12th ♬

"She was attending to a child, and she forgot to bring her talkie with her. You need anything else?" I asked him, straightening my black, fitted lifeguard clothes. It wasn't as if there were any creases to be straightened, but I just felt like it.

"Sorry to call you here for that. My hands are full. Carl is busy. And thanks," Jace said, one after the other without even pausing. It was as if he almost asked me to leave right away, pushing me out of the door using only his words.

Then I watched him as he got back with moving things in Sam's room. It seemed like he was cleaning it, or trying to. Jace wasn't good with these things. Even with a sweeping broom in hand, he wasn't even close to cleaning the floor decently. I wanted to help out, but he didn't seem to be fond of the idea. And honestly, I simply had no clue why he had decided to clean the room all of a sudden. It was completely unnecessary, and it wasn't the time of the year for that, either.

"Oh, okay," I said in a low voice, turning back and started heading out of the door.

He didn't reply.

I tried slowing down, wondering if he would ever change his mind and speak to me instead. I heard the huge cabinet being pushed, for whatever reason. And then there came the dusting sound made by the tips of the broom that were brushing the wooden floor. But aside from those, there was nothing else.

Yes, he didn't reply, nor had spoken a word to me.

There was dead silence, which persisted for the span of time after I said goodbye a while ago and before closing the door shut behind me. As I stood outside his door, I listened closely for any sign of him changing his mind and calling me back. But no, there was no such thing that had happened.

Was he angry at me?

A grin pulled the corner of my lips, holding itself in place as I skipped my way out of the beach house. I high-fived Carl, who was getting something in the closet. Surprised by my reaction, he suddenly asked, "What was that for?"

"Nothing," I said, stopping on my tracks and looking at him.

After getting a float, he stood up and suddenly bumped on the door post. Standing a few inches above six feet, the beach house's structure was too small for him.

"Ouch."

"You okay?" I asked.

"Somewhat," Carl said with a shrug, rubbing the top of his head.

"You sure? Need any help? I can get you some ice," I offered.

He smiled, shaking his head. "No, I'm okay."

"Well, if you say so." I nodded. "I'm going back to my post then. Bye."

After waving goodbye to him, I headed outside. As I was almost holding the metal knob, I heard the door of Sam's room swing open. It was Jace. He said, "Carl, can you help me out a bit?"

It was a surprise that he was asking Carl. Well, it was going on for some time now. It was either he was looking for Lavy or Carl to ask for help. But every time I witnessed it first hand, it still felt odd. It wasn't because I wanted to be ordered by him all day. It was just that, for the last few days, almost a week now, he was completely ignoring me.

If before, he had always called my attention whenever he needed help with something, be it us moving a huge box or me bringing him a can of Coke, now, it was the opposite. He was, in fact, disregarding me for the last few days. Ever since he came to know that I was going out with Nick, he treated me like an abandoned minion.

Bring on the deserted wind. Swoosh. Reese, you were now cast off.

I was expecting myself to be happy and probably jump out in joy. But the thing was, I wasn't feeling that. Why was I not feeling that?

Weird.

I put on a smile, one that didn't last long and had to be recharged every thirty seconds before it would come out again. Where was that cheerfulness that I was supposed to be feeling right now? I was supposed to be in high spirits, after finally succeeding in driving him out of my life. Jace was angry at me. He wasn't bothering me anymore. The talkie had been silent all week. There were no silly orders from him, no kids messing up. He wasn't doing his revenge.

He finally let me be. Alone.

Climbing my high chair, I noticed Nick approaching me. He was wearing his swimming trunks. Plus, he was shirtless, so the group of young girls at my right ended up staring at my post. When Nick was standing below me, he grinned and asked, "So how's Jace?"

"He's ignoring me," I uttered. "Again."

"That's a good thing, right? At least he's not doing that revenge thing to you anymore. He must be thinking of another plan right now," Nick said.

"I bet he is," I agreed. "And it's funny how it's taking him so long. It has been a week now, and he's still not doing anything."

If cleaning a whole office was part of the revenge scheme, then I wouldn't be surprised. After all, that was all he was doing right now. I had no idea what he was doing yesterday or the other day. In fact, I rarely saw him for the past few days.

"Then it must be some mind-blowing plan," Nick laughed. "But don't you worry, I have your back."

I exhaled, "Thanks."

"No problem." Nick casually smiled.

Sometimes, I wondered if I could fall in love with him, the real deal. He wasn't that bad. At least three heads would turn to him whenever he walked by. And as a person, he was very easy to get along with, too.

I remembered the first time we'd really talked, how uncomfortable I was with him before. But somehow, it was slowly changing. I found talking to him and carrying out a conversation was a lot easier that what I'd expected.

"So we're still going out tonight?" I asked him.

