Chapter 2 - Catalyst
The party was exploding with colour, flashes of light hitting everybody in the room a couple of times every second. Everyone in the building was dancing and singing except for 1 person, Jayson. He was standing next to a couple of people and it seems as if he's trying to talk with them, but the music is assaulting his ears to the point where he is being forced to hold them closed with his hands.
When the song ends he moves his hands away to rub just below his ear. Shock flies through the room when the next song doesn't start and Jayson finally feels like he can catch a break for a second. 𝑁𝑜𝑝𝑒.
"You okay man?" Jayson nods his head and smiles, "you sure?" He places his hand on Jayson's shoulder, "you're pretty hard to read, ya know?"
"Maybe I do it on purpose, Max," Jayson moves Max's hand off of his shoulder, "so people like you can't manipulate me." Jayson squints through his mask and his face twists into a scowl while Max just takes a step back and opens his mouth slightly. He walks away while muttering something and Jayson is left to his own devices.
He spots a girl from his school that he likes and is pretty sure likes him, even if she's a year older than him. 𝘚𝘬𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥, the 1 person that Jayson likes and gets along with, even if they haven't had much time to interact with each other he felt a strange connection.
The next song comes on suddenly, at a much lower volume. Someone stands up on the large stage and makes an announcement.
"We were told by the venue that we need to keep it a little quieter, so that's what we're doing. No screaming, you can still sing though!" The person hops off of the stage and to the side where the parents of the birthday kid and very close friends were.
Jayson decides to make a move on Skylar, he walks past a small group of people and gets up on to the stage, walking across until he's standing directly behind her on the stage. He notices that she hasn't been doing 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 dancing throughout the night and decides to comment, he leaned down close to her head and spoke.
"You seem dejected." She shrieked, turned around, and threw the cup in her hands directly at his face, knocking the mask off of his left eye. He tries to regain his balance but he quickly falls off the stage. Before he hits the ground his left eye starts glowing blue and he reaches out his right hand, holding himself up in the air and flipping on to his feet. Jayson flips the mask back down to his left eye and turns around, smiling at Skylar, "almost killed me there." He rubs the back of his neck for an awkward amount of time.
"I'm sorry... You scared the shit out of me," she responds. She grabs the cup off of the floor and walks to the nearest table to place it down, but she doesn't attempt to get back to where Jayson is.
"She's hard to talk to, so don't take much offence," says the mother of the birthday kid.
"You're her mother though... right?" Jayson asks. The woman nods and lets out a deep sigh.
"I can't do much about her though," she takes a sip of her drink, "she had a very possessive and unstable boyfriend up until a couple of weeks ago, she hasn't talked much since they broke up and she's only here to celebrate for her brother," Jayson looks towards the ground, eyes narrowing, he clenches his fist and bites down on his lip, drawing blood.
"We haven't talked much---" his fists unclench and he runs a hand through his hair--- "but I can tell that she's an extremely caring person, and she deserves so much more than that shit treatment." She nods, a bashful smile creeping across her face.
Skylar starts making her way back over to where the two are standing, holding another drink in her hand. She nods her head at them and leans herself on the stage.
"Well I'll be going back now, enjoy the rest of the party!" Jayson smiles and nods his head, and with that, she walks off.
Jayson looks at Skylar, she seems to be fixated on the insides of her cup when he decides to make a move. He places a hand on her shoulder.
"You ok---" she grabs his arm and quickly turns around, attempting to throw him over her shoulder. But as soon as she grabbed his arm, Jayson lifted the left side of his mask off of his eye and activated it, creating the blue glow. He forces his arm a few inches from her neck, showing that he could hold her in a headlock if he needed to. "Are you okay?" He finally manages to spit his words out.
"Y-yeah, I'm just a bit on edge recently sorry." She smiles softly at him and he returns it. They continue their conversation for a few seconds before a couple of adults start talking about them.
"It's pretty impressive that he was able to stay grounded," the man swigs the rest of the drink he was holding, "thought you taught her that move?" The other man sighs and answers.
"I did. And the only reason that I taught her it was because of your son." The man shrinks and slightly shivers from the pure intensity of his verbal adversary.
"W-w-well you know um... Alfie's a lot better now, I even told him we were here tonight!" The other man's eyes light up with anger and he grabs him by the shirt.
"YOU WHAT!?!?" He looks around to see everyone looking at him. "Sorry, everyone." He lets go of the man's shirt and pats it a little bit.
"The hell was that about?" Jayson asks Skylar, she shrugs and continues to drink her water. He can sense the awkward tension in the air. 'I should probably go somewhere else.' He thinks to himself. "Hey, I'm gonna ge---" he's cut off by a massive bang behind him.
"Alfie what the hell are you doing here?!" His father runs over to him but gets punched in the head by Alfie.
"I'm here to reclaim my bride!"