Raw Deal (Beauty for Ashes: Book One) (14 page)

“Sorry, I left it in my room. I’ve been downstairs.”

“Is Jace here?” She looked at his car. “What are you two doing?”

“Just homework. He’s helping me with economics?”

“Right,” Monica said. “And when were you going to tell me that he comes round to ‘help you with economics.’ I guess I better go find someone else to hang out with. I don’t want to poop your party.”

“You’re not pooping any party. Come in.”

She stepped into the house. “You might want to go ahead of me and warn him that I’m here.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to walk in there, and he’s in his drawers or something.”

I exhaled in exasperation although it was quite funny. “Monica, he hasn’t taken off any of his clothes. For goodness sake, my mom’s upstairs!”

We walked into the den, and Jace glared at Monica. “What are you doing here?”

“Why? Am I ruining your seduction plans? Studying? My backside!”

The doorbell rang again. “That’ll be the pizza,” I said. I went to get it.

Monica and Jace were still arguing when I got back to the den. “Cut it out, you guys.” I put the pizza on the table and opened it.

“Shouldn’t you be with Hayden somewhere?” Jace asked Monica.

“Shut up, Jace,” Monica retorted.

“Monica, have some pizza,” I suggested.

“No. What if I get signed?”

“Signed for what?” Jace asked.

“With Lexi’s agency.” She started telling Jace about the open call on Thursday. I sighed. It looked like my economics tutorial was over.

Between me and Jace, the pizza rapidly diminished. Jace looked at the last slice. “Do you want it, Lexi?”

“No, you can have it.”

Jace took the slice. “Okay, break over. Let’s look at some of your assignments.”

I handed him the 36% one and he briefly scanned through it. “You’ve actually covered a few of the main points that needed to be raised. The main problem though is that you haven’t expounded on things. You haven’t compared anything, you haven’t evaluated, you haven’t shown evidence of critical thinking.” He looked at me. “Need I go on?”

Monica snorted.

I laughed. “Well, how do I do that?”

Jace dug his hand into his very large jean pocket and pulled out a wad of folded paper. “I brought my assignments so that you can look at them.”

“Did you bring this one? What did you score?”

“86%.” Jace passed me his assignments.

“Okay, now I feel dumb.”

“Don’t. Like I said, you touched on some of the main things, but you just didn’t discuss them at all. And personally, I think you need to adopt a better essay style.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, everything’s kind of all over the place, and it’s all pretty random. You need to have more of an introduction, then start discussing each point systematically, and then finish with a concluding paragraph that ties everything together. In fact, this is all just one big two-page paragraph. You need to break it up.”

“Okay.”

“And you should probably use some references.”

“I know.”

“You guys really are doing work. This is so lame,” Monica grunted from her cross-legged position on the floor. She rose to her feet. “I’m outta here.”

After Monica left, Jace and I went through my assignments and compared them with his. I started understanding what I was required to do. To be honest, I wrote good essays for literature, but I hadn’t been applying the same principles in economics.

Jace gave me an essay structure for the next assignment. He told me what points he was covering and how he was relating them to the question. I wrote it all down and grinned at him when he finished. “Don’t worry. I’ll tweak it a little so that we don’t get penalized for producing identical essays.”

Jace leaned back on the sofa and took the remote. He changed to a sports channel. “Let me know anytime you need help.”

“Thanks, Jace.” I felt like telling him he was really sweet, but I didn’t. I’d already said that too many times.

“Why do you always do that?” Jace’s eyes didn’t leave the screen.

I wasn’t sure whether he was talking to me or the basketball player on the TV. “Do what?”

He looked at me. “Why do you always look at me when you think I’m not looking?”

“I don’t.”

Jace gave me a slow smile that threw me off a little. I picked up the empty pizza box. “Just going to throw this away. Do you want a drink?” That spicy pizza had made me thirsty.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“What do you want to drink?”

“Anything.”

I brought him back a bottle of water. “Because you’re a sportsman,” I explained.

“How thoughtful.”

“I know.”

Jace took a small jewelry box from his pocket. “I brought you a present.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because I wanted to.”

I took the box from him and opened it. “Oh, wow.” A pair of dangly diamond earrings sparkled against a velvet cushion. They looked beautiful—and pricey. “What are these for?”

“The party yesterday was near the Diamond Parlor, and I picked them up for you.”

The Diamond Parlor was a jeweler in Beverley Hills that was so elitist you had to book an appointment to get in, and their waiting list was usually about two weeks long. The fact that Jace had walked in and just picked these up said something. It was actually pretty scary.

“Don’t you like them?” Jace asked. “Sorry, I don’t even know if you wear earrings. Maybe I should have bought a bracelet—”

“No, no, I love them. I’ve had my ears pierced since I was twelve.” I shut the box.

“Well, what’s up?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you’re scaring me.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re buying me diamond earrings.”

Jace looked defensive. “Lexi, I don’t mean anything by this. I’m not trying to have my wicked way with you or anything. It’s just a present because I thought you’d like them.”

That made me laugh. “Jace, I know. That’s not what I meant.”

“Well, what do you mean?”

“Well, I feel bad because you’re so rich, and I wish you could just be normal.” His money complicated things for me. Every time I remembered who he was, it made me feel like I was out of my depth. “Normal friends just buy each other a jam donut or a candy bar or something. This is a lot.”

“You know what, Lexi?” Jace asked.

“What?”

“Stop over analyzing everything and just wear the darn earrings.” He smiled.

“Okay.” I opened the box again. “They really are gorgeous. Do you buy things like this for all your friends?”

