Dazed

Chapter 15

I sit out on my front porch waiting for Jace to pick me up. No, it's totally not creepy to sit and wait outside your house. Especially when it's as nice as today and, not to mention, I need to get my tan on. I'm so pale from being inside all the time, I'm starting to think I'll blend in with the snow when winter comes. No bueno.

My fingers tap on the porch table to the beat of my music as my eyes scan the street. They land on Aiden's house and I see him peeking out the window. Probably wondering where I'm going, typical. I roll my eyes and glance at the driveway. Nada. Glance back at Aiden's house. Repeat about three times until I show Aiden he's 'number one' (wishing I had a customized foam finger for the occasion to emphasize it) before I jump from my seat and open Jace's passenger door. "Sup." I say while I shove my bag under my feet.

"Ready?" Jace says while backing out of the driveway.

"For...?"

"The death of your muscles." He replies with a devilish look.

"Please don't say we are swimming laps. I'm too lazy for stuff that's not entertaining." My lips form a little frown.

"Nope. You shall see." He replies, turning his gaze back to the road.

We continue driving to the unknown place before we pull into a parking lot 15 minutes later.

"The new rec center?!" I say, feeling very excited to try out the new building. Jace chuckles, and nods his head up and down as he pulls into a parking spot and turns the car off. He reaches into the back seat, and pulls a black nike gym bag up the the front, strapping it around his shoulder.

We exit the car and make our way to the doors. All was fine until I didn't notice a rock on the ground... BAM. I find myself cursing gravity for always being there to catch me. And trust me, gravity sucks at trust falls. I groan in pain as I see Jace kneel down by my face. "Addison, are you alright?" I throw my thumb up to show I'm alright as I sit up. "We should get to a first aid kit. You're kinda bleeding."

"Kinda?" I ask while looking down at my knee which was far from the verge of gushing. "That's not too bad." 

"Not too bad? I think you're a little crazy if you call that 'not to bad'."

"Well if you think it's so terrible, help my lazy ass up and get me to the first aid kit." I giggle as he lifts me up and carries me bridal style into the building. "I may be bleeding, but I can walk perfectly fine." 

"Shut up and deal with it." He clears his throat as we get to the front desk. "Excuse me, my friend fell and she needs a band aid or stitches or surgery."

I roll my eyes, "He's over exaggerating. Can we have a first aid kit?"

"Of course." The woman reaches under the counter and pulls out a first aid kit. "You can take a seat over there."

"Thanks." I manage before Jace speeds us towards the seats. He starts tending to the little scratch on my knee as I take in the new building, that is until I hear a cap open the a spraying sound. "Jace, I don't think you need to spray my knee for twenty minutes. Slap a band aid on, return the kit and lets go. Stop exaggerating."

"Fine." He packs the kit up and returns it, coming back to me after he has paid our way in. We walk past the massive children's jungle-gym, which is better than any cheap one in a McDonald's. Jace leads me down the stairs  that's in front of a slide from the jungle-gym that goes to the second floor. To our right is a large corner of the enormous area covered in trampolines. Next to the netted-out trampolines is a large indoor soccer fiels, where little boys are kicking a ball around. As I am about to glance at the next area, I bump into Jace. "Stop bumping into me Addison. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were obsessed with my touch." He says with a smirk.

I smack his arm, "Whatever. Why did you stop?" 

"You're supposed to go through there," He points to the girls' locker room. "see you on the other side." Jace winks as he heads into the mens' locker room.

~~~

"Ew. You smell bad."

"Thanks, Jace. Every girl loves hearing that. Especially when the guy has no room to even speak because he smells worse." I say while pinching my nose. We had just gotten dressed and cleaned up after swimming for a few hours. It was awesome, brought back some childhood memories. "Plus it's just chlorine, nothing like pot."

"Well we could smell like pot. I mean, it's legal here." Jace gets a devious look in his eye that tells me he is totally up for getting high.

"Nope. Not happening." I smile as we reach his car and jump in. "Now take me home, peasant." I hear him mumble a 'weirdo' and laugh as he drives off. I send my mom a text telling I'll be home soon. Jace flips the radio on and we travel in silence. Not an awkward one, but a comfortable one. One that I can pass out in. It's nice.

With Aiden, he'd always try to fill the silence with 'remember when...'s and 'let me remind you of...'s. It was completely irritating. He's the one who said "let it come back naturally" after I remembered the song. Maybe it was a good thing that it was 'our song', it's like it predicted we'd break eachother's hearts, and I'm honestly fine with that. I broke his heart, he kinda (maybe?) broke mine, so now we can move on. I guess I have moved on, with Jace, a little. Aiden just needs to open his eyes and move on from the past, and if not, he'll have to move on from me. "Thanks, Aiden-" My eyes widen once I realize I called him Aiden. "I'm so sorry. I was just thinking about what the hell I am going to do about him not that you're here and that slipped out and-" The words coming from my mouth hault when Jace's lips cover mine with a quick kiss.

"It's alright. I understand. And no problem. I had fun too. Although the ride back with a smelly girl sucked." He winks.

A smile creeps on my face with a blush from the peck, "Whatever. Thanks again." I return the favor and give him a quick kiss on the cheek, then exit the car and enter my home.

____

Sorry for the almost two month wait for an update. Life has gotten crazy. But this chapter marks the halfway point (Not the climax though, there's much more in store). Yes, I'm planning on about 30 chapter and hoping the book itself will be done by the end of January. So lots of updates on the horizon!