Chapter Five

I arrived at the address that Jace so carefully texted and was an hour and a half away from my home. It took at least five minutes to get up the long winding driveway to reveal a modern house roughly the size of my high school. I use the term house loosely as homes around my neighborhood don't cause me to gawk and stare in amazement. Their garage alone is the size of my neighbors' house.

I walk up the endless staircase and ring the doorbell. I hear the ring echo through the inside of the house before an older man presumably a butler answers the door.

"Who might you be, miss?" I sneak a peek inside and I'm astounded by how pristinely white every surface is. There are paintings hung on the white walls and glossy tiles covering the floor. I don't see any furniture so I'm guessing this is just the room that's shown to guests before they enter the real house. "Hello, miss?" My eyes averted back to the butler and I manage a smile

"Hello sir, I'm Scarlet-" he steps back and lets me in the house.

"Jace, she's here!" Jasmine shows up out of nowhere and yanks my hand pulling me past the room I was in. We entered the living room where a massive flat-screen was hanging on the wall and a wrap-around couch directly opposite from it. There was a long winding staircase I saw to my right as soon as I entered the room, the banisters embossed in gold while the stairs were as white as the rest of the house.

Jace comes in through what I presume to be the kitchen. He's not in school uniform instead dressed in a Towson University sweatshirt and grey sweatpants. I tried my hardest not to look past his waist, leaving anything below up to the imagination.

"Hey-" He starts but is interrupted by a voice on the stairs behind me.

"JACE, I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU?!" A voice booms throughout the almost quiet house aside from the TV.

I turned around to see who else lives in this beautiful home and clutch onto Jasmine for support as I struggle not to pass out onto the floor.

I look back at Jace and blink to make sure I'm not seeing double. I keep looking back and forth between the two boys trying to make sure I'm not crazy, but it's not working. It's like I'm seeing two of Jace except they are wearing completely different clothes. Jace 2.0 is wearing a pair of basketball shorts, showing off his muscular legs and a plain black tee.

"Jace!" Jace 1.0 looks over at my panicked face. "Why are there two of you?" I shriek.

"Who the fuck is this bitch screaming?" Jace 2.0 asks descending the staircase, annoyed before brushing past me and going out of sight into the next room. I jumped back frightened like I was just pushed by a ghost.

"Baby, come back to bed." I turn so fast back to the stairs that my head spins, hearing an all too familiar voice. We lock eyes and she tightens the loose robe around her body. Her hair sprayed over her shoulders and wearing the PINK slides that I gave her for Christmas last year.

"DESTINY!"

"SCARLETT!" We scream at the same time. "What are you doing here?" She doesn't look as surprised as I do, maybe mild confusion while I feel like the world is closing in on me.

"Me! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be over that crazy boy's house?" I ask, snickering. Hoping that Jace 2.0 hears me call him crazy.

"Aren't you supposed to be over your future boyfriend's house?" She fires back and I fight every urge to look at Jace 1.0 right now.

Jace 2.0 shows up and stands next to Jace 1.0 who is watching the scene with amusement. He moves over slightly when Jace 2.0 comes.

"Scarlet, this is Jasper," Jace says lazily and the supposed Jasper just holds up a peace sign taking a sip of his Coke.

"Wait," I finally connect the dots, realizing how stupid I am. "Jace 2.0 is your twin brother." Jasper gives me a weird look but I ignore him.

"Wait, but Jasper said he didn't have any brothers," Jace slaps his brother (twin, apparently) on the head. Jasper just casually laughs it off.

I can't believe I didn't put it together sooner. The same brown hair just done in different styles with Jaspers being wilder probably from just having sex. The same hazel eyes except Jace's are slightly hidden due to the glasses. And of course different attitudes, but other than that they are identical.

Jace and Jasper. Aw, that's actually really cute.

"Come on babe," Jasper ushers Destiny back upstairs just as Jasmine bounds down with a pink Jan sport backpack.

"You should've warned me that you had a twin," Jace nods half-heartedly. "Seriously, I thought I was going insane."

"I'm surprised it took you that long to figure it out."

"I've never seen a twin before. Thought they were a myth like the Easter Bunny." I joked. He cracks a tiny smile before resorting back to a straight face.

Jace leaves once we're done, but not before promising me to find him when I'm done.

"Jasper and Jace don't get along." Jasmine casually says twenty minutes after we've started.

"Why, aren't twins supposed to be best friends?" Okay, so I'm comparing them to the Olsen twins and Tia and Tamara.

"Not them, at least not anymore. Back when I was really young they used to love being around each other," she said. "Now they can't stand to be in a room together. Not that's it's Jace's fault, Jaspers a huge jerk."

"That's really sad." That's also why he was so standoffish after Jasper came downstairs. He was stiff as a board when he walked with us to the dining room.

