The Art of Revenge

34 - Are You Sure?

Dedicated to _purplepen_ because they made the amazing banner in the sidebar! Thanks again :) 

Sorry it took so long! I've been super busy. This is basically a filler and leads up to what happens in the next chapter :)

Enjoy!

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Don’t run into Jace. Don’t run into Jace.

That’s what I chanted to myself as I walked to my classroom. Yeah, walked. After a long time of physical therapy, I now had my leg in a walking cast. Ever since Kayla made me realize that Jace did in fact like me, I went straight home and ever since then I have avoided him.

As much as I didn’t want to believe it or just forget it, I couldn’t. Jace likes me. Now that I know that, it’s awkward to be around him. Even though he doesn’t know that I know, it’s just… weird. I don’t know how to act around him now.

I did notice all those signs in the few minutes I have shared with him since: His eyes and hands lingering on me longer than they should, the sweet acts, the flirty tone in his words. All of them were just signs that I missed before I found out the truth behind them. There’s also this small part of me that doesn’t believe it. All the signs are there but I still can’t completely, one hundred percent believe anything nowadays.

So because of all that, I’ve been avoiding him at all costs.

“Peyton!”

Oh, shit.

I ducked my head and started limping out of the school as fast as possible as Jace gained on me. I just need to get around to the locker rooms before he stopped me—

“Hey!” He spun me around and his light eyes twinkled. “How’s it going? We haven’t really talked much lately.”

“O-oh,” I bit my lip and swung some of my recently re-dyed red hair in front of my face. “Yeah, I’ve been, uh, busy. With school and friends.” Ha. As if I have a ton of friends now. Now that I’m not friends with Lauren, all of the other girls that I was close with strayed away too. I resulted to sitting with Chase and his friends at lunch or just walking around.

“It must be nice not to worry about that wheelchair, huh?” He joked and lightly bumped me shoulder with his.

“It’s better.”

He pursed his lips at me because he knew that something was up. This was probably the longest conversation that we’ve had since I talked to Kayla. This was also what I wanted to avoid.

“Pey, what’s going on? It’s like you’ve been avoiding me—“

In that exact moment, the ground changed from concrete to grass, which I didn’t notice so I tripped and started falling. Jace quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me up but honestly, I’d rather he just let me fall. This is just isn’t helping me get away from him.

“Whoa there,” He said and steadied me. His eyes strayed to my arm where his hand had slipped the sleeve of my shirt up a bit exposing a bright, newly made burn scar. He noticed me looking and immediately took his hand away. After clearing his throat he said, “You okay?” I nodded and ducked my head down to the ground. “Anyways, like I was saying before Peyton took a tumble,” he laughed at his joke concerning an online video but replacing the name with my own. “Our semi-final soccer game is this weekend. If we win then we go to the finals! Do you, uh, want to come?”

I gave him a little smile, “You do know that Dillon plays too. I kind of have to go.”

He bit my lip, which was actually really attractive, and ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, uh, you know how in the finals the players, uh, give their jersey to their girlfriend or girls who are friend? Will you, uh…” He breathed out one shaky breath. “Will you wear mine?”