Dead by Tomorrow

Chapter 26 | Slightly Dazzled

"Baby girl, come to papa!" Damien was howling my name while walking towards me, altogether with my sister, JJ, and Ace. I was late for school this morning, and I have no idea how I managed to get ready in under ten minutes. I do look like a wreck though, so that explains a lot. Hugging Damien, I turned towards my sister and gave her a really mean and notoriously looking glare.

"Hey, in my defense, I tried to wake you up like four times before I gave up." Brie apologetically smiled at me, and I wasn't having it at all.

"Sure," I said and mouthed a few swear words that she understood and hated right away. The wrinkles on my sister's nose showed me that she was displeased with my comment. Did I ever mention that my sister really hated swearing? Yup, she did. 

"Come on Fairy, you came right on time." JJ was laughing, giving Brie a comforting hug.

"Fairy?" Damien jumped in?

"It's a long story," JJ said and even Brie looked at us dumbfoundedly.

"Okay..." Damien sang.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but some of us have to go to class," I said and turned to leave, but before I managed to walk away I was pulled by the sleeve of my hoodie.

"Why fairy though?" I could hear Brie interrogating JJ, and he just laughed it off.

"Come on Jay, tell me." She wasn't giving up.

-

"We have the same class." Ace said and caught up with my pace immediately. Oh really, captain obvious?

"So, how are you?" I asked, remembering last night's talk.

"I'm good." Ace shrugged and I smiled;" As long as I see you smile, I'm good." He added and I was momentarily mute. I couldn't spit out even one word even if I was tortured.

It wasn't enough that Ace walked with me, but he also sat right next to me. The lecture was a bore, and as much as I love writing, some things really weren't my thing. 

We were both really silent and awkwardly sitting next to each other, thus one of us would occasionally throw a look in the direction of the other one.

That particular day, our professor decided to pair us up and give us a task to write a poem about the person sitting next to us. 

Yep, not really my day. 

Ace was occasionally staring at my paper, trying to see what I wrote about him, but in reality, I couldn't write anything. As soon as I'd start a sentence, I'd erase it in an even quicker speed. We were really weird around each other after the talk we had, and neither of us really knew how to approach the other one. Henceforth, half of our attempted conversation starters, ended abruptly, with one person murmuring the incoherent answer to the other one. If you asked me what changed between the two of us, I wouldn't be able to give you an answer. I mean, we already talked about the same thing before, and we seemed to fall back on the same pattern right away, but this time was different. It's not only that I didn't try to maintain some sort of a friendship, but Ace also wasn't budging this time either. It's like he quit, and then I realized something. 

I think I can give you an answer after all. 

Last night, Ace accepted my wish to be left alone, not to be approached by him in any romantic delusion of his, and he agreed with me. He did, indeed, tell me that he was going to give it a rest. If he actually cared about me, he wouldn't stop trying. If I actually cared about him, I wouldn't tell him to leave me alone. So what was the problem? Why was I so hurt by the fact that he wouldn't talk to me normally? Suddenly, a bunch of words filled out my paper and I had a finished poem. A very salty and private poem, the one you can't share with the whole class. Ace didn't write anything, his paper was a white void of nothingness, but I didn't mind.