Jason simply stared at her friends - or the people who had been the friends she knew from her original life, or however you wanted to look at it. She hadn't heard what Harry had whispered to Dean, but from Dean's reaction, she could take a pretty good guess. What had happened here? How...how did her being a girl...a headless girl...do this? She knew for a fact that this bizarre shift in reality couldn't have changed that much...about the only real difference at home was that she did actually have girls' underwear in her dresser now, and even then it was pretty plain, nondescript stuff that was probably about the least overtly feminine option available. So how could...why did... "...how did you get to be such an asshole, Harry?"
She caught herself the moment after she said it, and it took another moment after that to process. She hadn't meant to say it out loud, or even under her breath, really; it had just slipped directly past her mental filter and out her mouth without her even noticing...she glanced over at Harry, who seemed about as flabbergasted as she was. He just stared at her for a moment, then remembered to frown. "H-hey, it was...just a joke, okay? Geez, can't you take-"
Somewhat to her own surprise, Jason felt her body tense up, squaring her somewhat narrower shoulders as much as it could and arching forward as if sticking out the neck that she no longer had. She didn't intend for this, she thought, but she didn't actually object to it; maybe her body had the better idea after all. "That's not a joke," she said sharply, cutting him off. "Hell, it's not even structured like a joke. You're just being a cretin, that's all."
He seemed more taken aback than she'd anticipated; she wondered briefly if she should keep pressing the point, but for the love of God...! "I...geez, what's gotten into you?" he retorted, a hint of a stammer creeping into his voice.
"What do you think?" she snapped back. "Obviously, I dropped in from a parallel universe where you used to be a nice guy, only to find that here you're a gross, verbally-abusive creep. Kinda took me by surprise, you know?" She was surprised to find hot tears prickling at the corners of her eyes; she wondered a bit at that, but it wasn't really a mystery - she'd lost a friend and had him replaced with this jerk instead. Why would that not be upsetting? Her body cradled her head in one arm and used the free hand to dab at her eyes with her sleeve.
Harry stood there for a moment, taking in what must've seemed to him like biting sarcasm, even though it was the actual truth. She thought for a moment that she saw his bottom lip quiver slightly; then he whirled around and stalked off in something of a rush. Jason watched him go, feeling her teeth grit and wishing this was more cathartic than it was. Her body relaxed a little, though their shared tension remained, and began to gently stroke her hair and try to soothe themselves. She hadn't wanted to get in a fight with the person who'd used to be her friend, really...!
Dean stepped over towards her; she turned to him. "Uh, um...'m sorry," he said. "I...I guess I shoulda stopped him, it's just..." He trailed off, not knowing what to say. It wasn't that he liked hearing Harry talk about girls that way, but it would've been more awkward and uncomfortable to say anything, wouldn't it? If he just didn't say anything and let his friend assume he was in agreement, then...but that was really just tacitly encouraging him, wasn't it? Was it? He didn't know... "...this's my fault, I guess," he muttered to himself.
Jason sighed. "It's not," she said. "Him being a creep is his fault. I just...I wish I understood why he turned into such a jerk..."
Dean stared at the floor. "It's...a long story," he murmured. Honestly, he wasn't really sure himself...well, he could guess, but even if it had something to do with finding their mutual highly-unusual childhood friend attractive, why had the two of them turned out so different? No, it was more like they'd taken different approaches to dealing with the whole bike incident...? He'd spent years feeling terrible for making Jasmine hate him, while Harry had just doubled down...? But that didn't seem like the whole story either, not when the whole thing had started because of Harry's sudden boundary issues...? I wish I understood, too, he thought to himself.
Jason shrugged and tried to return to her goal, though she noticed that her body tilted her chin up as it lifted her head up to eye level with him so that it was like she was just slightly looking down at him. She wasn't sure why it did that. "Uh, um, a-anyway," she said, hoping this wasn't too abrupt a change of tone from Dean's brooding over things that had never happened years ago, "I...I wanted to see if you could help me...?"
Her one-time friend stared wide-eyed at her. "I, uh...really? I thought...I thought you still hated me for...um, y'know, the...the whole bike thing..."
She eyed him curiously. "The...the 'bike thing?'"
"You know, when...um, when Harry told-" Dean stopped himself. It wasn't just Harry. He'd thought it would be neat, too, but...but that was because he thought...she might like it. He gritted his teeth. "...er, when I took your head away from your body..."
Jason was surprised by the instinctive discomfort she felt on hearing that - it wasn't that she had unpleasant memories of the event he was referring to, because as far as she was concerned it had never happened at all and she could only vaguely infer the details, but the mere thought gave her a little shudder. Her body held her head a little closer, clutching her a little more firmly, and it was clear from Dean's expression that he understood the meaning.
It was even odder, she thought, because she hadn't found it at all disconcerting when Lucy had picked her head up yesterday evening, after she'd first become...like this. The situation had been disorienting and distressing, sure, but it seemed like there was nothing inherently upsetting about having her head in the care of someone else. Just...just when I don't want it, I guess? she thought to herself. How strange...or perhaps not. It was one thing to have someone else hold onto something you valued, and quite another to have it taken from you...
But back to the topic at hand... "Um, look, really," she said, trying to tamp down the sudden awkwardness and feeling of discomfort, "honestly, I didn't even remember it before you brought it up. I mean, no harm done, and it was years ago, right?" Or at least that's the impression I got? she thought. "I mean, it'd be one thing if you were being a jerk like...like Harry, but...don't worry about it, okay?"
Dean seemed both surprised and a lot more pleased by this than she'd anticipated. Had...had whatever this was really been that big a deal between them? Or...or was that just some kind of jumping-off point for something that festered over the years? Part of her wished she knew, but then again, maybe it was better if she didn't have to deal with that baggage. "A-ah, o-okay!" he stammered. "But, I mean, if there's anything I can do to make it up..."
Jason rolled her eyes and chuckled softly. "Well, I was already gonna ask if you could help me with my homework...?"
