Chapter 4           

To my surprise, when I showed up at the library after school the next Monday, Jace was already there at our usual table. Although his feet were kicked up on the table and he was busy tapping away on his phone, once again, it was a step up from his ways before. I approached the seat across from him, tossing my books down on the table to receive his attention. Jace’s eyes quickly snapped up at me from the way I surprised him.

                “Wow, is Jace Wasson actually early, for once?” I asked sarcastically, clamping a hand over my mouth to add dramatization. I stared up at the clock that hung over the bookshelf behind us, letting out a gasp. “He’s actually here before our scheduled meeting time, as well? What’s gotten into the Lord?”

                Jace glared up at me, obviously no impressed by my teasing. “Okay, you can stop the sarcastic, smart ass attitude now.” Jace rolled his eyes. “Can’t you appreciate the fact that I’m actually here before you?”

                I laughed, pulling my chair out to take a seat. “Okay, fine.” I paused, Jace watching me as he waiting for my response. “You’re appreciated.”

                Jace gave me a bland stare, narrowing his eyes. “That’s it?” he asked, letting out a huff of air. “That’s pathetic. I should just start showing up whenever I want.”

                I rolled my eyes, sticking my tongue out. “What did you expect, Wasson?” I raised an eyebrow. “Would you like me to throw you a party the next time you’re two minutes early?”

                Jace finally gave up on me, letting out a smirk. He leaned back against his chair, slouching lazily. “That’d be nice, actually.”

                I snorted, shaking my head, but there was a slight smile that lingered on my face. “So, I gave you a week to copy down every single thing in my notebook.” I paused, reaching my hand out. “Where is it?”

                Jace gave me a challenging stare before smirking, like he did every so often. He reached over across the table, where he carelessly threw down his book bag. While keeping eye contact with me, he slowly unzipped his book bag, taking out two notebooks, mine and his. Mine was there in Jace’s hands in perfect condition, of course, but there was a notebook that almost looked brand new. “Here, your highness.” Jace mockingly said, handing over the two notebooks. “You can check my notebook if your amount of trust in me is really that low.”

                I take both notebooks to check, of course. I start flipping through Jace’s new notebook, noticing that he color coordinated every note- just like I did. I then looked closely and noticed that his handwriting was much similar to mine, identical if anything. Squinting closely at the notes, I realized that they weren’t handwritten. The notes were printed out. “You photocopied my notes?” I asked, my gaze snapping over to his.

                Jace shrugged. “Yeah, and? You never specifically told me how to copy your notes. You just told me to get them all in my notebook and I did.”

                I pursed my lips, the feeling of irritation that I had inside me slowly fading away. A small smile slipped across my face as Jace gave me a questioning look. “I’m glad you listened to me, then.” I commended. “We’re actually making progress here, for once.”

                Jace snorted, rolling his eyes. “You can never give me a proper compliment, can you?”

                I released a laugh before reaching over to the shelf behind me to get a calculus textbook. “I’m going to give you some problems from the textbook to start out with, just to see if you’ve really been studying my notes.” I muttered, already circling questions for Jace to answer. “If you don’t know it, then just-.”

                I stopped in the middle of my sentence, silencing myself, because I noticed that Jace was staring at me- very intently. Jace’s eyes were slightly squinted, his eyebrows furrowed together as if he was in deep concentration. I blinked, clearing my throat to try to get Jace’s attention. “Jace?” I mumbled, raising an eyebrow. “Jace, focus.”

                “Have you been sleeping?” Jace suddenly asked me, very interested in my eyes. I was taken aback by his question, unsure of how to respond. Jace must’ve noticed how startled I became, because he licked his bottom lip, clearing his throat. “What I meant was- you just look really tired.”

                I shook my head, trying to avoid the subject. It was true that I get a lack of sleep every night due to me going to Julianne’s house every night to console her, but it was none of Jace’s business. He had no right to know. “It’s nothing.” I shrugged, trying to cover my face by pushing my bangs over my eyes. “I just had to stay up last night to study for an English exam.”

