Raw Deal (Beauty for Ashes: Book One) (21 page)

“I heard you and Jace had your talk?” Michelle asked.

“Yeah, he came to my house on Monday.”

“I was right about Andrea and Jace,” Monica told me. “Michelle just told us that they went to Chicco’s with her and Matt on New Year’s Eve.”

I wished Monica hadn’t told me that. I was getting over Jace, but hearing things like that still hurt.

Michelle glared at Monica. “It was nothing, and you know it. The four of us just wanted to hang out. He still likes Lexi.”

Jace had just told me he had plans for New Year’s Eve. I couldn’t believe that he and Andrea had been double dating with Matt and Michelle. I rolled my eyes like I wasn’t bothered. “No, he doesn’t. It’s over.”

“He does. He told me and Tanya yesterday. Tanya told him to keep praying.”

Monica winked at me, and I hid a smile. What would we do without Michelle’s big mouth?

Chapter 24

Jace made shooting three pointers look so easy, and he looked so incredibly gorgeous while he did it. I sat a few rows from the front so that I didn’t miss any of the action. Kingston High won, and I stood up with everyone else to cheer. Jace looked over at me as he walked off the court. I stuck my tongue out at him, and he grinned.

The cheerleaders, led by Michelle, did a vigorous and very acrobatic cheer. I cheered when Monica did five successive back flips. I went to meet her in the locker room after.

“You were good out there,” I told her.

“I know. What’s up? Have you talked to Jace yet?”

“No, I’m kind of having second thoughts about it.” I ran a hand through my blond tresses in frustration. Why was I doing this? No girl should have to go this far, whether she was trying to get a guy’s attention or get revenge. Whatever my ultimate goal, it was pretty desperate. My father was probably turning in his grave.

“Whatever you decide to do, don’t forget to call me to fill me in.”

“Sure thing.” I hugged Monica then walked out.

I wondered where Jace would be. I took out my cell phone and called him. I really couldn’t believe I was doing this!

“Lexi, what’s up, darlin’?” he answered.

“Just the sky, as usual.”

“What a lame joke.”

“I know.”

“So how did I do?”

“I’ve seen better,” I teased.

Jace chuckled, and it was a nice sound. “You would say that. But I saw how you couldn’t take your eyes off me.”

“Okay, I admit it; you were pretty amazing. Where are you anyway?”

“Not far behind you.”

I spun around and saw Jace at the other end of the corridor with some of the other guys from the team. If I’d had second thoughts before, seeing him gave me third and fourth thoughts. He waved, so I walked over.

Now what was it that Michelle had said over lunch? He still liked me? That gave me a little confidence, although I was shaking like a leaf within. I took Monica’s Hilton hotel booking confirmation out of my pocket and handed it to him.

Jace smiled, taking it from me. His dark eyes darted over the printed words. “What’s this?”

I looked at my watch. It was getting on seven o’ clock. How about I give him time to go freshen up? “How’s eight o’ clock?” I asked him.

I could tell Jace didn’t get it. “Eight o’ clock?” He looked at the confirmation slip again. Then his eyes cleared, and he frowned. He gave me a look of pure disbelief. “You’re crazy.”

I shrugged. “I know.”

He was staring at me. I wanted to hold his gaze, but I couldn’t. I looked away.

“Are you serious?”

I nodded, and he swallowed.

“See you later?”

Jace nodded dumbly. As I looked up into his dark eyes, I realized that I didn’t want revenge. I didn’t want to play sexual predator and win him back either. Truth be told, I’d like to just hang out and talk to him. Let him tell me why his wealth made him so uncomfortable. Let him explain to me about his complicated family.

I didn’t want to hurt Jace. I really liked him. And from all indications, he hadn’t wanted to hurt me, and he still wanted to be friends. Nevertheless, I walked away feeling triumphant.

