Arabella
I opened my eyes slowly to adjust to the blinding light in my room.
Not my room.
I looked around and see I'm in a different place entirely.
WHAT THE FUCK?
How did I get here?
I frantically looked around so see if it was possible when something on the bedside table catches my eye:
Arabella,
Something happened last night that I can't write down. Don't worry we didn't do anything together. I expect you'll have one hell of a headache so I suggest you take the aspirin and water if you need it. Come downstairs and I'll explain everything to you.
-J
J? Who could that be? James? Jack? Jackson? Ja-
Jace.
That mother fucker.
I looked down at myself and realised I was still in my outfit from last night. So the prick hadn't striped me or some freaky shit.
Huh.
I chugged the water down with the aspirin and got my bearings together to go downstairs.
******
I stepped out of the room and onto the landing as quietly as I could. Maybe if I was quiet enough I could just walk out and then-
CREEEEEEEAAAAAAKKKKK-!
"Arabella, are you up?" Came a voice from downstairs.
Shit. Well there goes the plan.
"Yup." I responded, not sure what to actually say to the person who I randomly woke up in their house, and to top it all off, I lost my phone so I couldn't call an Uber back to the college.
"Come down I made food." The fuck?
The bastard probably poisoned them first.
I reached the kitchen, which wasn't actually hard because I just had to follow the smell of bacon and eggs, and thee he was.
Mother. Fucking. Jace.
And he was wearing an apron.
I mean don't get me wrong, he looked hot in it but-
NO GIRL STOP.
I leaned against the island countertop and drummed my fingers on the surface while waiting for Jace to turn around.
"Sooo...what the fuck happed last night?"
He turned around finally, placing a plate filled with bacon, eggs and toast infront of me, "You really don't remember anything, huh."
"If I remembered I wouldn't be asking would I dipshit." I mumbled, taking a bite out of the bacon and egg toast sandwich monstrosity I'd created.
He laughed to himself as he took the apron off. Aww, it really showed off hers pecks-
STOP.
"Really, please just tell me what happened," I begged.
He tilted his head to one side like a curious puppy, "You went to Aaron's party, got drugged and then taken to a bedroom," my stomach turned as he continued," he tried to-," he coughed violently as if he'd swallowed a bit of bacon or toast the wrong way," he was going to do something to you but me and my friend stepped in and got you out of there. I didn't know what dorm you were in and I didn't know if you had any friends, no offence, so I thought I'd bring you back here and I'm now thinking just how weird that sounds."
He winced at the sudden thought.
"Look, I appreciate you saving me and shit, but I really would like to go back to my dorm now so I can be, you know, alone." I stood up straighter.
Jace nodded and looked around for something, "oh shit, hold up let me just go grab my keys and we can go."
I stood by the door, waiting to leave when I felt a presence behind me. I tured and found the most beautiful little girl. When I say little, I really mean she looks about eleven, maybe twelve.
"Hi," she says with a big smile, "I'm Jace's sister Delilah."
"Hi. I'm uh.."
"I know who you are," she says , letting out a small giggle," you're Jace's lady friend."
I like this child.
"Uh...no... I'm... who just-"
"Who just needed help," came a voice from the top of the stairs," and who is going now."
He opened the door for me before walking through himself, "Delilah, make sure you lock the door behind me, yeah?" He headed her the key
"Yeah, yeah" she closed the door in his face which subsequently made me let out a little giggle and we walked to the car.
*****
We drove in silence for five minutes before Jace decided to break it.
"You know, you're the first person she's straight up talked to."
I turned my head toward him, but his eyes were focused solely on the road.
"A while ago, when my p- we were in a car crash and when neither my mom or dad were in a stable enough condition to look after her, so they took her to a foster home for a while, just until one of my parents could get well enough to look after her again.
So this family took her in, picture perfect, amazing, cozy. That's what they were on the outside. On the inside? The were fucked in the head. After the accident, my sister developed amaxophobia, 'the irrational fear of driving a car or being a passenger in one'. So the social worker goes through it with them, telling them to avoid car travel for a while. A week or so later, my parents were still in the ICU and I get a phone call from an unknown number, so I answer it and I just hear a little girl crying on the end of the line. She says 'Jay, I don't want to be here anymore, they hurt me'."
My heart sinks.
"So I rush over to see what's wrong and I burst through the door. The called the cops on me which is fair enough but I see my sister in the corner, curled up with bruises all up her arms. So I snap. And I beat the shit out the man there. The cops came and put me in the cells for the night and my little sister was removed from their care."
I see some glossiness over his eyes, one might mistake for tears.
"How they hurt her killed me. After hearing about her amaxophobia, they forced her in a car and drove down the fucking highway at 120 mph while she was crying in the backseat." He finished
"I'm sorry," was all I could think to say.
"Why are you telling me this?" Surly there had to be a catch, stuff like this always had a price.
"Because I have a sixth sense you could say," I raised an eyebrow," I can tell when people have been hurt in the past. And if they're still hurting. And you, are still hurting. I'm not going to ask don't worry." I silently sighed out of relief because I'm not dishing my life story out to Jace.
Finally he pulled up to the college at 8:30am. I didn't have any classes today so I was in no rush.
I got out of the car but paused before closing the door.
"Thank you." I said
"For the ride? Anytime firecracker." He smirked and I laughed slightly at the nickname.
"For that, and everything else."
Then I closed the door and walked back to my dorm room.
And once I got inside, I started to shift through all this new information I'd acquired because holy shit, it was a lot.
Maybe there is more to Jace than meets the eye.
********
1265 words
A/N:
I think this is my biggest chapter to date but I had to dive into Jace's backstory... a little.
That's right! He's more complex than you think.
I'm also gonna try to ad Delilah in a bit more because in my p opinion she's so cute.
Also you'll find out a lil more about Arabella in the next chapter in a ✨group therapy✨ scene.
That's all the teasers you get for now.
Byeeeee