Sorry it took so long, I've been freaking out about the Hunger Games movie, studying for school, doing an interview, and so many other thigns, haha. But I hope it was worth the wait! :)

__________________________

The next morning started out the same except that Jace didn’t meet us in the parking lot. Dillon was exceptionally happy and practically danced down the hallway as he was wheeling me. Was he happy that we officially made up or did something else happen? Something else involving a certain young lass named Alyssa possibly?

            We walked through the doors of the school and everyone turned to look at me with a smile. Let me tell you something, our school isn’t the biggest or the smallest so everyone almost knew everyone.

            The first thing I noticed besides the niceness of everyone? All the girls were in sweatpants with no makeup on their faces. All in all, they looked like how I had to be everyday since the fire. This was another work of Jace’s mind.

            I grinned widely as Dillon wheeled me to my locker. I grabbed my books and like a light bulb in a dark room, Lindsay came walking down the hallway and everyone’s eyes went to her. Unlike all the other girls here, Lindsay chose to wear her best clothes today. A dress that was probably designer, jewelry that screamed money, and heals so high that I knew I’d slip in them. Her makeup looked like it was done professionally along with the perfect curl of her brown hair. When she passed me, she rolled her eyes, flipped her glossy brown hair over her shoulder and then continued walking. Everyone glared at her as she retreated.

            Hey, I guess everyone can’t believe in ‘Let’s dress like Peyton’ day, can they? It’s probably against her beliefs. Her beliefs meaning how she refuses to like me just because Jace pays attention to me and not her. Yep, that sounds about right.

            A large pair of hands covered my eyes and I jumped up in surprise. “Guess who?”

            I grinned and pulled away from the hands to look at Jace. His brown hair was more tousled then usual but he still looked as handsome as always. I held out my arms for a hug and he did what I wanted. “Thanks,” I said to him when we pulled away. “It means a lot that you did something like that.”

            His light eyes sparkled, “That’s just the first thing. I have a lot more coming for you.”

            I didn’t show it but his words made something good bubble up inside of me. “Thanks for ruining the surprise, Jace,” I joked and he rolled his eyes.

            “Trust me, you’ll still be surprised. I have that affect on you.”

            I was about to respond but Dillon got to talking first. “Okay, don’t flirt with each other when I’m around. Do you have all of your stuff, Pey?” I nodded as a round of blush filled my cheeks from his words. “Good, now let’s go!”

            He wheeled me down the hallway to my homeroom and when we were halfway there, the warning bell rang meaning that we have five minutes until class began. Dillon hurried up and got there with only a minute left to spare so he ran off to get to his own class. Inside, Lauren was waving for me to join her and I took a deep breath… There was something I had to do.

            “Hi, Peyton!” She said triumphantly and she gave me a hug. Something that I didn’t notice until today was the hesitation that she had before that embrace.

            “You’re still mad at me…” I muttered then met her eyes without looking away. “About the whole Jace thing.”

            Her eyes widened and I knew that what I said was the truth. “No, I-I don’t—“

            “Don’t lie to me, Lauren. I gave you an honest-to-goodness apology and I sure as hell deserve a real one from you after you completely banished me from being your friend.”

            She looked down and her bottom lip quivered because she was about to cry. “I’m so sorry but I can’t… There’s no way I can forgive you for what you did. I tried, I honestly did! I mean, we can still be friends but not as close as we were—“

            “Now I’m sorry when I say that that’s just not possible,” Without a warning, I turned around and wheeled out of the classroom because the bell was about to ring for first period. Tears welled up in my eyes as I just sat there, waiting for the bell to officially dismiss us.

            When it did, I noticed that Jace was the first one out of his classroom and when he noticed me, he came running over. “Why are you crying? What happened, Peyton? I swear I’ll—“

            “It’s what was bound to happen… Lauren still hates that I lied and I won’t pretend that everything is okay with her anymore,” I muttered and wiped away a fallen tear. “But I’m glad it happened. I didn’t want my friendship with Lauren to be fake. It’s better that we just don’t have to act like everything is perfect anymore.”

            “Well if you’re happy then I’m happy,” He grinned and squeezed my knee before taking his place behind my wheelchair. He started taking us to class but then stopped right in the middle of the hallway.

            “What?”

            “How about we skip this class?”  Jace said and walked around so he could stand in front of me. “Just us. We’ll be back before second period.”

            “Seriously?” He nodded and I thought about it. I really shouldn’t be missing more school but did I want to go back into another classroom? Not at all. “Okay,” I finally agreed and Jace smiled before wheeling me to the parking lot where he gathered me into his car.

            “Where we’re going is a surprise so no asking!” He told me with a wide grin as we left the grounds of the school. I just looked out the window and listen to the radio that Jace turned on.  After awhile the same Bruno Mars song came on that he played for me when he asked me to homecoming. Ours eyes meant each other’s for a second before we both turned away to focus on different things for the rest of the song.

            “Is this one of your little plans for me to forgive you?” I teased and a half smile rose onto his lips.

            “Nope. It’s just something that will make you happy.”

