Oh, It's On

one's a wish, two's a kiss, three's a disappointment, four's a letter, five's something better. happy reading x

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Chapter 15 continued

“You owe me a new dress.”

“What? Hey!” Jace gapes at me. “I told you it was an accident!”

“Yeah – accident.” I make air quotations around the word. “You were just mad I finished first.”

“Only because you dropped your plate and spilled like half of it!”

I smirks. “Ever the sore loser.”

“Cheater,” he mutters under his breath.

“You know I’m going to have to dry clean this dress,” I tell him, looking at the stain. It was only water and really, I didn’t have to wash it at all but Jace didn’t have to know that. Besides, it’s pretty amusing that he doesn’t even know that water leaves no damage.

He throws my dress a wary glance, but doesn’t make a big deal out of it. We walk in silence for a few more minutes, me swinging my mini purse by the straps and him walking with his hands in his pockets quietly beside me. As suspected, the temperature outside had dropped significantly since we left my house. When I checked before we left the restaurant, it had dropped into chilly temperatures. I didn’t expect it to be this cold, but we did end up staying at the restaurant for quite a while and now, it’s nearly 10 o’clock.

I’m not even sure what we really talked about. Of course during our little eating competition, which I undoubtedly won, there was hardly any conversation. But when dessert came, and soup, because Jace felt like it, I have to admit I actually had a good time. It felt like I was hanging out with Cameron or any of the other guys, not at all the awkward I expected. The fact that since his dad owned the restaurant and we got the meal for free only made things better.

I don’t realize that Jace had pulled his hands out of his pockets until I accidentally bump into one of them in mid-swing. I quickly steal a glance up at him but find that he doesn’t notice and has a concentrated expression again. Shrugging my shoulders, I shuffle a few inches away from him and continue to swing my purse.

A chilly wind passes by and I feel my skin tense. I involuntarily shiver and rub my arms with my hands.

Jace looks down at me. “You know I’d lend you my jacket if I had one.”

We reach the intersection that turns onto my street and I know that in a few steps, we would be reaching my house. A little bit of panic hits me when I begin to think about what I should do once we reach that parting. Am I supposed to hug him, or tell him I had fun, or give him a peck on the cheek, or…

“Please,” I say disbelievingly, blowing into my hands to warm them. “You would not.”

 “Come on, you know me. I would.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, I know you. So I know you would be going on about how if you lent me your jacket, you would be cold. Because God forbid anything happen to your perfect being.”

His smile turns into a smirk. “I’m glad you noticed my perfection.”

I start up the steps onto the porch with him following behind. “I would have noticed, if you had any.”

“You know, sometimes your words hurt,” he says in a fake-cry.

I laugh and when I reach the top step, I turn around to face him. The same nervous, panicky feeling settles in me again. Now what?

“So…” I drawl, looking down at my shoes. Even with my heels on and being an extra step high than him, we’re still only the same height. No female dominance here.

“So…” he repeats, trying to catch my eye.

Before I can reply, another wind passes by and unable to stop myself, I quickly whip around let out a loud sneeze that echoes through the air. And then another. It’s so loud and heavy that I’m hunched over, covering my mouth. Well I am a well-mannered girl, after all. When I’m convinced that I have calmed down, I straighten myself and give Jace an apologetic smile.

“You know,” he says with an amused expression. “My sister told me something about sneezes once.”

“You have a sister?” I ask, tip-toeing around his statement. I know exactly what he’s talking about because Rachel has that saying memorized by heart and every time either me, Connie or Tina sneezes, she reminds us of it.