The Hopeless Romantic ✔️

Chapter twenty.

"Jace got so mad," Linda started laughing, "that he took all of his clothes off and sat in the corner, refusing to put them back on until Juliet gave back his legos."

Jace groaned, his arm wrapped around me. "Avery doesn't want to hear this."

I laughed, finishing my last bite of my pizza. "No, keep going."

This had been going on from the time Linda ordered to the pizza to the time we had finished the pizza between the four of us. I was enjoying this; Jace clearly wasn't. He kept rolling his eyes, sighing, yelling at his mom to stop and I kept laughing and asking for more. I was learning more about Jace than I ever did the week we had been dating.

"I think we should stop," Jace said, "because this is getting out of control."

Juliet laughed. "But we're just getting started!" I was loving Jace's little family. It made me wonder what my life would have been like if my parents stayed together and had another child. I would have loved a younger sibling.

Henry cleared the pizza box away from the table and went into the kitchen to throw it away. The stories had stopped and I could tell that Jace was relieved. Linda placed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I think it's a wonderful coincidence that you and Jace live right across the street from each other, don't you think?"

Jace sighed. "Yes, you already said that."

My face dropped into a little bit of sadness as the realisation hit me again. Linda beamed. "I mean, if you ever stayed at each others houses and you forget something, you can just run across the street to get it."

I smiled uneasily. "Yeah, but unfortunately, my mom and I have to find another place. We've been looking at houses at the other end of town."

Linda's face dropped. "Oh, that's a shame," she commented, "why do you have to move?"

"Let's not get into it." Jace said, getting up from the table.

I placed my hands in my lap and shrugged. "We can't afford to live here anymore but it's okay, I'm not moving schools."

"At least that's something." Henry said in the background.

Jace disappeared and I was sitting in the living room with Juliet and Linda. I was listening to their conversation about school and how Juliet was in the drama club. I excused myself as Henry sat down and I went upstairs to see where Jace had gone off to.

As I approached Jace's bedroom, I heard him talking on the phone. "Dude, I don't think I can do it anymore." I was about to turn around because I didn't want to eavesdrop but, curiosity got the better of me. I went up to the door and listened. "I know but, it's wrong." Jace continued before listening to whoever was at the other end. "No, I'm not. I'm just worried that we'll get caught." I was confused by what Jace was saying. Get caught, what was he up to?

"This is going way further than we anticipated, don't you think we should stop?" Jace went on. "I mean, it's already gone further than any of us expected." He listened and sighed. "Fine, okay. We'll do the last one and then it's over." I didn't want to walk into his bedroom unannounced as I knew he was finished with the conversation.

I walked back downstairs and joined his family. Soon after, Jace came down and he looked distressed. I wanted to ask what was bothering him, but, I didn't want to be the nosy girlfriend that listened to her boyfriend's phone call. I decided to drop it, it was probably nothing.

For the rest of the night, we sat around in the living room and talked. I was honestly enjoying myself and I never thought I would get to sit with Jace's family and Jace himself and I never thought I would be happy. The night soon ended and Jace walked me back home. "I'm going to miss doing this." Jace said as we walked up to my porch and to the front door.