The Art of Revenge

34 - Are You Sure?

And that’s why I should’ve just run when I heard him call my name.

“I—“

His light eyes bore into mine. “Please, Peyton. I don’t want anyone other than you to do this for me.”

I couldn’t look away so I sighed, giving in. “Fine, okay. I’ll do it.”

He grinned and engulfed me in a hug that lifted me off my feet. “Thank you so much, Pey!” He set me down on my feet.

Blushing, I looked down. “It’s not really a big deal…”

“No, it is. Well, to me it is.”

I looked up and he seemed genuinely happy that I accepted. What did this mean to him? Just for one day—no, one hour—I would give anything just to see inside of his head.

“So where are you going?” He asked as we started walking again.

“To watch your soccer practice. I have to wait so Dillon can take me home.”

“Do you want to do that?”

“Not really.”

Jace stared at me for a few seconds before taking out his phone. He dialed in some numbers then held it up to his ear. After a few seconds, whoever he called must’ve answered because he started talking. “Hey, are you home now? Cool. Want to come pick up Peyton? She has to wait until Dill gets done to go home and she doesn’t want to.” He winked at me. “Sweet, thanks.” With those last words he hung up and turned to me. “Cara’s coming to pick you up.”

My eyes widened. “Why?”

“Because you didn’t want to stay here.”

I waited for him to continued but he didn’t. “So you just called your sister to pick me up?”

“Yep.”

“Well, thanks.”

“No problem.”

Queue that awkward silence again.

I felt his eyes on me but I refused to look up. He shouldn’t like me but why does he?

“Look, Peyton—“

I knew he was going to comment on how we haven’t seen much of each other so naturally I bolted. “I’m going to go wait for Cara at the parking lot! Thanks for calling her, bye!”

With that, I turned on my heel and practically ran down to the pick up area in front of the school. I sat on the bench there and waited for Jace’s sister to come pick me up.

Okay. Maybe Cara picking me up is a good thing. I can ask her how she is about my situation.

After waiting for around ten minutes, Cara’s black car came rolling up. I hobbled forward with a slight smiled and got into the passenger seat with a little ‘hey’ to her.

We had a side talk, which mostly involved how I was doing since the fire before I sighed and shifted my body towards her. “Cara? I need to ask you something really important.”

She peeked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Damn. I’m afraid I’ll get the wrong answer.”

A shaky laugh escaped my lips. Why was I getting so nervous? Was it because even though I knew the truth, I didn’t really believe it? “Cara…” I started slowly. “Does Jace like me? Like… like.”

I expected her to tell me the truth or tell me I’m crazy but I seriously didn’t think she was burst out laughing in my face. By the time she was composed, we were almost to my house.