ON AND OFF THE SCREEN || J.N ✔️

7.

we approach the country club, decorated with palm trees with fairy lights and clumps of people dressed to the nines circling around. we see the norman's get out of their car and there jace is, on his phone, as per usual. xander points to our car and nana puts her arms out as dad parks.

our moms do the "i haven't seen you in five years" act and our dad's shake hands. we walk into the country club, straight to the restaurant. the hallway is packed with employees dressed in the typical country club attire, saying hello to us and nodding.

we go into the restaurant and scott tells the hostess the reservation name. we are seated right away, water glasses, appetizer plates, menus and silverware tucked inside of cloth napkins on the table already.

we all sit, dad and scott near each other, mom and melissa and nate and xander. i slide into the seat next to my brother, jace slumping down next to me.

"jace, put your phone away," nana scolds as picks up her menu.

jace continues to tap on his phone as he smiles at something.

"jace lee!" nana says louder. jace slams his phone down and puts his hands up with an 'i surrender' motion.

i grab my menu and pretend to be interested at the food items, attempting to play hard to get.

"maggie? jace? aren't you going to talk?" mom asks, looking away from her menu.

i shrug.

"hey, marge," jace says, looking at his menu.

"hey," i respond monotonously, trying to not react to the eerie nickname he gave me.

we both sit in silence around xander and nate, scott and dad, nana and mom.

nate nudges my arm to direct my attention to xander.

"hey, can i talk to you?" xander asks.

i nod. "what about?"

"uh, mom? can us youth step out and go for a walk?" he asks.

"i suppose. stay out of trouble," nana responds.

xander, nate and i get up, jace stays seated.

"jace," scott says, pointing to the three of us leaving the table.

we look back, seeing jace roll his eyes as he reluctantly gets up.

us three walk ahead, jace lazily tagging along behind us, staring at his phone.

"are you gonna keep up or what?" xander asks his brother, turning around, walking backwards.

"no, i'm gonna sit here and text bela. you'd understand if you actually had a girlfriend," he responds, sitting on a bench.

i roll my eyes as we keep walking.

"so, mags, you know isabela?" xander asks, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"yeah. only, i'd be happy if i didn't know her," i respond.

"she's that bad? i've had intensions that she was bad ever since she tried to hit on me."

"really? she did that?" nate asks, looking at xander.

xander nods.

"i've tried to tell jace about it, but i always chicken out. i just wanted to ask you for your opinion on her," he says, looking down at me.

"so, do we let jace continue to be with her?" i ask.

"we can't, but i don't know what to do," xander responds.

"i may have an idea," nate chimes in as he stops walking.

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