Chapter 25

I didn’t want to hurt Jace? To assume that I
could
hurt Jace in the first place was wishful thinking. What on earth had made me think that I had any power to hurt him? He was the dangerous lion in that black, white, and metallic red den of his. He was used to the role of predator. I had been his prey—the defenseless wildebeest. The wildebeest never ever turned around and overcame the big bad lion, did they? Well, maybe apart from that stampede in
The
Lion King,
I guessed.

I was fed up of all the guys that were staring at me, of all the guys I’d had to tell to get away from me, and of all the guys who’d thought I was looking for ‘business’. Where was Jace? I felt like stamping my feet in frustration. Instead, I called Monica.

“Okay, it’s four minutes to nine,” I said, trying not to drop the pizza box that I was holding with my free hand. “He’s definitely not coming, so can I go home now?”

“Just wait another fifteen minutes.”

“No, Monica, I’ve had enough. I’ve waited almost an hour already.” I started toward the exit. “I’m going to murder you when I see you tomorrow.”

I had been stood up in the elegant lobby of the Hilton hotel. My humiliation had been public!

As I drove home, I realized that I didn’t actually feel humiliated, or angry, or ticked off, or anything like that. I just felt empty. After I’d made my intentions clear to Jace, I had gotten a bad case of cold feet. I’d decided that I wasn’t going to go through with it when he showed up at the hotel. I was going to tell him it had all been a mistake. Heck, I’d even bought him a pizza on my way to the hotel! If he came expecting a night of sin and he wasn’t getting it, at least a pizza should make up for it in some measure.

But then, Jace was a church boy now. He didn’t do nights of sin anymore. Duh! If nothing, this night had proved to me that Jace was serious about this Christianity thing, and he wasn’t getting swayed.

When I got home, I didn’t allow myself to think about it. My mom told me Jace had come round about an hour ago. I tried to look neutral. “Did he?”

She stared at my hair. I knew she didn’t like it. “Yes. He said he was just checking to see if you were home or not. And yes, I gave him dirty looks and made him squirm.” My mom smiled. “He gave me this to give you.” She handed me a small, black book. It was a Bible. I took it from her and went to my room, trying to swallow the painful lump that had developed in my throat.

I flung myself onto my bed as the tears that I didn’t know I had been holding back started to fall. I threw the Bible against the wall and a piece of paper fell out of it. I went to see what it was. I unfolded it and read:
Hey Lexi, I just want you to read some Bible verses. Please, please read them. John 3:16; Romans 10:13; Revelation 20:15. Read with an open mind. Love, Jace.

I decided to read the verses. I found that Jace had highlighted them in bright blue for me. The Revelation one was quite scary. I placed the Bible on my table as my phone rang.

“Hey, Mon,” I said miserably.

“All that money wasted on the room? Darn that Jace!” she said. “We should have just stayed there ourselves.”

“I didn’t think of that.” I read Jace’s note again. I noticed that he’d spelled it ‘love’ not ‘luv.’

“Maybe we should implement Plan B: Pretend to be a Christian.”

“No way.” I’d had enough. I was letting it go. There were only a couple months left of high school. I’d start college in the fall and forget about Jace. “Can we please never talk about Jace again?”

Chapter 26

I managed to avoid Jace rather successfully the next day, and I stayed off school on Friday. I didn’t see him at all until Monday morning the following week, which was inevitable, because we had economics. I expected him to ignore me, but he gave me an awkward smile when our eyes met. I gave him a small smile back, and we both quickly looked away.

Why did Jace make me so nervous? It was so stupid!
You are blond and you are wearing Chanel
, I told myself. How could I be feeling stupid in this Chanel masterpiece of a dress?

“I don’t believe what you did to Jace,” Michelle whispered to me.

I stared at her. I couldn’t believe Jace had told her. McGee hadn’t arrived yet, so I dragged her out of the classroom to the bathroom. “What did he tell you?”

“Well, he didn’t actually tell me anything, but he said something yesterday in youth group, because we were talking about temptation. I knew he was talking about you.”