                Jace saw right through my lie and he was not willing to brush it off easily. “That’s bullshit.” Jace immediately detected my lie, lowering his voice. “You look tired every day, Everly. Why don’t you get enough sleep?”

                “Find the slope of the tangent line to the graph of f-.” I began to recite the first question my eyes landed on in the book.

                Jace let out a disheveled grunt and I saw that his fists had curled up into a ball. His knuckles were turning white and there was anger clear in his eyes. I was confused as to why he suddenly cared so much. It wasn’t like him and I got along, ever. I was almost a hundred percent sure that he didn’t want to come to these tutoring sessions just as much as I didn’t want to tutor a delinquent like him. “Everly, answer my question.” He grunted.

                “Piss off, Jace.” I suddenly snapped. “Why the hell should I tell you, of all people?”

                Jace clenched his jaw, sinking back in his seat. I watched intently as he crossed his arms stubbornly, narrowing his eyes away from mine. “Whatever, don’t tell me.” He huffed. “It’s not like I give two shits anyways.”

                Another failed tutoring session.

*

                I got home later that day, earlier than usual. After Jace and I had our argument, the rest of the tutoring session went by painfully slow, neither of us daring to say a word to each other. We ended up agreeing on ending it early, Jace muttering a low goodbye before he left the library.

                When I approached the driveway of my house, I frowned, not recognizing the extra red Toyota that was parked behind my mother’s car. Dad wasn’t going to be home for another five hours, and I was pretty sure that my parents would tell me beforehand before they decided to buy a new car. I took my eyes off of the spare car, entering my house. There were hushed whispers when I entered, kicking my shoes off by the doorway. “Shit, I think my daughter’s home.” I recognized my mother’s voice. “You’ve got to go, now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

                Just as I tossed my book bag on the carpet, my mother and a man entered the room, freezing when they saw me. I eyed the man suspiciously, his tie undone and his dark hair a complete mess. My eyes shifted over to my mother’s, noticing that she was wearing nothing but her silk pink robe. Her hair was effortlessly tossed up into a bun, as if she was rushing. “E-Everly,” my mother stuttered, “you’re home awfully early, dear.”

                “Yeah,” I nodded, gazing over at the man next to my mother, who surely wasn’t my father, “who’s this?”

                My mother cleared her throat as the man gave me an uneasy smile, reaching his hand out for me to shake. “I’m George, your mother’s-.”

                “Boss.” My mother cut him off almost immediately, making me raise my eyebrows.

                I didn’t like the aura George had around him, so I chose to ignore his handshake. “Mom, what is your boss doing at our house?” I asked timidly.

                My mother sucked in a sharp breath, laughing weakly. “O-oh!” she said shakily. “He just came by to ask me some questions about potential clients. You know how the firm is, Everly, always busy!”

                “Yes, that’s right!” George smiled lightly, trying to casually fix up his tie that was loosened around his neck, hoping that I wouldn’t notice anything suspicious about the two. Once he finished, he noticed the painfully awkward silence that filled the atmosphere. George cleared his throat, scratching a spot on his stubby chin. “I guess I better head off now. It was nice meeting you, Everly.”

                I narrowed my eyes at my mother’s boss, crossing my arms over chest. “Yeah, whatever.” I muttered, intentionally trying to sound impolite.

                My mother walked George to the door, keeping a tight smile on her lips. “We’ll discuss more about the new clients at work tomorrow.” My mother gritted through her teeth, a rough edge in her tone.

                Once my mother closed the door behind her, she leaned her back against it, letting out a disheveled sigh. She seemed to have forgotten that I was in the room with her until she opened her eyes, flinching when my cold stare met hers. My mother smiled at me uneasily, smoothing out the wrinkles that were evident on her silk robe. “Listen, Everly,” she started off, her cold hands holding mine, “I think it’s best if we don’t tell your father that George paid me a visit today, okay?”

