The Art Of Seduction(Slowly Editing...)

The Blame Game (CHAPTER 8)

Jace (Anthony) on the side --------->>>>>

Rose POV

        I walked away from Vincent and took a seat in a desk on the far side of the room. In the midst of my conversation with Vincent, we'd made if to pre-calculus. Who wants to do math in the morning? I mean seriously, they might as well kill me now. I was already having a bad day and having to come to this stupid class today only made it worse.

        The bell rang and Mrs. Hamilton began her lecture of the importance of calculus.

        Due to recent events I was pretty out of it the whole day. I almost got detention in my English class for not paying attention. By the time seventh period rolled around, all I wanted to do was go home and cry into a pillow. Of course I'd done enough crying for a decade last night after seeing Anthony...

        I was really shocked to see him at first. Then the shock transcended into anger, which eventually led to me crying alone in my room for hours. I felt pathetic honestly, but could you blame me? I mean seriously, who wouldn't feel hurt after-

         "Earth to Rose." Vincent waved his hand in my face and I turned to look at him.

         

        "What do you want?" I mumbled.

        "Well we do have a project to do and as much as I'd love to slack off, we're already two days behind."

         I knew he was right. I couldn't dwell on the whole Anthony thing. I needed to focus.

        "You're right, I'm sorry. What is this project again?"

        "We have to pick a Greek god and do a report on them, as well as build a model of them."

        I sighed. Why world history had to be my last class of the day was beyond me. "Let's do Ares, god of war."

        "Don't you mean Athena?" Vincent questioned.

        "Athena was the goddess of war and wisdom yes, but Ares is also a god of war."

        "Whatever."

        "Write this down." I commanded.

        Vincent rolled his eyes, but got a piece of paper and a pen ready anyway.

        "Ares had no wife, though he slept around with Aphrodite all the time. I guess you can say he was a bit promiscuous."

        Vincent chuckled but continued writing. I continuously spouted off everything I could remember about Ares, and sometimes I would make a slick comment that made Vincent give me a knowing look.

        When the bell rang I gathered my things and hurried to my car. Well technically it's my mom's car, but as long as she's letting me borrow it I'm calling it mine. As I approached my car I noticed someone leaning against my car. I prayed for it not to be Anthony, but of course the universe hates me

        "What do you want?" I asked in a monotonous voice.

        "Can we talk?"

        "We're talking now aren't we?"

        "Rose please." he begged.

        I sighed and walked over to the driver's side of my car. "Get in."

        Anthony got in the passenger's seat as I got in the car too. We pulled out of the school parking lot and I drove to the Starbucks that I'd met Christie at. When we made it to the coffee shop I ordered a latte and Anthony ordered a coffee. We sat at a table and I waited for Anthony to start talking.

        "So...?" I waited.

        "I missed you."

        "Anthony can you get to the point." I said. I was getting more frustrated by the second.

        "Can you stop calling me that? Call me Jace like everyone else."

        "I call you Anthony because that's the name your parents intended for people to call you." I crossed my arms stubbornly.

        "No, you call me that because you wanted to be different. Can you stop being so stubborn? It'd make all of this much easier."

        I dropped my arms to the side and sighed. "Whatever. Can you just get to the point I have things to do."

        "Right, well I wanted to apologize. For everything. I know I hurt you-"

        "Hurt?" I laughed humorlessly. "Jace you scared me for life. Did you know that I cried for days after you left? I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, I just cried. And then you didn't even tell me you were leaving, I had to find out from someone else. After all of that other shit had just happened too. I was traumatized."

        "Rose I was young and stupid, and if I could go back and change every mistake I made with you I would, but I can't. I know I should've been there for you. I was your boyfriend and after all of that happened I should have been right by your side helping you through it, but instead I was blaming you."

        My face formed a look of disgust. "You blamed me? How do you blame someone for something like that?" By this time the tears were pouring from my eyes heavily, and I'm sure my makeup was completely worth it, but I knew it was worth it if it meant I got to go off on this bastard. "Tell me how Jace. Explain to me how you can blame someone for getting raped. What else do you blame me for? Losing the baby? Because it was definitely my fault when that man kicked me in my stomach. If anything it's your fault. Where were you when you were supposed to be taking me to my doctor's appointment? It's your fault for not being there. Everything is your fault."

        Everyone in the cafe had turned to watch the scene between Jace and I, but that's the last I cared about. For the first time since the police report, I told this story out loud. I'd let all my emotions out at once and all I felt was numbness. I fell to my knees in despair and sobbed into my hands.

        "You're right. It's all my fault, I should have been there and I wasn't. I feel terrible and every day I think about it. How we were supposed to be a family and if I would've made some better decision that day, how much of a difference it could've made. But I really need you to forgive Me." he sounded desperate as he kneeled beside me and held my face in his hands so I was looking at him.

        I squinted my eyes at him and shook my head. "Give me one good reason why I should?"

        He was silent for a moment, and then he looked deeply in my eyes and said, "Because I love you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ahhhh It. Gets. Real. I loved this chapter simply because I finally revealed Rose's big secret. I was hesitant at first, but I realized if I ever wanted to qualify for the Watty Awards I needed to pick up the pace of this story.

On other news, I was real happy to see the number of Votes and Comments go up. They're actually the reason I posted early...

Dedication goes to HungerGames152 for guessing correctly. At first I was going to change it just so you were wrong, but I'm not that evil.

MEH....

-Shahada

P.S. Over 1000 reads!!!!!!!