22. Party + Persuade

There are some lines spoken in Tagalog in this chapter! I used TagalogTranslate.com for these, but I know translation sites are notorious for bad translations, so if you actually speak Tagalog, please let me know the correct way of saying the phrases so I can update them! 💙

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By the time Jayce and I park in his reserved spot and climb off his motorcycle, the sky is painted in stunning oranges, reds and purples and the Harvest Party is in full swing.

Live music blasts through the square and the entire downtown area is buzzing with conversation, laughter, squealing kids and the incredible fragrances of about 10 different food trucks.

A gentle, cool breeze weaves through the crowds and kisses my skin, clarifying my mind and making my senses come alive.

I love the fall.

Walking through the crowd, everyone seems to be glancing at Jayce and I, turning to each other and whispering. It's unnerving and I can't help but tug at the top of my dress, feeling like I'm being inspected and judged.

"No need to mess with it," Jayce whispers under his breath, smiling sweetly and gently removing my hand from pulling at the fabric of my dress. "You look incredible. They're all just jealous of how pretty you are."

"No," I whisper back as we continue moving through the peeping crowd. "They're confused about why Jayce Solis arrived with a nobody."

He snorts, the perfect embodiment of "Seriously?" plastered on his face. "Trust me, no one is thinking that. They're trying to figure out who you are."

"Exactly. This is so awkward," I mumble, looking at the ground and letting my hair fall to hide my tomato-red cheeks. I'm used to having people stare at me when I'm dressed up for work, but in my head they're staring at a princess character, not me, Fallon. I've never done well with being the center of attention. Hence why I have, ya know, one friend.

"Tink, cut it out," Jayce comes to a halt and steps in front of me, placing his large hands on the sides of my shoulders. "Do you think women like Princess Diana, Whitney Houston and Grace Kelly got embarrassed and tried to hide their beauty when people looked at them?" He shakes his head solemnly. "No, they owned it. So will you please stop acting like every other wrongly insecure girl on the planet, and show this town the confident, sassy, unstoppable Fallon that I love?"

I blink up at him, astounded by the depth and truth of all his words... But one word in particular. "Love?"

Realization washes over him and his eyes widen slightly. He drops his hands and steps back from me. "Uhh, I just mean, like... You're amazing and it drives me crazy when girls get so wrapped up in feeling fat, or ugly, or whatever the fuck that they stop letting themselves be who they really are."

I nod slowly, my heart racing like it's at fucking NASCAR. Suddenly I feel a prickle at the back of my neck, as if someone is staring at me.

I think Jayce felt it, too, because his eyes flit over my head for a moment and then back down to meet mine. "Shay Cruz is staring at us."

Shay Cruz is Layla's right hand woman and co-captain of the cheer squad. Apparently, she's not quite as rude and nasty as Layla, but she still does whatever Layla asks her to, which makes her just as bad in my book.

A devious idea comes crashing into my head.

"Jayce," I breathe, getting excited at the plan forming in between my ears. "You say you possess the ability to get women to do whatever you want, right?"

"Obviously," he smirks down at me. "You're at the Harvest Party with me, aren't you?"

I scoff and roll my eyes, "That's besides the point. Let me rephrase the question - do you want Haven to stop being mad at you for our sleepover, for talking to Jeffers with us AND for taking photos of me?"

He narrows his eyes and folds his huge arms over his chest, his biceps looking like they might rip right through his button up. "Why? What do you want?"

"Remember how Layla fucked with me and Haven's tests?" My speech is hasty, adrenaline pulsing through me. "Presley and I broke into school and discovered that 5 minutes of recorded footage were missing from Mrs. Bridges' classroom camera, at the exact same time that she would have been out of the room, at lunch. Could you use your magical man powers," I gesture wildly at his body. "To get information out of Shay and find out if Layla had anything to do with changing our tests and the footage being erased?" I give him a big smile and bat my eyelashes at him, pressing my palms together in prayer hands. "Please? I know for sure that Haven would forgive you if we uncovered the truth and got our real test grades back, because you'd basically be resurrecting his chances of getting accepted to Brixton."

Jayce's face hardens and he takes a deep breath in and out. "Fine."

"Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I clap and bounce, unable to contain my joy and the prospect of getting to correct my failed grade and potentially bring Layla to justice. "Now go seduce Shay, lover boy!" I sing-song as I smack Jayce's firm, plump ass and shove him toward Shay, who is sitting at a bar inside a large white tent, her back turned away from us.