We continued working for another two hours when another boy waltzed into the room as we are packing up. He has an easy-going smile with the whole blue-eyed blond-haired thing. Jasmine must know him because she jumps up and runs towards him. I recognize him from Jace's Instagram except then he's posing with the dog which I haven't seen today.

"Carter!" He picks her up and carries her around

"Hey princess, you know I had to come see you and meet this stunning tutor of yours. Little Jace-y told me about how you tormented him at Barnes and Noble!" He raises his fist which I bump. "I have to give props to you!"

"Where's Jace-y?" Jasmine whines in a sweet way. Speaking of the devil, Jace walks in carrying pizza boxes from Papa Johns.

"I hope you guys haven't embarrassed me too much!" Jace asked with a slight twinge to his cheeks.

"Oh not yet," Jace sets the boxes down. "The baby pictures are soon to come." He laughs at Jace's blush and even more when Jace tries to elbow him in the side.

"Let's watch a movie!" Jasmine suggests and the boys agree.

"Can you stay for a movie?" Jace asked me. I check the clock hanging on the wall. I have some time to kill and it's not like I'm doing anything but reading when I get home. We all walked into the living room where I met the elusive Jasper.

Jasmine wanted to pick it so we all ended up sitting around watching Tangled. The boys complained, but I had no problems with it seeing as Tangled is one of my favorite movies.

"Why did she hit my manz with a frying pan?" Carter asked from the other side of the couch. He's sitting next to Jasmine while Jace opted to sit next to me. Not that I mind since he let me lay on his shoulder.

"Because your "manz" showed up at her house uninvited and she has never seen a human except for her mother." I lazily reply and he grunts pulling out his phone.

We all sing along during the songs which the boys have obviously heard before. By the time I See The Lights comes on we are all pretty much in tears. It's one of the most romantic Disney songs.

Carter and Jasmine are quiet for that song while Jace and I belt out all the words. We are both horrible singers, but we have fun with it and are on the edge of our seats when Flynn cuts Rapunzel's hair.

"You were my new dream." Flynn and Jace whispers

"And you were mine," I respond laying back on the couch. Jace is still sitting on the edge and we all bask in the sadness of this scene.

"YOU'RE WATCHING THIS SHIT AGAIN!" We all jump, startled by Jasper's loud voice busting into the living room breaking the silence.

"What the hell!" Jace says angrily. "What are you even doing here?" Jasper flops onto the seat next to Jace

"I live here, little brother." He ruffles Jace's hair before stretching his feet out in front of Jasmine.

"Two minutes. Two minutes earlier than me,"

"And what a glorious two minutes that was." He pats Jace on the cheek teasingly before jumping back over the couch. "Later, assholes!" He casually walks away, cracking open another Coke. I hate how casual he is like I'm an asshole fine, I'm addicted to Coca- Cola that's fine.

Jace is tense after the encounter with his brother. He's stiff still as we sit in his kitchen playing Uno with Carter after Jasmine had gone to bed. I've already beaten both of them in seven games so far and Carter is a sore loser.

"You're a cheater!" Carter screeches before throwing all the cards off the table. I'm not surprised at his outburst, he's done this after every game we played.

Carter's phone rings and he goes off to answer it. Jace is scrolling through his phone looking bored out of his mind. I throw an Uno card at his head, he doesn't even flinch. I throw another, the same result. Then another and another, he still hasn't looked up. I throw the empty box as his head and he finally looks up.

"Yes," At this moment, "Fool In Love" by Rihanna starts playing, probably from Jasmine upstairs. I stand up and start moving my hips along to the beat. "No, please stop!" He tries to pull me down by my hand, but I yank them away and move backward.

Jace covers his ears and looks at me in anguish.

"Scarlett, I'm begging you to stop!" He stands up and walks towards me. I grab his hands and make him dance with me. His long arms and legs make everything awkward especially since I'm doing all the work. He finally stops resisting and moves his body ever so slightly with the beat of the music. He tries to cover my mouth with his hand, but I dodge it expertly.

"Yo Jace, I'm leaving!" He lets go of my hands and races over to talk to Carter before he leaves. I walk over to them at the end of their conversation and Carter turns to me.

"Scarlett, I hope to see you soon." He winks at me before nudging Jace.

"Likewise."

"Where are you from? Like what school?" Jace and Carter look at me expectantly.

"Markland Preparatory Academy." I blurted out instead of Turner High. I mentally facepalm, knowing it's too late to change my answer

I don't know why I told them the name of a school half an hour away that I only know because I tend to look up private school tuitions just to remind me how non- wealthy I am. All I know is that I, somewhere inside my mind forbid me from telling the truth.

Telling them where I'm from leads to judgment and I'm trying to keep that away for as long as possible. When Jace lives in a house like this and goes to a school like that, I can't tell him.

