Chapter Twelve

True to his word, Jace's muffins were amazing. They taste even better than the store-bought KRUSTEAZ muffin mix that I buy. He disclosed to me that he's making an amazing six-layer chocolate cake for Jasmine's birthday party today. All week he's been sending me various sweets that he's made when he's bored at home. My mouth waters every time he sends me a picture of a perfectly iced cupcake or an extra gooey brownie. Every time he sends me a picture, he sends a text with a promise to make them for me soon.

Eventually, I spoke to Dylan on Monday morning and we decided to forget the awkward events of Saturday altogether. I wasn't complaining, we had a partner project coming up and I can't pass without his expertise in all things Physics.

Kayden started sitting at our lunch table again after we gave him a week to cool off. Unfortunately, Kayden returning meant Latrell started coming over to the table more often to see his best friend, and I was forced to ignore the stink eye he was constantly giving me. Destiny is deep into the honeymoon stage with Jasper and can't go without checking her phone every ten seconds to see if he texted her. She wasn't going to Jasmine's party and apparently Jasper is only going because his parents made him.

I still haven't met the Kingston's and by the way, Jace talks about them (for better word lack thereof), I wouldn't want to. We never finished our discussion about his brother or his parents and I wasn't one to ask about topics that obviously made him uncomfortable. Now I'm outside his house with a gift-wrapped box under one arm and struggling to open my car door with my hand. He asked me to come a little early about an hour before the actual party started to keep him company. I finally managed to push open the door with my foot and stumble out onto the grass. I dusted myself off and walked towards the door.

I knock, expecting Arthur or one of the siblings to answer instead there's an intimidating blonde woman towering over me. Her icy blue eyes stare down at me in disgust and confusion. She has minimal wrinkles on her aging face that multiple plastic surgeries never fixed. Her blonde hair is pinned up in a tight bun that makes me ten times more afraid of her. Her slim figure is being hugged by a tight black dress matched with sleek black heels. She must be the mother. I see Jasper's same look of disgust in her eyes and Jace's high cheekbones.

Arthur shows up a few seconds later and stands behind the women. "Did we hire a new

cleaning..." She looks down at me with disgust. "Girl?"

"No Madam, that is one of Jace's friends." She scrunches her nose up still looking down

at me, but doesn't let me in the house.

"I'm Scarlet," I say with a charming smile. She doesn't budge. "It's a pleasure to meet

you, Mrs. Kingston." I stick my hand out for her to shake, but her bony hand doesn't leave her hip.

"Of course she is." She says distastefully. She gives me like the third once over.

"Let her in." Jace shows up from behind her with a dark red polo and jeans. He squeezes

past his mother to grab me by my hand, pulling me inside the house.

I give her a tight-lipped smile as he leads me past the kitchen and into his room. I glanced outside to the backyard when we were rushing past and it has been transformed into my dream party when I was 12. There were banners and streamers on every surface and all the decorations were in her favorite color (purples), tables all over the lawn near the pool, and a huge bouncy castle next to the park. There were people all around, coming in and out of the house carrying balloons, decorations, and trays of food. We swiftly navigated through the people with a few near- misses.

"I'm sorry, she wasn't supposed to be here until later," He says once we've settled on the couch in front of his flat screen.

"She was extremely intimidating," I played with the edge of my navy blue dress. "Are you guys close?"

"No," He replied in a clipped tone. "I'm not close with Eve." My mother would kill me if I called her by anything close to her first name.

"Is there a story there?" He shook his head and Jasper slammed open the door without a shirt on. He gave me a wink, making me uncomfortable. "How's your dad?"

"He's not much better, you know submissive to everything she says." He looks tired like he's had this conversation a million times. "I finished reading that book." He changes the topic swiftly and I go along with him.

"How was my favorite book?" It's like somebody turned on the switch in his brain because in a matter of seconds his wide smile was back.

Something I noticed about Jace is how well he hides his emotions. It's like he goes from hot to cold in a matter of seconds. I've never been very good at hiding what I feel, but he's an expert. I cry during most movies I watch even if I want to or not. I don't have to choose to be vulnerable, I just am while Jace chooses if he wants you to see how he's really feeling. Rarely do his true emotions slip out without him wanting them too. I want Jace to trust me

"It was surprisingly refreshing," He said. "I've never really been into the whole romance book thing, but it was well written and I actually enjoyed it. Got anymore?" I remembered something and dug through my bag trying to find my list. I unfolded it and handed it to him.

