Just a Game

Intro

Alice // chapter fifteen

M Y nerves were at a full-time high as I parked in front of my house with Jace following behind me.

I killed the engine and got out of my car slower than usual before locking my doors.

"You alright?" Jace asked, walking up to me with a questioning gaze.

I nodded. "I'm cool. Let's go inside."

"Why are we at your house?" he asked from behind me as I unlocked the front door.

He followed me inside, his tracks slowing down as we neared the living room. I smiled at him apologetically. "I wanted to apologize properly for yesterday. Plus, I wanted to give you an explanation without any interruption."

"You don't care that you're missing out on your classes?" he asked, his eyes burning into me as he folded his arms across his broad chest.

I took a few steps closer to him and shook my head. "What I need to tell you is more important than three classes that I can catch up on tomorrow."

A small smile pulled at his lips and my heart jumped at the sight. "And you, do you care that you're missing out on class?"

He let out a long breath and shook his head. "As long as you don't act the way you did yesterday, no."

"Alright, then, come one," I said a bit too excitedly as I pulled on his arm to drag him into the living room.

"Um, what is this?" He asked, slowing down at the sight of the coffee table.

I turned to beam at him. "That is my mom's china set."

"She's okay with you using it?" He asked, grinning. He most likely already knew the answer.

"Nope. She will most likely skin me alive if she found out I used it, but that's a chance I'm willing to take," I shrugged, sitting down on the couch. When he didn't follow after a while, I looked up to find him studying me intently. My breath hitched and I found it hard to properly speak, so I patted the seat next to me instead. "Aren't you gonna sit?"

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it rather quickly and took the seat next to me. "So, Alice, tell me why you're taking the risk of being skinned alive by your mother to give me tea on her expensive china set." His tone was way more playful that I'd expected and my heart was doing some weird shit in my chest as I poured both of us the scolding hot tea I'd made during the first few minutes of lunch before I'd driven back to school to get Jace.

I pushed his cup to him with the sugar bowl before answering his question. "Because I think I owe it to you to really apologize for what happened yesterday."

He took a sip from his tea. "You have to stop apologizing to me, Alice. We've known each other for less than a month and we've already fought twice. Maybe that's the Universe telling us we won't work as a couple."

My heart dropped in my stomach, but my determination didn't dare waver. "Fuck the Universe. Everything I told you in your car is true. You are precious to me and that's something that still stands true in my every being. But I've also never have had to try to anyone before. I'm not telling you this to make you feel sympathy for me, but so that you can understand me better. I want you to understand why I reacted the way I did before. I've always been a lone wolf and I'm not mad about it. I've learned to accept it and sometimes being alone is best. However, it kept me from learning how to deal with others who weren't family. I didn't know how to react to you telling me you didn't trust me anymore. I guess I believed that maybe you would never trust me again no matter what I did. Or maybe I believed that it would all be more trouble than it was worth. The bottom line is, though, last night I was laying on this couch with my mom watching some stupid chick flick movie and I felt so empty and cold. It was a foreign feeling that I wanted to push away, but whatever I tried, I couldn't. My mom thought I was sick so she made me soup and tried to nurse me, but well, I wasn't sick so nothing happened. Then she asked me if there was something that was bothering me and the first thing that popped into my head was you and that terrible ending we had in your car. I knew right then and there that I'd fucked up miserably again. So, I vowed to myself and I'm vowing to you now to never shut myself off because quite frankly it just screws things up royally."

His mouth was slightly open, his eyes staring at me with an utmost shock. He took a while to respond, during which my fingers started to fidget with each other, my heart working way overtime. Then he said, "So what are you saying?" He sounded distraught as if he was having an argument with himself at which neither side was winning.

Swallowing my nerves and my pride as well, I scooted closer to him and took both of his hands in my shaking ones. "I'm asking you to give us one more chance because I am willing to work on gaining back your trust. For some reason, you're worth it and trust me, it's surprising me, too. I'm such a critic of this sort of thing."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Of what sort of thing?"

I sighed. "High school relationships."

"Why is that?"

I shook my head, looking down at our intertwined hands, his were loose and the only force keeping our hands together was my tight grip on his hands. "They always break up too soon, because they never liked each other. They just lusted after one another and the two are two completely different things. The only couples that last longer than a year are those who like each other and know each other. That's why there's so little of those couples."

He took in a deep breath after I'd finished talking. "You continue to amaze me, Alice."

"What, how?"

He smiled. "You're critical of everything and maybe that's a bad thing sometimes, but it's also a good thing. It keeps you from jumping into the hot water."

My head felt so lightheaded at the thought that maybe he would agree with me and give us one more chance. "Is that you saying yes?"

He nodded and for the first time since I made the gesture, he squeezed me hands. "It is and Alice?"

Near fainting, I said, "yeah?"

"You make some mean ass tea."