The Bad Boy ✔

Chapter Thirteen-Hark! Stay away from Alice...

**WATCH THE TRAILER TO THE SIDE, IT'S THE VERY FIRST TBB TRAILER**

Chapter Thirteen

In any other situation, I would have bolted for the door.

But this was different-it felt different. Jace Collins had an air of mystery to him, it clung to him like the scent of smoke from a bonfire that clung to your clothes and hair and would never leave you no matter how much perfume you sprayed around yourself. And only now, was the perfume finally vanishing so that I could smell the smoke stuck on Jace’s clothes.

Jace used to be a drug dealer.

And no, not the kind that would come after you with gold teeth and weird knuckle-busters; he was the kind that got mixed up with the wrong crowd at the wrong time and then did something he should not have. And the person he got mixed up with was Martin, the vilest of men with a perverse smile and a look so evil it would make the devil proud. Martin was truly terrifying-he sent shivers down my spine and caused an unsettling feeling of nausea to settle in the pit of my stomach.

It was because of this very reason that I loaned Jace the money to pay Martin back for the drugs he stole. I knew I couldn’t tell Dad about lending Jace the money he had been giving me for emergencies only because not only would I be grounded for life, but Dad-despite how cool he is at times-would have a major cow and make sure that Jace never set foot out of his house-which would be a prison-ever again.

Even though I needed Jace to win a competition, there was still the fact that I had this uncanny sick feeling that made me rethink the entire meaning of life whenever I thought about Jace getting into trouble for this. I knew for a fact that Jace wasn’t the most law-abiding citizen, yet at the same time, I couldn’t bring myself to just walk out on him and leave. And that’s how I found myself loaning him the money and making sure he was alright every lesson in class and obnoxiously even waiting for him at his car before he could even get there.

I was worried about Jace and that worried me.

Why would I care about what happened to Jace? He was just another guy in high school that didn’t understand the morals and ethics of super religious and pre-marital sex beliefs. He wasn’t the type to do his homework on time or actually pay attention to the legal drinking age. No, Jace was none of that. Heck-the guy rode a bike-it explained almost everything.

With the devil-may-attitude, Jace came across as the one guy that never had his heart broken. He was the guy freshmen wanted to be and girls wanted to date. Everyone knew that you stayed away from the bad boy, the boy who had shady friends and did questionable deals in dark alleys, but that all changes when that bad boy started paying you attention and actually opening up to you.

It was as if someone had erased all your logic and the only reasonable thing you could actually think of was ‘Why hadn’t I been your friend sooner?’

Jace was that type of guy, and I was starting to believe that he was doing things to my emotions that not even I could fathom.

Those were the thoughts which filled my mind as I watched Jace rev his motorbike engine impatiently. Standing on the curb in front of my house I felt as though I was going to step onto the back of a beast and never return. My heart was palpitating to unlimited speeds that would have put the speed of Jace’s bike to shame. I sucked in a deep and hopefully, calming breath before I glanced around to make sure no one had suddenly come out to see what was making a noise.

“Are you getting on or not Pipsqueak?” Jace asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I licked my lips before murmuring, “I’m wearing a dress. I can’t.”