Just a Game

Empty Seat

Happy Friday! I hope you like this chapter and I'll see you guys next week! And thank you so much for 6k!!!

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Alice // chapter eight

O N Thursday morning, I walked into math class with my arms tightly around my binder and my heart in a painful tight twist. The majority of the class was already seated and my eyes immediately flew to Jace's seat. However, it was empty.

Where was he?

Why do you care?

My heart dropped and I quickly mustered the feeling away as nonsense. I walked to my seat and sat down as Ms. Weiss walked in, followed by the period bell. As usual, she asked the class if they had any questions about the homework and like always, I pretended like I actually knew what the hell they were talking about. Although I do have to give Jace a lot of credit, he'd taught me a lot about what they've learned in those nice four days. Nonetheless, I wasn't all the way caught up and so I was still lost.

When the class had no more questions, Ms. Weiss went on to tell us that we were to partner up and complete the paperwork she was handing out. Apparently, what we were learning was hard and not many were getting it.

I almost laughed. I don't even know the title of the chapter we were on.

Sighing, I turned to the girl next to me who, honestly, looked even more lost than me. Perfect. "Do you know what she's talking about?" I asked as the guy before me handed down the class work papers.

"Honestly, no," she laughed.

"Yeah, well, we'll figure this out," I said, passing the rest of the paperwork stack to those behind me, "it shouldn't be that hard."

"Hey, would you mind if I asked you a semi-personal question?" She asked, looking cautious as her eyes quickly darted between her paper and me.

My eyes narrowed and I slowly shook my head. "Uh, no. What's up?"

She hesitated for a second, looking as if she was debating with herself whether to ask me or not. Then, out of nowhere, she blurted out, "did you hook up with Jace?"

My eyes widened and my lips dropped open with a shock that was almost like a slap in the face. "Of course not! What makes you say that?"

She shrugged, looking almost apologetic. "People saw you guys hanging out a lot at the public library downtown and word travels fast, I guess. It's all everyone's been talking about on the school's Facebook page."

I made a face. "People still use Facebook?"

"Yeah," she laughed.

Snickering, I shook my head. "We didn't hook up. He was just tutoring me for a while since I was behind in math class when I came last week, but it's over with now."

Her eyebrows raised in what looked like pure astonishment. "Seriously?"

I slowly nodded, unsure of why she was interrogating me. "Seriously. Why do you care though?"

She paused for a moment before answering. "I'm sorry. It's just that you were gone for a couple of days and he's suddenly not tutoring you anymore. It's just gossip and I wanted to clear it all up."

"Gossip, huh?"

She nodded.

"That goes around a lot at this school?"

"Whoo," she whistled, laughing, "faster than you can imagine."

Almost impressed, I shook my hand out to her. "I'm Alice, by the way."

She smiled, shaking my hand. "Katie. Nice to finally meet the new girl the whole school's buzzing about."

I laughed. "Yeah, I guess so."

After a short moment of silence, I couldn't help the itching thought that kept coming back to the front of my thoughts. "Would you mind if I asked you a question?"

She blinked a couple of times and quickly nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Are Jace and Tanya an item?"

She opened her mouth to answer but closed it quickly. She tilted her head, studying me as if she was analyzing whether I was worth the answer or not. "Why do you ask?"

"Can't a girl just be curious?"

"Not when it comes to Jace."

"Why not when it comes to Jace?"

She sighed heavily. "Because...Tanya."

I arched my eyebrow. "What about Tanya?"

She shook her head fast, her expressions noting that she's probably already said too much. "Nothing."

"Oh come on, you can tell me," I smiled as sweetly as I could, "I have no friends, Literally. I'm not gonna tell anyone."

"No," she shook her head once more, her voice more strict. "I really can't tell you, Alice. It's something you need to figure out on your own. She doesn't even know that I know. No one really knows, just her closest friends."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Is it serious?"

Her eyes widened and she nodded. "Oh yes. More than I can say."

I exhaled sharply. "But can you at least tell me if they're together? I mean, that's not really anything. The whole school should know this, right?"

She let out a final long breath and said, "no, they're not together right now."

"What do you mean rig-"

"Jace!" Ms. Weiss yelled across the room, interrupting my dialogue and immediately stealing my focus away from the conversation I was having. I turned fast to the door, catching him as he walked up to the front desk in his laid back black jeans and grey sweater outfit. After handing Ms. Weiss his tardy pass and her scolding him like he was her son, he turned and walked to his seat.

Here's the thing, I intentionally stared at him as he walked in my direction, towards his seat, because I wanted him to look at me. I wanted to look into his eyes and see how he was truly doing. Which is beyond stupid, but what could I do? For some fucked up reason, I cared for his cheater ass.

But he walked right past me. He didn't look at. He didn't even glance towards my direction. He just simply walked to his seat fast enough so that I couldn't get a good read on him.

I sat there stunned for the seconds that passed and then I heard his friends and him talking. He sounded fine. He looked fine; finer than ever with his painful beautiful face and ridiculously gorgeous figure. But I wasn't fine. I got here not two weeks ago and my life was already turning upside down just because of him. How is that even fair? I'm the one he manipulates, the one he cheats on with and I get to be miserable while he just moves on like he didn't stick his tongue down my throat just for the sake of it?

To be fair, he didn't cheat on anyone if he wasn't with Tanya when he kissed you.

No, that's not the point. She obviously thought they were together. If they were broken up, he should've made it clear to her that they were not an item. He led her on and then led me on. To me, that's a cheater.

I closed my eyes for a short second, needing a moment of silence that I know I won't get in the middle of this noisy classroom.

And then, Satan decides to fuck with me. Again.

"Jace, Alice," Ms. Weiss called out, "please stay after the bell rings."