Take Me Beyond Me (boyxboy)

*31*

Jace**

Nolan picked my sister and I up after school. He had called me to inform me that he had been at Shane's house. I was supposed to stay for afternoon practice, but decided against it. My team had let me down, but not as much as I let Shane down.

I'd had a shitty day. I found out about the recording Kaleb had taken of me saying I hated Shane and agreeing to other rumors. I couldn't believe that all it took to confess my love was something to make me snap.

Now I just had to face Shane, who most likely didn't wanna see my face right now. My heart was pounding as we pulled up to his house. Fuck. We had such a perfect night. Couldn't we just have a perfect day to follow it?

"You just had to screw it all up," Gwen said in a monotonous voice. "He seems like a good kid."

"You're not helping," I replied.

"Yeah, neither is the make up on your face."

I wiped my face, glaring at my sister.

"I see the hickies, Jace. It's totally obvious what you and Shane were up to last night. That's why you left Nolan's yesterday, huh?"

"Shut up, Gwen!" I firmly silenced her. She rolled her eyes with a smirk. We walked into the house, which he had left open.

I saw Shane on the kitchen, putting snacks and drinks on a tray before he brought them out to the living room for Gwen, Nolan, and I. He wouldn't make eye contact with me, and even though that hurt, I couldn't blame him. I had squashed his sensitive heart, and destroyed the trust he had in me. I didn't even deserve to be in his company.

Nolan cleared his throat, sending me the message to talk to Shane. I put my backpack down gently and took a breath. "Shane, please can we talk?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah," he mumbled with a nod, still not looking at me. He led me up to his room. Once the door was shut, he turned to me. "I already know the situation. Now, I just want the truth. Your truth."

I slowly nodded. "I...before we met, the guys and I were talking about you. They said you were mysterious, so I wanted to get to know you."

"Why?"

"So that...I could get close to you and make you trust me enough to tell me your secrets."

He nodded. "You never needed math help, did you?"

"No," I replied quietly.

"So basically, all those hours I spent tutoring you, you pretended not to know a thing. Mkay. So you got me to trust you with my secrets, then you told your 'buddies' that you would do the job of getting all my personal memories or whatever and that they could twist them up into lies before spreading it to the entire school. That was your plan, right?"

"It was, at first, but now-"

"Really? At first?"

"Yes, really."

"Oh. So how long ago was that recording taken?"

My face burned with defeat. "Yesterday," I whispered, tears pooling at my eyes.

"So, not at first," he concluded.

I became desperate, stepping closer to him. "I wanted to tell you as soon as I said those things yesterday. I was insecure and I let my teammates intimidate me. I wanted their approval." I shook my head. "But I don't need any of them. I know that now, and I truly apologize that it took me so long to see that. Shane, I'm sorry I betrayed you."

We were silent for a while before he sighed and walked over to his window. "Once I heard the recording, I just gave up. I now know that no matter what I do, no one is gonna love me the way I love them. I should just stop trying. I'm young; I don't need love right now."