Golden Boy

T W E N T Y - Ø N E

An hour had gone by and we were now on the bridge to get to Queens. When I had pictured this car ride alone with Jace, I thought there would be a comfortable silence between us as he drove and I scrolled through my phone, but instead, Jace was very chatty, a characteristic I hadn't associated with him before. He kept the conversation going like I've seen him do when he's cosplaying as the better version of himself at school. It was tripping me out that he was being so open, considering that I was the only one around to hear his performance. 

So far I've learned about his favorite TV show, Peaky Blinders, which he watches because he thinks he is like Thomas Shelby—he is not. He has mentioned that his favorite books are fantasy stories written by authors who don't have powers because their imagination is so incredible it inspires him to try new things with his own abilities. We even debated more about J.K Rowling and how her success is due to her abilities or actual talent. I still couldn't get over the fact that the biggest author of this generation started writing because she wanted to distract society away from people like Jace. Mind blowing.

At some point, Jace gave me his blessing to become a writer and give real accounts of our adventures so that I could make him rich and famous—to which I asked for in writing because I could definitely see myself capitalizing on this experience. It would defeat the purpose of keeping his secret if I broadcasted it through publishing, but he reassured me that everyone will assume that it is fiction like they always did. 

Somehow we managed to be alone in a vehicle for over an hour and not threaten to kill each other. If that ain't progress then I don't know what is. 

"I should warn you," Jace said, interrupting my train of thought. We were stopped at a red light, the GPS—that Jace finally agreed to turn on once he accepted that we were lost on the Long Island Parkway—saying we were only 5 minutes away now.

"Oh god, what now?" I asked, my eyes trained on the red light, waiting for it to turn green. 

"Dayna's not. . . well she's not like most grandma's, that's for sure," he paused, choosing his words carefully.

"That's probably an understatement," I scuffed, watching the light reflecting off Jace's face turn green, and feeling the car accelerate as he pressed his foot on the gas. 

"You have no idea—" my body lurched forward, air trapping in my lungs as the seat belt held my chest back. Jace cursed, swiveling in his seat to see who hit us. From the rearview mirror, I saw the black unmarked, heavily tinted SUV reverse away from us and accelerate to hit us again with more force. I screamed, and Jace managed to move our car out of the way before the SUV could hit its target.

I quickly realized that this was not a normal accident and that we somehow managed to find trouble—or at least, it found us. Every time I thought I was in for a quiet night, some shit happens that makes me question all of my previous decisions. 

Jace was quick to act, maneuvering us through side streets to lose our tail. I hung on to the passenger handle as I tried focusing on not throwing up while trying to still be useful. Jace threw his phone at me, asking to figure out the roads of this town so that we could escape and draw the attention away from Dayna's house so that she would not find out that we were in this mess. 

He gasped this all out in one breath, and I was still trying to figure out how to look at the map when another SUV hit us on the passenger side, inches from where I sat. It caused the car to spin out of control, flipping onto the roof. My ability to hear, momentarily ceased, as a ringing took over, my head snapping every which way until we landed upside down.

Glass flew everywhere as our bodies hung upside down in the car. I felt Jace's arm wrap around my torso, unclicking the seat belt so that I would fall onto the roof of the car. His body came crashing down next to mine. He reached out for me, pulling me into his side as he pushed us through the window to exit his wrecked car.