My top ten favorite romance books of all time (not in order) (updated: TODAY!!!)

To All The Boys I've Loved Before

Red, White, and Royal Blue

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

Holding Up the Universe

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Emergency Contact

Fangirl

P.S I Like You

The Selection

Simon vs. the Homo- Sapien Agenda

"Why do you carry around a list?" He asked, studying it.

"For moments like this and I knew it would come in handy soon," I peeked over his shoulder to see my squiggly handwriting. He laughs at my use of bright pink pens. "Are you making fun of my bad handwriting, asshole?"

"No, this is an interesting list," He mumbles, studying it. "Are all of these teen romance books?" I nod before realizing that he couldn't see me.

"Yeah, is that a problem?" he shakes his head before looking up at me.

"I'm just curious," He scooted closer to me. "Why are you so obsessed with these?"

I sigh before telling him the truth. "Gives me something to hope for," I confess. "If I read all these books now then when it happens to me, I'll know."

"When what happens to you?" I shrugged

"I don't know. Teen romance book stuff." I admitted, fidgeting with my nails which I just got done last week. "I know it sounds stupid." I take my list back and neatly fold it before stuffing it back to the bottom of my bag.

"No, not stupid just interesting," He replied with a mysterious glint in his eyes. "I've never met anybody who plans for something like that."

"What can I say I have a weird dream," I laugh nervously. "Where's your sister?" I question, trying to change the subject.

"She's down the hall, probably freaking out about Alex's brother." I sigh remembering my first crush on Reggie Ortiz back in the third grade. He used to make fun of me for my lisp (which I still have to this day) but he was the fastest during the PACER test. I got over it when he started dating my then best friend Tanya.

"Have you met him before?"

"Yeah, last year when I chaperoned her class's field trip to the zoo," I raised my eyebrows, questioning why a 16-year-old was chaperoning a bunch of almost middle schoolers. "They were desperate, okay? I wasn't exactly thrilled about hanging around a bunch of brats anyways." My eyes widened at his choice of words to describe the kids. "Do you love kids or something?"

"No, I hate the demons!" I reply quickly. "They are sticky and rude and annoying."

"Exactly! Everybody acts like you're a monster when you don't like a kid, but it's not my

fault your kid is an asshole!" I sigh in relief.

Finally, somebody who sees my point of view. Kids have always hated me, I still remember in eighth grade when Brielle got a job at the summer camp that I went too and she got her kids to beat me up. Ever since then I try to avoid the devils whenever I can.

"I like your sister though she's one of the few tolerable ones," I add

"Yeah, if you don't live with her," He mutters. "Do you have any siblings?"

"One older sister," I told him her name, but no personal details that could lead to me being exposed.

"You never talk about your school, how come?" Shit. Well, it's not like you go around telling me about your all-boys school filled with the children of the rich and successful.

"Not much to tell, it's only girls. We wear a stupid uniform and the tuition is too high."

"Carter asked his friend up Markland if she knew you and she said she never saw you before," He's starting to get suspicious. I need to throw him off my scent and fast.

"Well, I don't know what to say about that, but she couldn't possibly know every girl in school. Right?" I voiced with a firm conviction like the lying rat that I am.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to pry." He bows his head down sorrowfully, making the guilt bubble in my throat close in even tighter.

"Forgiven, just don't let it happen again." God, remind me what I did to deserve this sweet boy's friendship.

"Want to watch a movie?" He suggested and I agreed.

We argued over which movie to watch for some time i.e. he wanted to watch a horror movie and I didn't want to have nightmares or I wanted to watch Frozen and he didn't want to hear my horrible singing which I took offense too. We finally decided on watching a non-horror non-musical movie and instead watched a comedy The Other Guys. This was a unanimous decision because my dad and I loved it. Jace only wanted to watch it because Eva Mendes was in it. We decided at the end of the movie, the party will have started and we could go downstairs.

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Before the movie was over, Jace's friends barged in his room to alert him that the party was in full swing. We already knew that considering the teen pop music booming on the loudspeakers from outside Jace's window in the backyard. Thankfully, Jasmine hasn't left her room which we learned when we got downstairs and saw all the kids running around the house in swimsuits with no birthday girl in sight.

Since there was nothing for us, teenagers, to do with the kids outside and the adults inside it was decided that we go to the basement. Thankfully, nobody was down there and we got there unscathed. Alexander's brother Lucas, who I met on the way downstairs was indeed adorable. He had blonde curly hair and adorable chubby cheeks. He kept asking Jace about Jasmine with a tinge of red covering his cheeks. Jace was struggling to control his laughter while trying to be a threatening older brother. Jasper and their parents were nowhere to be found which I was silently grateful for.

