Chapter 5

On the way home, we were silent. The only noise was the radio playing softly on an old rock station. I wouldn't say it was awkward silence, even though we were acting very awkward. Ace had surprised me tonight; seeing him with his family was new and a nice change. It made me feel weird. But I wasn't sure why he was acting odd.

He pulled into a parking spot in the apartment complex and turned off the ignition. He sat back with a sigh and turned toward me. "Thank you for tonight Mad," Ace told me, his eyes glancing over me.

"A favor is a favor Ace Craige. Do you think they believed that I was your girlfriend?" I wasn't sure why I had asked him that. They had obviously believed us. And I felt kind of bad that we had tricked them. No, Ace had tricked them. I was just here doing him a favor. A favor I still wasn't sure why I had agreed to.

He nodded and cleared his throat, "yeah, I think they did."

"I didn't know you could sing like that," my voice was soft and sounded kind of breathless. It was embarrassing.

The air in the car shifted from awkward to comfortable. "Sing like what?"

I shrugged, "good."

Ace started to chuckle which made me smile for some reason. A weird feeling formed in my stomach and my heart wanted to jump out of my body when he smiled like that; like he didn't give a damn about anything else that was happening.

"I would say the same to you except, I already knew you could sing well," Ace was still chuckling slightly and it made me want to jump out of his car and sprint up the stairs to my apartment.

I cleared my throat. "Right. Okay, thank you for bringing me home. I should probably get upstairs and let Harry know that i'm home before I turn back into a pumpkin."

"What?" Ace looked very confused.

I stared at him, "he wanted me home by midnight. Midnight was when Cinderella's carriage turned back into a pumpkin."

"Are you saying tonight was so magical you felt like a princess?" Ace's smile turned devious.

I shook my head and put my hand on the door handle. "I would never imply such a thing. Especially since I was with you."

"Well maybe I should have implied that I was the princess, not you."

What? Oh god, we were flirting again. I really needed to stop doing that.

"You're so weird," I ended up telling him with a laugh.

"And you're beautiful."

My laughter trailed away immediately and I felt a blush creep up my neck. There were a lot of things I could handle. Ace Craige telling me I was beautiful was not one of them. "Okay, goodnight," I told him and opened the door.

Ace got out of the car with me and followed me as I made my way up the stairs. "What are you doing?" I asked him without stopping.

"Walking you to your door? It's the gentlemanly thing to do," his voice sounded rushed and panicked.

I clenched my jaw. Couldn't he let me freak out in peace? "You really don't have to do that Ace. And since when are you a gentleman?" I didn't mean it to sound rude but it came out harsh.

I felt his hand wrap loosely around my wrist and it made me stop. I turned around and waited for a comeback. But Ace didn't say anything until, "why are you being weird?"

"That's not how you woo a girl Ace," my voice sounded bored.

He rolled his eyes at me. There was the Ace Craige I knew and... certainly not loved. "I'm not trying to woo you Mad. I don't need to," he added.

Cue eye roll from Madison Grey.

"You're the one that's acting weird Ace. There's no one here. You don't have to act like my boyfriend right now." Ace Craige wasn't my boyfriend, that much was obvious. And I didn't want him to be. So I wanted him to stop acting like it when he didn't have to.

I kept walking up the stairs. "I'm not acting like your boyfriend Madison. This is just how I act when I'm around you. Sorry if that bothers you," he called after me as he tried to keep up.

Ugh. Why didn't I like it when he actually called me by my name? "Sorry if it bothers you that I'm not falling for your charm."

We had made it to my front door and I had never been more happy to be home. "What are you talking about?" Ace whisper-yelled. I faced him.

"That's what this whole thing is about isn't it? This whole, fake date me, thing. It's just a big act to get some loser to fall for you?" I was being obnoxious and loud and I didn't care. I just didn’t want to get hurt. But I wasn't sure when I had come to this conclusion.

Ace started to say something, probably defend himself and make an excuse but the door behind me opened. "Inside Mad, now," Harry ordered.

I turned away from Ace and shoved past harry who huffed, saying something to the green eyed boy outside the door. I kept walking until my feet hit the soft carpet of my bedroom. I took off my shoes and climbed into bed, not even bothering to remove my makeup or tie up my hair.

Shit. I forgot to set my alarm, I thought to myself. I maniacally threw off the covers and went into my bathroom to wash my face. I was out the door ten minutes later with my hair in a ponytail, no makeup and leggings and a tee on. I had missed first and second period and was currently late to third.

I checked my phone when I got to the school and saw I had a missed call from Ace and three from Kimmy. Kimmy had sent me multiple texts about how, "missing school because of a fight with your boyfriend is not a valid reason" and how she would "Give me hell later for this." Ugh. Stupid Ace probably told her we were fighting and now she thought I was heartbroken over a dumb squabble.

I walked into my class with a pinched look on my face as I tried not to be seen. But instead, I got called out by my teacher and was given a warning about disrupting the class. Oh come on. It wasn't my fault, entirely.

When it was time for lunch, I called Kimmy trying to find her before having to go into the cafeteria. Just as she was telling me she had to make up her science test, a felt a hand tug on my elbow, spinning me around. I told her I'd call her later and we hung up. Ace still had his hand on my arm but was now pulling me through the hallway.

