Jace Vanderbilt
If anyone knew me, they would know how bad I was at waking up before 11. What never helped was the fact that I had a California king bed that felt like a mass of clouds and everything soft in the world. My room was always dark since the blinds were controlled by a remote that had a sleep mode, which meant no sunlight could ever possibly seeps through without turning the mode off. My room was basically designed to trap me in deep sleep, so you can imagine how grumpy and grouchy I was when Ali and my cousin Ellie jumped on my bed to wake me up.
I was sure that it was not 11 as my blinds would've automatically went up, just as how I set them to be for the weekends when I didn't have shit to do.
"get...."
"Out...."
I growled, to say that I was annoyed was a huge understatement. I was beyond annoyed. I was pissed. Especially when I haven't had a free weekend since summer ended. We always had football practice early on the weekends. And these two brats were ruining the day I was looking forward to these past few weeks.
"Shut up and get up, Jay. Mom has been telling us to come call you, the whole family is arriving soon." Ali flopped on top of me and flicked my forehead. If it were anyone else, I would have murdered her by now. "Plus, your phone had been going off for the past hour. You might want to check it."
What? Who the hell would be texting me at this time when the guys knew better than to disturb me before 11 on the weekends.
I grabbed my phone and got up so fast that I felt the blood rush from my small head to the big one, giving me a fat ass headache.
I had a missed call and a text from Avery. From an hour ago. Fuck. Holy fuck.
"Why didn't you wake me?!" I growled at Ali who flared her nostrils at me and shook her head before getting off my bed with Ellie who was laughing. "It's not funny, it was an important call. For our project."
"Is that what you old heads call it these days? Project?" Ellie and Ali both bursted in laughters before leaving my room. Goddamn it.
Fuck. I missed the chance to hear her voice. Fuck...
Should I call her back?
So I did.
"Hello?" She answered after four beeping noises. I was in a daze from hearing her soft, gentle voice that totally did not help my morning wood situation. Fuck I should not have called. "Jace?"
Oh my god, why did my name sound so much better then she said it? I wanted to hear her say it again.
"Oh, um I missed your call. Sorry I was sleeping."
"No, I'm sorry I should've thought about how early it was... um..." she was mumbling again. "Um tomorrow, your house? I just wanted to confirm... sorry I should have just texted and not um"
"Avery." I stopped her, trying to hold back my laughters over how fucking adorable she sounded right now. She was nervous. And I knew it. "It's alright, I'm glad you called. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yes..." She was quiet, waiting for me to respond but I wanted to hear her voice some more instead of saying bye just like that.
"What are you doing today?"
"Um... I um have work then my friends are coming over to have a PLL marathon..." She giggled softly at the end and I wanted nothing more than to rush over to her house right now and kiss her. Wait what. Fucking hell, Jace calm yourself.
And then she said, "um... if you want to join..."
Oh my god, was she inviting me over to her house? Goddamn it why did I have to have family dinner today.... oh man.
"Sorry it's okay if you don't I shouldn't have umm-"
"No, no it's alright. I wish I could, really. But I have a very important family dinner tonight that I can't miss or else I really would, Avery." Goddamn it.
She was quiet again, did I embarrass her for turning her down? Jesus Christ. "Do you umm want to grab breakfast with me?"
Good shit, Jace. Nice save.
"Umm..." she was hesitating. Fuck, did I overdo it? Did I scare her off? I was good at rough meaningless relationships with nothing but sex, but vanilla romance like this, with someone as pure and good as Avery was, I didn't fucking have a clue about.
"Sure..."
I have never felt so happy and excited in my entire life than right here right now, listening to her soft voice and hearing her say yes. I was so happy.
"I'll pick you up in 30? Or did you need more time?"
"Oh no 30 minutes is alright, I'll see you." She said and hung up, my heart was beating so fucking fast that I was scared she might hear it.
I was gonna go on a breakfast date with Avery.
42 pine street, she said her address was.
She lived in a rather nice neighborhood but her house was too small for my liking. It was the same size as the guest house in our backyard. But I didn't like that her house wasn't protected by gates, it wasn't safe. Maybe I should install some gates for her, but then I remembered that might be a bit fucking much.
Avery opened the door after a few minutes and locked it after her before walking to my car. She looked so goddamn pretty in her hoodie that I would think looked horrible on every girl at school. How was it possible for her to be so beautiful that she could take my breath away in a simple hoodie like this?
