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ALLIE
Iwoke up to Marquis screaming downstairs. Turning over, I pulled a pillow over my face to block the sound and the sunlight blaring into the room from the window.
“Jamal,” I whispered. “Are you awake?”
When he didn’t answer, I tugged the pillow off me to see the bed empty. The clock read eight forty-five a.m. I sat up and wiped my hand over my face, my eyes puffy from the lack of sleep and all the thinking I had done about Jace last night.
My phone lit up with new messages from Jamal.
The first message was at seven-fifty a.m.
Jamal: Practice at 8 a.m. today. Mom will feed you breakfast if you want it.
The second message came seconds ago.
Jamal: Shit.
Jamal: When I was at your house the other night, my license must’ve dropped out of my wallet. Can you look for it in Jace’s room? He won’t pick up and isn’t here.
Jamal: I put it on his nightstand.
I furrowed my brows at his rampant text messages and arched a brow. Why hadn’t he asked Jace to get it for him later? He knew how much I didn’t want to face Jace today or anytime soon. Gnawing on the inside of my lip, I frowned.
Me: Do you need it today? Can’t you wait until Jace gets it back to you? Didn’t you have it yesterday when we went out?
Three little bubbles appeared on the screen, then disappeared.
Jamal: Can you look when you get a chance? It’ll take two seconds.
Scrunching my nose, I sent back Sure because he had taken me in last night. I tugged on one of Jamal’s sweatshirts since it was freezing and walked downstairs, wanting to sneak past Marquis if I could. That boy had had a crush on me since he was four years old, and it had only gotten worse.
When I walked downstairs, Marquis sat on the couch fiddling with his mother’s phone while she folded laundry in the kitchen.
“Morning, baby,” she said, placing the last shirt into the bin. “You doing good?”
I mustered my best smile to hide the hurt. “I’m good.” No, I wasn’t. “Thanks for letting me stay the night. I appreciate it. Jamal is a sweetheart.”
“Anytime, honey,” she said. “You’re always welcome here.” She glanced into the other room when Marquis started to get antsy on the phone. “You’d better head off before he realizes that you stayed over last night. You know he won’t shut the hell up about it.”
I tugged her into a hug and walked to the door. “Thank you,” I said again because I really appreciated her with all my heart.
She had done so much for me, and I had wanted to repay her for so long. Maybe one day, I’d be successful enough to do it myself—without using the Harbors’ money.
After the thirty-minute walk home, I stepped onto our driveway to see Jace’s Maserati sitting in the driveway. Harlan’s SUV was gone, so I was hoping that Jace had taken it. I didn’t want to be here alone with him.
I clenched my hands into fists, praying to whoever the fuck was watching me that Jace Harbor wasn’t home, and snuck into the house, hearing nothing but silence.
Hurrying right up to the bedrooms, I clutched Jace’s doorknob in my hand. What was I doing this for again? Jamal because he had let me stay over last night so I wouldn’t have to come home to face Jace.
Slowly—very fucking slowly—I opened Jace’s door to find an empty room. I sighed in relief and hurried to Jace’s bed, looking around the nightstand and under the bed for Jamal’s license. I swore to God that he’d had it yesterday when he brought me out because I couldn’t find it anywhere here.
I didn’t want to tear apart Jace’s bed because I didn’t fucking know who had slept in it last night, and I didn’t want to contract any diseases that Nicole might’ve had.
After looking nearly everywhere, I sighed through my nose and tore open his nightstand drawer to look for it in there. Jace had scolded me last time for attempting to go through his things, so I wanted to make this quick. If it wasn’t in there, I’d be the hell out of this bedroom for good.
I stared down into the drawer at two bags of weed from Poison that hadn’t been touched. They both were filled completely, and I had sworn that the other day, they’d only handed him one baggie. Was he not smoking it, like I’d suggested?
After pressing my lips together, I rolled my eyes. I didn’t care. I didn’t fucking care.