                “Why not?” I raised an eyebrow, afraid of what was really going on.

                My mother cleared her throat, swiping a tongue over her lips. “Um, you know,” she rebuffed, “your father is always busy and stuff, so let’s just not burden him about what’s going on at work for me, okay? You understand, right?”

                I pursed my lips, bad thoughts overwhelming my mind already. I tried my best to push those thoughts away, convincing myself that my mother was much more loyal to my father than I was pinning her to be, but it wasn’t easy, especially after witnessing what had just occurred. “Right?” my mother repeated, much more sternly this time, after I had yet to reply.

                I sighed, nodding my defeat. “Right.”

*

                “What’s going on with you?” Julianne asked later that night, after dinner. “You’ve been quiet ever since you’ve gotten here.”

                My father came home a little past eight, just four hours after George left. Dinner was awfully quiet between my mother and I, and while dad did most of the talking, he didn’t suspect anything wrong between us two. I stabbed at my peas during dinner, almost feeling an empowerment of guilt for that telling him what was going on between my mother and her boss. I quickly reminded myself that although I didn’t see what happened, I had witnessed enough to go to assumptions. But then again, what if George really did come over to chat about business with my mother? I had no idea, and my mother wasn’t about to tell the truth any time soon.

                “Nothing’s wrong.” I quickly denied, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the oversized pink bowl between Julianne and I. I pressed the handful to my mouth, taking it all in at once unattractively. “Can you pass the chips next to you?”

                Julianne rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “I’m not giving you any chips until you tell me what’s bothering you.”

                I closed my eyes, letting out a tired breath of air. “It’s really dumb, Jules.” I assured. “I don’t want to make it a bigger deal than it actually is.”

                “Just tell me.” Julianne pestered on. “We’re best friends, Everly, best friends are supposed to tell each other everything.”

                I gulped, my chest slowly heaving. My palms were getting warm and moist as I fumbled with my fingers, feeling nervous and jittery all the sudden. “I-,” I paused, closing my eyes for a brief second, “I think my mom’s having an affair with her boss.”

                Julianne wasted no time in letting her reaction show, her eyes becoming wide. Her lips parted slightly from a sudden wave of shock, blinking several times to see if I was playing around or not. When Julianne finally realized that I wasn’t joking, she cleared her throat, rubbing her palm against her left cheek. “Wow,” she muttered, “what do you mean? Like, did you walk into them doing something?”

                “No, not really.” I let out an exasperated sigh. “I came home an hour earlier than usual, and my mother and her boss came down from upstairs looking like they just had wild sex. I mean, her boss’ shirt was unbuttoned and his disgusting chest hair was peeking through. And added to that, my mother was wearing nothing but a robe. If her boss did come over to discuss about potential clients, why the hell would she be wearing a robe?”

                Julianne listened to my words very carefully, her face morphing into an expression of disgust when I went into detail about George’s chest hair. She played with the tips of her hair casually; something she always did when she was in deep thought. “You have a reason to think that something is going on, but don’t jump to conclusions yet, okay?” Julianne advised. “Your parents are some of the nicest people I know. They’ve been married for what, fifteen years now? I mean, there’s no absolute way that your mother could be cheating on your father unless she was-,”

                “Okay, okay,” I cut Julianne off immediately before she went into further detail, “I get it Jules.”

*

                The next morning at school, I caught glimpses of Jace in the hallways every so often, but every time our eyes would lock into each others, he would quickly turn his gaze to the other direction, bluntly ignoring me. It made me wonder if I really did get him that angry yesterday. I wasn’t intentionally trying to stir with his emotions or anything, but it genuinely wasn’t my part to tell Jace why I can’t manage to get more than two hours of sleep a night. If I did get into detail with that, then I would have to tell him everything about Julianne- and that wasn’t my story to tell.

