Chapter 6

I was still standing there, in the hallway of Edgewood High, in front of Ace Craige who had just beat a kid to a pulp. Somewhere inside of me, I felt a fear that I had felt many times before but it had been so long, I didn't know what to do with it.

I moved my eyes from Ace's hands up to his bruised and bloodied face. He had a split lip in three different places. There was a welting bruise on his right cheekbone and a cut near his eyebrow. There was still malice in his eyes and that scared me most of all. That he could look at me with such anger.

I took a few steps back from him, the tears spilling over onto my cheeks.

By this point, most of the students had scurried out of the way, scared of getting into trouble. My tears did something to Ace's features. They softened greatly and the anger ceased from his eyes. But I was still scared.

I held my arms across my body protectively and my nails dug into my skin. It hurt but not as bad as when I thought of Ace hurting somebody else.

He started toward me and I flinched and tears welled up again. He saw the fear in my eyes and he looked destroyed. I didn't even notice the principal as he stalked his way over and yelled at Ace to go to the office.

I wasn't even aware of Raze pulling me away from Ace until were were outside of the school in front of the parking lot. I didn't know where Loki had gone to but Raze was in front of me, talking. I let his voice soothe me. He was telling me Ace would be okay, the other kid would be okay. I would be okay. I didn't know Raze was a nice guy. But what if he was pretending too?

The words still soothed me as he walked me to my car and I got in. He told me I shouldn't drive when I was like this but I managed a small smile and told him I was okay, just shocked.

He let me go, apprehensively and I climbed into my car and started it up. I so wasn't okay. I knew that but I wanted to get home and forget about today.

It was hours later when I finally heard my phone go off. I was just finishing my math homework when the ringing filled my ears. The only people who ever called me were Kimmy and Ace. I didn't want to talk to either. But alas, I looked at the caller ID and saw it was exactly who I expected.

I declined Ace's call and went back to working. He called again. I declined. It was ten minutes before my phone went off again. So I turned off my phone completely and finished my homework without anymore interruptions.

I looked over at the clock. It was nearly seven when I heard knocking on the door. I knew it had to be Ace. If I wasn't answering my phone, he‘d come over here. I should have known. The doorbell rang three times before I got up out of bed and dragged myself to the front door.

I looked out of the peephole and sure enough, Ace Craige was there, bruised cheek and all. He looked Different and couldn't stop shifting his feet. He knocked again and I jumped away from the peephole and tried to calm my breathing. I did not want to see him right now.

"Mad, your car is in the lot. I know that you're here. Please talk to me." Ace Craige didn't say please but the Ace I thought I knew, didn't scare me. This Ace did. He knocked for another ten minutes while I sat against the door, zoning out. Finally I heard him sigh and I got up to look out into the hallway. He was gone.

The next morning, I got up on time and made it to class before half the class. I sat in my seat and looked down at my notebook. Hopefully Ace had enough sense to move somewhere else but I really doubted it. Kimmy walked in a few minutes later with a sad look on her face. I had called her last night and she came over.

And then, I told her about Ace, about everything. She knew about the fake relationship and Harry. She knew how bad I felt about everything right now. I was surprised when she wasn't angry with me for lying. She was just sad at how it had ended. She was a good friend and I was committed to being a good one back.

She sat down and changed her frown into a smile, trying to cheer me up a little. "So there's one thing I'm still confused about."

"And what's that?" I asked her, my voice quiet.

She held her hands together. "I know you said the whole relationship between you and Ace was fake but do you at least like him a little?"

I scoffed, "I already told you I didn't Kim's." I sounded incredulous.

"You wouldn't have reacted the way you did if you didn't feel something for him. That's all I'm gonna say Maddie. It's okay to like him, you know. From what you told me, he was sweet on you," she told me, her voice getting a little lower than before.

I looked to the front of the classroom, waiting for the bell to ring. Ace was sweet to me. That's what scared me the most. "He reminded me of my dad yesterday. I can't look at him the same anymore knowing he could explode like he did at any second."

Not even a minute later, Ace came walking through the door with a frown on his face. He walked to his seat in front of me just like I thought and sat down. He hadn't looked at me yet which was a promising sign. Maybe he'd just ignore me and forget I existed again.

Kimmy kept talking to me as if everything was normal but all I gave her were one word answers in exchange. I knew Ace was listening to every word she said because his head was tilted, his ear angled toward her. I kept my eyes trained on the back of his head. I stared at the curling caramel strands and I thought about how soft his hair looked.

