At the sound of my phone ringing on my desk, I got up and rushed to it. Not wanting to wake Callum up, I silenced the call first. After fucking each other a good number of times, he was too tired to stand up and get back home, so he spent the night here. His parents weren't home and his elder brother, just like mine, was in college.
Eli was calling, so I walked to my balcony, and closed the French doors carefully. It was almost midnight. Why was Eli calling me?
"Hey you know that I'm sleeping, right?" I said when I picked the call, sounding a bit pissed he was disturbing my beauty sleep.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I did your research on your guy Ace?" His words were like caffeine, waking me up instantly.
"What did you get?"
"He's Italian, moved here with his brother like five weeks ago. His brother works in that fancy restaurant downtown while he works in a pizzeria. The only record of family is only that their parents died in a car crash when Ace was still a baby. A family in Italy adopted them, but that's all. The name if the family isn't mentioned, at least not that I can find. I might have to dig deeper for that. Ace is into photography. He takes really wonderful pictures. I'm impressed. And he's a nerd, of course. He doesn't really have any routine, just school, work and he goes on walks some days, taking pictures of stuffs around him, nothing much. His life is boring, apart from the photography part." Eli explained, and I took it all in.
"I'll send the info to your mail. What's your deal with this guy, anyway?"
I sighed. "I'm just a little curious. He seems different. And the way he keeps looking at me in school..." I shuddered, "thanks Eli."
"Sure, now you can go back to sleep. Good night."
"Good night," I chuckled, then hung up.
I didn't have the strength to think about Ace because all I wanted to do was sleep, so I snuck back into bed and let Cal pull me closer to him.

The next day, Ace was in Chemistry so I made my way to his desk, taking the seat beside him. He looked like he was going to shit himself.
"Hi, I'm Olivia. I believe we haven't officially met," I said with a smile and stretched my hand out to him.
He looked at me, unsure what to do, so I smiled wider and he took my hand and shook it.
My hand was small compared to his. "Ace," he said and once again his deep voice got me mesmerized in a way.
"Nice to meet you," I said, and he nodded, humming in response.
I had only heard him speak like three times, first at his house when I picked up my homework, second when he was delivering pizza at my house and third now.
"Why do you rarely wear your glasses?" I asked, mainly because I was curious and not just trying to make small talk with him.
I was curious about him.
"Because it's not every time I need it," he kept his gaze on his textbook even though our teacher wasn't in class yet.
"Oh," I nodded.
"Are you bipolar?" He looked at me, his eyes showing no sign that he was joking.
"What?" I was shocked and slowly getting angry at his tone.
Who asked that kind of question out of the blue?
"Are you bipolar?" He repeated, and it was obvious he didn't see his words as rude.
"No," I shook my head, trying to figure him out.
"Then why are you suddenly nice to me and wanting to officially meet me?"
Now I was angry. I was trying to be nice, and he was being rude. I wanted to snap at him, but I held my tongue. My curiosity will always bring me back to talk to him. I was determined to figure him out.
I took in a deep breath, "because I want to know you. Is there anything wrong with that?"
"It's not good for your reputation," he said without skipping a beat.
I looked around the classroom and sure enough everyone in the class were stealing glances at us, curious why I was talking to the nerd, nobody ever talked to him and in all honesty I didn't think I had ever seen him talk to anybody apart from me and Matt. Even when I witnessed Matt giving him his assignment to get it done, he hadn't said a word, just nodding and shaking his head.
I scoffed, "you know what? You're right. Talking to you stains who I am," I said with so much bitterness and stormed to my regular seat.
"That's more like it," he said in Italian, not knowing I understood him.
His accent was so obvious when he spoke Italian, and it was really sexy. Get a grip Olivia!
I rolled my eyes and just then the teacher walked in.

I needed to be a lot more observant. I never noticed Ace in my gym class. Now it was like everywhere I went, Ace was there.
Today we were playing dodge ball and as usual the teacher put us in two teams, making me and Callum leaders of our various teams.
We went picking team mates and when it was down to Ace and some other girl, Cal chose the girl, meaning I had Ace.
With balls flying everywhere, I dodged all until we were down to four teammates on both teams. It was Callum, Jane, Lucy and some other guy. I didn't know his name on the other team while it was me, John, Matt and, of course, Ace left on my team.
Balls started flying everywhere again, and I was trying to dodge every ball coming my way. Callum's team was ruthless, but so was mine.
I was about to throw a ball at Jane when I felt someone push me, making me miss my aim, but a blue ball fell just by my side.
I turned to look at my side, and Ace was there. He pushed me. I should be thankful, but I was angry. That was under control. If he didn't push me, I'd have seen that ball coming my way.
When I was about to shoot at Jane again, Ace once again pushed me. I ignored him and at the end of the game, which we won, I was about to head to the locker room to change, but somehow Ace was standing in front of me, unmoving.
"Get out of my way," I glared at him.
He was shocked that I could speak Italian and his face showed it. I smirked.
"You speak Italian?" He asked, his eyes studying me.
"Yes, now move." My voice was now louder, causing a few people who were still around to stare.
He chuckled, "I like you better when you speak Italian." He moved to the side, giving me room to pass.
I frowned. "Weirdo" I switched to Spanish, and that obviously confused him. I walked away from him.
"What did you say?" He asked. He couldn't hide his confusion as his eyebrows were knitted.
"I said, weirdo." I smirked and continued walking to the locker room.
When I got there, Jane and Chloe were giving me that look that said 'start talking'. Almost everyone watched our exchange, but obviously they didn't understand.
I laughed, "guys chill, it's nothing. I hate him and he hates me," I shrugged.
"What did he do to make you hate him?" Jane asked as she slung her backpack over her shoulder.
"He's a weirdo," I said, and that ended the conversation.
They asked no more questions, and no one brought it up. By the time we got to the parking lot, it was almost empty, just a few cars here and there.
Since Cal drove me to school today, I walked to his car. He pulled me to him and kissed me.
Someone cleared their throat, which made us pull away from each other. I turned to look at Jane and Chloe, waiting for them to speak.
"Are you guys coming for the party tomorrow night?" Jane asked, unlocking her blue convertible.
"Yeah, sure," Cal and I said at the same time.
Jane and Chloe got into their cars and drove away, leaving me and Cal together in the parking lot.
"My place or yours?" His hands rested on my hips.
"Yours," I answered, and he smiled, kissing me briefly before opening the door for me.
As I was about to get in, I saw Ace walk out of the school doors. Our eyes met, and he smirked, making me want to go over there and slap it right off his face. I got into the car and Cal closed the door for me. From the side mirror, I could see Ace get into a red truck.
I saw nothing again because Cal had already hit the road.
Who the hell was Ace Matteo?