User blog:SodaCat/Polar

idk how this even classifies as bully fanfiction anymore considering there are no canon characters in this s i g hs

anyways this is jack's and west's intros, as well as a little more insight to duncan

“I just don’t get why you gotta pull this out on me every single time I—s”

“Shut up!”

Jack stopped at the sound of Duncan’s sudden outburst, jumping out of the way as he grabbed a brick and threw it randomly against the brick wall behind her. It hit the wall with a loud crack, breaking off a small portion of both it and the brick. Jack’s blue eyes trailed helplessly up to Duncan. She’d been standing there three seconds ago.

Was he insane?

“Don’t you get it?!” Duncan roared, his chest heaving with heavy, weighted breaths. “You can’t love me! I can’t love anyone! I’m too fucked up, I’m dangerous!” He stared at her, as if trying to bury his words into her by a mere glare. If he could just make her understand… She couldn’t love him; he was too fucked up for her, for anyone.

Jack resisted the overwhelming urge to make a joke, partly because Duncan was really pissing her off right now, and partly because the small voice at the back of her head that she usually ignored was desperately screaming that now was not the time nor the place for comedies, no matter how clever they may be.

“What I don’t get is why we have to go through this all the fucking time, Duncan,” Jack sneered, crossing her thin arms over her chest. He was such a fucking drama queen all the time.

He stared at her as if she were stupid. If only she’d seen the things Duncan had seen in Carcer City, if only she’d lived through what he lived through… maybe then, he’d be ever so slightly inclined to trust her even a little bit.

Duncan shook his head, his decision made. “I’m not doing this, Jack. I’m not.”

He gave her one final stare before turning around on his heel and marching right out of the alley. Maybe he’d head to the tenements or the gas station to pick a fight with those greaseball losers, anything but try and reason with her any longer.

Jack let out a sigh and shoved her pockets into her coat, trailing behind Duncan as he left the alley but knowing she’d be going a different direction. There wasn’t any use trying with Duncan when he got like this.

---

“I mean, you just gotta feel these things as you’re doing them. It’s not about just grabbing a bunch of crayons and smudging the hell out of it, it’s about getting something meaningful onto the page.”

West grinned slowly up at Jack, not even having to look at the strokes he was laying down onto the pad that currently rest up against his legs. Currently, he was seated on his bed in the boys’ dorm, dozens of oil pastels spread out around him. He grinned up at Jack, admiring the mystified expression on her face. He loved talking about art to people.

His right eye was purple and swollen; he’d gotten beat pretty bad last week. West was always getting picked on; he wasn’t much of a fighter, and the other guys at the academy had labeled him as being a ‘homo’ due to his love of art. Yet, he wasn’t filled with any rage. If anything, West was one of the sweetest, kindest guys that Jack knew.

Jack nodded slowly, trying to piece West’s words together. “I get it, I kinda do the same when I’m designing something… though, I have to look at the paper when I draw…”

<p class="MsoNormal">West laughed, his eyes crinkling up as he did so. He reached down for a neon pink pastel, switching it out for the electric blue one he’d been holding. “I mean I don’t know much about designing, but I guess you’re right,” he shrugged, glancing down and smiling at his drawing.

<p class="MsoNormal">“If it’s anything like drawing, though, I’m sure you’ll be able to do it without even glancing at it until it’s done. Just let it speak to you.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Jack nodded slowly, taking West in in his entirety. He was so passionate about art; not just drawing, but art. All forms of it. She could see it in the loving movements of his hands as he held a pastel. The vibrant waves in his finished paintings. Soft notations of joy in his voice whenever he sang an original song.

<p class="MsoNormal">In a way, West and Duncan were pretty similar. They were both passionate about things, just… different things. West was passionate about his love for art. Duncan was passionate about… the reasons he shouldn’t be loved.

<p class="MsoNormal">She let out a sigh. West and Duncan were as polar as opposites could get.

<p class="MsoNormal">After a moment, Jack noticed that West’s hands had stopped moving along the sheet, his fingers now just gently feathering around the top edge. “Are you finished?” she asked, her blue eyes filled with curiosity. “Can I see?”

<p class="MsoNormal">West stopped, looking up at her with a bit of a shocked expression before breaking out into a huge grin. Wordlessly, he took the paper in his hands and turned it so that Jack could see it.

<p class="MsoNormal">Her. Standing, knee deep in the ocean water at the Old Bullworth Vale beach, grinning out at herself as if the drawing were a life-like photograph, which it could’ve passed for, it was so detailed. Jack studied her drawing self’s glowing electric blue eyes, the gentle sweep of her black hair with pink streaks dyed in. West had made her beautiful, unrealistically so.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You made me look so… pretty…” Jack breathed out slowly, for once unable to come up with any sort of sarcastic or witty comment. She glanced up at West, noticing how his green eyes had softened, the left corner of his mouth pulled up into an easy half-grin.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I just draw what I see,” he replied quietly. “What I feel.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Jack opened her mouth, searching for words to say to West. “West,” she began slowly, her mind and voice on autopilot, “I—”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Jack?”

<p class="MsoNormal">West and Jack’s attention was yanked to the door as it slammed open, revealing a tired, exhausted-looking Duncan. His eyes were trained on Jack before flickering over to West, his eyes igniting with what could only be described as a furious, hate-filled flame.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What are you doing here.” He demanded, making his way over to her and clutching her arm tightly. He dragged her out of the dorm and into the hallway before slamming the door to his dorm shut.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’m spending time with West, Duncan,” Jack sighed, looking anywhere but Duncan’s face. She’d expected something like this, but she hadn’t expected it today. Duncan wasn’t supposed to be back at the dorm yet, he usually stayed out on the streets during the weekends.

<p class="MsoNormal">Duncan shook his head, his brown eyes never leaving Jack’s blue ones. “You just think it’s okay to do this to me, Jack? Is that it?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Duncan, I’m not trying to do anything to you. You don’t own me, and you said yourself I was wasting my time with you.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Alright, maybe she shouldn’t have said that.

<p class="MsoNormal">She saw the blow the moment it hit him. Duncan furrowed his eyebrows as if he were furious, but the deep frown that immediately etched itself into his face gave him away. “So I’m just a waste of time to you too now?” he hissed before slamming his palm onto the wall beside Jack’s head. He held it for a moment there, and then head straight for the door to the dorm.

<p class="MsoNormal">Jack remained like that for a moment, her back up against the wall as if Duncan were still cornering her. She let out a shaky breath before returning into the dorm, where West still sat on his bed, still as a statue.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Sorry about that,” she mumbled, making her way back over to the desk chair where she’d been sitting, when she stopped. She couldn’t see the picture of her that West had drawn anywhere.

<p class="MsoNormal">West nodded slowly, not looking at her. “Jack, I think you should go, uh, it’s pretty late.”

<p class="MsoNormal">It was barely three in the afternoon, but Jack understood immediately. West knew of the circumstance at hand. Given to choose between Jack and Duncan, West would refuse to choose.

<p class="MsoNormal">Or maybe this was him choosing Duncan.

<p class="MsoNormal">Jack nodded, biting her lip. “Yeah. Yeah, it is,” she agreed, making her way out the door silently and gently shutting it behind her.

<p class="MsoNormal">