            I bit my lip to hold back a smile as we continued driving along the road. Since I wasn’t familiar with any areas outside of town, I had no idea where we were.

            Jace made a right turn then threw an old hat at me from the back. Before I could reject, he explained. “Cover your eyes. I want it to be a surprise.”

            “Well you could’ve done it nicely,” I grumbled and situated his hat on my head so that it covered my eyes. I felt the twisting and turning of the roads and because my sense of sight was blocked off, I felt ten times sicker than I would if I had it. By the time Jace finally stopped, I slumped into my seat.

            “We’re here!” He said triumphantly and I groaned out a wimpy, ‘woohoo!’ I knew he was smiling when I heard his door open and close then a few seconds later my door opened. A warm, big hand engulfed my tiny one and helped me up.     

            “No! Don’t get my wheelchair,” I told him as I clutched Jace’s arm. “I can walk, I just need a lot of help. I just kind of drag my bad leg…”

            He was silent for a moment but then relaxed. “Okay but if you get tired or start hurting, I get to carry you.”

            I grinned, “It’s a deal.”

            He closed the door and he led me someplace. I had no idea where I was stepping as I limped along but Jace eventually swept me off my feet and carried me bridal style.

            “Hey! I’m fine!”

            “I know. I just wanted to do this for me.”

            I rolled my eyes under the hat. “Whatever.”

            My stomach eventually calmed down from the horrible car ride as Jace continued carrying me. After a minute or two of walking, a sound filled my ears and a scent came to my nose. We were at—

            Jace took off the hat just to confirm my assumptions. The beach! I haven’t been here since the summer between freshman and sophomore year even though we live only a drive away. I probably would’ve gone this past summer but since I was all messed up because of Sean, I didn’t leave the house.

            Jace carried me closer to the water and sat me down on the sand. I immediately take off the shoe on my good leg and let the grains of sand slide through my toes. Even though it’s November, the weather wasn’t too cold. Regardless, Jace still grabbed a blanket from his car and wrapped it around the both of us as we watched the waves crash onto the shore.

            “You know,” He muttered. “I found this beach the day after we found out that Alan died. Life at home was crazy with all of the tears and people coming over so I just… ran away. I intended to never come back home but I found this place, stayed for awhile, thought about everything that was going on, and then went home again.”

            “Who knows about this place? No one is around so it’s pretty private.”

            “No one… Well, except for you and I. I actually come here a lot.”

            I smiled because I liked how I was the only one besides him that knows about this place. Right now I want nothing more than to run out and play in the ocean but my condition made that impossible.

            For a while we just sat there without talking or hearing a sound that wasn’t the waves or the occasional chirp of a bird. For the first time in a long time, I was relaxed. I know the class-long trip was gone because we were there for hours. Finally, we had to break ourselves away and go back to school.

            “Thanks for taking me there,” I told him with a slight smile. The little trip made me forget all that had happened with Lauren this morning but as soon as we were back in the parking lot before lunch was about to start, the memories came back. “I really needed that.”

            “If you ever want to go there again, give me a call. I’m always up for the trip.”

            He got me out of the car and into my wheelchair just as the lunch bell rang. We walked together into the school and went towards the cafeteria before Jace stopped.

            “Crap,” He groaned. “I forgot my wallet in the car for lunch. Do you want to go or…”

            “I can make it to the cafeteria just fine, Jace,” I grinned due to his concern for me. “It’s okay, just go.”

            He smiled, ruffled my hair, and jogged off the way that we came. I started wheeling myself to the eatery but when I was almost there, someone came up from behind me and wheeled me inside the girl’s bathroom.

            “What—“ I turned around and my eyes widened. “Wait, is that you, Kayla?”

            The usual makeup caked blond with the perfect clothes looked hardly like that. She was in sweats, her hair pulled back into a messy bun, completely free of any cosmetics, and she gave me a true smile.

            “Yep. Do I really look all that different? Lindsay freaked out when she saw me this morning.”

            I just gaped at her tone of voice. Usually it’s filled with some sort of sexy or mocking tone but today she sounded… normal. Like a teenage girl her age should without any motives to ruin or have sex with someone. “I like your look today.”

            She gave me a half smile and pulled some loose hairs behind her ear. “I wasn’t here yesterday so is it okay if I explain everything to you today? I think you deserve it…”

            Explain everything? Am I going to find out why she hates me? Why she paid Jace to hurt me? I nodded furiously and she took a deep breath before hopping up on the bathroom’s counter.

            “I suppose you should know that everything started my freshman year… Did Jace ever tell you that we went out?”

            I nodded again, “Yeah. I saw a picture of you two together.”

            “Back in the good ole’ days… Well, that’s less of explaining then. It wasn’t long relationship, really, only a few months but he was my first real boyfriend and he treated me like royalty.

            “I think it’s important to say that I didn’t have a good life at home. My mom and dad were going through a bad divorce, we had no money, I was failing all of my classes, and when Jace came into the picture, everything seemed much, much better. When he broke up with me, he explained that he liked another girl more and how he felt horrible about continuing going out with me. Being the creep I was, I followed him around to see how he reacted around girls, to see which girl he liked… then I saw him with you.”

