Waking up in Jace's bed is a surprise, and I start to wonder how the hell I got here until remembering last night. Jace slept on the floor to be respectful – who would have thought he even knew what that word meant.

I move onto my back and stretch my arms out, but my left arm lands on something. Someone.

Jace? Why's he in the bed? His chest is also exposed – so is mine. Why the hell am I naked?

He moves his head to face me and a glowing smile forms on his face. "I love waking up to you."

"What are you doing here? I mean-"

"I wouldn't leave you straight after we had sex."

"You did it before," I say without realising. That's not important right now.

"I wish you'd forget that." He moves on top of me and kisses me and for some reason I allow it. The kiss is sweet and it seems to go on forever, but I never want it to stop. I've never felt anything so good.

"I love you," he whispers against my lips.

"You don't know love."

"I know that you are love."

"You don't love me." The room seems to turn dark and when I look at him, he's not familiar to me. My brain thinks he's Jace but he doesn't look like Jace.

"Don't be stupid."

"I'm not stupid." I try to move out from under him but he pins my arm down.

"You're acting like a little girl. How can you think I want anything more than sex with a stupid little girl?"

"Get off of me!" I screech and his hand grips onto my shoulder, making me feel more scared. "Stop! Stop!" Why is he doing this?

"Shut up," he yells and shakes me.

Suddenly i'm aware that it was all a dream when my eyes snap open and i'm back in Jace's room, except its light and the bed is the right way round. I'm still being shaken, and Jace is beside me with his hand on my shoulder.

Pushing his hand off, I sit up and grab the clothes that are on my body to make sure they are definitely there. Jace watches me, confused, and I try to calm my breathing.

"It was a dream," I say to myself and it helps to calm me down.

"Are you okay? You were talking in your sleep-" He reaches his hand out to touch me and I move away, making his face fall.

It wasn't him. It was my evil mind, the side of me that hates myself for being everything that I am; a pathetic little girl. Jace did nothing wrong – he wouldn't do that to me.

"I just- sorry. It was a bad dream."

"That was fuckin' scary," he sighs and runs his hand through his hair. "I mean, it was creepy. What was it about?"

"Nothing," I say too quickly and he raises his eyebrows. "I'm gonna tell Santi to pick me up." I grab my phone from the bedside table.

"I'll take you-"

"No, thanks, but I don't want anyone to see that I was with you."

He laughs, "Why? Am I your secret boyfriend or something?"

"Alex-"

"Alex is cool with us being friends."

"He wouldn't be cool with us spending the night together."

"As if you care. What's actually going on? Scared your boyfriend will be at your place?"

I don't look at him again and I call Santiago, putting my phone to my ear and praying he answers.

"Hola, Santiago cannot come to the phone right now-"

"Valentino, put him on," I demand.

"He's sleeping."

"Wake him up."

"Yasmin, just let me fucking take you," Jace interrupts and I hold up my hand to shoosh him.

"Ooooh, you're with Jace?"

"I need someone to come get me. Can you take his car?"

"I almost died getting up to answer his phone. For once I don't think i'd be able to promise not to crash his car."

"Don't be a pussy."

"I can barely move my left arm."

"Get over it. We can stop for food and i'll pay-"

"Deal."

When he gets here, I say bye to Danielle and Neil and Alice begs me to stay longer. I get into the car and Danielle waves at Valentino and he waves back before driving away.

"Jace's Mom is totally hot."

"So you go for not only other people's girlfriends, but Moms too?"

"Touché."

He puts his hand on the gear stick and winces. His arm has a large bandage on it from where the glass sliced his skin and I almost feel bad for making him come get me. My phone call probably woke him up too, and I half expected him to show up in just boxers. Instead, he's wearing a pair of grey jogger shorts that every playboy in my family seems to own.

"Mcdonald's or KFC?" He asks.

"Both."

"Yeah! And you're paying remember."

"Actually, just mcdonalds."

"Fine."

"Tell me how you eat like double I do but you're so skinny?"

"Skinny is an offensive word."

"Damn, I'd love to have a body small enough that I don't find skinny as a compliment."

"I'm not having body conversations with a female. It never ends well, and the answer to your question is drugs."

"Drugs?"

"Drugs make you lose weight."

"Wish I didn't ask now."

