The next morning I was moody. Not because I woke up moody but the moment I got to the kitchen and saw my mum and dad seated on both ends of the kitchen island my mood dampened.
Dad was still in his pajamas, a newspaper in hand with a cup of coffee in front of him while mum was dressed for work with her Kindle reader in her hand and a cup of coffee in front of her too.
"Morning," I greeted while taking out the cereal and a bowl.
"Morning," both of them replied at the same time.
I rolled my eyes. I still didn't understand why they had to separate. They were so in love with each other that sometimes I got jealous. Yes they fought a lot but they always sorted it out hours after.
For dad to agree to divorce mum, whatever happened during that trip must have been really horrible.
I quickly ate my cereal and when I was done Luke walked into the kitchen.
"Morning," he greeted and mum and dad replied. "Liv I need your car today."
"What happened to your car?" I quickly washed my bowl.
"I didn't come with it last night so please I need your car. I promise I'll drop you at school and come pick you up when you're done." He pleaded.
"Fine, but be careful with it," I agreed and took my bag. "I'm ready to go now."
We both walked out after saying bye to our parents. Luke drove and as promised he dropped me off at school before turning around and heading to wherever he was going to.
"Hey Liv was that Luke?" Chloe asked as I got to where she parked her car.
"Yeah he got back last night," I leaned on her car.
"Hey sweetheart," Callum said as he pulled me in for a hug before kissing me.
"Hey," I forced a smile for him.
I wasn't ready to tell my friends that my parents were getting a divorce plus I didn't want to think about it right now.
The first bell went off and we all filed into school, going our ways to class.
During Calculus Mr. Anderson paired Ace and I to do some work together and this time around I didn't complain.
"What's wrong?" He asked when we were halfway done with our work.
"Nothing," I shook my head and focused on what we were doing.
"You sure? You've been moody all morning," he pointed out.
"Aren't I always moody?"
"Well not like this."
Not even my friends had noticed my moodiness maybe because I hid it well but Ace did and I swear I felt something in the pit of my stomach.
"I'm fine Ace, thanks for the concern." I denied again.
He shrugged and we got back to work. We didn't speak much until we were done with our work.
When the bell for lunch rang I was walking so slow that I was part of the last people left in the hallways.
I heard footsteps behind me and I turned around to find Ace.
"Are you sure you're fine?" His eyebrows were furrowed with what looked like concern.
"Yeah, I am just a bit tired." I lied. I was far from tired.
"Come on," he said and grabbed my wrist, leading us out of the school building.
"Where are you taking me?" I didn't push his hand away as the warmth from his hand seeped through to mine.
"Somewhere," he answered flatly.
When we got to his truck he opened the passenger's door for me and I got in with ease. The truck was a bit high though.
He closed the door and got into the driver's seat.
"Was that your brother last night?" He asked when he had joined the road.
"Yeah," I nodded.
"Does he live around here or what? I've never seen him before." He looked at me for a brief moment.
"He goes to Boston, he just came home last night for a visit." I told him and he nodded.
The rest of the ride was silent and only when he parked the car did I notice where we were.
It was Joe's, a small restaurant a little bit far from school. At least no one from school came here.
I smiled when I recognized the place and Ace smiled too. We walked into the place and the smell of food got my stomach grumbling. I didn't know I was that hungry.
We sat at a booth and shortly after a lady probably around Luke's age walked up to us.
I got burger, fries and a coke and Ace just went with the same thing.
"So why bring me here?" He didn't faze me as someone to do this.
"You're lying to everyone but you can't fool me," he started and my eyes widened. "You looked like you needed a break from school is all."
"What do you mean?"
Before he could answer our food was brought. He didn't speak after that.
"Ace what did you mean?" I repeated the question.
He shrugged and continued eating his food. I rolled my eyes but ate nonetheless.
After some seconds I couldn't take the silence, "Ace?"
"Yeah," he looked up at me, his blue eyes locked on mine.
"Why do you have so many tattoos and hide them?" I still wouldn't give up on figuring him out.
