Faith ✓

Chapter 7: Bleh, so confusing

I leave some 'chocolates' in Jace's locker and wait close by for him to see them. He opens his locker, and sees the Ferrero Rochers. He opens one up and puts them into his mouth. His face scrunches up, showing obvious disgust. I grin evilly, as he looks around. He finally locates a bin and spits the brussels sprout into it.

Yep. Brussels sprout.

I decided to do some baking where I'd eat a ferrero rocher and a coat brussels sprout in chocolate. Add some chopped up nuts, and boom. My lethal weapon. I mean, it wasn't like cockroaches, but it was a mini prank to get back at the dumping on water thing.

I see him eyeing the rest of the chocolates out, probably wondering if they too were harmful. That was when I enter.

"Oh wow! A secret admirer, huh?"

He snaps back to see me grinning like a maniac behind him and he looks amused. He hands me one of the chocolates and says, "Have one."

My smile grows wider. "My pleasure."

I bite into the chocolate and feel the chocolate goodness. See, I only did that to one chocolate. Yep, he thinks he's going mad.

"It's so good. Damn, can I have the rest?"

"Sure." He gives the rest to me, shuts his locker angrily and storms off. Geez, it's only a joke. I see Kiera coming over and give them one each. They happily accept and we go to last period.

See, last period is hell. When I'm that desperate to go home, and I have like an hour left, my concentration disappears and the daydreaming starts. Thank God that I didn't have important classes for last period.

I entered mandatory Art class, ready with my earphones and pens. Art really consisted of me doodling, drawing and listening to music. But, it's the only subject I have with Mr. Arrogant. Yep, Jace is in this class.

I sit down in the corner, with a canvas and some paints ready. I'm hoping that I'll be motivated to put some effort today, who knows. I know to stay away from the other side of the room, where Jace usually sits. I put in my earphones and start to sketch roughly on the canvas. I kinda hear conversations in the room, but I continue. The teacher's pretty chill, so I'm good.

I feel a tap on my shoulder after I finished the rough sketch and I turn around. Ms. Alba's standing there with none other than Jace. His smirk is challenging me not to punch him in the face.

"Anastasia, this is Jace. He needs help with some drawing, and I was wondering if you could help him?"

I look at Jace suspiciously and he just smiles. Evilly.

"I'd love to."

Ms. Alba smiles and gestures for Jace to take a seat next to me. He brings his sketchpad out and starts to sketch. I go across the room to grab the paint, hoping that it's all a bad dream.

Honestly, I couldn't stop thinking about our chase in my house last week. The past week, he's been teasing me and whenever I see him to give him a piece of my mind, he just ignores me. It's like he has two sides, one is this teasing guy, and the other is uptight scary dude.

Bleh, so confusing.

I return back to my station, not really wanting to help him with his sketching. I'm not that great at drawing or anything, I just do it to release stress and forget about problems. I start to work on the background first, not really wanting to attack the main part yet.

I feel another tap on my shoulder and I roll my eyes. I turn to Jace and I take out my earphones.

"What?"

"I need help." he says plainly, looking at his work. It's not that bad, just needs a few touches.

I sigh. "How can I help?"

"Well, I want to make these" he points at the lines on his work "fingers but they alway look wrong."

I look closely and try to figure out the shape. I take the pad away from him and start to roughly outline how the fingers would be shaped. I can feel his stare on me, but I ignore it. It's only fair that he's been in a mood, that I be in a mood too.

"Here, is that what you mean?" I hand the sketchpad back. He takes it and nods. I put my earphones back in and continue with my painting.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

It's almost the end of the class, but I really want to finish the painting before I leave. Ms. Alba leaves with a wink and I take that as a 'yes'. I was able to not look directly at Jace for the whole hour and now I just needed to finish it. That's it.

Jace is also working on the canvas and his painting is looking amazing. Okay, I admit, he has skill. He's just finished painting a bit, but he's still got a long way to go. But the painting looks familiar.

I shake it off. It can't be.

I do the finishing touches of my painting and I gather my stuff.

As I almost leave, I hear Jace impossibly quietly say "Stay."

I turn around and he's frozen on the spot.

"What?"

"Stay. Please."

I could hear the raw emotion in his voice, and I look outside of the door and back. I sigh quietly and sit close to him. He glances at my face for a couple seconds then returns to his painting. I sit there awkwardly but he seems fine.

"How do you know Matt?"

I was startled by his question, but I remember that they're 'friends'. And of course my presence in Matt's house last week.

"Oh, um yeah my mom is friends with his mom. We've been friends since we were little. I'm actually staying at his house until I graduate." I stop there, knowing that if I said anymore, I'd slip up.

I see him tense up a bit, knowing that he doesn't fully trust Matt yet. I didn't want to create any tension, so I ask him, "What about you? How long have you been here?"

"Since I was young. My family moved here when I was three then I stuck around."

"Oh." is all I say. I'm bad at small talk and I don't know how to continue. But he does it anyways.

"You've been here since the start of high school?" I just nod. I really want to go home, but curiosity keeps me to stay.

"I'm sure I would've noticed you. I'm sure of it." He muttered the last bit to himself. I could see him more clearly and then a sense of deja vu came.

"This seems like a random question, but do you have a brother?" I ask. I really don't know where I'm going with this.

"Why?" His eyes cloud up and his body tenses up. He let his wall back up. Damn.

"Uh, I-I don't know. Maybe I've seen him. I mean I've seen someone who kinda looks like you but instead of green eyes they have-"

"Blue eyes." comes from a voice behind me. I don't dare to look back.

"Annie, this is my brother, Luke."

WOAH, HE HAS A BROTHER. I NEVER KNEW

*all characters even ones that aren't there yet are looking done with author*

Okay, maybe I knew. Maybe. But it all honesty, I didn't know that I was going to bring him in so early. What will this do to Annie's and Jace's bond? Was there even a bond? GASP WHAT IF IT ISN'T ABOUT JACE BUT ABOUT LUKE?

I'm so done with myself.

Leave a comment and vote if you liked this chapter. It really helps me to keep going and know that there are people reading my book, not just numbers.

See ya soon

- L