Alive

1

Violet POV

"Why don't you ever wear your own clothes?" Jace said looking me up and down. "It's just something I noticed about you, at work."

"What?" What do you mean 'my own clothes'" my eyebrows knit together. Only 5 minutes together and he was already questioning what I was wearing? Sorry I was ready to leave the whole man.

"Why do you always wear clothes from Rays. You know you don't have to support the brand that much...? Even when we're at work, you always wear Rays clothes,"

I wanted to slap his pretentious face.

"Whats it to you? Are you a police man or something? We get a discount there. Obviously I'm gonna shop there? Plus I like the clothes,"
I crossed my arms over my chest . I was wearing a short, black flowy dress topped off with my dads old bomber jacket he wore in the 90s . The dress was courtesy of Rays. My long tan legs were exposed to the cold , but my feet were covered with thick, black combat boots.

I'd only started shopping at Rays when I got the job there. Before that I had only shopped at thrift, before it became the ~ cool eco-friendly thing~. Really, my mum and I were just broke. Thrift was all we knew.

"Why, where do you shop then?"
I leant back into the tall red booth and scrutinised my co-worker- now turned date-'S face.

"Simple. Barkers,"

Barkers? I nearly laughed. For some pretentious prince, I really thought he'd say something more high end, not just the brand people go to when they think they're rich but really aren't. Not like I could even afford a 6 pack of handkerchiefs from there. But still.

"The clothes at Rays are crap. If my dad didn't force me to get a part time job , I would've quit a long time ago,"

Jace plastered a goofy smile across his face. Was that his attempt at a joke? Is he socially inept? He just blatantly mocked my fashion choices, and expects me to laugh?
His grin slowly morphed into somewhat of a nervous grimace once he saw I had not reciprocated the same energy. His pale face flushed a bright pink. Even the tips of his ears where tainted pink. Who did he think he was? He was a spoilt jerk. I was wasting my time, I should just leave right now. It was then I remembered Katie's voice in my head, pleading me to go on this "date" for her sake. Fucking hell.
I gave him an awkward grimace and dusted invisible crumbs from the picnic cloth covered table. The lights of the diner flickered and a moth hovered in front of me. A burp resounded from the corner of the diner where a man with an overgrown white beard and a dusty brown leather jacket sat.
Desperate to change the subject I said the first thing that came to mind.
"What sort of music do you like..?" I asked. There. A peace offer. An opportunity for him to recover from his most recent pitfall.
"EDM," he answered, oozing a cockiness I didn't know EDM came with. "I'll show you some."
He pulled his phone out and quickly scrolled through his playlists.
Katy perry- Californian girls .
I felt my brain cells die and eyes log off as soon as I saw that.
EDM? shit I didn't know a lot about it but I knew it wasn't Californian girls.
Katie. You're doing this for Katie. I repeated in my head . The whole plan was for me to get close to Jace, so Jace could introduce Katie to his older brother, River. 6ft something floppy haired green-eyed beautiful boy, chased after by half the schools population.
Despite my hatred for members of the male species in general, even I could appreciate River's heart-melting smile and the way one strand of hair flopped perfectly onto his face when he looked down.
"Tantalising," Katie almost moaned and rolled her eyes playfully.
"God, you're disgusting me, get a hold of yourself," I laughed and shoved her. She shoved me back and we both fell into each other laughing. I'm sure we were about as attractive as hyenas .

The conversation between Jace and I was what I would describe as 12 year olds playing 21 questions.
"Favourite colour?"
"Blue. Favourite movie?"
"Star Wars. Favourite food?"

What would we ask next? Hey Jace what's your favourite shape? Triangle or circle? Or how about a hexagon?

I noticed he seemed to get flustered a lot and the confidence he exuded was entirely artificial. Fake it til you make it am I right?
"Perfect guy?" He asked.
"You," I said and snorted.
He rolled his eyes.
"Seriously , what would you look for in a dude. So I know for future references for impressing the other ladies,"
"What, am I not girlfriend material?"
"Answer the question," he shook his head and laughed and his brown hair shone as it caught some of the dingy light from above.
"Hmm... I'd look for black hair, blue eyes, has a cat named Frido, drives a Jeep, eye wrinkles, scruffy beard-"
He quickly swallowed his milkshake just in time to burst out laughing.
"Common," he groaned "you're just describing Mr Harley"
I winked "yessir," I stretched and yawned . I was getting tired of this shit. "Got a thing for them history teachers,"

"Hashtag when you're deprived of male attention from early on,"Jace joked.
Uhhhh... i was NOT expecting that. I burst out laughing . He sad something that was actually decently funny. The fact that he himself through he was a comedian made me laugh harder. I laughed even harder because it was true and my dad left 14 years ago. I clutched my stomach. My laughter slowly faded and I saw a little glint in his eyes. That "hashtag" got me. What 17 year old boy says "hashtag?"

We talked more and I realised this was not the Jace I had seen floating around at school and at work. We usually didn't interact at all at Ray's because, well , retail. If you didn't have a customer asking you to find one precise piece of clothing in the enormous store, then you were refolding the shirts some inconsiderate person came and ran their hands through just to be a clown. I hadn't noticed Jace that much. I mean, he was good looking and all, but I didn't care about that sort of stuff. I wasn't as desperate as the 15 year olds who came to ask him a million questions just so they could ogle at his face for a couple of minutes . At school, he was pretty popular but not as much as River.
It must've came as a surprise when out of the blue I said let's hang out after work. Hell, it was a surprise he even shrugged his shoulders and said sure as if he really couldn't have cared. He probably wouldn't have cared if a bus hit him.
However tonight he was different, more animated, happier. It was a new Jace, one different than he allowed the world to see.

*****
Authors note: Started this book 1 May 2020. I will try to update it twice a week :) . Thank you for reading!! I really appreciate it ❤️