Intimate

Part 12

"Ms. Fray, please pay attention." Mr. Dustin said while noticing my eyes flutter shut. It's been three days and I've only gotten a wink of sleep. I glanced over to Jace next to me who was fully into the lesson. I frantically picked up the book the whole grade 12 class was assigned and tried to find the spot he was talking about. I was the only grade 11 in this class, they felt English 11 wouldn't benefit me any, and leveled me up a grade.

"Page one oh one." Jace whispered, not taking his eyes off the teacher. I flipped to the pages and quickly caught up.

"What does the author mean in paragraph three?" Dustin asked, pointing to a group of words on a page, "Ms. Fray?" Great.

"Uhm," I thought, "He is saying that the mental illness the character has is taking over his families lives too?"

"Lucky guess." He snapped, "For the last ten minutes you can read, pages one oh two to one fifty is for homework." Mr. Dustin went back to his desk and was buried into his laptop.

"You shouldn't be here." Jace said worriedly, shutting his book.

"I've been coming to school every day and I'm totally okay." I denied, also shutting my book.

"Riley, you're the opposite of okay. The only time I see you anymore is at English class, where do you go?"

"I stay in the bio lab." I mumbled.

"Does Sam go to school?"

"No." I quickly caught myself, "but she also doesn't have this much work to do."

"You doing work in your state isn't helping anyone." He warned, "Its Friday, come over and watch a movie or something." Jace offered, grabbing my bag when the bell went off.

"I don't know Jace..."

"Please? I miss being with you. You know, when I asked you to be my girlfriend it was a hint I wanted to spend more time with you." He winked, wrapping an arm around me. The halls were always chaotic at the end of the day; it was a challenge to even get out of the school. It felt nice being official with Jace, even though we never had time to appreciate it. More people started recognizing me, it was a nice gesture but I've been looking like hell lately and I'd rather nobody see me. A messy bun and sweatshirt has been my outfit all week.

"Do you have any comedies?" I asked, hoping for something to get my mind off of things.

"Of course babe." He pulled me in tight for a quick one arm hug. I drove Lacey's car to Jace's, hoping she wouldn't have anywhere to go, there was probably nothing to worry about considering Daniel probably didn't let her leave the house.

**

The movie ended an hour ago, and I laid in Jace's arms reading one of the novels he had on his bookshelf while he watched whatever was on TV. The door rattled open and a woman stumbled in, and I immediately felt Jace tense. The woman was obviously drunk, casually holding a bottle of scotch in her hands. "Mum, where were you?"

"Oh Jack I was just out for a walk, no worries!" She laughed uncontrollably, I sunk farther into Jace.

"It's Jace mum."

"Oh yes silly me!" She chuckled, tripping over her own feet, "nice to see you again Amy." Amy? Who was Amy?

"Amy and I broke up over a year ago mother. This is Riley, I wouldn't expect you to remember me talking about her."

"Jace Winter. Don't you dare make me sound bad in front of Josh. You know I always listen to you." She got immediately strict. "Just kidding silly!" Just as fast as she got angry, her expression lightened, "Did you hear that Derek Jenner got another victim? Oooooohhh it's all over the news! That woman stands no chance!" My stomach tightened, even a drunk woman knew she won't be alive!