Page 34 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

She nodded. “Okay. Good. Let’s go then.”

We both stood up, and Aiden’s and Jace’s attention were suddenly on us. Worry clouded Jace’s expression. “Are you alright?” he asked quickly.

I nodded, super aware of people watching. “Yeah. I think I’ve just reached my limit.” I stepped over the bench seat and almost bumped into Aiden, not realizing he’d come around to check on me. “I’m fine,” I said before he could ask. I smiled to reassure him. “Baby steps.”

“I’m sorry. I should’ve sat with you.”

I rolled my eyes. “What would be the point in that? I talk to you all the time.”

I thought he would laugh a little at that, but he only worried at his lip. “Was it bad?” he asked quietly.

I cocked my head on the side and thought about it. “Actually, no. Jace…uh…distracted me.”

His gaze fell to Jace then back again, and the happiness in his eyes was back. “Okay. Good.” He pulled me into a hug. “Will you do it again tomorrow?”

I closed my eyes and hugged him back. I’d do anything if it meant I got to see that happiness. “Yes.”

Chapter 18

Jace

Having Mia sit next to me each day at lunch was the fucking highlight of my day. I was man enough to admit it. I fucking loved it. Every day, she stayed a little longer and shined a little brighter. Watching her was like watching a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. It was fucking beautiful.

There were two down sides to it though. The first was the fact that every new minute I spent with her, my resolve to keep her at arm’s length slipped a little further away. The second was the interest she was getting from other guys. Twice, I nearly snapped and took some fucker’s head off. I wasn’t used to this possessive feeling, and to be quite honest, I wasn’t sure if I liked it.

The other problem – if you could call it that, was that Aiden had thanked me for looking out for her. While I did have her best interests at heart, I still felt fucking guilty because I was doing it purely for selfish reasons.

By lunch time on Friday, I was really hanging out for my little daily dose of Mia. After going through a few notes with Mr. Brennan after class though, I found almost everyone already out on the green before me.

Finding Mia already flanked by a couple of fucking douche bags who were eyeing her off like they wanted a taste completely ruined my mood. I felt like storming on up and grabbing them by their scrawny fucking necks and tossing them. Instead, I grabbed one of the end seats on the next table so I wasn’t facing them. I didn’t want to be tempted to look up every fucking minute to see what they were doing.

It was a bad mistake on my part, because apparently sitting there was like I’d given out an open invitation to every fucking girl in the school to come and talk to me. Like I was in the fucking mood to talk!

Matt and some of the other guys came to join me which I was more than happy with, but I was still just fucking pissed. I knew I had no right to be, but she was mine god damn it.

As much as I wasn’t in the mood for putting up with groupies, I knew it was necessary to our image for us to play it up a bit and not come across as total assholes. Knowing that didn’t help though, and it took all my self-control to not just let rip with a roar and tell them all to fuck right off.

I thought I was doing okay considering, but when I heard Mia’s sweet little laugh from somewhere behind me, I was done.

Snatching my phone up off the table, I pushed up and stormed off towards the gymnasium.

I knew I was going to smash so

mething, and considering we had a gig that night, I knew I had to choose what I was going to smash carefully. I was surprised I could still think so logically while I was so fucking worked up.

The weights room was off limits at this time during lunch, but my need for a punching bag seemed more important than obeying rules. I stalked to the door and slid inside, tugging my shirt over my head as I went, and dropping it on the floor with my phone.

Without breaking my stride, I started laying into it. Hard. And I didn’t stop, not even when I was almost gasping for breath.

This thing with Mia was driving me insane. I didn’t even fucking know why I was staying away from her anymore. Oh yeah, that’s right. She didn’t like the spotlight. Well, you wouldn’t fucking know it from the way she’d been acting at lunch.

She’d said she thought it was time to stop hiding, whatever the fuck that meant. I thought what I was doing was the right thing by staying away, but I didn’t think I could tell the difference between right and wrong now if I fucking tried. All I knew was that whatever I was doing was tearing me up inside.

“Fuck man, stop already.”

I grabbed the bag and looked up to see Aiden, Matt and Dean standing by the benches. I let my gaze fall to Dean seeing as he was the one who’d spoken.

“If you keep going like that you’re going to bust your fucking hands dude.”

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