Green Hearts

Chapter 21

I have a feeling that my life is a whole bundle of ridiculousness. Everything just begins to seem absurd when I begin to think about it

So yes, with all that being said, I'm sitting at the dinner table with my mouth hanging open. Luckily I have no food there if not they'd be falling out by now

My eyes are trained on my father who just seems to be eating as comfortably and naturally as ever like he didn't just ask the most disgraceful question in all of human history

Muna is laughing hysterically like she is in some comedy show, not even bothering to hide her amusement to my obvious discomfort

I resort to glaring at my father when I hear Jace's calm chuckle from beside me. My gaze moves to his and he has a warm smile on his face like no weird ass question was just asked of him

His green eyes meet mine and there isn't even any form of malice or hidden anger behind them. He just looks like he is used to dealing with these kind of fathers

His eyes slip back to my father before he responds "That I can't count but I can reassure you that I've put larger and happier smiles on her face in the past two months of knowing her"

Hold up

Did I suddenly fall out of my usual life and straight into a romance novel? Is that what is happening here right now?

Author! Answer me!

"Show off" Muna mutters too herself but I hear it amdist blushing pure tomato red like a goddamn idiot

I cough and reach for my glass of water. Jace laughs at me and places a soothing hand on my thigh, his finger drawing circles on my skin just like in the car

"That was very smooth, boy" Bruce laughs and commends him "Glad you didn't bother lying and admitted to making her happy. I like that. I like you boy. Autumn, we're keeping him" he says to me and I throw him a playful snare

"I wasn't asking your permission before" I mutter and stick my tongue out at Muna who looks like she had been planning my doom but life decided not to work out for her

"Ah ha!" Jack exclaims "I knew that I knew that name! You're a writer?" he asks but it seems rather of a statement than an actual question

"Yes, I do" Jace smiles warmly at him with a nod of his hair, his curls falling to his face. His hand sweeps the back quickly to expose his beautiful face again

I hear a throat clearing and turn to find Bruce stating at me with a knowing look and a smirk on his face which I just roll my eyes at

"That's very very nice. I've read your works, especially that...uhm Seven" he says and Jace just smiles

"So tell me, where are your parents? I hear you transferred here out of the blues" dad asks as dinner resumes to clicking of cutlery against plates

When Jace doesn't say anything, I turn to look at him. His eyes are trained to the table before him with unwavering concentration and I can tell something is wrong

My hand reaches for his and grapples it in mine. This makes him to look at me. There's an emptiness in his green orbs before his fingers squeeze mine and he throws me a reassuring smile

"I don't have any parents, they died when I was a year old" is all he says and goes back to eating like he's said the most natural thing in the world

This exactly is my problem with him; behaving like the most intricate things of life are just as easy as he puts them

I can't believe I never asked or knew about his parents. Well I had since been avoiding any topic that had to do with parents since I didn't want him to know I had two gay fathers

"Oh I'm so sorry" Jack begins to apologize but Jace waves him off with a smile on his face

"Nahh. I was too young to know them so it's not an emotional hassle" he explains with a laugh that doesn't seem forced at all

I've never been an emotional person, so it's very difficult so me to know what to do for him at this point. It's really helps that Muna isn't emotional at all or I'd be lost whenever she cries

I hear my dad ask Muna a question but my mind doesn't register it as I'm staring at Jace in the eyes right now, trying to decipher his mood

His hand pulls mine to his face and he places a kiss to my knuckles, eyes trained on mine with a warm smile that's supposed to reassure and is slowly working

"It's fine, Autumn. I'm fine, okay?" He pats my hand and I nod at him

"So Jace, are you working on any new books? Can't wait to read what you have next" Muna says with her mouth full. I think it's highly impossible for her to have manners but who cares right?

"You've read my books?" He asks and she nods

"Of course. I need to show support, my man" she smiles from across the table like she's hiding something. It's a very creepy and mysterious smile. Yet again, she may not be hiding anything and her face may just be naturally creepy alongside her smile

But that doesn't stop me from narrowing my eyes at her with scrunched brows

"Well, I've not been on anything yet...." Jace starts and I cut him off

"Don't be modest, you can tell us about it. We won't ruin the idea" I say, my eyes not straying from my plate

"Yeahhhhhhhhhh. I could even help giving you inspiration" Bruce perks up and Jack just stares him down because we all know he's terrible at these kinds of things

He made me join a creative writing club back in High school even though I have little to no skill there. And because of his own awful inspiration and writing abilities, I was skillfully adviced to leave the club

"Seriously, I haven't been working on anything" Jace replies looking around the table

"What about all your scribbling in that black notebook of yours?" I ask, looking at him from the corner of my eyes

I've noticed that he had a habit of subtly scribbling things in a notebook while thinking he was hiding it from me. I just assumed he was working on something he doesn't want anyone to know about yet

His eyes are wide and frantic when I turn to him, just like when I had first mentioned about his novel. It's almost like as if he wants to keep that part of his life completely secret

"You know about that?" He asks in bewilderment

"Is something the matter?" Jack asks him, eyeing his visibly shaken countenance at my mention of his secret notebook

Probably the reason why it's a secret now that I think about it

"Oh uhm nothing" he shakes his head

"Don't worry, I won't steal it at night when you're sleeping, though you won't notice cause you sleep like a log" I tease, my hand touches his knees and his body goes stiff beneath me

Okayyyy

My eyes flick to his green ones that quickly dart around the room, running away from the question he knows I'm about to ask

Feeling somewhat confused and I bit hurt, my hand drops from him and returns back to my lap, safe where it isn't rejected by the most confusing boy I've ever met in my life

This whole thing between us has to literally be the most exhausting sequence of activities I've ever encountered in my entire life and he's not helping by switching moods like its a flipping light switch

"Why do you know the way he sleeps?" Bruce's eyes narrow at me and I internally facepalm

I can literally use that trip to the moon I've been asking of right now cause I won't hear the last of this

"Oh this is going to be a funny story" Muna laughs like a crazy ass villain before her mouth opens wide to spill