"He asked you out?!" Jia exclaimed with wide eyes.
"The Cole Bellamy?" Clary asked to clarify. Her face dropped quicker than Jia`s.
"Yeah, isn`t it cool?" Kyra asked with an excited smile. She stopped smiling when she noticed that Jia and Clary did not look happy.
Clary folded her arms, "Clearly, you haven`t heard the rumours."
Zoey`s face dropped, "What rumours?"
"Cole`s a player." Clary stressed.
"No, he is not! Those are just rumours," Kyra insisted.
"He is?" Jia asked, she bit her lower lip thoughtfully, "I didn`t know that."
Clary narrowed her eyes at her, "Don`t tell me you have a crush on him?"
"You have a crush on Cole!" Zoey shouted.
Jia shook her head, "No! He`s my cousin`s friend. I`d never date his friends!"
"Never say never." Kyra stated smugly.
"Out of the topic," Jia waved her hand as if to banish the thought," When did Cole ask you out?'
"Today, at the park," Zoey informed her," We went to visit to Kyra`s parents to pick up a few things-"
Kyra cut in, "I brought back some treats for you all."
"Anyway, we were walking past the park and we stopped for ice cream."
"So I left to get some and then while I was gone, Cole approached her-
"And he asked me out."
Jia folded her arms, "So it`s that simple to ask out a girl?"
"What do you mean?" Zoey asked. She looked a little disappointed in her roommate's lack of reaction to the news she had just brought her. Boys and dating was supposed to be a big deal to girls, right? So why wasn`t she happy for her?
"Sorry, wrong thought process, I was just thinking about courting processes of society, it`s stupid," Jia informed them. "At home, the guy has to ask your parents first before asking you."
"That`s really old fashion," Kyra commented. Jia nodded in agreement.
"Okay, anyway, I`m going out with him this Friday at Coco Connection at five," Zoey said excitedly." My first date ever!"
"Your first date? Zoey, that`s huge!" Clary gushed. Even if she didn`t like the guy, there was no way she could kill the excitement her friend had caught. She was just too happy.
"It is a very big thing" Jia said to ease her roommates mind," If this is what you want then…I`m happy for you."
Zoey gave her a shy smile, "Thank you, Jia."
After dinner, when Zoey left to go and train in the Combat room with Kyra and Clary, Jia saw her opportunity to go and get some information about Cole, starting with her closest informants.
Jia knocked on the door before entering after Rose answered her.
"Hey, Rose, you know Cole Bellamy?" Jia asked as she closed the door behind her. Rose was sitting on her desk drawing something on her blueprint papers and Fiona was painting her toenails on the floor. She was finished with her first four toes with and was trying to start on the last one. She seemed to be using black and glitter red.
"Who doesn`t know the guy? "Fiona joked as she dipped her brush and applied the polish on her last toe.
"He was in our Rich kid`s circle," Rose informed her, turning in her seat and twirling her pink pencil in her hand. "His mother`s a fashion designer and his dad`s a Knight for the Royal Army."
"He`s a ladies' man. Very confident guy," Fiona added.
Rose nodded, "I know for a fact that he dates girls for a month then breaks up with them before moving to another. "
"So he changes girls like they`re socks?" Jia asked.
Fiona corrected her," Guys don`t change socks regularly, they change their underwear."
Rose gave her roommate a sidelong glance, "And how do you know that?"
"When you race with guys a lot, you tend to pick up on conversations."
Rose shivered with disgust, "Gross! If a guy wants to date me, the first thing I`ll ask him is if he changes his underwear and socks regularly."
Jia snickered as Fiona shrugged and gestured at Jia to look at her, "Could you make a small breeze to dry up my nails?"
"Sure," Jia consented before lifting her left hand up and wiggling her fingers. A small breeze blew in from the balcony doors and over Fiona`s nails.
"Anyway, I have a question, if one of our friends was about to go on a date with him, would you discourage her?'
Fiona looked up from her nails, "He asked someone out? Who?"
Jia cringed, "Zoey."
Rose put a hand to her heart, "Poor, sweet and innocent Zoey got asked out by Cole? Somebody better tell her to jump ship before he breaks her heart."
"We can`t, this is Zoey, she`s fragile beside, it`s her first date. I can`t spoil it for her."
Rose put her hand up, "Do you want me to do it?"
"Rose, remember our talk?" Jia reminded her. Rose gave her guilty smile before shrugging.
"Just let her go on the date with Cole, if things get crazy then you can try to interfere but make sure Zoey doesn`t find out," Fiona advised her," I wouldn`t want my friends stickling their noses into my relationship."
"They`re dating but they are not a couple. Unless they announce that they`re going steady and are official, they don`t have a relationship," Rose explained.
Jia groaned ran a hand through her hair; relationships were so complicated and too much work. There were too many rules. She could handle etiquette rules, society rules, school rules and family rules but this was just ridiculous. She then thanked the two before going back to her room and grabbing her phone.
She walked out onto the balcony and closed the doors before speed dialling Roy. He picked up on the third ring.
"Hey, what`s up?" Roy asked, his face breaking into a smile.
Jia ran a hand over her mouth, "Are you busy?"
Roy arched a brow, "No."
"Are you alone or somewhere private?"
Roy glanced around him before nodded," Yes, what`s wrong?'
"Tell me about your friend Cole."
Her cousin`s eyes narrowed slightly, "Why?"
"Dearest cousin, I am asking on behalf of my roommate."
"Zoey?"
Jia sighed, "Yes, did you know that he asked her out?"
"No, I mean, I knew he asked out someone today but I didn`t know that it was Zoey."
"Well, then convince me that he`s good for her."