I remembered looking at all the kids running up and down the halls and noticed not one of them shared my skin color. It made me feel a little out of place, but nothing I didn't already know. As soon as I saw Mrs. Kingston's face I knew that if I never met Jace the way that I had, we wouldn't have been friends.

"I was talking to this Riverside girl from the track team," Carter had started regaling us in his latest crush as I tried but failed to beat Jace as race car driving.

Alexander had gone to find his boyfriend who was trying to find us in this humongous house. Henry was in the bathroom 'taking a leak', I still can't get over how his game room has actual arcade games like at Dave N Busters.

"She told me that if I wanted to take her out then I would have to beg," I was only half-heartedly listening as I slammed down on the gas pedal trying to run Jace off the road. He fought back ten times harder and I slammed into the concrete wall.

"Are you fucking serious?" I screamed and Jace had a self- satisfied grin on his face as he crossed the finish line.

"That's what I said Scarlett," Carter replied even though I momentarily forgot he was speaking. "Anyway, so I said, I'm not begging for anything."

"I can do better than that," I mutter to myself as Jace restarts our game. This time I choose a faster car and eagerly clench the steering wheel as the time counts down.

Carter is still talking, but we effectively tuned him out. The only thing I was concentrated on was beating Jace who wouldn't stop fucking grinning. It pissed me off and I wanted nothing more than to wipe it off his face. GO! We sped off and I was in the lead. I was drifting (something I didn't even know, I knew how to do) and nailing every curve. I glanced over at Jace's screen to see that he was closing in on me. I expertly bashed him into the closest wall, but he recovered quickly. In retaliation, he did the same thing to me and was about to win. A last-minute decision I used my boost and sped past him to cross the finish line. I see WINNER flash across my screen and I swirl out to Jace so I can gloat at the second place on his screen. He is pouting like a child and I stand up and go behind his chair, placing my hands softly on his broad shoulders.

"First place, Kingston," I whisper in his ear slowly. "I'M A WINNER!" I yelled in delight as he stood up slowly with a sad look of defeat. Carter must've gone upstairs because it was just us two alone.

"Well played..." he goes quiet for a second trying to fill in the blank

"Johnson." I finish for him

"Like Johanson?"

"I wish I was as badass as the great Black Widow." He scoffs.

"You're plenty badass," I shake my head. "Come on, yes you are. I've never seen somebody so sure of themselves. It's like you're not afraid of anything." He speaks with honesty.

If only he knew. I'm afraid of everything.

"YOUR MOM JUST CAME DOWNSTAIRS! JASMINES COMING!"

We scrambled up the stairs at Carter's words. We ran to the bottom of the stairs like our lives depended on it and pushed a lot of children to get there. There was a spotlight (coming from I don't know where) pointed at a spot on the top of the staircase. I look around and see Lucas standing beside me, I bend down so I don't obstruct their view even though most of the kids are taller than me. Jace ignores the fact that he's six foot something standing in front of a bunch of five footers and they can't see from behind him. I train my eyes back on the stairs and that's when I see her.

Jasmine is a vision. Her floor-length purple gown surely gives me princess vibes. I know she's wearing heels under there from how many times she's complained about them. She stands at the top of the stairs for a minute just smiling and looking absolutely gorgeous with his blond hair flowing down her shoulders in tight ringlet curls. Her mother is behind her with a balding older man who I assume is her father. I see hints of brown hair telling me where the twins got theirs from as long as their brown eyes. Jace was right, next to Mrs. Kingston, he looked small even though he had a few inches over her.

I glanced over to Jace whose eyes were brimming with tears and a hand covering his mouth. I looked around to see if Jasper was emotional as well, but he was nowhere to be found. I focused back on the birthday girl who was now descending the stairs. Her eyes were locked on one person, the blond thirteen-year-old standing next to me. It's hard to believe the kids around me are going to be in high school in two years. They seem so young and innocent like I was when social media didn't dictate your whole life and human interaction was worth more than a text message.

The first people that Jasmine went to when she was done posing for pictures were Jace and me who had moved over to the couch away from the flashes of eager camera holders trying to capture a precious moment on a silver screen. We were also effectively watching Carter and his twelve-year-old fangirls. She looks slightly out of breath and nervous beyond belief.

