☆~Jace Parker~☆

The pillows started to shake which ruined my peaceful nap and I groaned, opening my eyes slowly. I instantly cringed when my eyes saw the familiar white walls and the white marble floor tiles.

Someone was stroking my hair until I moved my head a little to look up who it was.

Jessica?

She grinned coyly as she slowly took her hand off of my hair and when I realized I was sleeping on her lap for the whole time I quickly got up and faced her properly, running my fingers through my messy hair. I didn't know when I drifted off as I could only remember I got back to hospital after dropping nanny home.

"Sorry if I woke you up. I actually wanna use.. restroom right now." she mumbled and I chuckled lightly, rubbing my eyes.

"Oh, do you want me to show where it is?" I asked and she shook her head, standing up.

"No. I can manage." and before I could reply, she almost ran towards the direction of the restroom.

Aw, my funny blonde.

I took my phone out of the pocket and unlocked it before glancing at the time which read 22 : 36. I sighed when I observed my surroundings and noticed once in a while, some nurses would be passing the hallway but no one except me, was sitting out here.

Right now I just wanted everything to be back to normal. Every-fucking-thing.

I stood up and looked at Georgia through the small glass window which was fixed on the ICU door. She was sleeping with a blank expression on her face while Alex was sitting on the stool and holding her hand but I guess, he fell asleep too as his head was rested on the edge of the bed.

Maybe this fellow is not so bad as I thought.

Dear God, I wanted to say only one thing; I knew that I didn't deserve anyone. But if this boy liked my sister, then please don't make her kick the bucket so soon. Please.

Suddenly my phone buzzed, snapping me out of my trance and I glanced it and noticed that I got a new text message from Tash. I unlocked it and read her text.

Why aren't you answering my calls?

It was because my phone had been switched off for the whole time. But instead of replying to her text, I opened the gallery and scrolled up till I found her picture. My hands started to tremble a little when I touched the photo of hers.

She was holding me and the newborn Georgia tightly in her arms like her life depended on us and she was flashing a wide toothy grin while Georgia was frowning and I was making a fake moustache with her long strand of strawberry blonde hair.

It was a rarest picture of mom where she was actually smiling. I really miss her smile.

"It's not true, dear. Trust me." mom pleaded while I was shooting daggers at her.

"I won't. I hate you. So so so much." I spat at her. "Hope you'd leave this house before my birthday comes. I don't want my friends to meet you. Even I'd be glad if you leave this world too."

She was still sitting on the floor with her head hung low and her shoulders were shaking but she didn't reply anything other than sobbing inaudibly.

I couldn't believe how immature I was at the age of eleven.

"Is this your mom?" I heard a familiar voice which brought me back to reality and I looked at Jessica who was staring at my phone screen with an awe expression. I quickly turned it off which made her frown and look up at me.

"Why are you hiding it? She's really pret-" she didn't finish her sentence when her gray eyes met mine. "Jace? Are you crying?" she whispered, stepping closer to me and I cursed internally for being over-emotional and quickly turned away before wiping the stupid tears that came out without warning.

"Jace.." she placed a hand on my back. "Are you okay?"

No.

"Yeah." I replied before turning around and her eyes were boring into mine like she was searching something on my face.

"Could you do me a favour?" she asked and I nodded slowly. "Can you give me a hug?"

Her question caught me off-guard and I tilted my head to one side. "Sure.. but why?"

"Because you need a cuddle right now and I'm hundred percent sure that you wouldn't ask it out loud." she stated, outstretching her arms and I raised my eyebrows in a bit surprise. When did she become so bold?

She gestured me to hug her and I smiled, moving closer and reluctantly wrapped my arms around her tiny waist and rested my head on hers, inhaling the nice smell of her hair.

I should recommend the shampoo she's using to Tash. Because Tash always make a fuss of her hair fall.

But I should admit, atleast to myself, that hugging Jessica was totally different from hugging Tash. I wouldn't be complaining if I wanted to hug Jessica all day long.

"Jace, I don't know what made you cry and I can't tell you not to cry but always remember that I'm here for you.. atleast to cry along with you." her voice sounded shaky and I furrowed my brows and looked down at her, trying to see her face but it was buried against my chest.

"Jessica, don't tell me you're crying." I said and she looked up and glanced at me through her eyelashes.

