The Bad Boy ✔

Chapter Twelve-Shit just got real

“So that’s what you were reading,” Jace exclaimed with a wide smirk, “I thought you were sending yourself fake letters or something.”

I smacked my forehead before groaning, “How did you even pass the third grade?”

“Easy,” Jace retorted, “the tests were multiple choice.”

I opened my mouth to reply but we were interrupted momentarily by the waitress-Mo’s granddaughter-who placed the two plates of burgers onto the table, flashed a cute smile at Jace then sauntered back towards the kitchen. I narrowed my eyes at her retreating back before I scanned Jace’s face for any sign of emotion and was pleased-even though I’d never admit to it-to see that he had taken no notice of the above average looking waitress.

Taking a bite of my burger, I asked, “Do you think that we can meet tomorrow to go over some stuff?”

“What stuff,” Jace questioned with a raised eyebrow.

I scrunched my nose as I answered, “Relationship stuff.”

“What is my boyfriend status not to your liking?” Jace mocked with amusement flashing through his grey eyes.

“No,” I muttered, “it is very not much to my liking.”

He leaned closer before asking in a low tone, “Well what do you suggest we do about that now?”

My cheeks heated up slightly and I nearly choked on my burger-heck I did choke. If you ever-and I mean it-need lessons on how to kill a mood faster than a nun, just take a bite of a burger and start coughing like a TB infected freak. Cough so loud that everyone in the diner turns around to stare at you with wide, bewildered eyes as if they have never seen someone choking on food. It’s as if they anticipated your death.

Patting my back like a sumo wrestler patting his pet rock, Jace asked, “Are you okay?”

I took a large gulp of the chocolate milkshake I had ordered then responded breathlessly, “Yeah,” my eyes watered slightly before my voice turned croaky, “I’m A-Okay.”

“Seriously,” Jace asked dubiously.

“Seriously,” I replied with fake cheeriness.

The waitress returned after that with a smug expression plastered on her face and when Jace wasn’t looking, I stuck my tongue out at her and before she could say or do anything, I grabbed Jace’s arm and dragged him out of the diner. For most girls, that moment would have been seen as a shameful and crazy thing to have done, but I saw it as the most pride-bringing thing that I could have done without losing any of my dignity.

Like I’ve mentioned before, Jace had his own mystery about him so he accepted the lack of reason that I demanded he not take the road that passed Chesterville Creek. Just the mention of the name sent chills down my spine and caused my skin to crawl. It also made me feel sick-the kind of sick you felt when you were on a rollercoaster-or worse, the sick that you felt when you saw someone that gave you the creeps.

We were only five blocks away from entering the middle-class part of Chesterville-or better known as where I lived-when Jace received a phone call that brought on the predicament of where I was in at the moment. The phone rang a few times and after glancing at the caller-ID which sent a cold and unforgettable expression to pass through his eyes, he answered it.

“What do you want,” he growled.

I frowned as I watched Jace’s fingers tighten around the small piece of metal.

“No I am not in Chesterville,” he replied to whomever he was speaking to.

I was no Einstein but everyone knew that we were in fact in Chesterville.