Playing His Game

Chapter Four | Ventilator Blues

Four:

"Hey Audrey, wait up!"

I had just slammed my locker shut and was walking to my next class when I heard my name being called. I slowed down, looking over my shoulder to see who was calling me.

My ex boyfriend, Jace, was jogging to catch up to me. I frowned and my heart started beating a little bit faster out of pure anxiety.

"Hi," he said when he finally reached me, running a hand through his short, auburn hair.

"Uh, hey...Jace, what's up?" I wondered why he was suddenly talking to me when he'd been ignoring me for the entire school year so far.

"How've you been, Drey?" he asked, ignoring my question.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, remembering that his lack of consideration for anything I said was one of the main reasons we broke up.

We had dated for all of sophomore year and half of junior year, before I broke up with him. I thought I had really loved him, but he turned into a distant, selfish jerk: a guy I didn't even recognize anymore.

"Just fine, I actually need to get to English right now so..."

"That's fine I'll walk you!"

"Sure," I muttered, knowing he would walk me whether I wanted him to or not.

It was silent for a few minutes as we walked to my class, the halls vacant of any other students because the late bell was sure to ring at any second now.

When we reached my class and were standing outside the closed door, he suddenly grabbed my shoulders and spun me to face him, "Audrey, I miss you. I've missed you for a while now and I've been wanting to ask you, would you please go to the winter dance with me?"

I stared back into his wide, green eyes, becoming distracted for a moment as I thought of our relationship that ended so long ago, and yet it seemed like just yesterday at the same time.

The late bell started dinging, jarring me back to reality. "Jace, I don't know..." I bit my lip.

The winter dance was in about a week and a half now and it would be nice to have a date, but I didn't really want to get back together with him, if that's what he was hoping for.

"Audrey, please. Just give me a chance, and let me take you to the dance."

I couldn't fight the grin that came with his stupid rhyme. He smiled back at me. "Fine, yes I will go to the dance with you. Now I'm late and so are you, so I'll talk to you later." Without another word I spun around and opened the door to my class, going inside.

...

"Are you serious?!"

Lauren looked at me like I was insane. We were sitting at the barstools in her kitchen, attempting to study, when I finally worked up the nerve to tell her about going to the dance with Jace.

"Come on, is it really that bad? it's just a dance." I shrugged.

She bit the end of her pencil, "Yeah, but didn't you tell me that your relationship was terrible? That he was controlling and full of himself?"

"Well, maybe he's changed," I said stubbornly, "I mean, we did have some good times together. Plus, it's not like we're actually getting back together." My mind drifted to all the times he complimented me and made me laugh, bringing me little gifts. At the time, that's what I had thought love was all about.

Lauren looked like she wanted to say something more but instead she frowned, looking down at her notebook page covered in math problems. "Whatever, at least you'll have someone to go with so you can double with me and Tyler."