Page 55 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

I watched her climb over the seat to join Kaeli. Yeah, I fucking sucked at this.

“Jace?”

Matt’s voice interrupted my thoughts before they could turn into a spiraling destruction. “What?” I couldn’t help the clipped tone that came out.

“You don’t want any of the tickets?”

“I fucking said I didn’t, didn’t I?”

Matt gave me an amused look, but had the smarts not to say anything. I turned my attention back to my lunch and did my best to blend in as much as I could until the bell rang. It was a fucking nightmare.

Chapter 27

Mia

Are you okay?

I’d read those words over and over again since Jace had sent them to me after lunch. I knew the ‘I’m fine’ text I’d sent back probably didn’t reassure him at all, but him asking me point blank at school about my anxiety had been a shock. I hadn’t been prepared for it, and I had no idea how to handle it.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share it with him. I did. It was just that I’d never really shared my story with anyone before. Not even Mom or Aiden. Sure, they knew what the police had told them, but no one could get me to talk back then, and I guess as the years passed by, they just learned to leave it be for fear of upsetting me.

When I became friends with Kaeli, I just pulled up the news article on it on the internet and let her find out that way. It was just easier for me.

I didn’t want to do that with Jace though. He deserved more than that. There were two telltale signs that told me he was worth the full unedited story. One was the fact that he didn’t tiptoe around me like I’d break, sending me a, ‘You didn’t look fine…’, text, calling me on my bullshit, and the other was the fact that he seemed to know when enough was enough, and after not hearing back from me, knew well enough to leave it alone.

As I sat in my room that night, I considered calling him, but I still had no idea how to tell him. The thought made me as nervous as hell. I knew it was a huge road block for me, and if Jace and I had any chance at all of making it as a couple, I needed to share my past with him and overcome all the things that stood in our way.

The buzzing sound of an incoming text message drew my attention to my phone lying on the bed in front of me. The instant I saw Jace’s name, my heart started racing, but not in the usual excited way. This was more like a slight panic. I opened it up to read the message with my heart in my throat.

Can I ring you?

Shit.

I threw the phone on the bed and stood u

p, pacing the floor. He was going to want answers. God, I would. But was I ready to talk? That was the million dollar question. I groaned and picked up my phone, typing quickly and hitting send before I could stop myself.

OK

Oh crap. The phone rang almost immediately. Taking a deep breath, I answered. “Hi.”

“Hey, how are you? I was worried about you after lunch today.”

I sighed. “I was fine. Aiden was just overreacting, that’s all.”

The line was silent for a couple of heartbeats before he spoke up, and when he did, his voice was low and cautious. “It wasn’t Aiden’s reaction I was worried about, Mia.”

My heart was going crazy. I was going to do it. I knew now. “Do you really want to know?”

“Of course I do. You’re my girlfriend, Mia. I care about you.”

In that moment, I knew he really did. I could hear it in his voice, and funnily enough, it made the nerves in me settle. “Has Aiden ever told you about how our dad died?”

I could almost hear the confusion in his silence. “Uh…only that he got caught in a riot or something, right?”

I held my breath for a while, willing the words to come. Something about the warmth in his voice made me want to give them up though. “Yeah.” I swallowed. “Well…I was there.”

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I was positive in that moment I could say the same for Jace’s silence. I could almost see the concern on his face, and it gave me strength to push onwards.

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