Dedicated to _purplepen_ because they made the amazing banner in the sidebar! Thanks again :) 

Sorry it took so long! I've been super busy. This is basically a filler and leads up to what happens in the next chapter :)

Enjoy!

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Don’t run into Jace. Don’t run into Jace.

That’s what I chanted to myself as I walked to my classroom. Yeah, walked. After a long time of physical therapy, I now had my leg in a walking cast. Ever since Kayla made me realize that Jace did in fact like me, I went straight home and ever since then I have avoided him.

As much as I didn’t want to believe it or just forget it, I couldn’t. Jace likes me. Now that I know that, it’s awkward to be around him. Even though he doesn’t know that I know, it’s just… weird. I don’t know how to act around him now.

I did notice all those signs in the few minutes I have shared with him since: His eyes and hands lingering on me longer than they should, the sweet acts, the flirty tone in his words. All of them were just signs that I missed before I found out the truth behind them. There’s also this small part of me that doesn’t believe it. All the signs are there but I still can’t completely, one hundred percent believe anything nowadays.

So because of all that, I’ve been avoiding him at all costs.

“Peyton!”

Oh, shit.

I ducked my head and started limping out of the school as fast as possible as Jace gained on me. I just need to get around to the locker rooms before he stopped me—

“Hey!” He spun me around and his light eyes twinkled. “How’s it going? We haven’t really talked much lately.”

“O-oh,” I bit my lip and swung some of my recently re-dyed red hair in front of my face. “Yeah, I’ve been, uh, busy. With school and friends.” Ha. As if I have a ton of friends now. Now that I’m not friends with Lauren, all of the other girls that I was close with strayed away too. I resulted to sitting with Chase and his friends at lunch or just walking around.

“It must be nice not to worry about that wheelchair, huh?” He joked and lightly bumped me shoulder with his.

“It’s better.”

He pursed his lips at me because he knew that something was up. This was probably the longest conversation that we’ve had since I talked to Kayla. This was also what I wanted to avoid.

“Pey, what’s going on? It’s like you’ve been avoiding me—“

In that exact moment, the ground changed from concrete to grass, which I didn’t notice so I tripped and started falling. Jace quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me up but honestly, I’d rather he just let me fall. This is just isn’t helping me get away from him.

“Whoa there,” He said and steadied me. His eyes strayed to my arm where his hand had slipped the sleeve of my shirt up a bit exposing a bright, newly made burn scar. He noticed me looking and immediately took his hand away. After clearing his throat he said, “You okay?” I nodded and ducked my head down to the ground. “Anyways, like I was saying before Peyton took a tumble,” he laughed at his joke concerning an online video but replacing the name with my own. “Our semi-final soccer game is this weekend. If we win then we go to the finals! Do you, uh, want to come?”

I gave him a little smile, “You do know that Dillon plays too. I kind of have to go.”

He bit my lip, which was actually really attractive, and ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, uh, you know how in the finals the players, uh, give their jersey to their girlfriend or girls who are friend? Will you, uh…” He breathed out one shaky breath. “Will you wear mine?”

And that’s why I should’ve just run when I heard him call my name.

“I—“

His light eyes bore into mine. “Please, Peyton. I don’t want anyone other than you to do this for me.”

I couldn’t look away so I sighed, giving in. “Fine, okay. I’ll do it.”

He grinned and engulfed me in a hug that lifted me off my feet. “Thank you so much, Pey!” He set me down on my feet.

Blushing, I looked down. “It’s not really a big deal…”

“No, it is. Well, to me it is.”

I looked up and he seemed genuinely happy that I accepted. What did this mean to him? Just for one day—no, one hour—I would give anything just to see inside of his head.

“So where are you going?” He asked as we started walking again.

“To watch your soccer practice. I have to wait so Dillon can take me home.”

“Do you want to do that?”

“Not really.”

Jace stared at me for a few seconds before taking out his phone. He dialed in some numbers then held it up to his ear. After a few seconds, whoever he called must’ve answered because he started talking. “Hey, are you home now? Cool. Want to come pick up Peyton? She has to wait until Dill gets done to go home and she doesn’t want to.” He winked at me. “Sweet, thanks.” With those last words he hung up and turned to me. “Cara’s coming to pick you up.”

