A loud thump sounded as my phone made contact with the hardwood floors. Jace stood by the window in his all-black attire. I've been watching the security cameras for the past hour and his entrance was never documented—rendering the installation of the device useless.
I reached for my phone, glancing at my door, wondering if I should leave to get my dad or not.
"We need to talk, Elliot," he said removing the hood of his cloak. It was jarring to see his familiar, golden boy face, now geared up in this unusual attire. A black cloak hung from his shoulders, clasped at the front of his throat—like something straight out of Game of Thrones. There was a knife strapped to his belt, along with the electric baton, their presence reminding me that he was dangerous.
He took a step forward, and I shrunk back closer to the wall. "Have you finally come to explain yourself?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest—my attempt at acting tough when I was actually very afraid.
He couldn't meet my eyes. "Something like that." He shifted between his feet, finally settling on a wide stance. He seemed very out of place and uncomfortable standing in the middle of my bedroom.
"If you think you're going to put another one of those mental blocks on me, you can think again."
"How do you even know about that?" He passed a hand through his hair, messing up his perfect curls. "You shouldn't have been able to remember anything from that night—I made sure of it."
"Let's just say that you weren't the only person who decided to give me a little visit this past week," I shrugged.
We made eye contact as the realization settled in. "What color are my eyes?" He asked.
"Are you seriously that self-obsessed that you think I've sat around and thought about what color your eyes are?"
"Just close your eyes and answer the question."
"Hazel?" I said, my voice rising at the end, not sure if I'd guessed correctly.
I looked to see Jace staring at me through a narrowed gaze. He didn't seem too happy, which meant I probably guessed correctly. "I can't believe she did this to me." He shook his head, eyeing me from head to toe. "Why you and why now?"
"Am I supposed to know what you're on about?"
"I guess not." He paced back and forth in my room, making me more anxious than before.
"Any other questions related to your appearance you'd like me to answer?"
He stopped pacing to face me as if remembering that I was still standing a couple of feet away from him. "How good are you at keeping secrets?"
"Depends," I shrugged, my lips turning up into a smile.
"I'm being serious, Elliot," He paused, watching me with a glint in his eyes, and moved to stand within arm's reach. "Unless you want your parents to spend the rest of their lives wondering to where their youngest daughter disappeared."
My eyes widen and my throat clamped up. "Are you being serious right now?" I managed to choke out, watching a grin form onto Jace's face.
"Deadly."
"...I guess I'd consider myself to be an excellent secret keeper." I forced a strained smile onto my face.
"Good," he said, "if you can keep your mouth shut for the next couple of days until I figure some things out, that'd be great."
"You got it, boss." I managed a cheeky smile, trying to ease up the tension. He eyed me down for a bit longer than I would have liked. This close to him, I could see the gold flecks inside of the forest green of his eyes. They mixed to appear as a light brown from afar, but from here, I could see the difference between the two colors.
After a couple more seconds of silence, he shook his head and walked away from me to the window. "I have a feeling I'm going to regret this."
"Yea," I nodded, "probably."
He looked back at me one more time. "Goodbye, Elliot," he said, disappearing through the window.
I quickly closed and locked the window before letting out a sigh of relief. I glanced at my cream curtains, wondering what I could do to stop him from using this as an entrance. I wasn't too keen on him being able to come and go as he pleased, especially when I wasn't here.
I looked back into my room, suddenly thankful that it wasn't a mess, except for my desk that was littered with books and random papers, making the space too crowded to actually work on. I unlocked my door to find Lou sitting patiently, his tail wagging. He immediately waltzed in and made himself comfortable on my bed. I found that weird since he preferred to sleep in my parent's room, but I guess he could tell that I needed his protection tonight.
The next morning, I reluctantly dragged myself to school, dreading seeing Jace in the halls, acting like business as usual meanwhile, I had a completely new perspective of him. He wasn't the perfect boy we all thought he was, and I questioned a lot about his true character. So far, he's shown me a different persona—opposite of Golden Boy Jace—that honestly scared me. The way he can switch off the charming personality and slip into this dark demeanor made me question a lot of the interactions I've seen him have with other people. It was scary how good he was able to trick everyone that he was this good guy.
Cami found me in the hall on the way to our first-period class, threading her arm through mine. "Operation: find out Jace's secret, is now in progress. I say we follow him during lunch today to see where he goes," said Cami as she guided us to homeroom.
Shit.
I forgot I had already told Cami that Jace was acting suspiciously over the phone in the library the other day. Now I had to convince her to drop the investigation before I ended up spilling more information that would really turn Jace onto me. He probably wasn't kidding about making me disappear last night.
"Right, about that. Do you really think we should be wasting our time focused on Golden Boy Jace? It's bad enough that the whole school is in love with him. I think he can do without our attention."
Cami's arm swiveled out from under mine and she spun me to face her. "Are you being serious right now? Don't you want to find out the one flaw of our beloved Golden Boy to finally knock him off that pedestal?"
"It's not that I don't want to do those things—I just don't want to waste my time. We're seniors, Cami!" I said, waving my hands up and down. "We only have a couple of months left to enjoy our childhood before it all goes to shit in college."
