Beauty Within

(Prologue) The Worst

He was perfect.....

Even though his teeth were slightly crooked, he was slightly underweight, and he didn't have the best style.....he was perfect. Perfect for me at least.

It feels like just yesterday he and I were sitting in 2nd period having a conversation for the first time.

"Hey." He spoke in a gentle tone as he approached me, "I'm Jace."

"Kalila." I replied with a soft smile as I looked into his beautiful chestnut eyes.

The memory, that memory was all that I held onto until this day, where as now I am holding onto something else....his hand.

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*Two days earlier*

I arrived at the parking lot where Jace and I met every morning. I didn't mind him being late because he said he would stay at the hospital sometimes, because his grandmother was sick. Although he never told me how she was sick I wouldn't bother to question it because I wanted to keep his mind off of it. But Jace seemed to be stressed over it. He seemed paler than usual and sometimes he wouldn't eat. I wanted to keep him uplifted at all times so instead of saying, "Jace why aren't you eating?" I would say "Here have a bite." and give him some of anything that I had and he wouldn't shut down the offer; he would casually take the offer and eat.

I would usually wait for 15-16 minutes for Jace to show up, but today was different. I had been out there for almost 30 minutes and I couldn't risk being late for class, so I started to make my way into the school.

"Kalila!" I heard someone shout my name, " Kalila, hey wait up."

I turned to see none other than one of my good friends Cameron, who was in a higher grade than me with Jace. I stopped to let him catch up to me and we could walk together.

"Hey Cam what's up?" I arched my brow with a concerned expression.

"Nothing much, but hey where's Jace we had a project together and I wanted to know if he'd finished his part." Cameron assured me.

"Oh um haven't seen em, but I'll tell him as soon as I see him." I gave him a warm smile and watched him race off towards his other group of friends, as his short brown locks flowed a bit.

"Thanks." He called out before finally greeting the other group.

I nodded my head and continued on my way.

By lunchtime Jace and I had finally caught up to each other, and decided that we'd go to the store and grab some snacks with the little money that we had.

"So you were visiting your grandma again?" I questioned to break the silence between us on the aisle.

"Uh yeah, it took longer than expected today." Jace said without making eye contact.

"Oh and um Cam had asked about a project." I walked around the aisle to where he was located and looked at his figure," and he wanted me to um tell you." I uneasily said.

He had gotten worse, I don't know what was wrong but I couldn't push myself to ask, and even if I did ask he would tell me he was fine and nothing was wrong.

"Yeah I'll talk to him no big deal." Jace kept his eyes diverted towards his phone never looking up as he spoke.

"Hey Jace you okay?" I pushed the words out with hesitation.

"Oh yeah perfectly fine." He grinned with his usual crooked teeth that fitted him and let his still beautiful chestnut eyes meet mine.

"Good." I smiled back.