The question was so surprising to Haley that she didn't have an answer for him. Part of her wanted to say yes. But another part of her wanted to say no, not knowing if she could handle getting deeper into something that could just end. It was that part of her that took a step back.
Before she could take another, Jace reached out and grabbed her hand.
"Come on, Haley Day," he said, "friends don't leave each other hanging when they are in need of help."
He tugged her forward and Haley blindly followed, stunned by his easy use of the term friends. It wasn't that it was shocking that he had admitted it, but that Haley agreed with it. When Jace opened his front door, he let go of Haley's hand, trusting her to now follow. As she stepped inside, she was struck by the scent of freshly baked cookies.
"Yes!" Jace said in triumphant. "It was a good day."
When she gave him a baffled look, he explained.
"My mom works from home, she's a computer programmer. It's been a good day when she bakes because there is downtime as she waits for things to recalibrate or whatever. If it's a bad day she doesn't bake cause she's spent the whole day trying to figure what's wrong with the coding."
"Is your mom Wonder woman or something?" Haley asked.
Leading the way to the kitchen, Jace just laughed. "I think she is."
Sitting on the counter in neat rows were chocolate chip cookies. Some even had steam still rising from them. Without hesitating, Jace stacked six cookies on top of each other and stuck one in his mouth. When he faced Haley, she couldn't help grinning at how funny he looked with a cookie hanging out. Biting it, he grinned back.
"Grab some and let's go."
"So those are all for you?" she asked, eying the stack.
Jace scoffed. "Of course. I'm an only child, I don't share."
Shaking her head, Haley took a cookie and bit into it. It was warm, gooey and tasted like memories. Jace watched her, smiling.
"Good, right?"
"Amazing. They are just like the ones my mom and I used to cook for her open houses."
"You don't anymore?"
Haley shrugged and examined the cookie in her hands.
"She has someone else do it. Which is fine."
Jace nodded, his expression curious. When Haley raised her head, he said nothing and directed their way upstairs. As they headed down a hallway, Haley was treated to a gallery of family photos. Most of them were crammed with faces she had seen the day before. Towards the end of the hall, a soft, but firm voice spoke.
"You understand that means that I will have to recode the entire site, correct?" A pause. "As long as you're certain this is what you want. It will be down for three hours."
They passed an open doorway. Inside was an array of computer screens, all laid out before Jace's mother. She sat in a chair, one leg tucked under her and her hair pulled into a messy bun. From behind she looked as if she could be a college student. Not wanting to bother her, Jace pushed his door open and nodded for Haley to enter.
Having spent years living across from Jace, Haley figured she knew what his room looked like. But seeing it from this angle felt strange. She could make out the names on the posters on the far wall, noticed the line of trophies on his bookshelves and realized that his carpet was a midnight blue. For some reason, she had never registered that. As she took in his room, Jace turned on his TV and started up the video game. He hopped onto his bed and kicked off his shoes, letting them fall to the floor.
"You going to stand there taking in my messy room, or are you going to sit down?" he asked, navigating the controller.
"Sit where?" she asked.
The one chair in the room was decorated with clothes and she had no desire to try and move them.
"The floor is an option," he said. "Or you can sit next to me on my bed."
Jace said this with no indication that it meant more than what he was saying. Not wanting to make a big deal about it, Haley climbed onto the bed and settled down beside him, cross-legged.
"Look at that," Jace said, his tone teasing. "I got Haley Day onto my bed."
Scowling, she shoved his shoulder. He laughed, barely moving, and threw her a mischievous grin.
"You're so dumb," she said.
Focusing back on the screen, he shrugged. "I am the cliché player jock so what else am I supposed to be?"
"Better than rumors," she retorted.
Jace grinned and took one of the cookies from his collection. The game began and Haley ate her cookie piece by piece as she figured out where Jace was stuck.
"Nope," she said. "Take the right tunnel, now duck there's a pendulum."
Jace followed her direction without comment, directing his character to leap, fight, and dodge obstacles. When he began to react faster than Haley could say, she held back, watching as he went on instinct. When her cookie was gone, she stole one of Jace's.
"Are you going to tell me what was wrong with you today?" Jace asked after they had remained silent for a while.
"Who said there was anything wrong?"
Neither of them looked at each, content to watch an animated character tackle the impossible.
"I did. You want to talk about it?"
"There's nothing to talk about. Besides, I said I was fine."
Jace laughed at this.
"You understand that I know girls. I've spent hours with them, listening to them talk. I know the phrase 'I'm fine' is equivalent to 'help me before I drown myself in ice cream'. Or it means 'talk to me while I drown myself in ice cream'."
"I don't want to drown myself in ice cream."
"No, but that doesn't mean you're fine." Jace's face took on a serious scowl as he hit the buttons hard, avoiding certain death. When the danger passed, his features relaxed. "So what is it?"
"Nothing."
For a moment, Jace was silent and Haley wondered if he would drop it.
"Is that what you would tell Lettie if she asked you?"
The question caught her off guard and she shook her head, knowing it was true. With Lettie she would have told her everything, knowing that even if she couldn't offer advice at least Haley wouldn't feel alone.
"Since Lettie isn't here why not tell me?"
Jace didn't look at her and somehow that made it easier for the words to come out.
"My dad slept on the couch last night," she said, her voice quiet.
"And I'm guessing that's not a natural occurrence in your family."
Haley frowned and looked at him. "Is it in your family?"
Chuckling, Jace nodded. "About half the time I come home late from a party or hanging out with friends by dad is passed out on the couch. He usually finishes paperwork in front of the news and eventually ends up falling asleep. I normally wake him up and tell him to go to bed. Same goes for my mom, sometimes I'll find her sleeping on the couch in her office."
