Fading Boundaries Again

Chapter Twenty

"Jace?" Zeke calls out, and caught in my trance, I break out of it to look over at my friend. "Yeah?" I ask, nervously running a hand through my hair. Zeke squints at me, "Where were you—" He stops when he finds Liv, and I watch as he notices where I was looking at. I look over at Liv to find that she was now walking down the street, and just then Wyatt shows up. He starts to walk by Liv, and I watch her speak to him.

It kind of feels ironic that she is talking to him, now instead of me. I thought the whole arrangement was for me to help her not have to deal with her ex.

"Hey, let's say hi to her!" Zeke suggests with a large grin, and before I can stop him, he already picks up his lace to walk over to her. There's only a second of shock on my face before I catch up with him, knowing he is going to mess everything up. I catch up just in time for Zeke to hug Liv, a smile on his face as he says, "Hey, girl. How are you doing?"

Liv initially has a smile on her face, but when she steps back and makes eye contact with me, her smile drops. My heart dips in my chest at getting such a reaction from her. Wyatt gives me a look, but he quickly looks away from me. I squint at him; I'm tired of him being around all the time. Liv is fidgeting with her ring as she avoids looking over at me. She forces a smile at Zeke, "I'm fine, um, how are you?"

"Exhausted after two hours of conditioning at 5 am in the morning," Zeke answers.

"7," I tell him, to which he only shoots me a look. I only shrug, and Liv clears her throat. "Okay," she says, giving him a sympathetic smile as she does, "Sorry about that. But feeling productive now, right?"

"That's what—" I elbow Zeke so he doesn't finish his sentence. The last thing I needed was to be dragged into this. "Alright," he says instead, grinning at Liv as he says, "Well, we have wanted to say hi." And then he looks at me, trying to convey something to me with his eyes. I squint at him, but when I look past, Liv is watching me. So, I suck it up and pick up my hand in a wave.

"Hi," I mutter, and her lips follow my words, but I don't hear much of her. I step back, placing a hand on Zeke's shoulder as I say, "Let's go get some food before we are late for our morning classes!"

Zeke watches the both of us curiously before he sighs, "Okay, I guess we have to go now. But we will see you later, right, Liv?"

Her gaze passes over my face as she says, "Yeah, sure."

I try not to react to it as I drag Zeke away from her. Right before we get any further, Zeke Shiri's "Hey, Liv, why don't you take Jace back for me, please?" I resist the temptation to make punching a comeback and instead hide my flushed face in between my shoulders. I don't even look at Liv as I walk away from her.

"Hey, you guys broke up?" I hear Wyatt saying at our departure.

"Yeah," Liv answers softly, but I ignore all of it.

Zeke would be having a good long conversation with me back home about something called boundaries.

🏈

The next day, I'm still not on speaking terms with my fast friends. The other guys at the house are having a laugh about it, but I still couldn't get over how mortifying it was. He might as well have told her I was crying about her while he was at it. I've never been embarrassed this hard, and even a good twenty-four hours later, I'm still not over it. Zeke sends me to class with a huge apology and snacks to make up for it, but it's still not enough.

I do break open a bag of chips as I head into my lab class.

"You're barely even eight, and you're already eating junk food?"

"Thanks for worrying about me, professor," I call back to Mrs.Hickerman as I walk back to my seat. I shove the rest of the chips in my mouth before tumbling up the bag and throwing it away. I head up to my seat, finding that Liv was already there. I cannot look at her, my face still burning from the embarrassment as I sit next to her. Thankfully, Mrs. Hickerman announces that today is just a lecture day, so I spend all of it trying to ignore the fact that things between the girl next to me and myself were very awkward.

Class doesn't last too long today, and our professor lets us leave a few minutes early. I get my backpack and start to leave, but it gets caught in Liv's chair. That's just my luck as Liv mutters an apology, trying to get it out. She struggled, her hair flaking into her face as she blew out a breath.

"I've got it," I call out, moving my hands to work at the backpack strap. My hand grazes Liv's in the process, and I ignore the way it sends wrong signals to my heart. Instead, I quickly work at my backpack, and once it's out, I throw it over my shoulder. "I'm sorry," she apologizes again, and I sigh, trying not to feel bitter about her being apologetic about this but not about the way she completely cut me out of her life.

I only nod at her before walking toward the exit. She follows after me, but I don't slow down until I hear a familiar voice behind me. Wyatt is making himself known to her now, smiling as he throws his arm over her shoulder. Liv steps back a bit, looking awkward as she says, "Wyatt, what are you—"

"You broke up with Jace," he tells her with a grin. "That means you are free to date me again, babe."

"Wyatt, I—"

"It's okay," he tells her, but she continues to move away from him. He presses a kiss to her head as he says, "This Friday, how about we get you back to a party, introduce you to the good stuff again?"

Oh hell no.

He was trying to make Liv get back to everything that made her leave in the first place. It's not my business, but I cannot help but get involved in that conversation real fast.

Should be a good one.