We stopped in a small alcove nobody ever occupied except to make out in. If he tried anything like that on me, I'd stomp on his toes and knee him where the sun don't shine. I looked up at him to see his arms crossed over his chest. He looked angry.

"Where were you this morning?" He demanded but his voice was still quiet.

I gave him a funny look, "calm down dad I overslept, didn't set my alarm last night."

He sighed and rolled his eyes in exasperation, "are you still mad at me?"

"I wasn't mad at you in the first place," but I kind of was, wasn't I? That's why I had yelled at him?

His arms unlatched from his chest and rested at his side. “Okay because yelling at me and accusing me of using you means you're happy?"

He had a point. I shrugged, "I don't know Ace. You kind of are using me." Now I covered my own chest with my crossed arms and glared at him.

"You didn't have to agree Madison," he told me and started to walk away, to the lunch room I presumed.

Okay, he was mad at me. Ace had never called me Madison before. I didn't like it.

I also didn't like when he called me Grey. I wanted him to smirk and call me Mad until I rolled my eyes.

"Ace," I called to him but he didn't turn around. "Ace James Craige!" I called a little louder, making him stop. His mother had called him by his full name the night before when he had said something rude.

He turned around and waited for what I had to say. I couldn't tell what he was feeling considering his face was blank and void of emotion. "Why do you care if I'm mad or not?" It was the only thing I cared about knowing at this point.

"You're smart Grey. You figure it out."

The end of the day rounded shortly and I was very happy I finally got to go home. I had homework to do and then I would be able to lounge in my pj's all night. But when I heard shouting across the hallway, I tensed up, knowing something was wrong. I cautiously made my way to the noise and saw a crowd of people surrounding a tight.

Jesus. It was Ace and some kid I'd barely seen before. He was a part of a bad crowd that I tried not to associate with. He was also a junior, a year younger than us. Ace was definitely kicking his ass. He was on top and was punching him in the face over and over. The kid was smirking and letting him do it.

I didn't like watching Ace practically kill another kid. His face was cold and his expression, harsh. His eyes were different when he fought. They didn't hold the same warmth they did when he talked to me. It was kind of scary seeing the look of pure malice on his face and the way his muscles pulled and tensed with every hit.

I looked over to his friends who were standing there with a sour look on their faces. Raze was curling his hands into fists at his side as if he wanted to reach out and stop the fight but he didn't. Loki was smirking but he didn't look like he meant it. It looked fake and practiced as if his bad boy act was just that, an act. It was the same with how I felt with Ace. He was nothing like the bad boy reputation he had built up.

I walked over to them and hit Loki in the arm. He looked over at me surprised and then scowled. "What do you want?" He asked me, getting the attention of Ryder.

"What the hell is he doing?" I asked both of them, pointing to Ace who had now been flipped over. I watched as the Junior landed a punch to his cheek and I cringed.

"What does it look like Princess? He's fighting," Loki told me, his voice laced with boredom.

I clenched my jaw and hit him again. My punch did nothing to hurt him but he still looked mad. "I can see that asshole. Why aren’t you stopping him? He's getting hurt."

"It's what he wanted Madison," Raze added in. "Something got him pissed off today and he wasn't taking any crap from this kid. He was annoying the crap out of us."

"So he decided to kill him?" The question made me question who Ace really was.

Raze rolled his eyes, "he'll be fine. Ace knows his limits and he'll stop before he goes too far."

"Great," I told them sarcastically.

Raze face started to droop as Ace kept getting hit and or he hit the kid. I saw him whisper over to Loki. "Maybe we should stop him."

Loki just looked slightly sick to his stomach. I groaned as Ace got some leverage on the kid and punched him again. The crowd roared with excitement. It was disgusting. How could you cheer something like this on?

I decided enough was enough. "Where are you going princess?" Loki asked me as I started to walk toward the fight.

"To stop this nonsense."

Raze was about to reach out to stop me but Loki held him back. "Let her do it. If she wants her boyfriend to kill her, let her." Jesus he was evil.

I kept walking until I was in the circle of the fight "Ace stop," I yelled. But he didn't stop or acknowledge I was even there.

I said his name a few more times before I turned an idea over in my mind. It was likely to not Work but I decided it was the only other thing I could think of. "Ace please,“ I cried out, letting my eyes fill with tears. And I thought Ace was good at acting.

He looked up at my tears and tore away from the kid who looked half dead. There was something wrong with him because he looked as if he enjoyed getting his ass handed to him. I took a look down at Ace's bloodied knuckles and it didn't take long for the fake tears to become real.

It reminded me of my father from when I was little. We had been at a restaurant. Harry, Samantha and I. It was my mother's birthday and the waiter brought her a little cake with some candles stuck in it. But he had looked at her the wrong way. Or at least that's what Harry's thought.

So Harry stood up and punched the waiter in the face and then toppled over him to keep at it. I was only seven or so at the time so I didn't know what was going on. Samantha was screaming at him to stop, more scared for the waiter than Harry. When he finally did stop, it was because people had pulled him off of the poor guy and escorted him out of the fancy restaurant. Samantha sat there in her chair, shaking and crying. And I just sat there and thought of the way his hands had bled, if it was even his own blood.