"Cool, I've been to a few parties thrown by Markland guy," Carter replies with an easy grin. They don't even question it. Just believe some girl they barely know because who the hell lies about what school they go to?

"I'm not much of a party girl," I stammer. "Nobody really pays attention to me there." Carter, satisfied with his answer, leaves and we walk back to the kitchen. Jace doesn't ask any more questions and I'm grateful for it.

The song changes to "Nancy Mulligan" by Ed Sheeran and his smile widens. He starts screaming the lyrics and actively participates in dancing with me. I'm surprised Jasper isn't down here screaming at us to shut up like he did before.

After the music stops he throws me a bottle of water which I don't catch. It rolls under the table and he bends down to pick it up before I can.

A thought comes to my head as I surveyed the quiet house, "Where are your parents?" He stops handing me the water bottle midway. Jace clears his throat before giving it to me without looking me in the eyes. Note to self: don't mention parents.

"Business trip," He says in a low voice. I murmur in understanding.

"What do they do?" I blurted out, ignoring the note that I left myself.

"My mom's the head of some rich asshole law firm and my dad is her partner." I decide not to press the subject any further considering he said rich asshole law firm. We fall into silence before I pull out my phone to check the time.

My eyes bulge out of my sockets when I notice that it's 11 at night. I won't be home until right before curfew with the time it took to get over here.

"I have to go, sorry Jace!" I snatch my bag off the table and he walks me to my car.

"I had fun, thanks for the dancing thing." He scratches the back of his head which I noticed he does a lot. "It actually kind of helped." He stuffs his hands in his pocket.

"It's no problem, I noticed that you were kind of tense." He does a nervous laugh

"Sorry about that, Jasper just... it's hard."

"You guys aren't close?" He rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet. I notice the intrusiveness of my question. "Sorry, you don't... don't have to answer that."

"No, you're good. Jasper and I haven't been close for a long time," That story sounds familiar.

"My older sister and I aren't close anymore either," He nods and I lean on my car door. "High school changed things."

"We didn't even make it to high school," He admitted sadly and I wanted to reach out and hug him. I refrained from doing so in fear of making him more uncomfortable. "He thought he was the shit in middle school and you know, what kid doesn't. He ditched me as soon as we walked through the door. Everybody loves Jasper, even now. He's the social one, the smart one, the handsome one, the athletic one. I'm just here..."

"You are a good guy, Jace as far as I can tell," I send him an honest smile. "And I pride myself in having an excellent judge of character," I add with a wink.

"Thanks," I stepped closer to him, but he stepped back. "I'm good though. We grew up and I got over it." He said the last part with a fake cheeriness. He's lying. Jace misses his brother.

"You don't have to pretend, Jace. I know you miss him," He looks me in the eye quickly then hangs his head back down.

"It's late out, Scarlett, you should go," I want to stay here with him. I don't want to leave him while he's like this, sad and longing for a time that he can't get back. I know because that's how I feel with Brielle. But I know it must be ten times worse for Jace. It was his twin brother for god sake.

"But-" He waves him off

"Scarlet, I'm good, seriously. Don't worry about me." I step forward before stepping back. I don't know what to do or say. He retreats a few feet backward and I get inside the car. "Goodnight."

He doesn't smile, not even a sliver.

"Goodnight Jace," I say sadly. I get in my car and there's Jace standing there in a hoodie and sweats, looking like somebody just kicked his puppy. "I'll see you next week." He just nods without a word.

Before I pull off he runs over to the car. "What's up?"

"Text me when you get home. I just want to know if you're safe." I'm taken aback by his words, nobody's ever said that to me besides my parents. Now here's this guy who I essentially just met three weeks ago is telling me he wants me to be safe. A guy who even though his heart is hurting, wants to warm mine.

"Will do." He sends me a small shaky smile and I return it. Leaving him outside in the cold with an ache in his heart that I know all too well. I have the same one in mine.

I got home at some time close to 1 in the morning. My parents were fast asleep in their beds, probably assuming that I was too. The only person awake in my house was Brielle who wasn't above interrogating me as soon as I walked through the door.

"Where you been? Late night at the library?" She snicker at her own little joke. Iroll my eyes and keep walking. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" She snatches me back by my shoulder and my body jerks back.

"What do you care for? Aren't you supposed to be at some crack dealers house shaking it for dollar bills?" She snarls at my jab.

"Excuse me, I've been home all night. Sorry, I can't say the same for you." I walk upstairs to my room ignoring Brielle's calls from behind me.

I smile thinking about how Jace wanted me to text him.

I'm home

He texts me back right away.

Good night, Scarlet.

Good night, Jacey

I put my phone on the charger and go to bed. He cares about me, a stranger that he's only known for three weeks. He doesn't need to know that I went through the darkest part of the city to get here. All he needs to know is that I'm home no matter where that is.