My eyes widened. “Why?”

“Because you didn’t want to stay here.”

I waited for him to continued but he didn’t. “So you just called your sister to pick me up?”

“Yep.”

“Well, thanks.”

“No problem.”

Queue that awkward silence again.

I felt his eyes on me but I refused to look up. He shouldn’t like me but why does he?

“Look, Peyton—“

I knew he was going to comment on how we haven’t seen much of each other so naturally I bolted. “I’m going to go wait for Cara at the parking lot! Thanks for calling her, bye!”

With that, I turned on my heel and practically ran down to the pick up area in front of the school. I sat on the bench there and waited for Jace’s sister to come pick me up.

Okay. Maybe Cara picking me up is a good thing. I can ask her how she is about my situation.

After waiting for around ten minutes, Cara’s black car came rolling up. I hobbled forward with a slight smiled and got into the passenger seat with a little ‘hey’ to her.

We had a side talk, which mostly involved how I was doing since the fire before I sighed and shifted my body towards her. “Cara? I need to ask you something really important.”

She peeked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Damn. I’m afraid I’ll get the wrong answer.”

A shaky laugh escaped my lips. Why was I getting so nervous? Was it because even though I knew the truth, I didn’t really believe it? “Cara…” I started slowly. “Does Jace like me? Like… like.”

I expected her to tell me the truth or tell me I’m crazy but I seriously didn’t think she was burst out laughing in my face. By the time she was composed, we were almost to my house.

“Peyton, Peyton, Peyton… You’re so oblivious. Obviously Jace likes you! He’s liked you for a long time!”

I crinkled my eyebrows together. Why was I always the last one to know these sorts of things? “Are you sure?”

Cara snorted. “Am I a girl?” she mocked.

I slumped in my seat and closed my eyes. All I needed was just one person to tell me that there’s no way in hell that Jace likes me. That’s all I need and everything can go back to normal. Everything should just go back to how it was last year minus the part about me dating Sean. Junior year has been everything but fun.

“Peyton?” I opened my eyes and looked at Cara. “I know you’re probably shaking off any thought of Jace liking you but he does. It’s really obvious too. Don’t bring yourself down because of what has happened these past few months.” She pulled into my driveway. “I know Jace has done some shitty things but I do know that he sincerely likes and cares about you. If you get with him, he’s not going to hurt you.”

I looked for any lies in her eyes but I found none. I breathed out and unbuckled the door to get out. “Thank, Cara. That helped a lot.”

She smiled, “Good. See you tomorrow at the game?”

“Yep!”

With a smile, I left her car and went into my house where my parents were watching TV in the family room. They turned towards me with a grin, “Hi!” My mother said. “You have physical therapy today at four.”

I groaned. PT was possibly the worst thing in the world but every session was a step closer to being able to dance again. Around ten minutes until then, my mom took me and an hour later I was back home in pain. Dang. Wasn’t PT supposed to make me feel better and not the other way around?

I heard the front door open and close but I ignored it until I heard people walking through the hallway that the rooms were in. In the room next door, Dillon’s room, I heard the door open and close. Maybe I can ask him for his take on the Jace thing.

I got up with a little groan and limped down to his room. I knocked and he yelled me in where he was sitting on his bed with Alyssa while watching a movie.

“Hey,” He said. “You okay?”

I raised an eyebrow at the two. “I just need to talk to you, or even both of you, for a moment but I have a question first… Are you two, uh, together?”

After a split second of hesitation, both of them nodded which earned a breath of relief from me. They were cute together. I’m glad that they’re not just having sex with each other and not going out or anything.

“Good. Now I have a completely serious question to ask you two…” I looked up at Dillon and Alyssa. “Does, uh, does Jace like me?”

The two first looked startled by my question but then turned to each other with wide smiles on their faces. “Are you serious, Peyton?” Alyssa asked me. “Obviously he does!”

“I’ve known him for years and I know what he does to a girl when he likes one and he’s doing all that and more with you,” Dillon commented.

I collapsed into Dill’s beanbag chair and groaned. “Are you absolutely sure about this?”

“Okay, let’s test it. What was the last interaction that happened between you and him?”

“Right after school.”

“And what happened?”

