We were all sat around the, pardon my French, huge ass dining table, eating a stunning meal of roasted chicken, baked potatoes and salad, all made by Patrick.
When I had first visited this house I had expected a dozen maids and cooks, waiting on them hand and foot, but I'd been pleasantly surprised when Patrick had told me that the only help they had was a cleaner coming twice a week.
"It's a large house to clean." He'd said and winked.
Mom and Patrick were talking about wedding stuff, which I purposely blocked from my head. Instead I focused on scarfing down the mouth-watering chicken. It was seriously the best I'd ever had. Not even dad could make something like this. No hard feelings, right? Right.
"So Chloe," Jace said, putting down his knife and fork. "Do you know if we're in any classes together this year?" I reluctantly stopped eating and gazed at him from across the table.
"I really wouldn't know Jace. We've only been back one day." I didn't know why I was behaving so politely. Probably because our parents were sitting right next to us. Had this happened in the halls at school I would probably have checked my surroundings for any traps or signs that I was about to get a bucket of water poured over me.
No matter his private seemingly likeable manners I knew it all went out the window everyday from eight to three.
I started eating again. Apparently he wasn't satisfied with my answer.
"Well we should find out, compare schedules." His words had my eyebrows automatically rise and disappeared behind my bangs.
I checked to see that our parents were deeply engrossed in their conversation, and each other, before leaning in over the table and hissed;
"We have barely said two words to each other at school throughout this entire parental relationship, so why start now? We both know you don't socialise with lower-ranking students."
I checked on our parents again, though they weren't gawping at us, so I took it that they hadn't heard me.
Jace sat with a hand resting on the table; the other was cupped around his neck. The sign of an uncomfortable man. Ha.
"You're right, I haven't exactly paid you much attention, have I?" I waited for him to continue, but then Patrick asked if we would help clear the table and set up for dessert.
I looked for any signs that Jace would continue our conversation, but his face was an unreadable mask. An annoyingly flawless mask. Ugh.
Laddered with dirty dishes I went through the room and into the adjoining kitchen. It was huge and spacious like the rest of the house, designed with lots of wood, shining marble and stone. Spared no expense.
Sometimes I still found it difficult to believe that soon I would be living in all this luxury as well.
I set the dishes on the marble counter by the dishwasher.
"Dad says to just leave them and he'll do them later."
I whipped around to see Jace leaning against the entrance, watching me with his hands full of chicken and salad.
"Uhm, sure," I said and stepped away from the counter, finding a dishtowel to wipe my hands.
Jace walked over to where I had been before and dispatched his own load of dishes next to mine.
"About before," he began, but words seemed to fail him.
"You're still an ass, Jace, don't let this new situation stop you from being your true self." The wave of sudden confidence left me as soon as the words were out of my mouth. The muscles in his back seemed to tense up and as he slowly turned around I expected to see his "you're dead" face, but no. His face showed absolutely no sign of emotion.
"Fine."
"Fine."
We stood there looking at each other, none of us knew where to go from there.
"Kids, what's taking so long?" Patrick Jones's voice floated in from the hallway and with quick strides, Jace went over to the freezer and pulled out a tub of ice cream. Patrick appeared in the doorway, his eyes moving from me standing awkwardly to the side, to Jace by the freezer.
"Just getting dessert dad," Jace said and he turned to look at me. I wondered if he was going to say anything to his father, but I didn't think he would.
"Chloe, could you get the bowls? They're right behind you in the cupboard above you." His voice was calm and almost, if you'd care to believe it, caring, though I knew better. I nodded, keeping my eyes away from his and turned to fetch the bowls.
Entering the dining room once again, Jace with the ice cream - mint chocolate chip I noticed, my fave - me with the bowls and Patrick carrying the spoons, my mother looked up from her seat at the table, her face easier to read than a children book; she already saw us like a perfect family, helping each other out in the kitchen. If I didn't know any better I'd be sure she would burst into tears, but she contained herself, though the pride in her eyes didn't go away.
"I heard mint choc was your favourite Chloe," Patrick said as we all found our seats. I sent him a genuine smile, happy to transfer my attention from that spawn of his sitting opposite me.
"It sure is," I grinned, noticing smugly how my portion was just a little bigger than Jace's.
"Even though she spewed green after eating a whole tub herself, it still didn't put her off." I felt my ears burn and cheeks flare as I turned my head and stared at my mother in utter disbelief. Her smile faded gradually as no one cared to comment on her little side remark. She finally saw me glaring at her.
