Aces [#NANOWRIMO2017]

Seraphine And Ace Need To Get A Room

Sᴜɴᴅᴀʏ, Fᴇʙʀᴜᴀʀʏ 25

———

I wanted to spend the day searching for my bracelets, but the logical part of my brain reminded me that I'd already looked yesterday; looking again today would be useless.

Instead, I stayed at home and — brace yourselves — actually studied for once. I know, incredible.

Or at least, I tried to. I managed to get my geography homework finished, but just as I was about to move on to Math, I got a call from Ace. I picked up immediately, grateful for the distraction.

"Hey, Ace. How are you? Still holding up okay?"

"Yeah, I-I'm fine," he replied, stammering a little. "There's something I —" he cut himself off with an extremely fake-sounding cough. "There's something I need to ask you."

"Mm?"

"Would you... would you go out on a date with me?"

Oh. My. Gosh.

I squealed so loudly, I'm surprised Ace didn't lose his hearing. "Ace, are you kidding?" I almost shouted. "I would love love love to go on a date!!"

"Really? That's fantastic. I was honestly really worried you'd say no..."

"Come on, did you really think I would? I've been waiting. What took you so long, buddy?" I said.

"I'm so glad you want to come. Does February 27 sound okay?"

"February 27? That's my birthday! You're taking me out on a birthday date?!"

"Yeah, I... guess I am. So, are you in?"

"It sounds perfect," I gushed. "I can't wait."

"Oh, awesome. You honestly have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that," he confessed.

After that, Ace and I bantered back and forth for a little while longer, when it occurred to me that maybe, he knew where my bangles were. I asked him if he'd seen them.

"Hey, Ace? I lost my bangles in the forest on Thursday. Did you happen to pick them up?"

"Oh! Yeah, I did, actually. I meant to tell you, I guess I just... forgot," he told me, sounding almost ashamed.

"Oh, thank goodness. I was freaking out. I'm so glad you found them. Could you bring them to school on Monday?" I asked him hopefully.

"For sure." There it was again; a moment of hesitation, a second too long of processing my question.

"Hey..." I started, voice tender. "Are you okay? You sound kind of down. It's not like you."

I could hear him sharply take in a breath. When he spoke again, he didn't even bother trying to hide the disappointment and sadness in his tone. "It's just that, well, Hazel called me yesterday. Or, well, I called her."

He paused. I was a little confused. "Isn't that a good thing? Why are you so upset over the fact that you called your big sister?"

"I wasn't finished," he told me.

"Oh. Sorry, keep going."

"The thing is, I called her to ask about advice on how to ask a girl on a—" he stopped himself. "I called to ask for advice. But when she answered, she had this... this tone in her voice. She was really giggly, which wasn't like her at all; Hazel's almost always calm and cool and collected. And she kept slurring her words."