I was leaning against my car and couldn't help but stared at her as she was walking toward me. She looked at me then looked down at the ground, there it was, her nervous self. I loved it.
"Hi..." she whispered and stopped in front of me.
"Hi, you." I just stood there and took in all her gorgeousness before opening the door for her to get in.
Avery looked out the window and I don't know if she noticed that she was swaying her head to the music, but I didn't want her to stop. She looked so goddamn cute, are you sick of hearing me say it? Too bad. If you could see her, you'd know what I'm talking about.
When we got to the diner, Avery ordered a stack of pancakes with strawberries and whip while I ordered the same but with Nutella and bananas.
"What's your favorite breakfast food?"
"Pancakes... I really like pancakes." Then, even if it were for a quick second, I saw it. Avery smiled. And I almost crashed from how much shaking it did to my poor heart. "What about you?"
"I love pancakes. All my siblings love pancakes. I think we got it from our mom." I chuckled, it was true. Pancakes was the dish of choice for our household. "What other food do you like?"
"French fries!" She raised her voice by half a pitch and volume, making my inside stir again. "Tillamooks chocolate ice cream. And hot chocolate..."
"Hot chocolate isn't a food, Ave." I laughed at her lips that curved into a small pout.
"It is if you froze it and turned it into a popsicle. It's quite good in the summer time when you're craving hot chocolate but it's too hot to drink it hot..." she stopped herself and got embarrassed. "Yeah..."
God, she was going to end me.
"I'd like to try that sometime in the summer, could you make me some?" Nice Jace, scoring a date 7 months in advance. Now that's what I like to hear.
She nodded and smiled before our food came. I couldn't even focus on my delicious pancakes when all I could do was watch Avery eat her pancakes in the most adorable way anyone could eat them. She was only after the twins when they devour theirs.
"So why did you move here? If you don't mind me asking." Then I knew I had asked the wrong thing because her smile disappeared and she put her utensils down. "It's alright if you don't want to say..."
"Um, my adopted dad passed away from cancer and so my adopted mom couldn't stand living there anymore. So we moved." she smiled softly before picking up her utensils and eating her pancakes again.
Oh my god... I had almost forgotten that Avery West was adopted. "Oh... I'm so sorry to hear that, about your dad." I didn't care if she were adopted or not, Avery was Avery to me no matter who her family was. But knowing that she was adopted made me like her more, thinking about how strong this girl must be and how much she could've possibly gone through. Yet she was so soft, so gentle, and so kind. "Do you like your adopted family? Do they treat you well?"
"They treat me way better than I'd like to believe I deserve...." she smiled again, "I was really lucky. The West's are really kind. I don't think I would have been okay if I went into foster homes and such."
"How did they come around to adopting you?" I was intrigued and wanted to know everything about her but I didn't want to push on even further.
"Um, my mom was a doctor who came across a troubled 6 years ago and decided to adopt me." I could tell she didn't want to go deeper than that so I didn't want to push her. That was way more than enough for me, for now. I was certain that I will find out more about Avery West, but right now she had already given me more than my expected monthly progress. Breakfast AND a thin layer of her past.
After that, we went on and talked about everything from all time low phase which she had no idea what I was talking about because she only listened to classical music mostly. And snacks, drinks, games, and I found out a lot more than I could've hoped for today about Avery West.
Enough to know that I liked her.
When I got home after dropping her off, I was holding the box of candies we had bought and shared while talking on the hood of my car. I couldn't even hide my giddy smiles even if I wanted to. I just went on a date with Avery West and confirmed that I liked her.
Can today get any better?
"Jace!" And to answer that question, yes it could. The entire Monrova family was here, including auntie Rosie who was currently studying for her masters. She rubbed my head and punched my arm, that was her way of showing love. "How are you doing punk?"
"Aunt Rose, I am definitely not a punk. And I'm doing fine, very busy can't you tell by the bags under my eyes?" Aunt Rose was gorgeous, she looked just like mom. And I knew she was one hell of a player, too. I've met many of her boyfriends but never one who had lasted longer than a few weeks.
"If your bags are bad, I can't imagine how bad they must be on your parents for dealing with your shit all the time." Sweet sweet aunt Rose. "So when do I get to meet the girl?"