Jace narrowed his eyes. “If it makes you feel better, I buy Tanya and Monica stuff all the time.”

“That does make me feel a little better.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to feel like I’m exploiting our friendship.”

Jace gave me a look of exasperation that told me it really wasn’t a big deal to him. He’d bought me diamond earrings from the Diamond Parlor, so what?

***

“You had Jace in your house all alone for two hours, and you didn’t do anything?” Michelle asked with a sneer that made me feel silly and childish.

“Maybe she has standards,” Monica defended me.

“Maybe she’s gay,” Sandy said.

Monica took a small bite of the stick of celery that she’d been gnawing on for close to ten minutes now. “Shut up, Sandy.”

“What? You can’t just assume that everyone’s heterosexual in this day and age.”

“I’m not gay,” I answered. I looked around the cafeteria. No sign of Jace.

“So do you have a crush on Jace?” Michelle asked.

“Nah, he’s cute, but not really my type.”

Monica didn’t say anything, for which I was grateful.

“So, who is your type?” Michelle pressed.

“Don’t worry. She doesn’t like Matt,” Monica said, patting Michelle’s arm. “I don’t think she’s ever even noticed him.”

Michelle smiled. “Good.”

“Matt asked about you yesterday, I told him you weren’t feeling too good,” Sandy said.

“Yeah, he called me.” Michelle winced. “I’m not sure what I said to him exactly, but I remember him asking if I was drunk. I guess I’ve blown any chances I might have had with him.”

“Who is this Matt?” I asked. I’d heard his name bandied about, but I was yet to set eyes on the fella.

“How can you not know Matt?” Michelle put her hand to her chest. “He started the same time as you, and he is like the hottest thing this side of the universe. He looks like Paul Walker?”

I had definitely not seen anyone fitting that description roaming the school hallways.

“Maybe he has a girlfriend,” Monica said. “I can’t think of any other reason why he’d not give in to your wiles.” Monica started laughing, and Sandy joined in.

“He’s religious,” Michelle said in annoyance. “Tanya said he goes to the Christian Union at lunchtime.”

“Well, Jace is religious, and he’s still into Lexi,” Monica said.

“Jace is not really religious.”

“He is a little.”

“I’d be careful if I were you,” Sandy told me. “Jace has a reputation.”

“What kind of reputation?” I asked.

“Heartbreaker reputation,” Michelle supplied. “He’s the kind of guy you don’t take too seriously. Have fun while it lasts, and then move on.”

“Hey, I like Jace, and I don’t think he’s a heartbreaker at all,” Monica said. “See how he took Michelle to the dance when Matt said no? I think that was pretty nice of him.” Monica paused to nibble her stick of celery. “He seems to really like you, Lexi.”

“Anyway, back to Matt,” Michelle said waving her hand. “I’ve definitely blown my chances.”

“Maybe you should start going to CU,” Sandy suggested. “Can’t you just pretend to be religious too?”

“That would have been a good idea before yesterday’s phone call. I just know I’ve blown it.”

“The fact that he called you when I told him you’re sick must mean something.”

Michelle groaned. “Stop trying to give me hope, Sandy. I know there’s no hope, okay? But, heck, I want to sleep with that guy.”

Sandy and Monica burst out laughing and Michelle got a mischievous look in her eyes. “Do you really think I should go to Christian Union and pretend to be a Christian?”

“Yeah,” Sandy said. “It’ll be hilarious.”

Monica waved her hands at someone behind me. “Here’s Jace,” she said.

I didn’t turn round. He came up behind me and covered my eyes. “What’s up, Jace?” I asked.

He dropped into the chair beside me. “How did you know?”

“I’m psychic.”

“Did everyone have a nice weekend?” Jace asked the table.

“I went speedboat racing on Saturday and felt really ill yesterday. I think I swallowed the polluted waters of Santa Monica Bay.” Michelle grimaced. “What did you do, apart from tutoring Lexi?”

Great! Now Jace probably thought I was making a big deal out of it and telling all my girls.

“I went to a party Saturday night. I had to go with Lewis because Lexi said no.”

“Jace, you asked me on Saturday afternoon. And you didn’t even really ask. You were just joking.”

“I wasn’t,” Jace said, looking at Michelle for sympathy. “I asked, and she just flat out rejected me.”

“How mean!” Michelle said.

Jace took a paper bag out of his school bag and put it on the table in front of me. “I just thought I’d bring this over in case I don’t see you again today.”

With that, he got up and cut across the cafeteria to get some lunch. I opened the paper bag.

“What is it?” Monica asked.

I grinned. “A donut and a candy bar.” I didn’t bother explaining.

Chapter 15

Now that Monica knew about my seven closets, she often showed up at my house to ‘borrow’ clothes. On Monday, she’d needed a white dress for the fashion show that Liam was taking her to, and she thought she’d seen one in my fourth closet. On Thursday, she’d just wanted to check if I had a red top to go with her new red Manolos; she wanted to wear them to her college interview. Today, it was Friday, and she was at my door again.

“Lexi, I’m desperate. I need a dress.”

“Mi casa, esu casa. What’s the occasion this time?”

“Church again. I’m going on Sunday, and I need something slightly more conservative than my usual style.”

We went to my room, and I sat at my desk and went online while she raided my closets. “Does Jace buy you things?”

“Yes, why?”

“He bought me diamond earrings.”

“He likes you. And he’s uncomfortable about his money, so if he’s buying you things, it means he thinks he can be himself with you.”

“But he buys you things too, so it doesn’t mean anything.”