                When I walked into Calculus class later that day, I surprisingly found Jace in his seat, lazily slouching in his seat, headphones in his ears while he tapped his pen against the desk to the tune of the song that was playing. I debated on whether or not to approach him, but I finally made my decision. I took the seat to the right of Jace, placing my heavy textbooks on the desk. “I’m applauded that you’ve actually taken the effort to show up to class.” I said, almost too sarcastically.

                Jace narrowed his eyes at me, sending me a glare. Taking out is phone, he deliberately turned the volume of his music louder than it already was, trying to block out my voice. I was beginning to get irritated at the fact that Jace was ignoring me, over something so stupid that happened yesterday. “Jace.” I gritted through my teeth.

                Jace blinked once, twice, still not looking at me. His eyes were concentrated on the window to his left, staring outside at the students that were on their lunch break, hanging around in the courtyard. “Jace.” I nudged his elbow his time. “Jace, can I talk to you?”

                This was officially the last straw for me.

                “Holy fucking shit,” I cursed under my breath, my hands flying up to yank the headphones out of Jace’s ears. Once I finished doing that, Jace wasted no time in returning a murderous glare towards me, “Jace Wasson, can you stop acting like a fucking child for one second?!”

                “What do you want, princess, you’re causing a commotion here.” Jace clenched his jaw, snatching his headphones back from my hands.

                I bit on my lower lip from screaming at Jace, wrapping my fingers around his arm. I pulled him out of his seat, dragging him outside of the classroom. Mr. Richter, who was sitting at the desk, glanced up from his newspaper, but didn’t say a word. He was probably thanking me for getting Jace Wasson out of his classroom.

                “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jace snapped angrily. “Let go.”

                My hands immediately released his arm, tossing it down back to his side as if it had burned me. “Why are you being such an asshole?” I asked, straight to the point. “Is it because I wouldn’t tell you yesterday? Because if it is, it’s really stupid and you’re being fucking immature as hell for getting pissed at something so dumb.”

                Jace’s lips were pressed into a straight, thin line. His eyes had darkened into a shade that I’ve never seen before in my entire life- it was so fascinating yet petrifying at the same time. “Y-You know what,” I started off, shaking my head, “forget it. Just show up today on time.”

                Just as I was turning my back to go back into class, Jace’s voice stopped me. “I’m not coming today.”

                I turned around, giving him a look of disbelief. “Why not?” I asked. “You seriously can’t be mad-,”

                “The world doesn’t revolve around you, princess.” Jace spat. “Get that through your head.”

                Suddenly, as if I had never felt it before, Jace’s words felt like a bullet piercing right through my heart. I tried my best to shake the nauseating feeling I suddenly became overwhelmed with, taking in a deep breath. “Okay,” I whispered weakly, hating how strained my voice sounded, “that’s fine.”

                It was as if Jace had noticed my quick change in tone, because his features suddenly softened, his face nearly crumbling. I tore my gaze away from his, hating him so badly at the moment for making me feel so vulnerable. “I-I should get back to class.” I whispered, turning on my heel.

                “You can come to my house after school to tutor me today.” Jace muttered quietly. “I couldn’t come today because my parents aren’t going to be home, and Reina’s not allowed to stay home by herself.”

                I lifted my eyes, peering at him through my eyelashes. “Okay.” I mumbled, still slightly hurt by his harsh words.

                Jace looked troubled, as if he was trying to say something, but he didn’t quite know how to put it in words. He swiped a tongue over his bottom lip, causing me to stare away quickly. “Everly,” he paused momentarily, “I just wanted to say sorry.”

                “For what?”

                “For being an asshole.” Jace referred back to my choice of words.

                I nodded slowly, but as I turned back to go back into class, I couldn’t help but smile.

Just wanted to quickly thank you everyone who has been supporting this new story! I love you all, and please continue with the feedback! I also apologize for very slow updates. Summer has been busy, and lately, I've been stuck in a major writer's block for both of my ongoing stories. But, thank you for those who are being patient with me!