Okay creep, I thought to myself as I stopped my mind from thinking of Ace. At one point in class the teacher told us to get into groups of 4 to work on an assignment due at the end of class. Ace immediately turned to me and Kimmy and I saw his smirk. He asked if he could be in our group. Kimmy said yes and I said nothing. The girl who sat in front of Kimmy also joined us.

I couldn't concentrate on what we were supposed to be doing when Ace was staring at me so intensely the whole time. I wasn't blushing but to be fair, I wasn't feeling much of anything in that moment. I didn't know what to think every time I looked at him. He was so gorgeous but at the same time it hurt to see the softness in his eyes when I had seen such hardness in them just the day before.

Kimmy and the other girl, Karlie, were engrossed in a conversation that had nothing to do with our assignment so Ace took it as a chance to talk to me.

"Hey, can we talk?"

"You can talk. I can't promise I'll listen," I looked away from him and tried to complete the assignment.

I saw him scratch his head from the corner of my eye. "Okay, can we meet up after school or at lunch?"

"I was thinking you could talk right now actually," I really didn't want to be with him any longer than I had to.

He sighed and cracked his knuckles. The knuckles were his skin was broken and has bled only a day before. "That wasn't what I was going for Mad. I don't care if you don‘t want to talk to me but I need you to hear me."

"Hearing you scares the hell out of me Ace. I don't think you get that," I still looked down at the paper, filling in another answer.

"Please Mad," he whined, getting the attention of my best friend and Karlie. "Give me today to change your mind about yesterday."

I doubted he would be able to and I wasn't sure I wanted him to. But something in me wanted to trust him still, so I agreed.

At lunch, Kimmy and I sat finally sat together in the cafeteria. We sat in the way back, away from Ace's table with his friends. I hadn't spotted any of the boys yet, which didn't surprise me. If anything, they had probably ditched school.

I looked down at my pasta, poking at it with a fork. I leaned my head on my right hand while Kimmy excitedly talked about the boy she'd been crushing on this month. "Okay, seriously, Maddie, this moping has got to stop."

I looked up, my expression blank and then looked back down. "I don't want to talk about it Kim."

"I don't care if you don't want to. You need to. I can tell this is bothering you. I haven't seen you act like this since you got a D on a math test last year," she told me, sounding a bit irritated.

I scoffed, "I'm fine Kimmy. I just don't like Ace and I want this stupid thing over with."

"What stupid thing? Talking to him? If I remember your agreement right, you still have another two weeks of being his girlfriend. Don't you at least owe him that?"

I shook my head, "I ended that on Sunday Kim. Or at least, I think I did. He must've gotten the point right?"

Her mouth curled up into a smirk, the action very Ace-like. "It doesn't look like he got the point."

"What are you talking about?" I asked her, looking back down at my food. She smacked my arm and nodded her head behind me. I turned around and saw Ace walking toward our table. But it wasn't just Ace. Raze trailed behind him and Loki walking slower behind them.

He stopped at our table and Raze and Loki sat down across from me, next to Kimmy. She looked shocked as hell. She eyed both the boys, as if she couldn't tell which one was cuter. I really hoped she thought it was Raze. Loki was still an asshole. Ace hadn't sat down yet; he stood next to me as if he were waiting for my permission.

I sighed, realizing he wasn't going to back down. I had known Ace for over a week and I already knew him well enough not to test him. I gestured for him to sit, so he did. Once he had pressed himself as close to me as he could, he pulled out a salad out of his backpack.

I couldn't stop my laugh if I had tried. The bad boy was eating a freaking salad and it was hilarious. He looked at me funny. "What are you laughing about?"

I shook my head, "did your mom pack your lunch for you?"

"Yes, she did actually," he told me proudly making me laugh harder. "I'll have you know, I love salads okay? Looks better than your spaghetti anyway."

I gasped, "did you just insult my penne?"

"What are you gonna do about it?" He asked me, leaning closer.

It was easy to forget when I was around Ace. He made me laugh, which was hard to do when I was angry or upset, especially when he was the person who I was angry with. I looked away and kept eating my pasta. "If you make fun of my lunch one more time, you'll wish you'd never sat down."

His laugh was easy going and boisterous. "Same goes to you sweetheart."

"Ugh, whatever. Just, don't insult my penne," I told him, unable to keep the grin off my face. And okay, maybe

I did want him to fix whatever had happened between us.