"Because I like them and like I said before I don't want attention," he answered but I wasn't buying it.
I dropped it anyways and continued eating.
"Why do you lie to everyone?" He asked and I was shocked at his question.
"I don't lie to people Ace," I was getting riled up. Ace had this ability to get me angry easily.
"Oh but you do. Why, is the question," he scoffed.
I took in a deep breath, "what do you plan on achieving with the answer?" I chewed on a fry.
He shrugged and I wanted to slap those shoulders. We continued eating in silence and when we were done I took out my purse to pay but Ace beat me to it. He smirked and stood up.
"I'm paying next time," I pouted and followed him out the door.
Like before he opened the passenger's door for me before getting into the car. When we got to school it was exactly a minute before the bell went off so I quickly got down from Ace's truck.
"Uhm I won't be able to make it for today's session, the party and all," I told him and he nodded.
"See ya," I ran into the school.
I was almost at Chemistry class when the bell rang and I sighed in relief. No one saw me getting down from Ace's truck that was for sure.

I had the ability to jinx things. After lunch I thought everything was normal until halfway through Chemistry everyone in class started looking at Ace and I and whispering.
I looked at Matt hoping he understood what was going on. My phone dinged in my bag and I discretely fished it out.
Mr. Briggs didn't like when we used phones in his class.
It was a text from Matt.
Matt- what is this stuff I'm hearing about you and that nerdy guy?
Two pictures came in after that and I gasped.
One was a picture of Ace opening the passengers door of his truck for me and the second one was of us in Joe's earlier on.
Another picture came in and I nearly lost my shit. It was of Ace holding my wrist in the hallway.
I looked up at Ace and he was looking at me confused. His brows furrowed even more when he saw my face. I was sure my face was red from both anger and embarrassment. This was exactly what I was trying to avoid.
It was obvious that the person that took those pictures followed us from the hallway.
I looked up at the clock waiting for it to magically move so the hour would be over and I could get out of there. Even if I wouldn't run away from school because it just wouldn't make sense, people would still talk but I'd be away from this class. The whispers were getting too much.
My phone dinged again and it was Ace who sent a text this time. We had exchanged numbers on Wednesday.
Ace- what's going on?
I sent him the pictures I just got and I watched as his face remained neutral. He didn't text back and he didn't look my way again. He understood completely, maybe I'd even stop our tutoring sessions even since I was getting better at Calc.
Okay I can't, I'll just fail badly. My grades were still struggling.
We'd have to talk about this but not today. Maybe during the weekend by then I'm sure people would start talking about my party and by Monday I'm sure another juicy news would pop up.
When the bell finally rang I was quick to get out of the class. As I passed the janitors closet someone pulled me in and clamped their hand over my mouth.
"It's me," a deep voice said and I relaxed.
He removed his hand from my mouth and I turned around to look at him. We were standing so close to each other now that our chests were literally touching.
I moved back but something was behind me. I groaned, "Ace, you could have texted me."
"Sorry," he apologized.
"Why did you drag me here?" The proximity to him was too much and I just wanted to get out of there.
"Is that why people have been looking at me?" He referred to the pictures.
I nodded, "someone must have followed us."
"Shit," he cussed.
"Look just calm down I'm sure after my party and the weekend people will forget about this, it's North Wind, there's always a new rumor flying around every week." I placed my hand on his arm trying to assure him.
His eyes locked with mine and that sent shivers down my spine. What's going on?
He nodded, "alright."
After that I walked out of the closet and to my next class. The whispers had gotten more now and I tried my best to ignore them.
"Eww what was she doing with that guy?"
"And she let him touch her at that."
"I thought she didn't roll with the likes of him."
"I heard they fucked in his truck the other day."
Jesus! Where do people hear all these rumors from?
"What about Callum?"
"Callum is going to be so pissed. He's such an idiot for thinking he can get away with this."
I took out my air pods and slipped them on, completely blocking out whateveryone was saying.