"Mom told you didn't she?" I groaned. "Aunt Rose please she's not my girlfriend yet...."
"I was just jabbing hoping to land on something but wow! So there IS a girl and wow you actually like her. You actually talk about her as if she were a human being, unlike all the other ones." Goddamn it, she tricked me. Auntie Rosie was even better than my mom at picking at all my secrets even since we were younger. But she would never rat me out to my mom.
We walked out to the veranda where the family was and I went to greet Great-Grandpa and Grandpa first before anyone else. "Jace, my boy! You've grown up so well, come here let me look at you."
Great-Grandfather had always said I was his biggest pride and joy, since the Monrova family didn't have that many boys. He always told me about how he had hopes for me to start training soon and enter the company as CEO when my dad was ready to retire.
"Hi, Great-Gramps, how have you been? You look dashing for 80." I knew my sweet words always worked on him, but I wasn't lying. The guy really did look good and still as powerful as ever. Same with my grandpa, mom's dad. Grandpa Zach had a girlfriend now from what I recalled hearing mom's conversation with auntie Rose.
After, I went to say hi to uncle Colton and uncle Elijah who were playing on our mini golf course with dad and Amelia. Surprisingly, she was extremely into golf which was something I could never relate to. It was too slow and too boring for my taste.
"Are you still being a rebellious teenage and defying your dad here to play football?" Uncle Colton chuckled and handed me a drink which made my dad frown. "Fight on, buddy. Fight on. If you need me, you know how to find me."
"Colton." My dad growled. "You know he has to focus on bigger things like the company soon."
"Yeah but soon isn't today or tomorrow, Wren. Relax and let my nephew be the mischievous bad ass from the Vanderbilt blood running through him." Colton winked at me and that made my dad sigh. He knew he had lost because back in their days, both of them were just as bad ass. I heard stories about dad in college from uncle Elijah and still refuse to believe my dad was ever that wild.
"Wren was definitely a buzz kill during high school when he was training so intensively." Uncle Eli walked up to us and gave me a hug. "But then when college came along, the guy was wild as hell. Until Pennie got pregnant with Jace. Jesus, what a freaking rollercoaster."
"What do you mean? I was not wild...." my dad turned back to his golfing and I knew he was praying that uncle Eli wouldn't continue.
"Oh yeah? Don't make me tell Jace of those times we went bar hopping between 16 different countries in one day." Things like that didn't come as a shock for me anymore as I learned that there was nearly nothing that was impossible for this family to do. "Or that time we made you-"
"Eli, it's a good time to shut it now." Colton laughed as my father was glaring at uncle Eli who was laughing his ass off. Must have been nice to have relationships like I had with my friends, but even more closely bonded. Uncle Elijah was holding his youngest 2 year-old daughter, Victoria, when his wife, aunt Aria, walked up to him to hand him a drink.
"Jace grew up very nicely, huh babe." Aunt Aria chuckled at me while taking baby V from uncle Eli. "Goodness he looks so much like Wren back in the day when the whole school used to be terrified of Wren. Remember how we used to call him the prince of darkness because he was always scolding?"
What? My dad was terrifying back then? I mean, he was terrifying now too whenever he was going to punish me or attempted to punish Ali. Attempted. But I couldn't imagine dad being that scary back then.
"You're lucky Pennie was able to handle all your mood swings and still managed to love you, Jesus. It was hard for all of us to not punch you whenever you were grouchy as hell. Which was all the freaking time." Uncle Eli shook his head and aunt Aria laughed. I could imagine that actually. Maybe that's where I got my short temper from.
After the family dinner which was filled with dating, sex, and college questions hitting me left and right, I was finally in my room alone after everyone had left. I was a bit tipsy as uncle Colton was feeding me different shots left and right, which made dad mad but he didn't forbid me from taking them.
Before I went upstairs, I had made sure to remind my mom and Darcy to let the maids know to expect Avery tomorrow for our study date at 11.
I missed her.
She was on my mind all goddamn day. I wanted to text her but I was so busy with the family dinner, especially when I knew how much my great-gramps hated us being on our phones during family time. So I decided to text her, I wanted to hear her voice.
Can I call you for a little bit?
But then, she didn't reply so I went to take a shower and when I got back on my bed, I completely forgot about my phone and crashed right into my comfortable bed for a king after turning my blinds on sleep mode.