Sadde doesn't avoid his, though. Is he close enough that she can call him without bothering half the cafeteria?

Yep, there he is getting grilled cheese.

"Hey, Jackson?"

"Um? Yeah?"

"I'm sorry if I hurt you earlier."

Shuffle. Shrug. He takes a spoonful of peas.

She doesn't really pay attention to what she's taking. "I don't mind sitting with you. Isabella does, though, and I can divide my time between you two, but."

"I don't need a lot of really fine detail on exactly the way in which I'm nobody's first choice."

"That's not what I'm saying at all. There will totally be times when I'll sit with you instead of with Isabella, just, it would be nicer if you didn't play-act at a relationship with someone that doesn't want to."

He takes an orange wedge and plunks down in a chair. "You don't get it, nobody gets it."

"Yeah, I guess I don't," she sighs.

Jackson eats, looking miserable.

She eats a bit, too. "I'm sorry," she repeats, lamely.

"Sure you are."

She blinks. "I am," she insists.

"Yeah, so, next time, what different thing you won't have to be sorry about are you gonna do instead?" mutters Jackson.

"That's not the kind of sorry I am. I don't think I did anything wrong, other than maybe wording a bunch of stuff in a way that sounds completely not like what I mean, and that's an ongoing project. But I feel regret that you're suffering and would like that to stop, and I'm expressing those emotions by saying that 'I'm sorry.' I also wish there was some way I could help that's more effective or useful, or even to know whether I'm actually even not being harmful right now. The best I know to do is not necessarily good."

Sigh.

Yeah. Sigh is right. She eats.

Food food food.

Sadde won't start a conversation if Jackson won't, and will stay there until either she or he finishes eating, whichever happens later, or before that if her date starts approaching.

He leaves first.

So she finishes eating, brushes her teeth and takes a shower, and does magic until 8:58PM, at which point she leaves her room so she'll knock on Isabella's door at 9PM sharp.

"Uneventful. Work is easy and relaxing, and apparently generalizing from healing to biokinesis seems to have less room for ducking up but is tricky anyway like everything else in magic and I'm happy I'll live forever because I want to learn stuff. How about yours, ma'am?"