"Sure, just give me a call and I'll be there. I don't have to do anything tonight, either." Nick glanced at his watch

"Okay, I'll tell you the plan when—" I was about to say something, but then a rattling sound coming from the talkie cut me off.

"No chatting during your shift," Jace abruptly said. It wasn't even five minutes since Nick had started talking to me. Jace was acting so weird with all that strict implementation of a no chatting policy while working.

Ridiculous.

"He's affected, Reese."

"I'm not sure with that. He's just prying," I corrected his thoughts.

"That's just my opinion. And guess what, I think he likes you," Nick said evenly, as if convinced.

"What?" I laughed. "You know, I'm sure that's not the case. If you heard how he declared that he would get his revenge on me before, you wouldn't say that."

"I don't know," Nick said slowly, shaking his head a bit. "Even if I don't like that guy, I can tell."

"It must be your imagination..." I cleared my throat, looking around for any sign that what he was saying might be the case. Did Jace really feel that way? But then, how in the world did that happen? With all the revenge thing going on.

"Must be," Nick said, dubious with my words.

"Second warning. You won't like the third," the voice coming from the radio said again. He wasn't really going to give up just like that. If my being placed here in Zone 2 was for this, I wouldn't be taken aback. From Sam's office, he could see me all day with ease. What a guy. This was the only time he would pay attention to me—when I was talking to his least favorite person.

I sighed. "Go. He won't stop anyway. He once deducted my salary. You know I need that money."

"He did that?" Nick was amused.

I nodded.

"Okay then, so I'll just see you tonight," he said. Then, with a taunting smile, he suddenly uttered, "Should we try to kiss? He would go berserk with that."

I didn't know what to say, with my mouth slightly hanging open.

"No, I was just kidding," Nick added, laughing a bit.

"For a moment, I thought you meant it. But let's not take it that far."

"Of course," Nick said, nodding in agreement. "Then I'll get going now. See yah."

"See yah," I replied.

Watching him go, I rested my elbows on the arms of the high chair I was sitting on. The only time I got a reaction from Jace was when Nick was talking to me at work. Turning to my left, I stared at the black radio, waiting for the voice on the other line to say something again. But there were no more sounds that came out of it.

After an hour, I pressed the button before I knew it. "Jace?"

"Yeah?" his reply came about quickly.

"Nothing..." I shake my head.

And the afternoon passed by slowly, with no noise coming from the talkie.

Later that night, I devised the perfect plan on how to fully make use of my date with Nick. Jace dropped by at our house and said something to Cad a moment ago, before heading his way. And with that, I knew what I should do, although my plan was being interrupted by Cad.

"Why?" I asked him, demanding for some golden reason why he refused to tell me where Jace was heading to.

"Why didn't you ask him where he was going before he left?" Cad said instead, calculating my eyes. He had been suspicious of me. It was a mistake that I told him about Nick. The second mistake was when I suddenly persisted on asking him where Jace was going. And now, I couldn't take the second one back, without giving him something to hold on to, maybe some convincing words that I was over Jace and just wondering where he was heading—an out of the blue curiosity.

"Well," I stammered, "he was in a hurry."

"No, he wasn't," he replied, raising his eyebrow. "You two even saw each other after he handed me the guitar. You should have used that time to say something to him, instead of just staring."

"I forgot to ask." I thrust my hands through my hair.

"Right," Cad cut me off. "And so you two just stared at each other without saying a word?"

"That's not true," I argued. It was true that we saw each other, looked at each other, and didn't say a word to each other. So what was I saying again?

"Don't even make me explain. Just call him, will you?" Cad suggested, turning his back on me.

"I don't know his new number." My reasoning was becoming idiotic by the minute. How in the world would I convince my brother to tell me where Jace was heading to, without him being suspicious of me? He was far from being moved, and he wasn't on my side, either. For him, I was only acting annoying again, asking him continuous questions when the solution itself was as simple as breathing.

"My phone's on the table," he told me. "Help yourself."

Now, what?

I ran out of ideas. Calling Jace and asking him where he was heading so that Nick and I could go there was kind of odd. He might see through our pretense. And not to mention that he turned cold toward me all of a sudden. So definitely, why would he answer such a dull question?

"You two are so confusing," Cad said, exasperated. Snickers came over to his side, lazily lying down on the floor.

"We are?" I echoed. But instead of answering, he pointed to his phone. As if any threat would work on him, I still said, "I'm going to look in your inbox if you won't tell me."

"Sure."

"Fine," I muttered, picking up his phone. I opened the messages and surely, like always, there wasn't even a single message in there.

"Seen anything?" Cad was now laughing at me.

I hissed in response, almost putting down the phone when an idea came into mind. I stopped. Thinking about it, I knew that this my recent plan might work.

I laughed at my cleverness. And since he wasn't looking at me, I snagged his phone with me and went to the kitchen. And then I put it in silent mode just in case. Creating a message using my brother's phone, I tried my hardest to sound like him.