I have to hear this go down. I'm completely giddy as I race along the perimeter of the crowd and crouch next to the tent wall, peering through a thin gap at the tent's corner as Jayce approaches Shay, who is sipping what appears to be a mango daiquiri swirled with sangria.

She's a beautiful girl, Filipino, I think. She's got shiny black hair, richly colored smooth skin and is just generally flawless-looking with barely any makeup on. She's built like a model, probably about 5'10" with a perfect, thin body and tiny frame.

"Hey," he slides onto the barstool next to her and leans toward her slightly. "I'm Jayce," he extends his hand and she glances down at it, clearly confused.

"I know who you are, Jayce," she studies him carefully, probably unsure as to why her best friend's boyfriend is talking to her.

"I know, I just wanted to talk to you but didn't really know how else to start," he gives her an adorable half-smile, his eyes trained to her and his hand still extended. Damn, he's smooth.

She flushes and shakes his hand, appearing flustered. "Well hi, Jayce, I'm Shay," she giggles.

He turns away from her and orders a drink from the bartender, taking out his wallet and tossing him a $20 bill before turning back to Shay, clearly giving her his full attention.

"So, if you're Layla's best friend, how come we've never talked before?" He feeds her a line very similar to one he said to me when we first met. That suave man whore.

She takes a thoughtful sip of her drink before responding. "How come you're flirting with me and Fallon in the same night, while Layla is off in New Jersey?" She scowls at him, clearly unimpressed. It takes everything in me to not howl with laughter at his shot down attempt, but he recovers quickly.

"Trust me, I was not flirting with Fallon," he shakes his head of curly hair.

"Then what were you just doing with her?" She asks, picking up a menu and reading over it.

Jayce makes brief eye contact with me and winks before responding, "We slept together before Layla and I started dating," he shrugs. "Fallon's sort of obsessed with me now. I was breaking it to her gently that I'm just not that into her. Again."

That dirty little motherfucker.

Shay slams the menu down, disbelief painted on her every feature. "You and Fallon slept together?"

He nods solemnly. "One of my bigger mistakes, I think. She's not very giving, if you know what I mean."

What the fuck?! I hate him. I completely hate him.

She shakes her head, still in disbelief and mumbles, "I can't imagine someone not giving you whatever you want."

"What?" He asks, acting oblivious.

"Nothing," She says quickly, shoving her hair behind her ear and taking a nervous sip from her drink.

"But anyway," Jayce continues. "Thank you for letting me sit here with you. I just miss Layla so much and I think that talking to you makes me feel closer to her, if that makes any sense," he hangs his head, shaking it back and forth. "It's stupid, I know."

He's not looking at her, but I can see her eyes widen, her smile appear and her heart practically jump out of her chest at his words.

She hesitantly places her hand on his shoulder and rubs it, "You can sit here as long as you'd like," she says softly.

"Can I ask you a question?" Jayce sounds so fucking forlorn, I can't even handle it. Dis boi.

"Of course," she says, removing her hand and taking a long sip of her beverage. Girl has got to have brain freeze by now.

"Just don't tell Layla I said this..." He runs his fingers through his hair and shoots her a half-hearted smile.

"I won't."

"How do you deal with her whole 'goody two shoes' thing?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, she's just so good all the time, you know? AP classes, going to Princeton, captain of the cheer squad, granddaughter of the mayor and niece of the principal... It's a lot of pressure to keep up with her. She's way too good for me," he props his elbows on the bar and buries his head in his hands, looking completely defeated.

"I know what you mean," Shay looks like she's trying to swallow what she actually wanted to say.

"You do? Really?" He raises his head to look at her, his eyes filled with relief and a smile on his lips. God he's so good, I literally can barely keep myself together over here.

She nods vigorously.

Jayce sighs and squeezes her hand in thanks, quickly releasing it. He stares into her eyes and says, "Sometimes I think I'd just rather have a bad girl, you know? Someone who isn't afraid to break the rules and get in trouble. Someone who isn't afraid to get their hands a little dirty."

Shay visibly swallows and nibbles on her lower lip.

"You're pretty damn cute when you do that, you know?" Jayce lightly grazes her upper lip with his pointer finger.

Shay pushes his hand away but still blushes and tucks her hair behind her ear again. "You should know that Layla isn't as good as she seems," she says reluctantly. "In all reality, I'd say she's way more of a bad girl than she is anything else."

Jayce leans back slightly, acting shook. "Seriously? What do you mean?"

She heaves a sigh and I can tell she's conflicted. I feel a bit bad for using her... she seems to be a good person. After all, she's curbing Jayce's flirty advances and telling him why Layla is what he says he wants.

