Falling Apart

Chapter 24

Before you guys start reading, I want to apologize real quickly for being inactive for over a year. I have no excuse for my lack of updating except for the fact that I was lazy. For a little while, I was stuck on ideas as to how to continue this story, and as time progressed, I eventually lost motivation to write. I'm incredibly sorry for leaving without notice. I left many of you dedicated readers hanging. I'll try my very hardest not to take such a long break again, because I know how frustrating it can be to the readers. I've already prewritten a few chapters just so I don't end up slacking, again. Thank you for understanding, for those who don't, sorry once again!

If you've forgotten what this story is even about, please, please feel free to go back and reread before continuing on this chapter. If you don't want to reread it, I'll give you guys a recap as to what happened in the previous few chapters.

RECAP:

Everly finds out through Christiana's speech at her family's New Year's party that she and Jace are still dating, even though Jace told Everly that they were broken up a long time ago. Everly gets her heartbroken once she witnesses the two kissing during the countdown for the New Year. Since Everly has strong feelings for Jace, she storms out of the party, enraged that Jace lied to her this entire time. As the two are arguing, Everly accidentally confesses to Jace that she loves him, but tells him that she no longer wants to be friends with him anymore because she is so hurt.

Jace goes over to Everly's house one night to try to explain himself, and kisses Everly for the first time, but she kicks him out of her room.

Christiana then comes over to Everly's house, explaining the situation: Jace and Christiana are only pretending to date so that their families can do business with one another. The speech Christiana made at the New Year's party was intended to convince both their parents that they were in a relationship. However, despite Christiana admitting to it being fake, she asks Everly to stay away from Jace, for the sake of their families' business. Everly agrees upon doing so.

Chapter 24

Jace and I, with the world against us being together, grew apart eventually.

The first few weeks were complete madness. Jace constantly called and texted me, hoping that I would pick up and allow for him to explain himself. Although my fingers itched every time to respond back to him, Christiana's words to stay far away from Jace replayed in my head like a bad nightmare, every single time. But eventually, the calls and texts stopped. I woke up to find my phone empty of any messages and went to sleep without Jace's name flashing across my screen. Although I was slightly shattered mentally that Jace had finally given up on me, I was also relieved that I could finally fulfill my promise to Christiana. To numb the pain, I liked to remind myself that I was saving both the Collins' and the Wasson's businesses by not interfering with the relationship between Jace and Christiana.

Months passed by without a single exchange between me and Jace, and things gradually became easier. Although the thought of Jace didn't have much of an effect on me as it once did, there were always little reminders of him that sent sharp pangs to my heart- whether it be a simple sighting of him in the hallways, or the sound of his voice spitting out a witty comeback against Mr. Richter in class. It was the smallest things that made me reminisce about all of the things we did together, and the feelings that I felt for him at one point

It was almost as if Jace had never entered my life and caused a whirlwind.

"Are you really still studying for your AP test?" Julianne asked with disbelief as she slid into the empty seat across from me at Patisserie Café.

I highlighted yet another section from my Calculus textbook before lifting my head up to give Julianne a nod. "Yes, Mr. Richter is giving us a final next week and I don't plan on failing it just because AP week is over."