noise, but Michael actually preferred to do his classwork at the campus cafe. There were alternatives, of course. Most of the other TAs seemed to congregate in the library when they had tests to grade. To Michael, though, there was something pleasantly calming about the chatter around him in the cafe. And, well, he couldn't get a cup of coffee in the library, and caffeine had been his secret weapon for dealing with stacks of ungraded papers for a while now.
There was
one
problem, though. And her name was Jessica.
"Well, well,
well.
Fancy seeing you here,
Mikey.
"
Michael sighed through his nose and kept his eyes trained on the test he was going over. If he just ignored her, she'd go away. It had worked before. Jessica was like a bully in that sense. Or perhaps a small animal.
...Didn't seem like she was going to leave
this
time, though. Michael thought briefly of bringing a can filled with quarters as she sat down opposite him, leaning an elbow
right
on top of some of his papers. He scowled and reached to pull the rest of them away, as Jessica had apparently decided that today was the day she'd spit in the face of all good sense and common courtesy.
Well, there was no avoiding her anymore. She'd set up shop, and now he'd have to deal with her. He wasn't going to get any
work
done at this point, after all. Michael shut his eyes, steeled himself, and then looked up at his tormentor. "What is it,
Jessica.
"
And there was that smug, triumphant smile. Like she'd
won
somehow, like she'd
beaten
him. What a
nasty
little girl. Truthfully, Jessica would be rather attractive if she weren't so utterly
boorish.
She had all the traditionally Goblin features that one would expect, with a few small alterations: Jessica was short, barely coming up to Michael's waist. She was
curvy,
a fact that she quite liked to point out when she was making crude remarks about how she liked to fuck men to Michael. And while she hadn't produced any proof that this applied specifically to
her
as well, accounts of her family's size meant that she was probably far more fertile than she had any right to be.
If she were
just
a Goblin, she probably would've doted on Michael and left him an infatuated mess by this point. She'd been one of his students in at least three of his classes, and he'd heard of couples meeting like that before. In fact, he'd heard recently that nearly three-quarters of the student body was married last year.
But Jessica
wasn't
a Goblin. She was an
Ocker.
And
Ockers
were another matter entirely. They were rude, crass, and utterly
unbearable.
"What, you aren't happy to see me? C'mon, Mikey!" She smirked at him, a little pair of horns poking out just behind her bangs. She'd apparently chosen to squeeze into a pair of jeans and a singlet today, showing off far more cerulean skin than could be considered decent. She wiggled in her seat, shifting her hips from side to side in what was ostensibly an attempt to get comfortable and
transparently
an attempt to get Michael to stare at her fat, wobbling
tits.
He didn't fall for it, of course; he was too busy
glaring
at her.
Michael just stared at her for a moment before looking back down at his now-scattered papers. "Jessica, I'm trying to
work
here, and I'd appreciate it if-"
"Oh,
c'mon!
You're never gonna get married if you keep yapping about schoolwork!" She reached a fingertip down to the neckline of her tank-top and gave it a teasing tug lower. "You gotta give it up with this TA bullshit and focus on the
T&A
right in front of you. When's the last time you got
fucked,
Mikey?"
"That's incredibly inappropriate, and I don't-" Michael hissed, beginning to collect his papers and stuff them into his backpack.
"Oh, calm
down!
I'm just messing with you!" Jessica leaned back, giggling. It was so
infuriating
how her voice was so light and musical when the words that passed her lips were so
chauvinistic!
"Besides, I know the next time you're gonna get some good pussy."
Michael didn't reply, his face burning as he prepared to leave.
"...That is, ah..." Jessica rested her hands behind her head, smirking at Michael. "...assuming you've got plans tonight. Y'know. For the
Fourteenth.
It's this month, y'know."
All right, that was it. That was the last straw. Michael leaned in and glared at Jessica. "For the last time, I am not interested in you, I will never
be
interested in you, and I have already taken the first steps in having you
removed
from classes I teach. You're lucky I'm not pressing
civil charges,
you
bitch.
"
But even as Michael nearly snarled his condemnation at her, Jessica just grinned at him, confident as ever. She looked him up. And down. And
down.
"Mikey, you better make sure you got a
girl
over tonight, because I've been a
very
good girl this year. And I'm still not seeing anyone!" She winked at him and cupped one of her breasts, squeezing it as if to showcase its pillowy softness. "I think Momma Hob's gonna hook me up this year. And I got my eye on one
very
special dick."
"That's it." Michael rose from his seat, blushing furiously. "This is harassment. I'm suing. Have fun continuing your studies off-campus, because you're going to get slapped with a restraining order so fast your
head's
going to spin."
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, babe," Jessica said airily. She let her eyes drift back down to his crotch, making no attempt to disguise the way she leered at him.
It was with a strangled little growl that Michael turned and stomped out of the cafe. The worst part, he found, was the uncomfortable silence that lingered in his wake, every eye in the building not-quite on him.
= = =
Michael just didn't know what to
do
at this point. Well, no, he
did,
but what was he supposed to do between this moment right now and taking that smug little
fuckhead
to court? He slammed the door behind him as he stepped into his apartment, wincing at the sound. He set his bag down with a bit more care than needed, as if that'd somehow balance out the loudness of his entrance, and stepped into the kitchen to prepare a
furious
dinner.
The
Fourteenth.
That stupid little
twerp
was seriously going to act as if he'd pull an about-face because of some
stupid
little Goblin holiday. A single man and a single woman, united by Momma Hob to ensure they'd both live happily ever after as husband and wife. Yeah, as if some archaic patron goddess of female supremacy would reach a fingertip down from the heavens and turn a male academic - with a degree in
men's studies,
for fuck's sake - into some sniveling, submissive househusband. Absurd.
Insulting!
And she wouldn't
shut up
about it, either! Honestly, the most she proved by bringing it up so fucking often was that she was a sad,
lonely
little Ocker. She'd brought it up to Michael for the past
three years,
almost gloating that she'd been entirely and
wholly
single throughout the time they'd known each other. Pestering him about if he'd broken up with whomever he'd been going out with at the time.
Michael sighed through his nose. And kind of made a half-smile. Well, if anything were to happen, it'd happen this year. He
was
single, after all. Had been for, what, three or four months? It hadn't worked out with Chloe. Kind of unfortunate, but... it happened.
In fact, in a funny sort of way, the longest relationship he'd had during college was with...Jessica. His half-smile vanished, replaced with a scowl as he glowered at the ingredients in his fridge. Yeah, real "funny." It was really "funny" how he'd been dealing with Jessica for the better part of his time at university. Really "funny," a real "hoot." Fuck's
sake!
He slammed the refrigerator. Whatever. He wasn't hungry, and the sun hadn't even set yet. He could wait to start making dinner. Right now Michael needed to take an angry nap, if only to serve as an emotional reset. That little
verbal assault
that Jessica had subjected him to had gotten under his skin more than Michael cared to admit, and as he shucked off his clothes, he shivered at the idea of the Fourteenth being real. God, talk about a fate worse than death.