Just a Game

Bitter Ex-Girlfriend

A/N: Shout out to LunaBearLove, TheBookNerd13, XheavenlyangelX and phan_tastic_ for taking the time to read my new story Karma and give me feedback; it means more than I can say. Anyways, thank you for reading as always; I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll see you guys next week!

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Jace // chapter twenty-six

A certain warmth engulfed my heart, drawing my focus from reality. As a result, my hands loosened their hold on my mug and it tilted, almost spilling over on my leg. Alice freaked and immediately reached out to stop it before the coffee could spill and do its damage.

She looked concerned, surely about my frozen state, as she took my mug and placed it on my bedside table along with hers. I was still staring at her with shock, completely frozen in place as she sat back down. 

"Jace, you almost burned yourself! What's wrong with you?" She tried to scold me, pushing her hair back behind her ear in frustration. "Did I say something wrong?"

My ability to conjure actual sentences had been lost and my tongue was tied in a state of astonishment. I continued to stare at her, completely wrapped up in the moment and unable to look away. She looked ready to shake me to try and get a response. I could sense the worry that filled her eyes before she could say anything else.

The shock that had frozen my eyes thawed as awe took its place. Her previous words played over and over again in my mind, furthering the tender feeling that had taken control of my conscious. "You love me?" I drawled.

She blinked and sat up straight. Her eyes flashed an emotion I've never seen in her before she bowed her head, disabling me of my access to her raw emotions. "Oh, that," she chuckled weakly.

Confusion settled in, throwing me back into reality. "Did you mean it?"

Her head snapped up, her eyes catching mine. They were blank, giving me absolutely nothing to go off on.

"The word just slipped out, J," she asserted, her voice empty of any emotion. It sounded dull, so unlike her. 

"So, you don't love me?" I whispered, my voice cracking in the end regardless of how hard I tried to hide how saying those words wounded me.

She pushed away from me and got up, the space she put between us very much telling. "It's so early, Jace. We've only been together for five months."

I sat up as well, following her with my troubled eyes as she walked over to my drawer to fold her shirt properly. "I wasn't trying to pressure you, baby. I just thought you'd confessed your feelings. It's just a misunderstanding."

She stopped and looked at me, the tension in the room growing thicker as her skeptical eyes threw daggers my way. "Those feelings aren't there. I think it's crazy that you assumed I'd love you."

I grimaced. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She let out a venomous groan, running her fingers through her thick hair. "It means I don't love you, J."

I had to take a moment to let the words, her words, sink in. And with them, her glare, her stance and just the aura that she emitted had disrespectfully and single-handedly ruined my morning, and with that, my mood had gone down the drain as well. "Okay, Alice. I understand that you don't love me," I attempted to retaliate, "but you don't have to be so conniving about it."

"Conniving?" she seethed, taking a few steps closer to the bed, "how dare you?"

I laughed. I actually laughed, because what else was I supposed to do? Had she gone mad?

"What's so funny?" she snapped, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Are you listening to yourself?" I tried to reason, "you're mad at me because I asked you if you loved me after you said if you didn't love me, so on and so on. I mean, how was I supposed to take that?"

She scoffed. "Not as if I said 'I love you'. It wasn't a declaration, J. It's just a word in that sentence."

My mouth gaped open in pure bemusement. "You're fucking with me. Please tell me that you're joking."

"I'm not," she breathed heavily, stepping away.

"Who are you?" I muttered in absolute spite.

Her eyes viciously narrowed, locking in on mine. "Your girlfriend."

"You sure about that, cause right now you're talking like a bitter ex," I jibed, pushing the covers away.

She gasped, her eyes widening. The room grew in its hostility, the tension thickening even further. "Maybe that's what I should be then," she reckoned.

My shoulders slumped as her words became even more perplexing. "You want to be a bitter ex?"

"I want to be your ex," she blatantly stated, crossing her arms in confidence.

I couldn't breathe. I tried to picture what I did wrong, where I screwed up, but I came up blank. "Are you being serious? Alice, come on, I was just trying to get you to see it from my perspective."

"I'm dead serious," she reaffirmed, pulling all of her hair up into a ponytail as her eyes stayed on mine, reassuring me of the words she'd spoken.

I shot up from my bed and walked over to where she hastily stood. I reached for her hands and tightly gripped them both, trying to rid her of her negativity, her anger that had come from nowhere. "Baby, be real with me, with yourself. You can't be serious about us breaking up. We've only started."

Letting out a sharp breath, she ripped her hands from mine. "What part of 'I want to be your ex' and 'I'm dead serious' is hard for you to understand?"

I stared at her, absolutely confused and just damned. "I'm just not understanding what went wrong."

"You went wrong!" she shrilled, accusingly pointing at me.

"Wh-the fuck did I do?" I demurred, feeling myself growing fatigued from the fight. It was utterly and entirely absurd. Who fights over whatever it is that we're fighting about? 

I don't even know what the fight is over. The hell?

Was I looking at someone who looked like Alice, but had a personality polar of hers? She was being ridiculous and not like herself. She was understanding and never took small things like this serious enough to pick a fight, let alone serious enough to break up with me over them.

Or maybe she's showing her true colors.

I shook my head, ridding of that hideous thought. She wouldn't do that. Maybe she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She can't be serious about this.

"Enough," she said firmly, "you've done enough."

She walked away, not giving up any more words. I hurriedly turned to follow her steps to pull on her hand before she could open the locked door. "Wait, let's talk about this. Don't make an impulsive decision you'll regret later. Have breakfast with me."

She still wouldn't look at me, her eyes glued to the door. Moments later, she turned to me, her cold eyes speaking measures before she could verbalize her answer. My grip on her arm loosened as her lips parted. "We've talked enough, Jace. It's enough," she sighed, "enough is enough."

Then she left.

Leaving me with pieces of what we were, pieces of myself I didn't know how to glue back together.