Stereotype

Chapter 26 : Magpie Hearts

MAGPIE HEARTS

J A C E  E V E R S 

Senior Year

HOW would this go? What does he do? Would she like him? 

Jace paced back and forth with every possible question on his mind. He would hope Candace stayed loyal to their meeting arrangements as neither one of them have spoken since he sent a text to confirm everything. He couldn't form a decent text that would seem normal when they were both going to meet each other for the first time. Sure he had seen pictures of her, Jace never thought of their relationship beyond phones so to suddenly feel the urge to set dates and times was quite overwhelming. Nonetheless, this gave him a distraction from problems that could sought them themselves out. 

They agreed to meet strictly on their own in the public spacing of Willow Park. Where it was situated in between his house and her school. She could come straight after physics revision classes and he would have a meal before seeing her. Seeing. The word seemed strange o Jace. In less than five hours, he would see this girl. She didn't know about his life-except what he told her and there was a fear that she knew more about him than he gave away. All night Jace kept thinking of possible scenarios and now here he was, doing the exact same thing a few hours later.

 Just as he went back into overthinking, two hands clamped over his shoulders "Can you stop pacing please? Making me feel queasy." Nova stuck his tongue out feigning sickness. Jace bat him off ready to take another step on his route of going back and forth; towards the door and away, when Ashley grabbed his hand shoving Nova out the way. She held it in a tight grip that managed to suffocate him into calming down. 

"Jace stop making it worse. You have like three hours, so lets go to the diner and have some breakfast. I'll text Parker to meet us there." She suggested letting go of his hand.

"No. Parker is in trouble with his parents about Daena so he will be grounded for a bit. We'll go to his in a week when hes more likely to be un-grounded." Jace explained nudging Nova to bring his shoes to him. Nova sighed dramatically muttering something about being an 'underpaid servant' but still went to get them and Ashley rolled her eyes giving Jace a nod of reassurance before going to grab her own coat. 

Once they all clambered into Novas car, Jace felt content with everything. He glanced out the window feeling the nerves slip away as Ashley drove to the diner while Nova criticised her. There was a calmness in all this chaos that Jace didn't want to let go. He held onto it tightly and focused on the way the car almost glided along the road, drowning out the digs that Ashley was more than happy to hiss. 

They approached the diner and Jace knew what he wanted to order, processing what he would say to the server. Perfectly rehearsing let him down and now Nova wouldn't stop making jokes on how Jace mispronounced his order "Can I have a snuggle?" He laughed as Jace went bright red from embarrassment. "What were you meant to say to him Jace?"

"Can I have a waffle." Jace mumbled making Nova and Ashley fall into another hysteric fit. The laugh became contagious and soon Jace joined in with them. Although they were long gone with Nova crying and Ashley laughing at Nova which made everything a lot more funnier. Especially when the waiter gave Jace a flirtatious wink when he placed the plate down in front of him. Jace went a deeper shade of red and ate his waffle with as much pace as possible.