His parents were surely happier without him and the model student as their son.
And if there were a second part of this story, then it would become meaningless if the only one being reborn, if Jace didn't change the future. Then there would be no second part, and Paige knew the exact contents of the first one.
Even if she couldn't tell him, he could still ask Jace himself somehow.
"Then you will not kill the people who assaulted you?" Jace asked.
"Aren't there too many who have tried?" Lance answered casually, having no idea what the other person was talking about.
"No, I mean...you know... the one who...raped you." He said.
"WHAT?"
Lance asked loudly. He looked in horror at Jace, who misunderstood this severe reaction.
"I investigated you in our last life. Because of that, you were addicted. I knew it all along." He watched Lance's face pale with satisfaction.
Finally, he could say it out loud. 'I knew it the whole time, your darkest secret.' He never had himself sink to the level of hurting Lance by mentioning this in his last life.
Because he got satisfaction every time he saw Lance high and mighty walking around, he thought, 'I know there was a cock shoved in your ass.'
That was better than speaking out loud would ever be. Maybe he also was a bit scared to be silenced directly; he was a man too and knew that something like being raped by men was the line one could not cross by mentioning it. Also, because he knew it, he took this card out to test Lance. If he really wanted to let everything rest, he could not kill these guys and he could not flip out on him for just mentioning it. And if he did, Jace would scream bloody murder and get Lance arrested on the spot.
Lance did his best to press down the nausea that he felt.
"Mhmm." He said and walked back to his classroom, leaving Jace standing on the rooftop alone. The lesson had already started, and ignoring the teacher, he packed his bag and walked out again.
He left the school without realizing where he had gone.
Lance tried to convince himself.
'That was not me.'
'That did not happen to me.'
'Nobody touched me.'
His thoughts wandered back to his time after being kidnapped.
"Be a good dog and bark for me." The ugly dirty man demanded, and Lance, being scared, didn't react. The mean man spat on the floor.
"You rich kid will be turned into a dog anyway; let's see when you give in. You only get food when you bark."
It took only two days. On the first day, he was too scared to do something. On the first night, he cried; finally, for the first time since being kidnapped. And when the man demanded the same on the next day. He was already too hungry, being a little child, not really understanding what was going on. Then he barked for the first time.
Then he got food, but he had to eat it like a dog would because he was just a filthy animal.
Lance walked aimlessly and found himself in front of a dilapidated club.
The second floor of this place was where he slept when he was running away from the orphanage.
The first and ground floors had been an empty factory, not a huge one like others, but a few hundred square meters nonetheless.
Then some middle-aged gang member annexed it and made a club for the 'unwanted.' Gangs, dealers, freaks, and all in all, criminals. Even homeless people were welcomed, as long as they had enough money for a drink. The second floor was moldy, and they had it sealed back then because a renovation was too costly, so they let it rot.
But it was no problem for Lance; he had one time found a way in through a door a bit further away, which was apparently some kind of hidden exit. However, today he didn't go through the secret door but went to the main entrance.
Walking in, he was, even when it was only early afternoon, welcomed with loud alternative music, and the place bustled with people. Some high, some drunk. It was the best place for Lance to be because nobody there was a good person.
He went to the tallest guy he could find and smashed his fist into that guy's face.