Jace

{39}

"W-What? I thought you'd be happy to see me?"

"She ran away from you, why would she be smiling to see you?" Sam looked at me with her eyebrows raised.

"I didn't run away," Jace glared.

Sam smirked. "Right. You just forgot that you left the oven on...at my house...four towns over...in the middle of the night..."

Jace jumped from the couch and began gathering her bottles. "Uh, lets see I can be out of here by tonight and take the bus to Ashley's."

"You can't leave again, I came all this way to find you! I nearly got arrested multiple times for you!"

"Uh yeah 'xcuse me," Sam chirped. "If you leave in the dead of the night then I've got no one to watch Aubrey when I go to work tomorrow morning. I need at least twenty four hours notice."

Jace shrugged. "Get Cameron to watch her. Isn't that what husbands are for?"

"Sit down." I frowned. I saw Samantha cross her arms from the corner of my eye and Jace lowered herself back to the couch, turning off the tv.

"Don't worry Jacelyn," I smiled, looking at my girl that I'd put myself through hell to find. "I can take you back. We can finish the tour and then... I want you to elope with me. I don't care what Aaron tells the press I just want you back."

"It's only been a week and a half Liam," she said quietly. I stooped to my knees in front of her and grabbed her hands in my own.

"Any length of time without you is forever."

She pulled her hands from mine and I stood back up. "That was extremely cheesy."

"Shut up Jace he's trying to be romantic!" Sam sat with her head in her hands as she watched me with big, dewy eyes. At least I was getting to somebody.

"Let's get married Jace!"

"What?!" she sat up straighter, nearly choking on her own saliva.

"Jacelyn Rock will you marry me?" It defiantly wasn't the most romantic, but it was sincere.

"Liam I think were a little young..."

"I just can't stand the thought of you being stolen away from me again-"

"Maybe I did this for myself!" she shouted, her small frame shaking with the power of her voice. "Did you ever think about that?"

Sam was knocked out of her daze, a baby, Aubrey, began to cry from upstairs after being awoken from her voice, and I stumbled a bit.

"Jace you told me that Aaron-"

"Maybe I was lying to just get the fuck away from you! Maybe if you weren't so selfish you would see that I did this for myself! Not for you! Leave me along Liam! I don't want to see you!"

An uncomfortable Samantha stood up, sinking her shoulders as if to shield herself from the fight. "I should probably go get Aubrey..."

I stood with my brows furrowed, my mouth slightly open, and my emotions switching between anger, hurt, and embarrassment. I had always had a temper with her. Was this what I was like? Was this what she felt when I used to yell at her?

"Goddamn! I was just trying to slip away from you!" she stabbed a finger at me. "But you had to follow me! I hid from you! But you still couldn't get the hint! My god Liam!! What more do I need to do to make you understand!?"

Jace picked up the nearest object, a water filled glass. Her hastiness made water spill all over the floor before she chucked it at me as hard as she could. I ducked and it smashed into the wall behind me, just to the right of a baby photo.

Sam ran back down the stairs with a screaming infant in her arms. "Jacelyn!!"

"Get out! Get out!!" She doubled over in screams, her voice getting hoarse from the volume. Samantha and I scrambled out of the house as a TV remote came flying at us. When the door slammed, we stood outside of it in the hall just catching our breath and processing what had happened. Aubrey screamed and wailed as Samantha desperately tried to lull her back to a peaceful sleep.

All of a sudden, I began to cry.

I jerked forward with a wail and Sam, full of pity, hugged me tight as I cried on her shoulder. Never have I felt so vaunrable. As I sniffled and sobbed on her shirt, Sam didn't say anything. How could she? What was there to say?

As my cries quieted, Aubrey calmed down, and the porch became silent. And then, through the now splintered wood door, we heard more weeping. They were the whimpers and wails of a girl. A hollow, broken, grieving girl. The difference was, this time, I didn't try and stop them.