"I mean..." She begins slowly, probably trying to decide if Layla would want her secrets out so Jayce could see her as a 'bad girl,' or if she'd just get pissed that Shay said anything and destroy her life for betraying her trust. "She just, you know... thinks of some pretty bad things and gets people to break the rules for her so she can get whatever she wants."

"What does she actually do, though, Shay?" Jayce's deep voice is in full-on sex mode as he gently pushes her hair off her shoulder.

Shay shivers and stiffens at his touch, but doesn't slap his hand away this time.

"Does she actually do any of the bad things she thinks of?" He asks again, his hand now resting on the back of her barstool as they lean toward each other.

"No," Shay glances at Jayce's lips.

"Who does?"

"Me," she breathes while staring at him, clearly enraptured by his perfect features. I feel you, girl. I feel you.

Jayce moves closer to her, his voice dropping to a sensual growl, "Can you tell me how bad of a girl you are, Shay? What have you done recently that you should be punished for?"

She catches her breath and her eyes widen. She bites down on her lower lip again, like she's trying to hold back her words. It doesn't work. "I broke into a classroom and then got into the front office and deleted the footage."

My heart lurches in my chest. So it WAS Layla. Well, technically it was Shay, but Layla put her up to it somehow, I'm sure of it. How you'd get your best friend to go so far with rule breaking, I don't know, but I don't doubt that Layla is a pro in blackmail and bribery.

I swear, Jayce has got some sort of truth serum built into his eyes. He literally managed to get that confession out of her within five minutes, and it's completely beyond me. I mentally smack myself for not making him record the conversation, though I'm not sure I'd ever want to have to listen to it again. I'm already barely keeping myself from pissing with laughter.

Jayce bites his lower lip before saying, "Damn Shay, you really are bad, huh?" He then smirks at her and says, "But why did you delete it? I would have liked to have seen that..." He trails off, staring into her eyes intently.

She shifts in her seat and glances over her shoulder before saying, "I might have a copy of it, but why would you want to see it?"

Jayce smiles and leans in toward her even more, their noses almost touching. "I just really like it when girls do naughty things, and Layla's never naughty for me."

Shay looks like she's ready to let him bone her right on the bar.

"Shay!" A shorter, older looking version of Shay shouts at her from the entrance of the tent, waving wildly. "Nagsuka na ang kapatid mo, aalis na tayo!" ["Your brother threw up, we're leaving!"]

"Papunta na, mom," ["Coming mom,"] Shay shouts back reluctantly, shaking her head as if she's returning to reality. Her eyebrows furrow as she looks at Jayce reprovingly and says, "You need to be careful, Jayce Solis. Talk like that to the wrong girl and you might end up becoming known as womanizer and a cheater."

"Wow, you're so right, Shay, thank you," he nods in agreement with his eyes wide, looking all innocent and like he's grateful that she helped him realize the error of his ways. "I would never be able to forgive myself if I hurt Layla."

She studies him unsurely for a moment, trying to figure out if he's being truthful before grabbing her bag and taking off toward who I'd guess is her mother, waiting at the entrance of the tent.

Jayce sits for several more moments, making sure they're actually gone before bounding toward me and slipping between the gap in the corner of the tent. We make eye contact and the moment his smile breaks onto his face, I can't hold it in anymore.

We both erupt with roaring laughter and can't seem to stop. Every time we think we're getting ourselves under control and the laughter seems to subside, we look at each other and start cracking up all over again. Finally, we manage to sober, though tears are rolling down both of our cheeks and we're both completely flushed.

"You deserve an Oscar for that incredible performance, good sir," I curtsey, elated that not only do we know who changed the tests, but that video evidence still exists. I could kiss Jayce on the mouth right now.

"Why, thank you, madame," he bows back, laughter still glistening in his brown eyes.

"I noticed some familiar tactics," I raise an eyebrow. "And lines you've said to me before."

He shrugs, completely unashamed. "Why change what works?"

"Except it doesn't always work," I point out, lifting my chin, proud that I've been able to resist him for so long. "It hasn't work on me."

One corner of his mouth twitches up, "Not yet."

I roll my eyes, but my heart still skips a couple beats anyway.

"Come on," he takes my hand and begins pulling me through the crowd, his warm, trustowrthy brown eyes and brilliant smile warming my entire body, despite the chilled fall air. "There's something I want to show you."

~~~

HE WANNA SHOW HER DEEZ NUTS.

hahahah XD

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I was quite literally cracking myself up as I was writing it

MORE IS ON THE WAY! And I'm thinkin you're reeeally gonna like it 😉 Read on squadddd 🙌  KAY BYE 💙