I pursed my lips and answered, “He, uh… He asked me to wear his jersey tomorrow and called his sister to give me a ride home.”

Dillon started clapping his hand with a huge smirk, “Ladies and gentlemen, Jace Harley is whipped.” His words made Alyssa laugh. “He hates asking for favors and he asked for one just for you. He might’ve done some,” My brother spared a glance at Alyssa. “Bad things in the past but I do know that he cares about you. Give him a chance.”

I bit my lip and stared at my brother. “I thought you didn’t want any of your friends going out with me.”

He gave me a little smile and he had a little glint in his eye that said that his next words are completely true. “That’s because I hadn’t seen the way that Jace looks at you.”

Great, now my life is becoming a soap opera. My brother is even becoming sappy!

“Yes, it’s a glint in his eye that says ‘Damn! Look at that ass!’”

Now that’s more like Dillon that I grew up with.

“Just kidding though,” my brother said through his chuckles. “He does like you and if you go out with him, I’d approve.” His left eye twitched a little bit, a thing that happens when he’s thinking hard about something. “Unless he hurts you because if he does, he’s fucked.”

I gave a little laugh but I was too deep in thought to really think about hat I was doing. “Thanks. That’s all I needed to know.” I used his dresser to help pull myself to my feet. The couple watched cautiously to make sure that I didn’t fall. When I got up safe and sound, I gave them a little smile before walking out of the room to my own.

I must’ve fallen asleep because when I woke up, the world outside my window wasn’t light anymore. The clock on my dresser read that it as midnight so why did I wake up?

Tap.

Through my groggy state I heard a little noise. I rubbed my eyes and sat up in my bed. It’s probably nothing, I thought to myself.

Tap, tap.

My eyes widened. Someone or something was out there on my balcony. What was it? A robber? An animal? A rapist?

“Peyton!”

I relaxed and pulled off my covers to open the door of my balcony where Jace stood. I covered my arms over my chest protectively because I probably looked like a mess in my sweats, t-shirt, and ponytail falling out. But why was he here in the middle of the night? Was he seriously pulling a Romeo moment on me?

He gave me a boyish grin and waved, “Hey.”

I grabbed his arm and pulled him inside, out of the cold. “What are you doing here?” I hissed in a soft voice because most likely everyone in the house was sleeping. “It’s midnight!”

He pulled out his hand from behind his back to reveal his white jersey. “This. I had to wash it multiple times because I figured you didn’t want to wear a sweaty, used shirt.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why’d you have to wash it more than once?”

He gave me a sheepish grin and scratched the back of his head. I even noticed a light round of blush on his cheeks. “I, uh, didn’t know how to wash it at first and did it completely wrong. I had to do it a few times to get the hang of it. It just finished in the dryer only a few minutes ago. It’s still warm!”

He held it up to my face and sure enough, it was. I smiled and little and rested it on my bed. “Why did you have to come this late at night?”

“I have to be at the field tomorrow morning and I don’t want to leave it with just Dillon or your parents.”

I smiled a little and pulled him into a hug which both surprised him and myself. Being almost a foot shorter than him, my head rested on his chest and his arms went around my waist.

“Thanks, Jace. Though I don’t know why you didn’t pick someone else to wear this especially your senior year.”

“Like I said, it has to be you.” We pulled away from each other.

I pouted, “You really confuse me sometimes.”

“And that’s a good thing,” he ruffled my hair which made it worse than it was before. “I’m going to go, be careful.”

I raised an eyebrow and gestured to my room. “If you didn’t realize, I’m at home. I’m not going to get killed or something.”

“You will if you keep letting stranger into your house at midnight,” With a wink, he closed the doors leading out to my balcony and escaped out of my view.

A little smile rose onto my face and I looked at the jersey. The white jersey had a blue number three on it and the school’s emblem. I lifted it up to my nose and smelt nothing but lemon, which must’ve been from his laundry detergent. He did a good job. Usually when I wash Dill’s stuff it still smells like crap but here I can’t smell anything bad.

I folded the jersey again and rested it on my dresser before snuggling back into my bed. A little smile went through my face because he just did all that for me.

My thoughts were clouded of Jace as I drifted off to sleep.

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I met The Hunger Games cast on Friday! It was so amazing :)