Like Gold

10.

10.

"WHY IS JACE WILSON waiting for you at your locker?"

I turned to follow Piper's gaze, noticing the shaggy brown-haired boy was, in fact, waiting for me at my locker. He leaned against it. His hands dug into his pockets as he scanned the hallways up and down until finally his eyes landed on me, widening slightly.

I watched as he awkwardly straightened himself, sending me a tight-lipped smile. I warmed, shooting him a smile back before turning to see Piper's smug grin. She whistled lowly and I shoved her lightly with my shoulder, rolling me eyes.

"I don't know," I said quickly. "Maybe it's a coincidence."

"Right," she teased, drawing her voice out. "Well, if the reason hits you, let me know, okay?"

"Don't leave me."

"I don't think he's waiting for me, Jas," she said, quirking a brow. "Besides, I've got stuff to do. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Stuff?" I echoed, my heart dropping as I turned to her. "What stuff?"

"You know." She sent me a wink, hiking her bag higher and turning away. "Stuff. Have fun, Jas."

"Right," I muttered, cutting her a glare. "Stuff."

She smirked smugly, practically giddy as she slipped past me and made her way down the hallway. She passed Jace and turned to shoot me a grin and a thumbs-up behind his back.

I rolled my eyes, feeling my face warm with embarrassment. It wasn't like that. We were just friends.

But he was smiling at me with that stupidly cute smile, and shuffling awkwardly with his worn-out converses, and his eyes kept darting from me to the hallway, then back to me like he was waiting for me to go up to him.

I blinked. Right. Because he was waiting for me to go up to him.

I mean, it was my locker after all.

As I made my way towards him, I cleared my throat and straightened my back, mentally preparing myself for a conversation. My hand immediately flew up to my hair, shoving my fingers through it, raking stray, frizzy curls back into my bun.

"Hey Jace," I said as I reached my locker. "What's up?"

He grinned, shrugging nonchalantly. "Nothing much."

I pulled my locker open, shoving my books inside. "How was your last period?"

He groaned, falling back against the locker beside me. "The worst. I had physics."

I turned to face him, and my heart leapt into my throat at how close he was to me. He smiled, his lips tugging up lopsidedly as he leaned his head against the locker, lolling towards me.

"Physics, huh?" I echoed, my throat turning dry. I blinked, spinning back to stare into my locker, my neck turning hot. "That sucks."

"Yeah."

We fell into silence and I chewed on the inside of my cheek. What was I supposed to say now? He waited for me at my locker and I just came over and made things awkward.

How did I used to do this?

It used to be so easy – back when Amber and I used to go to parties and hang out with strangers I'd met less than an hour before. I could carry conversations, approach cute guys, flirt. But now – it wasn't even that I had forgotten. It was more like I just couldn't be bothered.