Character Analysis
Jas and Georgia have a complicated friendship, to say the least. One minute they're besties and the next they hate each other—wash, rinse, repeat. At least they're consistent, we guess.
In the Market for Love
Jas's love interest is Tom, a guy she meets at a grocery store. Their romance leads to Robbie and Georgia meeting, so it's kind of a big deal. For more on that, though, check out Georgia and Robbie's pages elsewhere in this section—this is Jas's show here, yo.
Tom and Jas's relationship could probably be a whole other novel in its own right. These two fall hard for each other, and when they break up, it leaves them both devastated; the normally sharp and vibrant Jas can't even get out of bed. For days.
Jas's relationship with Tom shows the best and worst of her character. After their break up, Jas is left miserable, but in her misery we can see that Jas has stronger feelings for people than she usually lets on—feelings that can even overpower her sometimes-shallow tendencies. Speaking of shallow tendencies, we get a clear view of these when Jas breaks up with Tom after Georgia asks: "Do you really want to end up with a fruit and veg man?" (4.434). In other words, all it takes is her bestie making fun of her man's job for Jas to ditch him. Yikes.
In the Business of Truth Bombs
Despite some clear shortcomings, Georgia looks to Jas as a beacon of wisdom, a role Jas happily fulfills. She loves explaining the ways of the romantic world to Georgia, including such pearls as, "you have to remember that boys don't think girls are for funniness" (1.44) and "they do like girls who are a bit soft and not so, well… you know" (1.48). The absurdity of Jas's advice aside—guys are varied people and drawn to varied things—the "you know" at the end of that last bit is important: It's a jab at Georgia. And this matters.
See, Jas's purported maturity is a major theme in her friendship with Georgia. Jas seems to know so much more about matters of the heart and body, and while we can see that she still has a lot to learn, Jas enjoys this position of authority and reinforces it by putting Georgia down. Now, we're not saying Jas is stone cold or anything like that—but since Georgia is so insecure, and Jas spends so much time with her there's no way she doesn't know this, her repeated little jabs at her bestie are a way of maintaining their power dynamic. Jas, in other words, likes running the show.