Dude, Mom's on the phone, and Susan is asking where you are now. I forgot what you said earlier.

After hitting the send button, I waited. Occasionally looking at Cad, who was still preoccupied with the guitar, I fidgeted on his phone while waiting for a reply. At least he hadn't noticed what I was doing. And then, there came a reply after a minute.

Carol's Diner. I headed here after I got back from dad's office. Tell her I got the message.

I grinned.

Got it. He was at that diner near the mayor's office, although I hadn't got a clue on what message he was talking about. I erased all the evidences, before sneaking back to where Cad was.

Adjusting my bag, I said, "I'm putting your phone here. Got his number. Guess I'll ask him myself. I forgot to give back his um... whistle."

"No one's asking why. Get lost, Reese," Cad muttered.

"Arf," Snickers added.

"Fine, I'll just be out for a while," I told him, before heading to the door.

I sent a message to Nick, telling him to meet me at Carol's diner. Then walking into the place, I found myself wondering what message Jace was talking about. The only thing I heard from their conversation before was that he was heading out to grab something and eat with his friends.

Carol's dinner wasn't that busy compared to other diners around here. The night was still young and the place wasn't even full. It must be due to the sluggish fries that they always served. The Wings of the Mighty Chicken was still the most well-known around the area—good ambiance and excellent food. But it wasn't like I would ever step in that place again. Not if I had a choice. After all, it was filled with unpleasant memories.

♫♩♬♩♬

"Did you call him?" Claire asked me again for the nth time now.

I laughed a little, handing her over my bag as I grabbed something out of it. With a calm voice, I told her, "Relax. It's Jace. If he said he'd do something, he would do it."

"But you haven't heard from him since this morning," she argued, putting down the bag and grasping the chicken head costume away from my hands. She looked straight into my eyes, grabbing me by the shoulder and shaking me uncontrollably.

"Claire," I stammered her name, getting a bit dizzy. I held her arms and steadied myself.

"This is ridiculous. The whole school will laugh at you. You don't want that to happen, believe me," she argued.

The good thing about us was that we never really cared that much about our reputation and such. But then, with something like this, with the whole school population being involved, it was probably understandable why she started to stress the matter to me. Regardless, I was confident that this night would turn out to be all right.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be okay. I'm already winning this thing," I said with beaming confidence.

For the first part of the show, I had stunned the audience and made them know my existence. And the majority of them was already rooting for me. And with the second to the last part of this school event, Who's the It Girl, which involved showcasing a talent, I was certain that I would soon win the crowd over. Brittany was so going to lose tonight.

"But he's not even around. He's supposed to be here," Claire reminded me.

"Don't you remember? He said that he'd come up from the audience," I told her.

Handing me back the chicken head, she irked, "I really have a bad feeling about this."

I had my fair share of doubts, too. But I trusted him enough to believe that he would do as he said. Pulling out a reassuring smile, I said to Claire, "I'll be okay. Don't worry about it."

She wasn't convinced. I knew that the only way now was to go up on stage, sing that song, strum the music, and dance to the beat. With Jace standing by my side, I knew we could change the norms. The Mighty Chicken would be something that it wasn't until tonight.

"Reese, you're up..." Leah, the coordinator paused, looking at what I was wearing. Giving me a skeptical look, she continued, "...next."

♫♩♬♩♬

I shoved the memories aside, not wanting to remember the drama we'd been through before. I waited for Nick outside the diner, spotting Jace, stealthily, with the rest of Midget Dreams. And I also noticed that Lucas was now joining them.

They were laughing, as Fritz continuously tried to balance a piece of fries on his finger. It must be Lucas' dare again. I remembered how he made me do that before, balancing a fries from this place and saying that it would be his treat if I could do so. I laughed at the thought, thinking about those times when everything was still okay.

Sorry, can't come tonight.

I stared at my phone, reading his message. Nick's text was plain and simple. No explanation whatsoever. I grimaced, feeling a bit disappointed that he couldn't make it, after all the effort I had put in to find out where Jace was going. I was about to head back home, when I heard a loud thumping from the glass wall behind me.

Looking back, I saw Claire waving at me, and shouting my name from inside. And then I noticed that she got everyone else's attention, too. Yes, they were all staring at me, including the members of the Midget Dreams.

Fantabulous.

She motioned for me to get inside, pointing to Mason, who was sitting at a table. I shook my head, trying to tell her that I would just go home. She rolled her eyes in response, immediately heading out of the door.

As soon as she got out, she said, "Come on, eat with us."

"Claire, I don't think..." I trailed off, as I was being dragged by her.

"Why are you standing outside? You waiting for someone?"

"No!" I hurriedly replied, lowering my head down as we made our way in.

"Why so jumpy? Just asking." She shrugged.