So Jace had been mouthing off about me at church! “What did he say?”

Michelle glared at me. “You know what you did, Lexi. How could you? I felt so sorry for him.”

“Oh, please,” I said with a roll of my eyes and a toss of my blond head. “Michelle, that was just a moment of insanity. I don’t know why I did it. I don’t even like Jace anymore.” I knew that Michelle would report everything I said back to Jace, just as she was reporting everything he said to me.

“Good,” she said with an annoyed scowl. We went back to class.

I didn’t see Monica all day. I called her when I got home. She told me it was because her parents had been fighting all night, but she promised to be in school the next day. She wasn’t, and I called her again. This time she said she was sick. I didn’t believe her. Her parents had probably been fighting again, but I didn’t ask. I told her she’d better be in school on Wednesday. I was sick of hanging out with just Sandy.

I was about to call her on Wednesday after school when the doorbell chimed. I went to get it. It was Tanya. Her eyes were red, and she looked awful.

“What?” I asked. If I were my usual self, I would probably have been concerned that she was crying, but after my conversation with Michelle on Monday, I was on the defensive. I didn’t want to hear anything like, ‘I’m crying for your soul.’ Maybe she wanted to tell me that after what I did to Jace I was destined for the worst part of that place of torment.

“Monica is in hospital. She took an overdose.”

My heart leapt. I tugged a jacket from the coat hooks by the door, and then followed Tanya to her car. “When did she do it?”

“Not long ago, I think. Probably about two hours ago. They’re saying she’ll be okay, but she’s in bad shape.”

“How did you know?”

“I went to check on her because she hasn’t been in school, and I saw her lying there. I called an ambulance.”

I couldn’t believe it. I’d thought Monica was better now. Hadn’t she taken her medication?

I was horrified when we got to the hospital, and I saw her. She was hooked up to all sorts of machines, and there were wires and tubes everywhere. Seeing Monica lying so still and silent was scary. She usually had so much energy.

Her mom looked distraught, and Tanya’s mom was by her side, holding her hand. Tanya and I were told to go back out to the waiting room.

I started crying. I knew it was irrational, but I felt partly responsible. Why hadn’t I made Monica come and sleep over in my house when she told me her parents were fighting again? I should have done something to help her. I should have made her keep going to the therapist. I shouldn’t have let her stop.

Jace, Matt, and Michelle arrived some minutes later and went in to see her. Michelle came out crying, and I could tell that the guys were biting it back.

The four of them held hands to pray, and Michelle looked over at me. She let go of Tanya’s hand and held out a hand to me. I decided to join in. I listened to the rest of them pray, hoping that if there was a God He would listen to them.

What if Monica died? What was I going to do? How was I going to survive that? Especially when she had died on purpose, and I could have helped to stop it? I looked at Tanya who was praying her heart out. It was a good thing she’d gone to check on her. I would never have thought to do that. I wouldn’t have known where to look for a key to let myself in either.

I couldn’t stop crying, even when everyone else managed to compose themselves a little. Monica was the closest thing I had to a best friend right now. She just couldn’t die. She’d made me feel at home since the first day I’d returned to Kingston High, and I would never forget that.

Jace passed me a tissue, and I wiped my eyes and blew my nose. Monica couldn’t die. She just couldn’t.

***

“I have to leave now,” I told Tanya, after my mom called me for the umpteenth time. It was getting on ten o’ clock, and Monica’s condition had not improved. The doctors were being annoyingly tight lipped about what was going on.

“I think we should all go,” Matt said with a heavy sigh, followed by a yawn.

I remembered that I didn’t have my car. “I need a ride.”

“I’ll take you,” Jace offered.

I didn’t miss the look that Matt and Tanya exchanged. “I’ll get a taxi.”

“I’ll give you a ride,” Tanya said. “I brought you, so I should take you back.”

“No, I’ll take her,” Matt said. “I think I go her way to get home anyway.” He looked at me. “You live by school, right?”