"I disagree," she said, shaking her head, " I think this could be the highlight of our year, to be honest. It's not like anything else is happening in this town."
"Okay, but who is honestly going to believe us?" I asked. No one ever says anything bad about Jace, and I rather us not ruin whatever reputation we have by starting rumors about him.
"If we find proof, they'll have no choice but to believe us. Plus, everyone is so obsessed with cancel culture now that they'll eat it up."
My head sprung up with a new thought. "Cami, what color are his eyes?"
"What?"
"What color are his eyes?" I urged, "answer the question."
"I don't get how that has anything to do with our conversation, but they are blue."
I couldn't help but stop short to take in a deep breath. "What do you mean they're blue?"
"They're blue, Elliot. Like bright ass blue." Cami put a hand to my shoulder, watching me with softened eyes. "Are you okay? You seemed a little too shocked about this information. What color did you think they were?"
I cleared my throat, fixing a smile on my face. "No, it's just that I remembered I never handed in my PowerPoint for Mr. Johns' class. I have to go." I turned away from Cami and sped walked towards the girl's bathroom, where I locked myself in a stall to settle down my thoughts. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the reality of the situation I was put in. There was so much that I didn't understand and likely never would. Having Cami look at me like I was the crazy one sent everything spiraling in my head.
That explains why Jace was so surprised I knew the color of his eyes. I'm probably the only person in this school who could accurately describe his features—something he wasn't happy about. Everyone else sees a different version of him—a version with blue eyes and platinum blonde hair. It was honestly impressive that he's managed to trick everyone he's ever met.
Whatever Dayna did to me allowed me to view Jace as he really was, instead of as whatever version he wanted people to see. A part of me is honestly upset that he is still just as handsome with hazel eyes and golden brown curls. I'm assuming that he's just changed the parts of his appearance that could easily be defined during a line-up if he were ever to get caught.
By the time I steadied my breathing, first period was almost over, so I walked out to the field and sat on the benches to get some fresh air. The early November air wasn't suitable for casually being outside, but the cold helped sharpen my mind and distinguish what was real or fake.
I was enjoying the quiet field since none of the teams were practicing outside yet, when someone decided to sit next to me.
It was Dave. He sent me a quick smile before settling in on the bench to my left. "Cami told me you were acting weird this morning. Anything you want to talk about?"
I faced forward so that I wouldn't have to see the genuine concern on his face. "Everything is fine, Dave."
"If that's the case, then why are you sitting outside on a cold bench, staring off into the field, like if you were in one of those sad music videos."
"I don't know. Sometimes it's just easier to do things that don't make sense." I whirled around to face him. "What are you doing out here? Come to check up on me or something that involves a lighter?"
Dave scuffed, pulling out his perfectly rolled joint. "Alright, what's your point? It relaxes me, and honestly helps me focus better in class."
"That's no excuse to be smoking on school property. Aren't you worried about getting caught?"
"No." He takes a pull from his joint and offers it to me, but I shake my head declining. "At this point, it'd probably be more suspicious if I wasn't high."
"Seriously, you should probably stop doing that before you become too dependent on it."
"It's a little late for that—hey, where are you going?" asks Dave after he sees me getting up.
I grabbed my bag and swung it over my shoulder, pushing past Dave on the bench. "I can't go in smelling like weed."
"Just stand next to Gerald Fran so everyone will assume it's him."
"I rather not. You have fun, though. I'll see you at lunch." I said, walking away before the smell could latch onto my clothes for the rest of the day.
I left Dave wishing that he hadn't shown up to interrupt my alone time, but it was probably for the best, considering I couldn't feel my butt on the bench anymore from the numbing cold.
After entering the building, I passed a classroom, naturally looking inside as I walked by, and immediately made eye contact with Jace. I averted my gaze as quickly as I could and practically jogged away from the classroom.
I heard the door open and close to my dismay, a pair of footsteps sounding behind me. "Hey." His voice echoed in the empty hallway.
I choose to continue walking, with the hope that he would take the hint and leave me alone. He didn't. His footsteps sounded right behind me. He tapped my shoulder, so I finally stopped to face him.
"Golden Boy Jace, how are you?" I asked, knowing that the nickname would successfully piss him off.
"Never call me that."
"Whatever you wish...Golden Boy."
He rolled his eyes and stuck his hands in his jean pockets, making him look more like the innocent Jace I've seen around all of these years. "Look, I know that you probably hate this just as much as I do, but we need to set some ground rules before shit gets a little too messy."
"Sure."
"For one, I need you to act normal around me. You can't run away every time you see me and avoid me in all conversations. Just act natural and pretend that the most you know about me is my name."
"Is that all you want?"
"For now." I nod and he turns to leave, but then comes back. "I'm throwing a party on Friday. You should come."
"Another party?" I asked, squinting my eyes at him. "Are you even going to be there?"
"Yes, I am. Come to the party Elliot. You won't regret it, I promise." He sends me one of his signature smiles— the ones he uses to melt the hearts of everyone who encounters them, and makes his way back into his class, just as the bell rings.