The Bad Boy ✔

Chapter Seventeen-The truth will out

Chapter Seventeen

Jace Collins was the epitome of mesmerising.

Picture a tall, good-looking guy who held a dangerous atmosphere and bingo-you’ve found the bad boy that everyone in Chesterville High couldn’t get enough of. He had the dark hair, the grey eyes and of course the whole secret life that I’ve only gotten a small glimpse into. It was Jace Collins, the rebel and major hunk, that had somehow weaselled his way into my life and I was certain there was no way he’d be getting out any time soon.

The thought both scared and thrilled me.

But at the moment, I felt more scared than thrilled. My heart was soaring, beating against my chest like a bird trapped in a cage struggling to burst free. My skin was glistening with a sheen of sweat that had broken out after the nervousness had taken over my mind, sending panicking thoughts to spiral out of control and feeding my conscience words of doubt and fear.

Many people said that jumping was the easiest part of landing. But this wasn’t true. Jumping was the hardest part of having to land. It was scary and made your heartbeat quicken. Your stomach tightened into an impenetrable knot and all the feelings of dying, of fear, came crashing down onto you with like an anchor, forever falling until it struck the bottom of the sea.

I was never good with heights. The thought of falling frightened me to no ends. Broken bones, the sickening stab of pain or even worse, death. Those were all the things that could go wrong if you didn’t jump off properly. No, the easiest part was not jumping nor was is it the landing. Nothing was easy about jumping from a high-rise balcony.

And yet, it was incredibly easy with Jace Collins.

I was engulfed by his spicy, musky scent. His arms were wrapped tightly around my shoulders and I had to force my eyes open when we finally landed on the hard floor. I glance up and noticed that Jace was staring at the ceiling of the room, breathing shallowly as I peeled myself off of him in slight embarrassment.

“You okay,” I asked.

Jace threw me a look before he snorted, “Yeah,” as he pulled himself up then as an afterthought added, “You know you’re a lot heavier than you look Pipsqueak.”

I scoffed, “That’s a lie.”

Ignoring the grin Jace sent me, I turned my eyes over the room we had landed in. In any other situation I would have laughed at what had just happened. After all, who jumped off a building and through a window of someone’s room? The only place that something like this would have happened would have been the movies and in all things good and kind, that would have been completely unbelievable.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realised that the room was merely a living room. The television was off and the only light came from the opened window. Jace dusted his pants before he made his way back to the window and peered out cautiously and with a slight frown. In the area of the light, his eyes seemed almost colourless and exotic.

“The cop’s gone,” he commented, “which could either mean that he went to get a doughnut-”

“Highly unlikely,” I interjected.

Jace narrowed his eyes before continuing, “Or he’s on his way up here to send us to jail.”

My eyes widened at that and I gulped. “Can we go then?”

“I don’t know,” Jace said with a slight shrug, “Jail sounds pretty badass, don’t you think?”

“Jace,” I hissed.

He laughed at me before ruffling my hair, “Relax,” he reassured me, “I’m just joking.”

“Funny,” I retorted, “you should be a comedian.”