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ALLIE
Asurprisingly sleek black car sat in the driveway when Jamal dropped me back home. It wasn’t as fancy as a Maserati or any of the cars Harlan drove, but it was sure a lot better than any car someone from the bad side of town could afford.
I stared at the car for a few moments, knowing that it looked familiar, but not knowing who it belonged to.
Jamal leaned over the center console. “Do you want me to come in with you?” he asked, though he looked hesitant, probably because Jace was here.
“No, it’s fine,” I assured him because I didn’t want him to come in with me.
Though I hated Jace, the look on his face when he had asked me if I loved Jamal broke my heart. I didn’t want to rub it in Jace’s face, show him how much better Jamal could try to make me feel, show Jace what he was missing because those small, intimate moments with us were … everything to me and it felt like shit to be hurt.
When I opened the front door, the three Poison boys stood in the foyer with Jace. João slid a baggie into Jace’s hand, and Jace stuffed it in his pocket, staring at me with a blank and cold expression.
Kai nodded in my direction, as if to say, What’s up?
Kai had grown up with Jamal and me on Pierce Road and had been friends with us in elementary school. He still lived there but was gone so much with the other boys that I rarely saw him when I visited my old neighborhood.
“Catch you later,” Jace said to the guys.
I crossed my arms over my chest. The boys walked out the door, and Landon smiled at me.
“Tell Imani I said hi,” he said and shut the door behind him.
I arched a brow, knowing that was the last thing on my mind, and turned on my heel toward Jace, who had left the room.
“Jace!” I shouted, following him up the stairs to his room. After opening his closed door, I found him shutting his bedside drawer. No doubt where he had stuffed the weed from Poison. “Do you want to ruin your life?”
“Why don’t you go back out with Jamal?” Jace sneered at me, standing up from his bed.
Something between now and this morning had changed with him, and I couldn’t tell what. He seemed angrier than usual.
I clenched my fists by my sides. “If you ever want to get out of this deadbeat town, you can’t fucking smoke Poison’s shit,” I said through clenched teeth, anger boiling inside of me.
“What I do is none of your business,” Jace said. “Now, leave.”
“Not until you get rid of it,” I said. “I don’t care how much you paid for that shit. Dump it.”
Jace moved toward me. “Get out of my room.”
Deep breaths, Allie. Deep freaking breaths.
“If you won’t do it, I will.” I stormed past him and grasped the handle to his drawer.
“Get the fuck out of my stuff, Allie,” Jace said through clenched teeth, wrapping one arm around my waist and pulling me away from the side table before I could even open it.
I scrambled out of his hold and crossed my arms over my chest. “What are you doing with Poison?” I asked, unable to fathom why he would ever even attempt to risk his chances at getting out of this town and making something of himself. “They lace their shit with harder drugs, Jace, to get you hooked and coming back for more. If you’re fucking caught with that shit”—I pointed to the side table, really trying to hit home my point—“all your college football offers will be freaking revoked. You won’t be able to make it to the NFL.”
Jace seemed harsher, angrier than when I had left with Jamal this morning. “You think I’m that fucking stupid?” he asked, seething down at me with hatred in his eyes. “Poison has the cleanest shit. They don’t mess with the hard stuff.”
“They’re called Poison for a reason.”
“Stay out of my business,” Jace said. “Don’t mess with my shit. I’ve suffered the fucking consequences before, and I’ll do it again.”
My eyes widened. “Are you serious? Do you think your money will be able to clean your second juvie record when the principal has been out to get you for literally anything?”
Jace paused for a long moment, jaw twitching. He tore his gaze away from me. “You don’t know what money can buy, Allie. Who it could pay off. The damage it could do.” He turned back toward me. “Especially to you … Redwood’s good girl, who is all up in her stepbrother’s business.”
It hurt. It hurt a fucking lot to hear Jace threaten me … but this wasn’t really him. When we had been together, Jace hadn’t smoked, hadn’t hung out with Poison, hadn’t gotten into any trouble. This was Jace Harbor speaking from a place of hurt and heartbreak. I couldn’t believe that this man was the same one I used to love.
“You’re going to ruin all your chances of playing in the NFL,” I said, quieter this time.
He stared at me with cold and dead eyes, yet I saw them tremble. It was so slight that I almost missed it, but I didn’t, and it made my heart clench.
“Leave me the fuck alone, Allie.” He turned away from me and walked back to his drawer, pulling out the weed. Staring me straight in the eye, he rolled a fucking joint.
Jace Harbor loved football more than he loved anything. He wouldn’t give it up to smoke some weed with the Poison boys. He was smarter than most people gave him credit for.
He grabbed a lighter from the side table, and I stormed out of the room before I got the chance to see him light the joint and ruin his life. I didn’t want to see years of hard work go right down the drain for nothing.
As much as I hated to admit it, Jace deserved to get out of this shithole. Maybe it was my past that had blinded me or the way he had begged me to stay with his eyes this morning, but I wanted Jace Harbor to succeed in his life. Even if he wasn’t in mine.
