Darius rolled his eyes heavily at Piper’s stubbornness, willing her to at least be somewhat more interesting in her parrying of his verbal barrage. This comment was basically a recycled version of her last one, and Darius was getting bored. She obviously wasn’t going to sleep with him, but that wasn’t what was really bothering Darius. It was more that this girl clearly had an inflated view of herself; if her second comment was any indication, she was of the opinion that Darius was going to keep trying to win her affections, but the older Slytherin boy was far past caring. He hadn’t come here to get laid today; it would have been a nice perk, yes, but he wasn’t going to fight tooth and nail for some scrawny blond thing. He had seen – and had – much better.
Scoffing at her second statement – accompanied by another eye roll – Darius couldn’t help but see the similarities between Piper and Athena. The girls were both Slytherin and more stubborn than they were worth… or perhaps, in Athena’s case, worth it, but just barely. They both seemed to have a penchant for fashion that was in the darker ranges, and they both carried themselves in a “devil-may-care” way, even though Darius could see right through that. Girls who acted as tough as Piper and Athena did always had quivering underbellies that were prime for attack.
At that thought, Darius was reminded of the last time he had taken advantage of that soft spot in Athena’s armor, and how much it had cost him. He had always poked fun at Athena and the rest of their gang, but apparently calling Athena out for what she was – pureblood livestock, essentially, even if she was one of the prettiest in the herd – had stepped over the line. That one comment had put him quickly on the floor, courtesy of his so-called “friends”. This is why friends were pointless. Wasn’t the common saying that friends liked you for who you really were? If people were going to go around spouting that nonsense, then Darius’ friends ought to like him for the asshole he really was.
Ever since that comment, Darius had been firmly on the outs of his gang of Slytherin cohorts. He had made brief attempts at weaseling his way back in, but hadn’t managed any success. Athena had nearly spit venom at him, and Kendall looked like he wanted to deck him, though Darius was fairly confident he could take the scrawny kid any day. Kendall didn’t know how to fight dirty, and Darius didn’t know how to fight fair. It doesn’t take a seasoned gambler to know which way the odds were going to fall in that skirmish.
But then again, maybe Darius wouldn’t need to bother with kicking the crap out of Kendall (say that three times fast). Because sitting right next to him was a moody little girl with exactly the attitude Athena appreciated in her minions – so long as they were giving that attitude to someone besides her, of course. Maybe Piper could be useful outside the bedroom, if she could be Darius’ ticket to redemption.
Having pondered this for a minute or two, Darius scooted over on the bench to give Piper more personal space, and to clear the air between them somewhat. He wasn’t going to apologize for anything he had said, and he didn’t really think her last few comments were really worthy of response. Instead, he swept his hands through the air in front of him as if to wipe the slate, and then launched into his new tactic.
“Okay, new topic,” Darius said, careful to take any tones of lechery out of his voice, “Why is it that I haven’t seen you around at school more? We’re in the same house, and you’ve got an attitude that gives you an automatic in with our housemates. So what’s your deal? Because the lone wolf thing does lend somewhat of an air of mystery, but that’s got to get old after a while."