Never Lost a War

Jack decides, once his hangover passes the next day, that Zack's drunken bet is not something that he should prioritize. He has a ton of reading to do for his sociology class that's due soon; and Alex is in a bad mood, working on a personal essay for French on his laptop, sitting on his bed and muttering French phrases under his breath over the course of the day, like 'oh mon Dieu,' and 'j'ai besoin d'une cigarette', so Jack doesn't want to bother him.

But then he's in class on Monday, and he's not paying very much attention because it's some dumb class about politics, anyway, but instead of zoning out as usual he looks at whoever's talking; at the brunette who's giving a speech about the necessity of political parties and thinks, I wonder what she'd be like in bed. When a tiny girl with bright red hair trips over a step on her way out of a physics lecture and drops her books, he picks them up for her, helps her up, and thinks, well, she doesn't need to be coordinated to have sex with me.

So, to say the least, it's prioritized itself, because he can't really look at anyone now without thinking about how they might act when the lights are off, and he comes to the conclusion that, yeah, he really needs to get laid.

"I really need to get laid," Jack voices that night when he's back in his dorm, and Alex's head snaps up from where it's fixed on his laptop, suddenly finding Jack more interesting than his Word Document. His eyes are kind of comically wide, but Jack doesn't tell him so.

"Qu'est-ce que tu parles de?" he says, and Jack stares back at him blankly.

"What are you on about?" Alex repeats once he regains access to the English language, and Jack shrugs easily.

"I really need to get some," Jack says. "It's actually kind of insane I've put it off this far, so, tonight. We're gonna go drink and I'm going to get laid."

Alex frowns. "Please don't tell me this is about Friday night, because if it is, I will punch Zack in the face."

"It's not," Jack assures him. "It's just, I've been thinking."

"Oh God," Alex mutters, and Jack fixes him with a glare.

"I've been thinking, and, this whole virginity thing is total bullshit- like, there's so much importance on your first time, but what really makes it different than the fifth time or the thousandth time, you know? Who fucking cares. It needs to happen so people don't think that I care about my virginity," Jack says. "Because I don't. I don't care. I just don't want people to think that I care by being a virgin. Does that make sense?"

Alex blinks. "No. No, that doesn't make sense at all."

Jack rolls his eyes. Whatever. "You need to get off your laptop anyway, come on, Lex- Ellie's sorority's having a party," he says, hoping that helped- the fact that Jack wasn't going to seek out random girls wandering campus; there was actually a structured party.

Alex sighs. "Fine. We'll go, but only because I want to talk to Ellie about an assignment. And for the record, I'm not doing this because I approve of it," he says, and Jack snorts.

"Whatever, mom," he says, and Alex looks indignant but doesn't say anything as Jack drags him across campus to the Delta Gamma sorority house.

Ellie looks excited to see them at the door, and she hugs Jack and kisses him on the cheek, repeating the gesture with Alex, who starts talking to her about statistics almost immediately. Jack steels himself. He is on his own, now. He can go in for the kill.

There's a girl across the room who's standing alone with a beer can, and she's pretty in a tomboy sort of way, dressed in a loose, white Nirvana t-shirt and her jeans tucked into a cherry red pair of Doc Martens. She's tall, not much shorter than Jack which is unusual in a girl, and she's got short, brown hair that doesn't pass her shoulders and interesting features.

"Hi, I'm Jack," Jack says to her, holding out his hand for her to shake. She does. "Would you like to have sex with me?" he asks, cutting to the chase. Of course, this is when Alex decides to make an appearance, and he gasps, grabbing onto Jack's arm.

"Oh, Jesus, I'm so sorry, he's drunk, oh God he's so drunk, I'm sorry, I hope you're not too offended and we can all be friends and forget about this--"

Jack rolls his eyes. "I'm not drunk. I haven't had anything to drink yet, actually."

"Shut up," Alex says, pleading with his eyes. He looks tired.

The girl just laughs, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Don't worry, it's fine, everything's good. I'm very flattered, thank you for your interest." She grins. "It's a pleasure to meet you Jack, and likewise to you..."

"Alex," Alex finishes, shaking her hand.

"Right," she says. "I'm Keller. And thanks for your concern, but I've had plenty of practice dealing with college boys, so I think I can handle myself." She laughs. "I don't have much of a virtue to protect, anyway," she says, smirking towards Jack.

Jack looks at Alex like, see?, and Alex sighs and backs off. "I'll see you back at the dorm," he mutters, and somehow he's got that hurt expression on his face again when he walks back over to Ellie, and Jack doesn't care to ask because Alex has always liked being melodramatic and Jack doesn't want to give him an excuse to be.

"So?" Jack prompts.

Keller smiles, and this time it's less of a smirk and more genuine. "Ah, yes. Your... request," She says, and she doesn't sound annoyed about it at all. She sounds like she's purely considering, and that's refreshing. "I'm going to have to go with no, I'm not going to have sex with you. But I would like to hear about why you thought I'd say yes without even knowing your name, though."

"Because I was hoping that maybe we could take all of the flattery and the time out of the equation and skip to the mutual orgasms?" Jack tries.

She laughs. "Why?"

So he tells her about how he's been thinking lately (heavily edited, obviously, the bet left out among other things), but he does tell her that he's a virgin and this is him starting his own... sexual revolution. Or something. She doesn't laugh or smirk, she just listens, and she seems fairly interested, or she's very good at pretending.

"Huh, alright. I guess the honesty is nice," she says. Jack nods. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to have sex with you."

"Why not?" Jack says, casually and thoughtfully, and hopefully not too whiny.

"Because it's better when the guy puts the work into it," she says. "You know, a couple dates, opens my door for me, listens to what I have to say and all that. There's no girl that's completely past that."

"Okay, fine." Jack says, sighing in defeat.

Keller shakes her head and laughs quietly. "You know, you're really just over-complicating it. You're cute, you're funny, you're honest- Plenty of girls would want to have sex with you if you'd just give them a reason to. Even just a few compliments," she says. "Can I see your phone?"

"Uh, sure," he says, taking it out of his pocket and handing it to her.

She programs in her number under Keller Maitland and hands it back to him. "I've been flirting with you almost this entire time and you've hardly picked up on it, which is... kind of endearing. If you'd like to reconsider your whole... theory and take me out on a date sometime, I wouldn't be adverse to it." She smirks.

"We'll see," Jack says, smirking back at her.

She laughs. "I'll see you around, Jack." And with that she's off, retreating into what he assumes must be her room in the sorority house, and he sighs, walking over to Alex.

"Struck out," he says, his shoulders slumped a bit.

Alex raises an eyebrow. "She should have punched you, and here you are, perfectly intact. That's not exactly a loss," he says.

"It's not exactly a win," Jack says, and Alex looks tired again.