"I'm also a total jock," he smirks and taps his torso but flinches as if it was a punch in the stomach. "Ouchy. I'm bruised as fuck."

"Oh yeah, such a jock."

"Honey, I'm the next Matt Donovan."

"And i'm the next Shakira," I retort sarcastically.

"Or maybe I'm verging on Chuck Bass, you know, handsome, rich, womaniser-"

"Borderline rapist," I finish.

"That was way back in the first season."

"So? He still tried to force that girl to have sex. Are you gonna argue that it's okay cause it was a while ago?"

He sighs, "Nope. It's totally unacceptable. He needs an ass beating. He's an imbecile. He's disgusting. Girls should stand on his face. I hope he goes bald."

"Good boy," I smile, proud of my feminist student.

When we get home, Mom comes straight downstairs. I'm expecting her to just yell at me, but instead she hugs me.

"Are you alright, mija?" Her hands hold either side of my head and she stares at me with wide and worried eyes. I'm guessing Jax didn't keep what happened to himself. I forgot to notify him of how things work around here – we don't tell Mom anything.

"Sí, Mamá."

"Don't you ever go out alone again."

As if. Does she expect me to walk around with a babysitter my whole life?

"What's goin' on?" Val asks.

"I told you to stay in bed," Mom says. "You're also grounded. Carlos didn't even come home last night either."

"Where is he?" I ask and Val looks down at the floor, guilty.

"He said he's staying with a friend."

"I hope that friend isn't Naomi," I mumble and walk past Valentino to the stairs.

"I thought I had warned you all about boys and girls, and yet look at the mess you're all making."

"I think it's Val that people need to be warned about."

"Shut up. It was a mistake; i'll never do something like that again."

The front door closes and we all look at Carlos standing in front of it. Talk about bad timing.

"Good morning, sweetie," Mom greets, plastering on a smile. Val looks away awkwardly while Carlos stares at him. "Was your night okay? If you want I can make you some breakfast."

"You'll never do something like that again?" He says to Val, blanking Mom. "What about the next time you're high and do something without thinking. Huh?"

Val doesn't speak as he crosses his arms over his chest and avoids his gaze. I notice Carlos look at the bandage on his arm and scoff.

"Bet everyone just feels bad for you. Poor Valentino. He slept with my girlfriend but it's okay cause he's Valentino. What about that time you got Amelia drugged up? Everyone forgot about it the next day. No one tells Mom cause they want to protect you, even though you're a disgusting person."

"Excuse me?" Mom interrupts. Jeez, shit is goin' down.

Valentino is getting exposed and I'm quite okay with it.

No more bein' the favourite.

"No one forgot about it," Val defends. "I payed for it in my own way. I said sorry a million times. I don't know what else to do."

"Sorry isn't good enough," Carlos raises his voice and walks closer to him. "You're a piece of shit, and you're dead to me."

Oh my.

Val looks physically affected by his words as he recoils. "Por favor, hermano-"

"Don't call me that. Go to hell." He turns and walks past me to go up the stairs, and the slamming sound of his bedroom door makes Val flinch and he follows to go to his own room.

Mom buries her face in her hands and I go to her side and wrap my arms around her. "It's okay, Mamá. He will forgive him."

"I'm doing a terrible job at raising you kids."

"No, you're not. We're doing a terrible job at being your kids."

"I can't even protect you, and now there's this guy-" She shakes her head and wipes under her eyes. "I'm sorry, mija."

"It's not your fault."

"No, it's your padres. I'm sorry he's putting you through this."

"It's fine."

"It's fine? Having someone trying to kill you is not fine. I'm so close to just calling the cops and bringing Jax down if I need to."

"Don't. That guy is gone." My throat becomes tight and I start to feel sick from the thought of what happened. "I'm going to shower," I decide and go to the stairs.

Once i've showered and have scrubbed my skin clean of that disgusting guy, I'm pulling my clothes on when I notice the marks on the sides of my waist. I barely noticed the pain of how tight he was holding me to push me over while it was happening, but obviously it was bad.

I spend the rest of the night on my own while my brothers go out with friends and Mom goes to work. It's lonely. This is why I love male attention so much and why I sleep around – or I did.

Every night I was alone, thinking about Dad in a prison cell and the empty house I was in, I'd get lonely and call the guy I was talking to at the time to come over.

