First

Chapter 15

By lunch time, news of Jace and I had spread throughout the school as I knew it would. I'd had to field questions from my friends all of first and second period. So by the time lunch finally rolled around I was completely exhausted. And I still had two classes to go.

I was the first one at our lunch table and sitting by myself, I felt the full weight of the stares directed at me. I chose to ignore them but as I took a bite of my salad a shadow fell over the table and I was forced to look up.

I swallowed quickly and as I looked up, I felt my entire body go cold. Maddie. I watched her silently as she sat down across from me.

If anyone hadn't been staring before, they definitely were now. Nobody wanted to miss the showdown between the star quarterback's current and former girlfriends.

"You really think this is going to last between the two of you?" were the first words out of her mouth.

I scanned the lunchroom for someone to save me but no one was here yet.

I looked at her, not sure what to say; I knew that anything I did say would just make everything worse so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

Finally, Maddie was the one to break the silence. "Jace is just using you as a rebound until he realizes he belongs with me," Maddie sneered.

I held in the strong urge to laugh, but just barely. Jace knew he didn't belong with her. And the fact that someone as nice as Jace could ever be with a bitch like Maddie Nicols was beyond laughable.

"I mean, look at you," she continued as my mouth dropped open. "What could Jace possibly see in you? You're ugly, you're definitely not skinny, you're a total nerd and you dress like it too." She counted it off on her fingers like she was counting off a list. "Compared to you," she scoffed. "I'm the total package."

Maddie slowly stood and I sighed in relief, thinking her rant was over and that she was finally leaving. But instead, she sauntered over to where I was and leaned over me.

"You'd probably never been kissed before Jace, had you?" she laughed and then she smiled sadistically. "And that's what Jace likes... that you're a virgin at everything. You're his new little plaything. You're new and never been used. Jace likes the challenge. And when he gets tired of your innocent ass, he'll come crawling back to someone who knows what they're doing. Me."

That was it; I'd had it with her. "You think you know him, don't you?"

"Well duh, I am his girlfriend after all."

"Ex," I deadpanned. "But let me tell you something. I know him better than you ever will. I must be doing something right, though; he chose me over you. He dumped your sorry, pathetic ass."

"You bitch!" Maddie cried. "You're just an easy lay for him and you know that as well as I do."

I was about to respond when a hand dropped onto my shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. I looked up to see my guardian angel. Or that's the way it seemed to me. Jace was hovering protectively over me, his face a mask of anger. I immediately relaxed into his presence.

"Enough, Maddie," Jace snapped in a hard voice.

Maddie recoiled from the venom in his voice. "Jace, don't be like that." She was all sugar now.

Jace snorted. "Be like what, Maddie? Protect her? I told you to back off and leave her alone. We," he gestured between the two of them, "are over. I'm with Kadence; I have been for a while now—at least my heart has. So you need to back off. Now, Maddie. If I hear you go after her again, I promise you the outcome won't be pretty."