"What honey? It's true? You were what, nine at the time?" Shaking my head I turned my focus to the bowl of delicious ice cream sitting right in front of me. Could she be anymore embarrassing? I dug into my dessert and felt all the tension melt away as the minty chocolate chip goodness engulfed all senses.
I felt Jace's eyes on me before he even spoke.
"Just warn us in case you need a bucket? Or the toilet." He choked down a laugh and I choked down a spiteful remark to throw in his face. I felt my ears heat up once more and busied myself with solely thinking about going home in a little bit, not having to see his face again until tomorrow at school.
"Behave, Jace," Patrick said sternly and I was relieved, when I finally looked up, to see that time had somehow managed to move quicker than I had anticipated.
"Mom, we should get home soon, I want to give Zeus a walk before it gets too dark." It was only eight and the sun was nowhere near ready to make its descend beyond the horizon. Still, I wanted to get away from that smug-faced dirtball across from me. If I hadn't already eaten all my ice cream, I'd consider throwing it in his face to wipe that grin away.
But no need to make myself a target at school. So far so good, and a small part of me had even hoped, with this whole family uniting thing, that we'd have somewhat a decent relationship, Jace and I. Friendship! I meant friendship! Oh jeez, even my own inner monologue was betraying me. Jace was a cocky jock, no matter his looks and seemingly flirtatious charm.
It took us another good twenty-minutes before I finally managed to drag my mother out of the front door. She had insisted that her and Patrick needed to review some more wedding stuff so they had disappeared into his office, leaving me with Jace.
Saying there was a bit of an awkward silence floating between us was like saying Mrs Rosenbaum never talked about flowers.
My arms were folded across my chest, matching the closed off expression on my face. Why couldn't we just leave already? The wedding was still months away and it wasn't like the florist would suddenly go out of business or anything.
"So I was thinking..." I snorted the second the words left his mouth.
"Yeah because that always goes well," I muttered under my breath.
"Listen up miss sassy pants." Oh, I'm shaking in my pants. "I'm captain of the football team, star quarterback and the most popular and handsomest guy at school, hell in the whole school district." I swear, if the house didn't have such a high ceiling, he'd have hit his inflated ego on it ages ago.
I looked over at him, watching him stand tall, with or without intention, flexing his large biceps and all in all looking like a giant, pompous arse. See; don't say I haven't learned anything from them being British.
"And look where that's gotten you," I retorted, taking a step towards him, feeling my entire body burning with hatred for his arrogant asshole standing in front of me, thinking he was oh so better than be because of some little extra cash and looks. "You're a self-centred rich kid who can't think beyond yourself or what girl to hook up with next."
I was almost panting, I was so fired up. It felt good to let out all this tension that had just been slowly boiling up inside of me, waiting for that perfect moment to unleash itself on the assigned target and now was the time.
Jace stepped closer, a smirk still playing on his face as if what I had just told him was nothing he didn't already know to be true.
"You're arrogant," I stepped closer, "cruel", everything had turned so warm in here, "annoying as hell," I could feel his breath on my face, "and I..." I finally stopped once I realised just how close we were standing; our feet were nearly touching and looked up in those blue eyes less than a foot away from me.
Breathing turned out to be a difficult task to muster in such a situation. I wanted to turn on my heel and flee this room, but something; or rather someone made that hard for me to do.
"And you what?" His breath was warm and I could smell the delicious ice cream flavour coming from it. Almost made me want to grab his face and...
"And I don't..." His eyes opened themselves to me and I could see into this whole other world; blue oceans everywhere, no thoughts or words needed in such a place. Time was at a standstill, everything frozen in place, including us.
"Like you," I muttered, afraid to shatter this, I didn't even know what to call it, moment that was going on if I spoke too loud.
Another breath of air hit my face, reminding myself to breathe. I exhaled deeply, feeling my chest rise and fall as I consumed the oxygen that had been lacking from my system.
"You don't or you do?" His question was barely a whisper, almost making me think he was feeling this oddity of the fragile situation as well. His eyes were wide an alert, staring at me with such intensity that I was afraid they'd burn two circular holes right through me.
The voices of our parents exiting the office hit us both like a bolt of lightening, but I was the first to move away, leaving Jace rooted in place.
My face was probably turning the shade of Rudolph's nose and I avoided his look with all I my power. Whatever moment had just happened between us that certainly could not happen again. I'd been caught up in the heat of the moment, spitting out all my hatred for this guy and he just stood there and absorbed it all in.