Truth was, I hadn't told Claire that I was faking a thing with Nick. They were still on Jace's side, unmovable. I could sense that. And if ever the two would hear what I'd decided to do, they would probably be the first ones to spout the fake relationship to Jace himself without even thinking.

Total disaster.

And so to prevent that from happening, I'd decided to keep my mouth shut, and let them date for a while and be busy with anything as I performed the act of the century.

I scooted next to Mason, who handed me his sluggish fries. "I can't stand this thing. Claire keeps on dragging me to this place."

"You should have dated me, you know? I'm not gonna make you eat this kind of fries," I went along with his teasing, grabbing a piece.

Claire suddenly looked dead serious. "You two, if you ever date behind my back, I'll make sure that both of you will never see the light again."

I swallowed.

Mason cleared his throat, "It was just a joke."

She didn't answer. Instead, she looked at us with lethal glare. Then I hurriedly said, "Swear, I wouldn't date Mason even if he was the last man on earth."

"You promise?" she made me make an oath, still sounding solemn.

"Promise. We'd rather talk about you than replenish the earth if we ever get deserted in a far away island," I assured her.

"Why is there an island?" Mason laughed.

"I need to assure her," I whispered to him.

Then Claire suddenly laughed, hard. We both looked at her, and joined in the laughter. Wiping away the tears from her eyes, she muttered, "I never thought this day would ever come. You guys are so hilarious to tease."

"I know you're just teasing. You love Reese more than me, so there's no way you're gonna hate her," Mason muttered.

"So I take it that you're jealous of us?" I said.

"Sometimes."

"Now that's funny," I grinned.

"She came into my life first, there's no helping it," Claire told him, dipping her favorite sluggish fries into her milkshake. I met Claire in fourth grade, Mason on fifth. So technically, Claire and I met each other first.

"I get it. But I'm still your boyfriend, so you gotta love me more," Mason said to her.

"So demanding," I commented.

"And Reese, you're not really my type, let's just make it clear," Mason told me, grinning.

"And you're not my type, either," I said in response.

Realizing what he was doing, my eyes widened in shock. His voice got a little higher when he replied, "I know. I know. Jace will and always be the only—"

I put my hand over his mouth, firmly. With a peeved voice, I hissed, "They're at the next table. Shut up."

I knew he was a bit mad that Claire had said that she loved me more as of today. But she was only kidding, making him purposely annoyed. I wanted to laugh whenever she did that, and how I added more gas to the flame most of the time. But then, Mason found a way to tease me back. And he had caught the next table's attention all right.

"Looks like someone can't get over with someone," said Fritz, the blonde boy with the spiked-up hair. He was my least favorite among the guys. He always had a way of picking up a fight with me.

"I am not," I said back, standing up from my seat and facing him.

"Sure you are," he mocked.

Thinking that this wouldn't end in anything good, I exhaled, "Whatever."

Mason pulled me down. "Sorry about that. I forgot that he was with his friends."

I glared at him. "You shouldn't have said that, and you're so gonna make it up with me. Go get me some food. Your treat."

He sighed and went past me as he headed to the counter. Then Jace and his friends got up a moment after, still laughing about something that I hadn't heard. I didn't look at them, thinking that I probably wouldn't be happy with what I would see. Claire did the same, dipping her fries to her shake and shutting everything else out.

"Hey, stop that," I heard Jace say, putting his arms over Lucas and Fritz. "Let's just go."

And as the front door shut close, I instantly felt relieved. Then Claire muttered, "Boy drama."

"Yeah," I sighed, laughing a bit.

As I looked over to Mason, who was taking a long time in ordering, I noticed a piece of paper on one of the seats at the table beside us. Thinking that maybe one of them had dropped it, I stood up and picked it up. Then I said to the waitress, who was cleaning the table and staring at the paper, "I'll give it to them. One of them lives next door."

She just nodded, uninterested.

I went back to our seats, scooting near the wall as I gave space for Mason, who was holding a tray and walking back to our table. Putting the paper beside me, Claire said, "Take at look at what that is. It must be something juicy."

"Like what?"

Wiping her fingers with a tissue, she grabbed the paper and opened it. It wasn't as interesting as what she thought it was, I could tell by the spark in her eyes that disappeared as she was reading it.

I asked, "So what did it say?"

"I think this is Jace's. It's from the mayor's office and it also includes you," she told me, handing the paper to me and getting back to eating her fries. "Like the usual."

As I was holding the opened letter, I didn't know that anything else would catch me surprised today. It was the last thing I'd expected to read or to know about. Squinting my eyes, I had to tell myself that I just didn't see this coming, not in a million years. Just what were they thinking? I thought they were on a vacation far, far away?

"So you coming?" she asked.

"Do I have any other choice?" I asked her instead. Another unexpected vacation for me.

"Nope," she muttered. "In life, you rarely have a choice."