"Did you see Lucas?" She asked eagerly, causing Jace to roll his eyes.

"Does it matter when your favorite big brother is right here waiting for his hug?" She shot him a small smile and gave him a tight hug causing tears to fall down Jace's face. "My princess is growing up!" He sniffled and Jasmine quickly moved away.

"Jacey don't cry!" She begged, glancing around her to see if anybody noticed. "Come on, you'll embarrass me." She whispered.

"Oh sorry watching my baby sister turn into a teenage woman before my eyes make me emotional." He choked out between sobs. I patted him on his back awkwardly, never really been good with other people's emotions.

"Emotional moment over, where's Lucas?" Jace turned away from her with a huff. I smiled at her and pointed subtlety to the boy in a group of girls staring at her from across the room.

"You look beautiful tonight, sweetie." I compliment.

"Thank you, Scarlett. Please take of him." She says glancing over to Jace, who is blowing his nose with a tissue I gave him from my bag.

"You got it. Knock him dead, gorgeous!" She is halfway over to Lucas when three screaming girls interrupt her. Lucas looks at her disappointed before turning to the group he was with.

I focus back on Jace who isn't crying anymore and wants to get some fresh air. I follow him to the backyard where there are children playing on our swings. I see something in the corner of my eye and pull him over to the table where stacks of Ben and Jerry ice cream sits. I grab my favorite Ben and Jerry's: Cookies and Cream Cheesecake CORE.

We end up sitting on the deck next to an older couple who I learned is Jace's conservative aunt and uncle. They mugged me when I sat down and looked at him with disappointment. I don't know what the last part was about. We didn't pay much attention to them as we enjoyed watching Henry and Carter perform a duet of Womanizer by Britney Spears. They nailed their performance and after I finished my ice cream I begged Jace to do it with me. It took a few minutes of begging before he agreed to do one song with me and he could choose the song. I agreed, praying he didn't have terrible taste in music.

He didn't let me talk to the karaoke guy so I didn't know what song we were doing until he dragged me on stage and heard the familiar tune. This turned my brain on red alert. Dueting this song would definitely be on my top tier list of movie moments that I would like to live through, but not with Jace. He isn't who I expected to do this song with. I don't even know what I'm freaking out about this for. Jace and I are just friends doing a duet to a love song from a movie that he knows I like. No big deal. So as we sang Can You Feel The Love Tonight from the iconic movie The Lion King, it was a friendly platonic thing. Nothing close to a movie moment, not even when our eyes connected and wouldn't let go as we sang the last verse. Not when I could see the stars twinkling in his big brown eyes and I saw his soft lip pulled up in a grin like he always does. My heart was beating faster than ever before, but none of that mattered. Because this wasn't a movie moment.

I thought about this the whole night. When he had the biggest smile on his face as he presented to his little sister, an amazing six-layer chocolate cake. When he took me by the hand and we jumped side by side in the bouncy house together and when we sat on the now-empty swings and talked about how he met all his friends. When we went inside and hung out with the boys by having a hotdog eating contest (Alex's boyfriend Cameron won. I was ready to puke after eating three.) When all the boys left and we were alone in the kitchen talking about anything.

After the party was over, we listened to Jasmine gush about her night with Lucas who finally had the balls to speak to her. He walked me to the car and asked if he could give me a hug and because he was soft-spoken and sweet, I said yes.

I'd say yes a million times to Jace Kingston.

The hug was short-lived, but it was the first time I had gotten close enough to smell him. He smelled like the Ocean body wash that he uses from Bath and Body Works and his body was warm beyond belief. When the warmth left my body, I was left cold, but happy. Really happy.

After I promised to text him when I got home he let me leave. The whole ride home was spent bopping along to Disney songs that made me think about the boy with the wide smile and curly brown hair.

It was easy being friends with Jace. I didn't have to pretend that I was into something that I wasn't like when Destiny asked me to go out with kids from school who I obviously don't like. He was also human. Unmistakably human. He is nervous most of the time, but at the same time effortlessly confident. He stands out in a crowd even when he isn't trying too. He's just captivating in every possible way. The worst part is he doesn't even know it.

My parents were asleep in the living room, a BET movie just ended and the credits were rolling and Brielle was nowhere to be found. I grabbed a water bottle for my parched throat and went upstairs and rid myself of today's grime. When I settled in my bed, too tired to put on a movie I texted him.

I'm safe

Good night, Scarlett

Good night Jace