Chapter 8

I found myself barely paying attention in English since all I did was talk to Kimmy or Ace. it was my best class so it wasn't detrimental to my grade but we were yelled at. A lot. It was mostly Ace's fault. He tried his hardest to make both of us laugh. I was pretty sure he did it on purpose too, just so we'd get into trouble. Getting yelled at just made us laugh even harder. 

It was Friday and three days had passed since the night at the diner. Ace had turned to me during class today to inform me that his family wanted me to come over again tonight. They were having a family game night. 

I'd have been lying if l said I wasn't nervous. I had already met them and it's not like Ace and I were actually dating. But it was still nerve wracking. Meeting parents were always weird to me. Even when it was just your friend's mom or dad. They still freaked me out. 

We went to his house right after school and went inside, not knowing what to expect. Noah was standing by the door when Ace unlocked it and immediately wrapped him in a hug. Noah was short so he only reached his waist. Ace didn't even look taken aback. 

"Hey ninja. How was school?" Ace asked him. The nickname was cute; it probably stemmed from the fact that Noah was a hyper kid. 

Noah gave him a smug look. God what was Ace teaching this kid? "Mom didn't make me go today. We stayed home and made cookies for you and your girrrrlfriend." I looked over and Ace and he was holding in a laugh. "That's nice bud, lucky you." 

"I bet you wish you could have been here to make cookies for your girrrrlfriend," Noah dragged the word again. I But Ace just chuckled and nodded, "mhm." 

Noah gave a shy wave to me and I smiled back at him. He was adorable. A little blush appeared on his cheeks and l looked over at Ace and saw him still laughing. 

"I think my brother has a crush on you," Ace told me as we walked into the kitchen, which seemed like his mother's favorite place to hang out. I gave him my most dramatic eye roll.  

Ace's mom was in front of the sink, cleaning the dishes from what I can only assume was the cookies. She was humming a little to herself and continued to do so even after she saw us walk in. 

"Hey mom."

"Hey Mrs. Ross," Ace and I said at the same time. 

She smiled and dried off her hands. She walked toward us and gave me a pointed look. "I thought! told you to call me Anna?" l blushed a little and nodded. She looked over at Ace and told him, "Austin won't be home for another hour or so. You two can go upstairs or outside and do your homework or something. "Or something? ' 

Ace was thinking the same thing because he had a wicked smile on his face. I looked over at him and smirked, "you wish." 

A bubbly laugh escaped his mother and she shook her head, "I didn't mean it like that. Oh dear, I'm just going to go back to the dishes. Have fun kids." She turned away and then turned back around. "But not too much fun," she warned us. 

Ace and I both laughed and then headed up the stairs to his room. I hadn't been in his room the last time I was here. He opened the door all the way at the end of the hall. He let me walk in first and I looked around. 

His room was painted a blue/grey color and his bed, placed in the middle of the room, had navy blue sheets. There were a few posters up by his window of old rock bands. He had a white desk and a flat screen tv hanging on the wall opposite of his bed. 

I set my backpack down next to his desk which was right next to his door. He also had a bathroom attached to his room next to the desk. I sat in his desk chair and Ace walked over to his bed and sat down. 

"Nice room," I told him, breaking the silence.

He nodded and threw his bag onto the bed and started unzipping it. I eyed him curiously as he pulled out a notebook and his binder.

When I saw him reach for a pen, I asked him, "what are you doing?"

"Homework?" He looked up at me and scrunched his eyebrows together. 

I got up out of the chair and walked over to where he sat. On the front of his notebook, it said the class it was made for. "I didn't know you took psychology."

He took the notebook from me and put it back in his bag, embarrassed. "I just needed elective credits."

"Uh-huh, and I just get good grades because I want to," I raised my eyebrow and gave him a knowing look.

He looked up at me and smiled adorably. "Yeah okay, maybe I want to go into psychology for my career."

My smile widened, "wow, the Ace Craige has bigger dreams than staying out of prison the rest of his life." He just chuckled and opened his binder. "Since when do you willingly do your homework?"

"Well, my mom gave us the option of homework or something else and you shot down the ladder," he shrugged. 

I mockingly frowned at him, "sorry that I refuse to hook up with you while your mom is downstairs."

"So you're saying that if she wasn't here, you'd hook up with me?" His eyebrow twitched up in question. 

Dammit.

"No! I did not say that!" I squeaked. 

Ace put his pen down and gave me smug look. "Admit it sweetheart, you want to kiss me." 

"I really don't," I scoffed. 

You really do.

Shut up! stupid mind.

"Mad..." Ace crooned And leaned forward, brushing his hand across my knee. 

I jerked away from him when his fingertips touched my skin and his smile got brighter. Didn't he know that his touch was electric? "Ace," I warned and smacked his hand away. 

He coughed a laugh and I glared at him. I went back to looking through his backpack and found a bunch of random papers crushed at the bottom. Well, we had that in common at least. 