            “With me?”

            “Please don’t interrupt, it’s hard enough to explain this as is.” She took another breath that quivered when she blew out. “I was so sure that he liked you so I guess that’s when I started to hate you. Even in just middle school you were gorgeous, Peyton. You still are. When Dillon had his fifteenth birthday in ninth grade, I saw all the looks that his guy friends gave you so I was jealous. I was super sure that you were the reason why Jace broke up with me. So I got revenge.

            “A few days after I figured it was you, I went to a party at one of the senior cheerleaders house. I got drunk and lost my virginity that night. It got around school that I lost it and I saw how mad it made Jace so I went along with it. I dressed slutty, covered my face with makeup, had sex, and did everything without thinking of the consequences… I was no longer that little, cute freshman anymore. I was the Kayla Matthews that everyone seems to know. I was the one who really isn’t me.

            “With my new look, attitude, and knowledge of Jace and you, I found that I saw you a lot more than I knew. When I walked home from school, I would see you getting off the bus stop to meet Jace and Dillon waiting there. The more I saw you, the more I was jealous and grew to actually hate you. I was the one who broke your bedroom window that year, the one who stole your backpack, and everything else.

            “That spring break of ninth grade year I was at the park and saw Jace with a girl named Catherine Prince. She moved that summer so you wouldn’t know her. Well, Jace explained to her that she was the reason why he broke up with me for her but Catherine had a boyfriend so he soon lost all ties with her and now she’s some sort of crack-whore in Philadelphia. It was just a freshman year crush that doesn’t even matter now. This little thing made all of this happen.

            “Anyways, I felt horrible about treating you like that but I realized that even without being the reason that Jace broke up with me, I still hated you. You had the perfect life that I wanted. You had a great reputation, beautiful looks, a great personality, and an amazing family… I was just so jealous. When you came to high school that fall, I vowed to make your life as horrible as mine was.

            “When you started going out with Sean, I didn’t really do anything until two years into your relationship when I started hooking up with him. I just want to say that he was the one who started it all, I promise. Since I didn’t like you, I went along with it. So the last day of school, you found us and it made me feel… in control of everything. That’s when the Jace plan came into picture.

            “Since Jace broke up with me, I wanted him to hurt you as well. I made the plan and bribed him with the money. He’s poor but he definitely didn’t want to do it but did because of the prize. I honestly wasn’t going to have it be a public thing but Lindsay recorded it and sent it all around. That was beyond my control, Peyton. I wish that would’ve never happened because I knew how it felt to have the rumors of being a slut be spread about me.

            “I hadn’t really regretted anything that I had done to you until the day I found out that you had been in the fire. I felt… like I would’ve been in the one responsible for if you had been killed. I was the one who made you do that dance. I started this whole thing. The fire changed my whole perspective on things and I realized how sick and horrible I was as a person,” Her blue eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry, Peyton. I never knew how bad I treated you until that day.”

            “It’s not your fault…” I muttered and messed with the sleeve of my shirt. “I just kind of let everything happen—“

            “Don’t you dare blame yourself for something against your control. I don’t hate you now but I do hate myself.”

            I stared at her and she did looked pretty honest right now. “How do I know that you’re not just lying to me again?” I whispered. “What reason have you ever given to me to actually believe you?”

            She gave me a little smile and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “What do I have to earn from lying, Peyton? Nothing. I would get nothing out of that but I can get something out of telling the truth.”

            “Like what?”

            “Self harmony. Forgiveness. Everything that I lost when I started this whole thing.”

            “Well, okay then,” I said. “I do have a question though. Why did you end the fake relationship right there? Couldn’t you have prolonged it to make it even worse for me in the end?”

            She just stared at me like I was joking. “I knew that you were falling for Jace. But are you serious about why I stopped it?”

            I raised an eyebrow, “Yes?”

            “Isn’t it obvious, Peyton? Jace was starting to like you. In fact, he still does. Education is the most important thing to him besides family and he just skipped school to be with you both today and the time when you were in the hospital. He would’ve never done that thing with Facebook to me like he did for you. It’s just so obvious, Peyton! He even rejected the money! There was almost three thousand dollars there that would’ve been put towards college and he just said no to it because of you!”  

            What? Jace doesn’t like me. Jace can’t like me. There’s absolutely no way that that could ever happen. I’m… me. Boring, broken, crippled Peyton Brandt. And well, he’s Jace Harley. He’s the guy who has been voted the hottest guy in his grade for the past three years. The guy who basically broke my heart a few weeks ago…

            How could a boy like him like a girl like me?

            I didn’t even realize that I was basically hyperventilating until I found the urge to speak. “Now I know for sure that you’re lying to me.”          

            Kayla gave me a light smile before leaning down to be at eyelevel with me. “I won’t lie to you anymore. Believe it or not, Peyton, but Jace likes you.”

________________________

Yes. The truth comes out in this chapter. Both Kayla and Jace's. Tell me what you think about it! :)

And yes, everything Kayla says is the truth so don't be like, 'SHE'S LYING!' She's not...

uptheree.tumblr.com

:)