Page 14 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

I gave her a smile I hoped was reassuring. “I’m fine. I’ll see you at lunch.”

With a little smile and a nod we parted ways, Kaeli using the halls, and me using another one of my preventative measures by slipping out the side door and walking along the path that went around the outside of the building instead. Going that way was an absolute pain in my ass because I had to allow an extra five minutes to get to class, but it was better than the alternative.

Unfortunately for me and my fragile peace of mind, Kacey was in my first class, and I had to sit within listening distance of her talking to Violet. About Jace.

“Oh my god. He was so good. The things that boys can do with his tongue should be outlawed,” she was saying.

I felt sick. How did that girl always seem to make me spew a little bit in my mouth?

“So, are you guys like exclusive now or what?” Violet asked her.

Kacey laughed. “God no. You know Jace. He’s a complete manwhore. No one’s getting that boy exclusively.”

“I’m going to go for it,” Violet said suddenly.

“What?” Kacey whispered.

“Jace. I’m going to get him to sleep with me at the next party. May as well get in before he’s famous. I wish I had’ve thought of that before Josh left. Imagine the publicity I could’ve gotten if I’d had him.”

I frowned. Josh? What-

My eyes widened. Was she actually talking about Joshua Emerson?

Shit. She was!

Before Aiden and I had moved here at the beginning of our freshman year, Josh had been a part of the guy’s group of friends. When Aiden arrived, they took one look at him standing up to the school’s bully and decided he was worthy of their group. Needless to say, I was jealous it’d only taken him one day to find a place he fit, but I’d been happy for him.

I still remember him coming home that afternoon and telling us all about them. Josh in particular. He’d been seriously impressed that Josh had wanted to be an actor, and that he’d already been doing some small bit parts in a few Disney movies.

It was about halfway through our freshman year when Josh landed his first starring role, and his family decided it was for the best if they moved down to L.A., leaving the guys feeling a little lost without him. It wasn’t long after that that they’d decided to form the band - even though none of them had ever even picked up an instrument before.

Josh had gone on to become a big household name since then, recently wrapping up filming his first big budget film.

“Yeah, I know,” Kacey replied. “I’ve heard his family have moved back to town, so if there’s a chance I could happen to run into him, I’m taking it.”

Now I really did think I was going to be sick. What the hell was wrong with these girls?

When the class finally finished, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Such a mixture of emotions was rampaging through me, I had no idea what was what. I didn’t even remember the walk to English. Mr. Hervey eyed me with annoyance when I walked in late, but I was always late because I had to walk around the building. It had taken my mom to come yell at the principal before he accepted my excuse as legitimate. I still don’t think he believed me, but he didn’t have a choice in the matter now.

English was the one class I had with Jace, and after hearing what Kacey and Violet had to say, I really didn’t want to see him at that point in time.

I could feel him watching me as I moved towards my desk. It was like his gaze had some sort of magnetic pull i

n it or something, because it took more strength than I thought it would to avoid him, but I did it.

Mr. Hervey was already handing out the results of the exam we had the week before as I took my seat. He didn’t meet my eyes when he put down my A+ paper. I think it annoyed him no end that I was an A+ student. As far as he was concerned, I was lazy because I couldn’t be bothered to show up on time. He was an idiot.

Of course because it was the one class I wanted to fly by, it dragged. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not, but I felt like Jace’s eyes were constantly on me. I tried to distract myself by immersing myself in my work, but that only resulted in twice as many pages written than was required. Looked like I had a lot of editing to do.

By the time I met Kaeli for lunch, I was a massive ball of tension. We took our stuff out to our regular spot on the grass and sat in the sun.

Kaeli shook her head in annoyance when I relayed Kacey’s and Violet’s conversation in Biology. “What skanks. Seriously.”

We looked out across the green to where the guys were sitting, surrounded by dozens of people, most of them girls. They all loved it though. Even Dean to a certain extent. Feeling annoyed again, I turned myself around so I couldn’t see them anymore.

We ate in silence for a while, before Kaeli murmured about something being interesting.

“What?”

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