"Chloe, Jace? We want to talk to you about something." My mother's gentle voice made me instantly guilty of whatever had just taken place. She could see right through me.
"I confess, there was a reason for this dinner tonight," Patrick said and Jace opened his mouth, but obviously, his father knew him just as well as my mother knew me. "And not just because you have to eat everyday." Jace shut his mouth with a grin, and I managed to look away before he caught me staring.
"The ice cream was a bit of a bribe to soften you up for what we're about to tell you." Oh boy. Bribing me with my favourite ice cream was definitely a cause of worry. Oh God. What if they were having a baby? Having a baby sister or a baby brother that was part Jace certainly didn't appeal to me at this particular moment, still I braced myself for the horrible news.
"We've decided to speed up the process of this family reunion." My mother was beaming at me like a radiant lighthouse. Speed up the process? They couldn't be talking about the wedding, could they? No, I knew my mom too well for that. She wanted the grand perfect wedding that took months of preparation.
"We're moving in this weekend."
Silence.
Dead silence.
All around silence whilst my brain was trying to digest this new information and figure out how to react. I guess my first initial thought was to scream out in protest, but that really only worked when you were six and not sixteen. Instead I just stood there, mouth slightly open like a fish, slowly becoming a statue.
My mom's arms closing around me tightly seemed to thaw me and I responded by hugging her back.
"I hope you're not upset with me for not telling you sooner, preparing you for it." She muttered into my hair, muffling the sound, though it didn't make it any harder to understand. I understood perfectly. By this time next week I'd be living in this house, with Jace. Eating dinner here every night, with Jace. Brushing my teeth in the bathroom, with Jace. It dawned on me just how much time I would be spending with him, the arrogant quarterback that somehow got under my skin like no one else.
"As long as you're happy mom," I said, knowing it was what she wanted to hear.
Patrick drew me in for a hug as well and I could honestly say that he was perfect for my mother. Just the way he looked at her made me jealous that no one ever looked at me in that way. I was so happy for them, so happy that I didn't complain or protest against this hasty moving process they'd decided on.
In the hallway I numbly put on my sneakers, already dreading tomorrow when Carrie would throw a girlish fit when I told her the news. If she didn't have after school clubs to attend practically every day of the week, I would have dragged her back here with me just to not be alone with Mr Quarterback.
My body registered his presence before my brain did. A scary thought.
"See you tomorrow Chloe." His smooth voice sent chills across my skin, despite the warm night coming in from the opened front door. I met his gaze for a fleeting second, not daring to look at him any longer as the scene from before was constantly replaying in my head.
"See you," I replied, turning around to follow my mom out of the door and to our car. In a week I wouldn't have to leave afterwards. I couldn't leave. I'd be stuck here, in this giant house with him. I supposed that was good thing, the house being big that was. More places to hide out. The forest that lay between the house and the lake would be seeing a lot of me that was for sure.
The whole car ride home was spent in silence. I was sure my mother let me have the peace to digest the news. I thought I'd still have several weeks before having to pack up my life and move in with the Jones'. Now I only had four days.
As we turned into our driveway my mom shut off the engine and turned her body towards me before I could get out the door.
"Sweetie I wanted to wait until we were here before I asked you; are you sure you're okay with all of this? You know your opinion matters the most to me." My mom looked at me and I sighed. I should have known this was coming. She'd had this particular 'talk' with me numerous times since her and Patrick had announced their engagement.
I looked at her and produced a smile.
"Mom, are you happy? Does Patrick make you happy?" Redundant question really, but it was the only way I could explain it right.
"I've never been happier honey." And it showed. It showed clearer than a cloudless sky.
"Then how could I not be happy also?" I leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"We had to move sooner or later, it just became sooner." I got out of the car, already hearing Zeus on the other side of the front door, scratching it impatiently.
After a nice and quiet walk with Zeus I was lying in bed, the little dog curled up on the covers at the foot of the bed, fast asleep. That made one of us.
I couldn't stop replaying the strange scene with Jace in the dining room over and over in my head, trying to analyse what the heck had been going on in there.
He got on my every damn nerve yet whenever I tried to close my eyes all I could see were these piercing blue eyes that looked right through all of my pretences.
Several hours passed and I finally drifted off to sleep, dreaming about lips tasting like mint chocolate chip ice cream.