Stereotype

Chapter 18 : A Double Take

A DOUBLE TAKE

J A C E  E V E R S 

Junior Year

EVERYONE acted normal on Sunday. Surprisingly Scarlett invited Ashley to hang around their house and were sat watching movies downstairs. Nova was visiting his grandma with his family so Jace spent the whole weekend trying to shake of that feeling:

Numb.

Everyone was fine but he was numb. It felt like everybody around him had a purpose, a schedule to their life whether it was to- eat/sleep/repeat- or actually go out somewhere.They all had a schedule. Jace felt like he had nothing to do and everywhere he went there was nothing for him there:

 He went to the gym and left after tiring himself out. 

He called Candace but she was spending most weekends with her older brother and his friends so contact would be limited to later evening. 

He messaged Daena but things seemed awkward from that day in his room. She had no reason to stay in a friendship where two of the people couldn't trust her. Jace chose his sister over Daena and now wondered whether that was the right choice. Of course it was. They were closer than ever before sophomore year and now they weren't. So what? She needed space and he gave it to her.   Still Jace wanted answers from Daena and waited for her to reply.

Ugh. All these depressing thoughts irritated Jace to extreme lengths. He wanted something to do without it making him feel worse. No more of these thoughts entering his mind, Jace had to get rid of them. Thinking of possible ways to extinguish them was a lot harder than listening to them. However, Jace already gave them a chance to overtake his mind a few days ago and that got him into a mess of pain so he would find a new approach. One that aided his needs and didn't disrupt other people along its way.

For example when people are constantly happy. Obviously they weren't but they managed to fool the world into assuming they were. 

Yes he will now be a happy person. It isn't so hard to be happy, all he has to do is make everyone else around him happy in order to be happy himself. Fake it til ya make it.

 Yeah he could do that. Maybe with a bit of relaxation so that the happiness doesn't feel fake to other people. He sat up and went straight into the bathroom to look at his attempts of happy faces. Show a toothy smile that crinkles some of his eyes. God no he did a terrible job. It wasn't hard to make Jace laugh; he laughed at his failures and dismissed himself with a growl of his stomach.

Waltzing downstairs with the happiest-fakest- smile on his face. Scarlett didn't bat an eyelash as she was too absorbed in the movie playing but Ashley turned her head discretely then laughed at him "Scar Im gonna get some more popcorn."

"Yeah go go." 

Jace strolled into the kitchen ready to look for a big feast of leftover Chinese food stored in the fridge. "Whats got you so happy?"

"Cant a guy be happy?"He chuckled opening the fridge.

"Yes but not without his Nova." She said taking out two plates from a nearby cupboard. 

"No no Ashley, Im just happy." Ashley hummed in response taking a seat as Jace poured their meals onto each place and popping one first into the microwave. He waited until the timer hit zero-refusing to beat the timer- then passed the plate to Ashley and put his own into the microwave.