All's Fair in Love and Prank Wars

Chapter Eight

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ஜ BLINK 182 - First Date ஜ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Let's go, don't wait, this night's almost over, honest, let's make this night last forever, forever and ever, let's make this last forever.

I squirmed in my seat as I tried to ignore the weird tugging sensation on my eyebrow. Every pull left a slight sting behind.

"Grace, if you move again you're going to have two uneven eyebrows," Lexi scowled.

I mumbled an apology and let out a sigh. In true best friend fashion Lexi could sense my irritation.

"What's wrong? Do you not want to go?"

"It's not that. I want to go with Zack but I have a bad feeling about tonight. And I'm confused about why Jace is acting like he is. A few weeks ago he was giving me a piggyback to race Aaron down the street." I thought about the day he playfully argued with me for wearing his Blink 182 shirt. It seemed like that happened a million worlds ago, what had happened since then?

Jace was an ass but I could handle him. Heck, I could even have fun with that ass - no innuendo intended. But recently Jace was acting like he had no heart at all. In all honesty, I missed the old him.

Lexi looked at me cautiously, her lips pressed into a thin line. 

"What?" I deadpanned.

"Nothing. I know you miss him but you should probably focus on the guy that's taking you out tonight," she muttered.

I knew Lexi wasn't saying what she was thinking but I let the subject go. She missed Jace too but she would never admit that. 

Fifteen minutes later and I was applying last minute touches to my makeup. I had decided to wear a cute navy dress with my usual leather jacket and doc martens. As I was looking for my tube of lip-gloss, the chime of the doorbell rang through the house.

I scurried around my room making some last minute adjustments. Once I was satisfied with my look I ran down the hallway and made a left. From the balcony that overlooked the front door I could see that Jace had gotten to Zack before I could. I kept quiet, curious to hear what they were talking about.

"This could be a problem, I think I like her," Zack argued in a hushed tone.

Now I really was curious. I was prepared to stay quiet for a little while longer by Aaron walked in on the scene.

"Dude, I thought we agreed that we were going to threaten this idiot together," Aaron punched Jace's arm playfully.

Before things could get out of hand, I moved away from my hiding spot and skipped down the stairs. "Nobody is threatening my date."

The boys all turned to look at me with guilty expressions on their faces. "What's going on here?" I directed the question towards Jace with a cold expression. 

Zack stepped forward and answered instead. "Nothing, I was just agreeing your curfew with Jace." 

Zack smiled at me but I knew that he was lying. His lip quivered for a second and the smile didn't reach his eyes. However, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The last thing that I would want is somebody getting in the way of a date before it had even started. 

I walked over to Zack and tugged on the sleeve of his leather jacket as a signal to leave. Before I closed the front door I shot Jace and Aaron stern looks. The universal signal of "don't bother me". 

Zack opened and closed the passenger door for me and got into his own side wordlessly. I waited for him to start the car but instead he looked into my eyes and sighed. We both opened our mouths to talk at the same time but instead cut each other off.