"How could I not cry after watching the tears in your eyes?" she sniffled and I smiled faintly before kissing the crown of her head.

She's gonna make me cry now.

She returned the smile, pulling apart and suddenly I felt the warmth left my body. "If you wanna talk about it, I'm all ears."

Oh, not again.

"About what?" I played dumb and she gestured to my phone.

"About.. her."

I clenched my phone and closed my eyes before shaking my head sternly as I didn't want to recall any of the moments again unless I wanted an awful sleep. But after a very long time, I had a dreamless sleep today which was kinda peaceable when I had fallen asleep on Jessica's lap.

She's really something.

"Oh, that's okay. I'm sorry if I'm not minding my own business. I'm just curious to know your past I guess. But You don't need to tell that to someone like me." she laughed awkwardly trying her best that she didn't hurt and embarrass which she literally failed but I was really curious at the same time as why on earth was she so eager to know my past which was more unpleasant than my nightmares.

Then an awkward silence surrounded us and when I was about to break it saying that I wasn't ready to tell her, the ICU door opened revealing the sleepy little brother of Jessica.

"Jessie, we.. gotta go." he said groggily, approaching us. "Mom's calling me continuously and when I answered a moment ago, she said she'd ground us forever if we didn't get back home within twenty minutes. And trust me, she really sounded so mad." Alex told looking at Jessica and me, back and forth and when I glanced at Jessica, she was panicking.

"Okay then, I'll drive you both home." I said and Jessica looked up at me with an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry Jace-"

"Why are you sorry for? Actually it's quite impossible for you to stay here overnight when you have school tomorrow." I pretended to sound normal and she opened her mouth but before she could say anything else, Alex interrupted.

"Well, I can go home by myself." he stated and glanced behind at the ICU room before approaching Jessica and muttered something to her and looked up at me as I was a head taller than him.

"See you Parker." he gave me a two-finger salute in a mocking way.

"See ya kiddo." I replied and he grunted.

"I have a name."

"So do I." I retorted.

"But Parker is cool." he remarked.

"Kiddo is cool too." I smirked which made him huff in annoyance and I looked down at Jessica. "Don't you think?" I asked her and she just smiled back as if it was a rhetorical question.

"Bullshit." with that Alex walked past us and disappeared from my sight.
----

Jessica and I were riding in the same car but still none of us spoke anything. But the silence wasn't uncomfortable either as I listened to blur which was playing on the radio while she was staring out of the window, admiring the night view of our city.

"Jace, it's amazing." Jessica sighed dreamily and then turned towards me. "Can you please stop the car?"

"But you need to go-"

"Just for a little while. Please. I wanna show you something." she whined and I glanced out of the window and noticed that it was the park where she usually visits. Eventually I parked the car and Jessica unbuckled her seat belt and when I was about to get down she resisted, telling me to wait here and stepped down, moving around and opened the car door for me.

"Please." She said in a fake strong accent, extending her one hand towards the park in a formal way like the guards would be opening the car door of their boss. I chuckled lightly before stepping down and she smiled closing the door behind me.

"Jes-"

"Let's go." she held my hand and led the way towards the park.

"Why are we going to the park in the middle of night?" I asked puzzled but she just hummed, swaying our intertwined hands rhythmically. Then she stopped walking and turned around releasing the grip off of my hand.

"Ta-daa!"

"What?" I furrowed my brows and wondered whether she'd turn into an insane person in the midnight and when the sun rises again, she'd be back to normal again. Because Jessica was so enthusiastic today in a hail-fellow-well-met way. I wasn't complaining though.

"Look up." she pointed to the sky and when I raised my head up, I was utterly dumbfounded.

The dark blue sky was filled with
countless stars which were twinkling and weren't afraid to appear like fireflies.

Despite the current mess my life was facing now, I was beyond happy now. Especially when I was stargazing with Jessica.

I draped an arm around her and she averted her gaze from the sky to me and when she noticed I was already staring at her, her face glowed through the darkness.

"Do you like it?"

"I love it." I stated and turned my gaze to the sky. It's really beautiful.

"Look over there, I guess, That's Adhara." she pointed to a random star. "I don't know exactly because we don't have a telescope right now. But I could tell it's one of the brightest stars in the whole sky." she rambled.