I looked up to ask him what other classes he was taking but he was already looking. My heartbeat sped up just a little and his eyes flashed with some unknown emotion. He leaned a closer, just the smallest bit and my eyes widened. As soon as I started to lean too, it was over.

Ace cleared his throat and sat up straight. "So, tomorrow, the guys and I are going to a party. Do you want to go?"

"Why would I go to a party?" I asked him, my voice higher than usual.

He shrugged, "I don't know. I mean you are my girlfriend and everything." He smiled and I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, don't couples do things together like attending parties?"

I cringed a little thinking about teenagers in a small confined space combined with alcohol. "I don't think the party life is for me Ace." He nodded and it was silent again. 

God, why is it so quiet? 

"I do want you to get to know my friends though..." He trailed off.

I laughed, "I'm pretty sure Loki hates my guts. Especially after your fight on Monday."

"He doesn't hate you Mad. He doesn't even know you," he tried to convince me but it wasn't working.

I gave him a pointed look, "He said, and I quote, "'what do you want?"' all snarky like when I came up to them."

Ace just gave me a sheepish look. "He was just having a rough day?" 

"Stop trying to reason with me. Raze was the nice one anyway," I told him with a frown.

He sighed and put down his pen, "look Mad, I don't know why Loki acted that way towards you. He's just not used to me having a girlfriend."

"I'm not even your actual girlfriend! How is he going to treat me once we break up?" I questioned, putting air quotes around the words break up. But Ace shrugged which only increased my frustration. "Why can't you just tell them this is all an act?"

He rolled his eyes. "I already told you why. But since you're having such a hard time wracking your brain for the answer, I'll explain it again." I groaned in annoyance but he continued. "Raze and Loki are loud mouths. They don't know how to keep their mouths shut. If they knew what we were doing, the whole school would know within an hour. Word gets out our relationship is fake, my cousin becomes aware of our little secret and rats me out to the entire family. I will never live that down Mad."

"I mean, that seems like your problem," I teased but he didn't even crack a smile.

"A week and a half Mad, that's all. I'm just asking for another week and a half and then, if you want me to, I'll never talk to you again," he told me.

I don't want you to stop talking to me, I thought to myself. I felt myself frown a little and I turned my body away from him. I wanted to tell him how I had become used to his presence the past two weeks and I didn't want him to stop hanging out with me. But what was the guy going to do? After our future break up, he would be my friend? That's not how these things usually work out. And what would everybody else think? They would think that Ace Craige was friends with his ex. And that was bound to have some serious backlash.

But instead of asking him about any of that, I told him, "okay." And he didn't look pleased about it. But before he could say anything else, his mother called us down for dinner.

But before he could say anything else, his mother called us down for dinner.

The dinner was nice but a little awkward. I got along great with Anna but Austin seemed to keep to himself a lot. Noah had taken the seat on Ace's right and I had been placed on his left. Ace talked to Noah mostly the whole time. It was like he was ignoring me, only I didn't know why.

After I offered to help clean up and helped Anna put the dishes away, we walked into the living room to see a bunch of board games spread around on the floor. Noah and Ace were sitting next to each other with games surrounding them and Austin sat on the couch, looking exhausted. 

"Have you boys decided on a game yet?" Anna asked them as she took a seat beside her husband and gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

Noah glared at his brother and told us, "well I wanted to play Sorry! but Ace wants to play stupid Candy Land."

Anna smiled and voted, "Candy Land." 

She looked expectantly at Austin and he smirked over at Ace and said, "I'd like to play Sorry!"

Everyone in the room then turned to me to break the tie. Noah gave me an adorable smile and I turned to Ace who had somehow mastered the puppy dog look. Ace wanted to play Candy Land huh? 

"Sorry!" Too bad.

Ace groaned and threw a deck of cards at me which landed in a heap by my feet. "Is there no such thing as loyalty?" He asked me.

I laughed and told him, "your brother's face was too cute to vote against."

"You don't think I'm cute?" His frown was back and his eyes widened into a pleading look. 

I bit my lip to stop my laughter, "you look, crazy."

Ace glared at me and then leaped to where his brother sat and messed his hair up which caused Noah to yelp loudly and punch his brother in the bicep. By now, the whole family was chuckling and I leaned over and picked up the game board for Sorry!

It was a game for 4 so Anna and Austin decided to share a color. I was blue, Ace was red, Noah was yellow and their parents were green. Ace had his heart set on going for my pieces whenever he got the chance and on more than one occasion did I want to cuss him out.

Anna and Austin ended up winning and I got in second. Ace and Noah pouted, showing their whiny loser sides. Ace got to pick the next game in which he decided to pull out the cards instead of Candy Land. 

"Let's play Go Fish," he smiled and he looked so happy just to be there with his family.

We started playing and when it was my turn, I looked at Ace and asked him if he had any Ace's. He smirked but lucky for me, he did. I placed my set down and stared at them as Noah asked Ace for an 8. Down on the table was a set of Ace of Spades.