On Monday morning, I woke up late, which made me late for school and dampened my mood for the day. The calculus teacher made it worse when he paired Ace and me for a calculus exercise. Of all people, Ace.
Honestly, I needed to be a lot more observant. I never knew Ace was in my calculus class until today. Or maybe he was always there, but he skipped classes. I was positive he wasn't in class on Thursday because I was looking out for him that Thursday.
Ace was the hardest person to work with. He kept flagging down every equation I solved, and it was getting on my nerves. I swear I was so close to punching him. One last straw and his nose was going to be bleeding.
"You're getting it wrong," he said, and I glared at him.
"What is your problem?" I snapped.
"I don't have a problem. You're failing," he switched to Italian at the end of the sentence.
"I don't need your help," I continued what I was doing.
"You're failing calculus," he repeated.
I clenched my fists, trying to control myself from punching him in class. The last thing I needed was a suspension or detention.
"I don't need your help and I'm not failing calculus," my voice came out louder than I expected, causing everyone in the class to turn to stare at us.
"Miss Thorne, is there anything you'd like to say to the class?" Mr. Anderson asked, and I shook my head.
Everyone went back to their business, so I sat back in my chair and let Ace do all the work since he was the smart one and I was failing.

I was actually failing and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how. I never failed a class before, so this was a shocker for me.
At the end of Calculus, Mr. Anderson shared our scripts from our last test and I nearly lost my shit. I knew Ace saw my script, and I knew exactly what he was going to say.
After the class, I stormed out and headed straight to the bathroom. I needed to do something about this, I couldn't fail.
After taking deep breaths, I stepped out of the bathroom only to hit a wall. I held my throbbing nose and looked up at the wall, or rather someone's chest.
I rolled my eyes when I recognized him. I headed to the cafeteria, and he followed me.
"What do you want?" I stopped in my tracks and turned to face him.
"I told you, you're failing." The way his face was stoic and held no emotions was annoying. How could you be talking to someone and it was like you were talking to a stone?
"Yeah and so?" I folded my arms across my chest.
His eyes trailed down to my exposed cleavage before meeting my gaze. "I can help you," he suggested.
I laughed. Did he think I actually needed his help? I'd rather study on my own and help myself. I didn't need his help. I didn't even want to be around him.
"For the last time, I don't need your help." I turned around and continued down to the cafeteria.
He followed me, so I changed direction and headed for the back of the school. He followed me still. When outside, I took out a cigarette and lit it. This guy was stressing my life.
He closed the door behind him and stood, arms crossed, watching me.
"What?" I exhaled, giving him the deadliest glare I could muster.
"Why do you smoke?" If I didn't know better, I'd have said he sounded worried.
I took a drag and stepped closer to him, exhaling in his face, "it's none of your business."
He didn't flinch, and that got me angrier. I walked away from him, kicking the air.
"You're killing your lungs," he stated, and I whirled around, looking at him.
"Tell me something I don't know." I rolled my eyes and threw my cigarette to the ground, smashing it with the heel of my boot and meeting his gaze. "What exactly do you want, Ace? Aren't you supposed to be a nerd or something? Go read a book and stop disturbing me."
"I want to help you." He sounded a little sincere, but I refused to be fooled.
"I thought talking to you isn't good for my reputation?" I cocked my head to the side and lifted my gaze to meet his.
I was wearing heeled boots, but Ace was still a head taller than me, which I must say was quite intimidating, but he couldn't know that.
"Do you really care about that?" He quirked a brow.
"Yeah," I stated flatly. "Look here Ace, I don't need your help so you can go shove it down your ass for all I care. And also, you're new, so I don't blame you, but we," I waved my hand to him and back to me. "Never mix." With that, I stormed out of there and back into the school building.
I didn't hear his footsteps behind me, and I sighed in relief. When I got to the cafeteria, I took my seat beside Callum and threw my bag on the table, causing everyone on my table to look at me.
I ignored their stares and rubbed my forehead. I could feel a headache coming on and it was because of Ace. Gosh, I hated him! Why did he keep appearing everywhere?
And he was suggesting to help me? Who did he think he was, anyway?
I groaned and looked up, instantly regretting it. Ace just walked into the cafeteria and took his regular seat at a table not too far.
As if he knew I was staring, he looked up at me and that annoying smirk of his appeared on his face. I rolled my eyes and looked away. I would not let the likes of him disturb my peace.
"Liv, are you okay?" Cal asked, his hand resting on the small of my back.
"Yeah, just a little tired, that's all," I half lied. I was actually tired, and I just wanted to lie on my bed and sleep all day, but that wasn't the only reason I was like this. Ace Matteo did this.
Cal pulled me closer to him and I let him. I took his unopened can of soda and flicked it open, downing half of its content in seconds.
Cal wanted to protest, but he held his tongue. I took the sandwich that was in front of him and ate it before finishing the rest of the soda.
Maybe my hunger -which I wasn't aware of- got me a lot more tired. I needed to eat more. Since my parents travelled last week, I hadn't been eating well. More of takeout and pizza and it was absolutely unhealthy. But you couldn't blame me. I was not the best cook out there.
My friends carried on their talking while I leaned into Cal, listening and talking when necessary. When the bell rang, I was quick to stand up and walk to my next class, which Cal walked me to.
When we got to the front of the class, Cal pulled me in for a kiss and when we pulled away, I saw Ace walking past us. He didn't even look my way, and I smiled. He wouldn't disturb me now.
At the end of the school day, I got into my car and drove home to meet the usual silence. I wanted to cook, I really did, but I got discouraged immediately. I opened the fridge and found it almost empty, so I closed it right back and placed a call for sushi.
I sat in my room and started on my homework. When my sushi came, I took it up to my room and ate there. After a while I got tired of homework and caught up with some studying. I picked up my calculus textbook and flipped through it.
The figures and numbers were playing with my head and I closed it for a second before taking in a deep breath and opening it again.
I did a little studying and under thirty minutes I felt my headache returning. Ace's words of today came back to me and for a second I thought of going over to his house to ask for his help, but I shook the thoughts away.
I didn't need his help. I could do this on my own. And asking for his help would mean accepting defeat, and I didn't accept defeat. I don't give up, I can do this.
I studied into the night and when I decided that I had had enough of calculus to last me a lifetime; I realized I couldn't sleep.
With a groan, I rolled to my side and reached for my bedside drawer. I took out the pills and went downstairs to get water.
With my cup filled, I placed the pills and the cup of water on the counter. I hadn't taken sleeping pills in two weeks now because I dreaded taking them. I felt vulnerable whenever I took them. Under the influence of a drug, I wouldn't have control over myself, and that pissed me off.
Sucking in a breath, I swallowed the pills and finished my glass of water before heading upstairs and, for a minute, I was drawn into a state of semi-unconsciousness.