"And it must be your mom. Looking at you and always protecting you." Jessica concluded and my breath hitched in my throat and I quickly took my hand off of her as I studied her face cautiously.

"Wh-What?"

"Your mom is beautiful. I don't know what happened to her but I just only know that she loves you so much and always be proud of herself that she raised her son a good man." she beamed like a little girl but all I could do was chuckle humorlessly.

If only Jessica knew the whole story.

"You are an ugly slut." dad seethed and mom was covering her mouth and suppressing her sob as if it'd wake us up.

"Don't jump to conclusions, David. That's not true. Don't you ever trust me?" she questioned with a disbelief look on her face.

"Do you want me to trust you even after I got to know that you cheated on me with a drug user huh?" he spat. Touché. I thought back then.

"I didn't cheat on you! How many times do I wanna tell this? he raped me." she cried and dad clenched his jaw and moved towards her, gripping her chin harshly.

"I dont think you were raped, I think you really wanted it." and with that he slapped hard across her cheek and she fell down and wept softly, clutching her little belly.

I quickly shut the door in case dad would find me witnessing their quarrel and sat down on the floor, hugging my knees and stared at my nanny and my little sister who were sleeping peacefully unaware of any of these things.

"Jace? What-"

"Why the fuck are you doing like this Jessica? Have you ever heard of the word privacy?" I shouted and it echoed the whole place as it was totally empty and she looked a bit taken aback. "I just don't want to talk about my mom. Or anything that's related to my past. It would bring up my traumatic memories."

"Oh." she spoke. "Uh, well, I'll be waiting for you in the car if you finish watching the stars."

When she started to move, I sighed and realized I shouldn't have yelled at her like that. Eventhough I didn't want to dig my old memories, I was mainly scared that Jessica would leave me forever when she got to know about the past-me.

"I'm sorry." My voice came out as a whisper and she stopped, turning around. Actually she's the one who has sharp ears.

"Why are you sorry for? It's my fault that I expected you to open up to me."

"I can't." She has no idea how hard it is for me.

"Figured."

"Why the hell are you so curious about my past?" I asked running my fingers through my hair frustratingly and she marched towards me.

"Because I'm starting to feel that you're broken inside and have hidden scars." Her intuition wasn't wrong though. "There were so many moments you got the best of me when you saw the worst in me. Then why don't you let me help you? We could heal together, couldn't we?" she asked softly and right now I couldn't look into her gray eyes.

"Look Jessica," I began. "If you got to know about my past, you'd surely leave me."

She frowned, looking at me with a disbelief look on her face. "Seriously Jace? Is that the reason you don't want to open up to me?" she stepped closer to me and her gaze was boring into mine. "I would never leave you no matter what happens."

"Pinky promise?" I held out my pinky finger and she awed for no reason at my pinky finger and then at me.

"Aw Jace.. I pinky promise." she cooed locking her finger with mine. "My perception on you wouldn't ever change even if you said you killed your mother."

Okay, she's really being weird today. But what more weird was, now I really wanted to open up to her eventhough my soul was tied up in knots and kept my fingers-crossed mentally hoping she'd cure all of my scars if I told the whole story.

I searched something on her face but I couldn't find the name of the emotion she had on her face right now. "By the way shall we get into the car? It's freezing out here." she suggested, hugging her arms and I chuckled before nodding and making my way towards the car.

"Plus, you need to head home too." I told and she groaned behind me.

When we got into the car, I didn't start the engine as I knew that I wouldn't be able to tell the story while driving and if I drove we'd reach home before I finished the whole story.

I had to open up to her. If I could be able to share the story to Tash then it was way too easy to share it to Jessica too. But I was kinda scared that she'd stop talking to me or spend time with me after listening to my whole life story. But this was the same feeling how I felt when I kissed her but she didn't stop talking to me nor spending time with me.

"Jace, I'm sorry if I'm pushing you. Actually if you don't want-"

"No. One day I'd have to say you eventually." I muttered and I could hear the music of the song faintly that was playing in the radio.

"I was almost twelve years back then.."

Hello Lovely Readers!

I wrote a long chapter and split it in two so the next chap will be Jace's POV too.

Hope you liked this chapter.

Forgive me if there's any typos or mistakes.

Vote and Comment! I love y'all so much!