"Oh. Well, it's not really something my parents do. They usually hold up in their room at night."
"I see." Jace glanced at her and then back at the screen. "Do you know why he slept there?"
Haley stared down at Jace's green bedspread, fiddling with the soft fabric. She couldn't bring herself to voice the state of her family was in. In some ways, she worried it would make it all the more real, though she knew exactly how real it was. It was simply something none of them were talking about. In keeping with that unspoken agreement, she didn't say what she wanted to.
"I don't know," she said instead.
"Maybe you should ask," Jace said. "It could be he fell asleep working."
"Yeah, maybe."
The hope that that was the reason was so small Haley barely let herself feel it. The tension, arguments, and distance between her parents were too strong to ignore.
The pair fell back into silence and Jace popped another cookie into his mouth, letting it hang there as he worked a tricky series of movements. He bit into the cookie and caught the other half before it could fall into his lap.
"Have you finished the author project for Henley?" he asked.
Haley propped her chin in her hand.
"No, I still need to write the third essay." She twisted her head towards him. "What about you?"
"Yeah...I need to write all the essays," he said.
"You haven't done that yet?"
"I still have a week left. I'll be fine."
Haley didn't argue.
"Did you know Prom was in two weeks?" she asked.
"I did." His gaze flitted to her. "Why? You didn't?"
A vague shrug was half of her response. "I haven't really thought about it."
"Does that mean you don't have a date to it then?"
"No. And that's not likely to change."
"What about Isaac?"
Frowning, Haley straightened. "What about Isaac?"
"I don't know, you two seem friendly."
"That doesn't mean he's asked me though, or that we are anything at all." Sighing, Haley rested her head back in her hand. "Besides, I don't want a relationship."
Jace gave her a sideways look. "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"
"I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I'm stating a fact. I don't need or want a relationship."
Not at all believing that what she said was true, Jace hummed in reply.
"You might want to let him know that, the dude likes you."
Despite her previous comment, Haley perked up. "He does? How would you even know that?"
A sly grin crept onto Jace's face. "I thought you didn't want a relationship."
Blushing and furious with herself, Haley turned away. "I don't. So I don't care."
"Okay."
Haley's eyes cut to Jace, trying to see if he was mocking her again, but his face was calm.
"Do you have a date?" she asked.
"I do."
"Who?"
"Josie."
"She told me that she said no."
Jace shrugged like this fact made no difference whatsoever. The door to Jace's room opened and his mother popped her head in.
"Mijo," she said. "I thought I heard you come in." She then found Haley. "Haley, it's a pleasure seeing you again."
"Same," Haley said.
"Are you staying for dinner?" Jace's mother asked.
"Thanks, but I actually should head home, I have homework to do."
Jace's mother smiled. "Well, if you change your mind, you're always welcome."
"Thank you."
"Mijo when you're done come down and tell me how your day was."
"Okay," Jace said, still watching the screen.
With one last smile to Haley, his mother left. Haley slid off the bed and Jace paused the game.
"Thanks for helping me with my game problem," he said.
"I didn't really do anything."
"You offered moral support."
Haley shook her head and walked to the door. She had it open when Jace spoke.
"See you soon, Haley Day."
When she looked back he was grinning and nodded to her balcony.
Rolling her eyes, she gave a floppy wave. "Bye, Jace."
As she left she caught the smell of something spicy and almost thought of staying. But feeling as if she had already been there long enough, she slipped out the front door. Evening was descending and lights popped on around the neighborhood. To Haley's surprise, her father's car was in the driveway. When she entered, she found him on the couch, leaning over a coffee table piled with documents.
"You're home early," she said, pausing behind a high backed winged chair.
"Yeah, but the work never seems to be done, even here." He ran a hand through his hair, looking over the mountain of papers.
"Do you want me to order dinner?" she asked.
He raised his head and gave her a grateful smile.
"That would be great, thanks kiddo."
Haley made to leave but paused, her need to know growing too strong.
"Dad."
"Hmmm?" he said, typing away on his phone.
Steeling herself, Haley asked the question she was scared to know the answer to but needed to hear it all the same.
"Why did you sleep on the couch last night?"
Her father grabbed a sheet of paper that had dropped to the ground.
"I was working out here and nodded off. I don't remember falling asleep."
Relief swept over Haley. "Okay."
Her father barely heard her, his phone ringing, stealing away his attention. A nagging feeling tugged at her. She didn't remember there being any papers on the coffee table the night before. But she decided to ignore it, letting herself hope.
**********************************************************************
สวัสดี Jughead Jones
(Thai)
OKAY! What the what?! 😱 Jace still plans on going to Prom with Josie?! Go ahead, tell me how mad you are at me right now! 😁👉🕳👈
After you get your anger out I'm going to ask you one simple question: have you ever been disappointed with how my books ended?
I'm not saying whether one ship wins over the other, I'm just asking you to trust me. ☺️
Also, there were no papers, is the dad lying? Why? To protect Haley? Is something else happening? Theories?
Also Haley Day did open up a little so I say this is a huge step forward for her. Yay! I can almost stop being annoyed with her for being presumptuous!
I'm feeling like a boring potato 🥔 and so I have nothing witty to say instead I will ask you a question.
If you were going to be a superhero:
What would your name be? Your power? And what would your costume look like?
I would be Sunshine Girl, I would teleport and I would wear bright cheery colors! And of course with an epic cape!
If you're not to annoyed with me then feel free to vote, comment, follow!
Ahhhh the scarf! 🙈
Also she's totally English.