Like Gold

25.

25.

THE NEXT DAY, Jace showed up again, waiting outside my front door perfectly on time.

I shut the door behind me, stepping off the porch and raising a brow at him when he lifted his head to meet my eyes. Unlike usual, today he stood in front of his car, arms crossed as he leaned back against it.

"Not driving today?" I asked.

He laughed, pushing off the car to meet me on the sidewalk. "I'm not the one driving today. What did your mom say about skipping school yesterday?"

I blinked. "She was fine, I told her I was on my period. Can we go back to that first point? What do you mean you're not the one driving?"

"I mean –" he tossed the keys to me which I caught in my hands with a resounding clap – "you're driving today."

I glanced at the keys in my hands – cold metal which I hadn't held in over a year. It felt foreign in my hands. I shook my head, holding them back out to him.

"No way. I can barely survive sitting in that death trap for two minutes. There's no way I'll be able to drive it."

"You can, Jas," he said, stepping forward to grab my arms. He smiled, sliding his hands down to hold mine, the keys clasped between our palms. "I know you can."

I hesitated. He paused, watching me with hopeful eyes. I didn't want to let him down but looking at that car, imagining the wheel in my hands and the gas pedal under my foot – I wasn't sure I could do it.

One wrong move and we'd crash.

It wasn't even that I didn't trust my own driving so much. I had been a pretty good driver before the accident. It was more to do with the other drivers on the road. How could I trust them to follow the rules? To drive safely?

I released a breath, my shoulders sagging.

"I haven't driven since the accident," I said finally.

Jace squeezed my fingers, the smile never fading from his lips. "So? It's like riding a bike, you never forget."

"Yeah, except you're going fifty miles an hour and one wrong move means you're swerving into oncoming traffic."

"Except you'll be in control," he said. I met his eyes and he nodded slowly. "You'll be in control. You can stop whenever you want, go the speed you want. You'll have full control over the car."

I released his hand, stepping back to look at the car. It was big. Metal on metal, rubber wheels on asphalt. It was a machine – a dangerous one.

I shot him a teasing smile. "You know, it's your car that'll need repairing if I crash it."

"You won't crash it," he replied, laughing. I lifted a brow at him and he paused, his eyes narrowing. "Right?"

I shrugged. "No promises."

"Well," he hummed, tilting his head conspiratorially towards me. "I never really liked that ugly minivan anyway."

I snorted, nudging his shoulder and he smiled at me, that cute smile, his golden eyes glowing under the faded morning light. I turned the keys over in my fingers, wavering. "I don't know, Jace. It's not that I don't want to. It's just – I'm not sure if I can do it..."

"You don't have to," he replied. He stepped beside me, resting a hand on the small of my back. I turned to look up at him and he offered me a gentle smile. "But I know you can."