Chapter 93 Chapter Ninety Three
"Lena?" Noah's voice was getting closer. "Are you awake yet? Where are you?”
I shoved my phone under the pillow and called out, "I’m in the bathroom! Be right there!"
I slipped out of bed and grabbed the first clothes I could find, a pair of jeans and a hoodie. My hands were shaking as I pulled them on.
Think. Think.
You could sneak out through the bathroom door, the thought came.
And so that’s what I did; I locked it from the inside, then quietly opened the window.
It led to the small balcony that connected to the trellis where I could creep down if I was brave Enough.
I worried Mrs Dawson would probably have a lot of confused questions for me if she saw me sneaking out of their house so early in the morning, but I was sure I could disappear and make it back before Martin’s lesson time passed.
"Lena? You okay in there?"
"Yeah! Just—" I flushed the toilet for dramatic effect. "Give me a minute!"
I climbed out onto the balcony, my sneakers barely making a sound on the wood. The trellis was old, creaking slightly under my weight as I descended.
Please don't break. Please don't break.
My feet hit the ground just as I heard Noah knocking on the bathroom door upstairs.
"Lena?"
I ran. I ran down the driveway, past the manicured hedges, onto the sidewalk. My lungs burned, but I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. I had to know, something to give me closure and find out why Jace had said any of those things, done any of those things.
We had never gotten the chance to talk in the middle of all that drama, and now that all my high emotions had subsided a bit, I couldn’t help but want to hear him out.
I knew I couldn’t be at peace until I heard what he had to say, even though I knew sensed the truth would probably be too difficult to hear.
I pulled out my phone and ordered a rideshare, my fingers fumbling on the screen.
After so long working with the Dawsons, I had eventually been able to send most of it to my mother to help with our finances while keeping a tiny share to myself for emergencies just like this one.
The car was merely minutes away.
I ducked behind a neighbour's fence, catching my breath, listening for sounds of pursuit, but I couldn’t hear anything.
Suddenly, I heard the car pull up. It was a beat-up Honda with a driver who barely glanced at me.
"Marco's Pizza?" he confirmed.
"Yes. Please hurry."
Marco looked very different in the late morning light. Much quieter and much less magical than it had been when I first came here with Nicole and Jake and Noah, back when everything felt possible.
I pushed through the door, the bell chiming overhead.
Marco looked up from behind the counter. "Lena! Haven't seen you in a while. The usual?"
"No, I'm just—" I scanned the restaurant. "Meeting someone."
There were a few occupied tables here and there, a family with young kids, and one elderly couple sharing a calzone together in a corner.
But no Jace.
My stomach sank.
Of course. I thought. Of course, he wasn't here. This was so stupid. I'd climbed out a window and run away from Noah for absolutely no reason.
I was just turning to leave when I spotted him. He was sitting in the far corner, half-hidden in shadow, hunched over a table with his phone in his hands. He wore a ball cap pulled low over his face, his shoulders tense as he waited.
I walked over slowly, my heart in my throat when I saw him again in person for the first time in what felt like forever.
He didn't look up. “This table's taken," he said, his voice sharp and irritated. “I’m expecting someone. Go somewhere else.”
I didn't move, I stood rooted to the spot, watching him.
“For fucks sake…” He glanced up, clearly ready to tell me to eff off, and then he stopped.
His eyes went wide, his mouth fell open slightly in shock.
"Is that—" He stood up so fast his chair scraped against the floor. "Lena?"
"Hi," I said quietly.
He just stared at me, unbelieving.
I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, suddenly too aware of everything Noah and the guys had changed about me. The lighter highlights in my hair, the weight I'd lost, and how my clothes fit a lot differently now.
Jace reached out slowly, like I might disappear if he moved too fast, and touched a strand of my hair.
"You changed your hair."
"Yeah." I tucked it behind my ear, breaking the contact. "Nicole said a lighter colour would suit me better. Her sister is getting trained to be an esthetician, so I guess I took her word for it.”
"You look different." His voice was strange and quiet as he looked at me with wonder.
"That’s what everyone’s been saying." I slid into the seat across from him, keeping the table between us like a barrier. "I guess four years of consecutive bullying finally got to me. I got tired of being the same old me, and I wanted to be better, so…"
An intense look flickered across his face. "Lena, you were always—"
"Don't." I held up a hand. "Please don't finish that sentence."
Tense silence fell between us, each of trying hard not to make our first meeting in so long turn into another fight.
So I sat there, my heart beating fast as anything, not knowing just how bad things were about to get.