I scroll through Wesley's texts on my phone and fight the urge to give in. I'm stubborn, but sometimes I'm desperate.

He gets here quickly after I tell him to come over, and the moment he comes into my bedroom, I wrap my arms around him, needing the comfort after these past few days.

"Forgive me?"

"Okay," I say, yet I don't. I keep ahold of him for a while until he pulls back slightly to kiss me.

"Is everything okay?" He asks while we're lying in my bed and i'm still holding onto him.

"Yes, I just don't want to be alone."

"Okay." He strokes my head and runs his hand through my hair while I watch the tv that's on low volume. I'm so comfortable against his warm body that I manage to fall asleep, despite everything on my mind that would have kept me up all night.

+++

I wake up from my alarm, being pulled out of a disturbing dream. My Dad was trying to kill me.

He didn't have a choice, it was like someone was controlling him and forcing him to wrap his hands around my neck and strangle me. It felt so real, as if I actually couldn't breathe and I was going to die, then I woke up.

Gosh, what's with these strange dreams.

I almost don't notice Wes beside me, still sleeping, his hair laying down on his forehead. I'm glad he actually stayed this time.

After checking the time on my phone, I start trying to wake Wes up. He slowly opens his eyes and grabs my hand to stop me from poking him.

"What time is it?"

"Half seven."

"I should go home and change," he says then closes his eyes again.

"Go now or you'll be late." I lean down and peck his lips. He still doesn't move so I pull the covers off of him, which only makes him moan and pull me closer. I squeal when he shoves his arms up my shirt to keep warm.

"Cold," I hiss and pull his arms out, checking to see that the bruises on me are still covered.

"I'm awake now," he smirks. "Just a shame you're wearing a bra."

"Ew." I go to my mirror and start brushing my hair. Wes leaves while I'm forcing myself to put makeup on and make myself look decent.

I wear a baggy sweatshirt and leggings then tie my hair up in a high ponytail because I can't be bothered dealing with it today.

Marco shouts me to make him breakfast, which means Max and Carlos and Val will be expecting food too.

"Coming!" I yell back and pick up my backpack. As i'm walking past my mirror again, I freeze and look down at my waist. It's like the more I look at it, the faster it'll go away.

Dropping my bag, I pull up my sweatshirt and run my finger over the bruises. Why can't they just go away? How am I supposed to forget about what happened with these marks on my skin?

How long does it take for a bruise to go away anyway? I'm gonna google it.

On that thought, my door opens. "When did Wes-"

I drop my top but not fast enough for Alex's eyes to spot what's on me. Just my luck. He walks straight to me with a hard expression and pulls my sweatshirt up to see the bruises. I try to resist and swat his hand away.

"Did he do that? Did he?"

"No! Of course not," I step back.

His face turns red from anger. "Give me an explanation before I do something really bad to that prick."

"I-" Shit shit. "I got it from these really tight jeans." Really, Yasmin?

"That's it-"

"It wasn't Wes," I say quickly and grab his arm to stop him leaving.

"Who? Did someone try to-" He runs his hand through his hair. "Tell me the truth before I start thinking of shit."

"It was nothing like that," I look at how worried he looks and sigh. I can't be bothered lying anymore, and I don't even want to keep this to myself. "The night Jax showed up... there was this man-"

"Man?"

"Alex, just," I sigh, "Let me finish." I tell him everything Jax told me about Johnny and about what happened on the pier and how the guy got pushed off.

He sits down on my bed and thinks. I wait for him to say something but a long minute passes and he's still silent.

"I need to go make something for Marco-"

"I'll take you to school."

"Don't be like that."

"I'm taking you to school, and I'm taking you home. After school you'll wait for me inside."

"That's ridiculous."

"You're ridiculous if you're not taking this seriously! Any other person would be scared to even leave the house or stay home alone. Why are you so weird?"

"I'm not a pussy," I shrug and pick up my bag, even though I am a little scared, I won't show it. I was terrified to walk around school myself after the Johnny incident. I don't even wanna think about that.

"Oh yeah, you're a hardass that stabs people with fucking pencils."

+++

teaser: the dark side of santiago comes out at Jace and stirs some old memories

vote, comment follow

btw i have legit wrote two more chapters and I wrote this like a month ago and didn't post it 😂😩 rip hehe

ly
-e