Chapter 11

I woke up at nearly 10. My head hurts so much but I have to fix my things.

“How’s Chloe?” I whisper to Ollie. She hasn’t woken up yet.

“She cried a lot last night then dozed off to sleep. She’ll get over him,” He rolls his eyes.

I hope so.

When I came back to our tent last night after talking to Ace, they were both asleep. Poor Chloe.

I also felt guilty. I made her think that Ace actually likes her, if I hadn’t forced Ace, none of this would have happened. I knew that he had a choice, but I made him feel like he didn’t. Oh god, what have I done?

I’ll add that to the list of reasons to break down at 3AM.

Chloe wakes up, probably heard us fixing our stuff.

“What time is it?” She asks.

“It’s time for you to move on,” Ollie jokes.

“Spare me the bull Oliver, I just woke up,” Chloe groans.

“How’re you feeling?” I ask her.

“Sad, duh. But I can live with it. He’s not the only guy on Earth,” She smiles looking at the bright side.

“I’m sorry, Chloe.” I frown.

“What are you sorry for?”

I told her everything.

“Hold on, he climbed up your window while you’re nearly naked?” Chloe asks me with wide eyes.

“That was definitely intentional!” Ollie gasps.

“Shut up, Ollie,” Chloe rolls her eyes.

I continued the rest of the story and apologized to Chloe once again.

“It’s fine, Mel.” She gives me a small smile and puts her hand on top of my shoulder.

Once we took down the tent, got rid of the trashes and fixed the rest of our belongings, we went to a diner near the lake to have a late breakfast.

I got home and Mom is probably at work. I went upstairs to my room and put my dirty clothes in the hamper. I was still tired so I decided to take a nap.

I woke up early on Sunday morning. I decided to go for a jog since I read somewhere on my phone last night that it helps you compose yourself and your thoughts. I doubt that it would work, but I needed a reason to go out of the house.

Plus, I need to return Ace’s hoodie.

I brushed my teeth and washed my face. I wore a gray sports bra with matching leggings and put on my black Nike shoes, I put my hair up in a ponytail afterward.

I brought my phone with me so I could listen to music through my earphones while running.

I went outside and it was a bit dark and I could still feel the early morning chill. I checked the time and it was 5:40AM. I didn’t run yet, I put in my earphones and started walking. I passed by Ace’s house and I noticed one of the bedroom window’s open.

Huh.

As if on cue, Ace walks into view. It’s probably his room. I wonder what his reaction would be if I was the one to climb in while he’s half-naked.

He’s half-naked. Again.

He noticed me staring and he gives me a smile and waved.

I feel my cheeks heat up and I put my music into full volume and started running. Pretty soon the sun rises and I would have took a sun-kissed picture of myself if I wasn’t all sweaty and disgusting.

Eventually, I got tired from running and decided to walk back home.

Mom was cooking breakfast when I got back.

I went back to my room and pulled out Ace’s hoodie from my bag and went back downstairs.

“Where are you going?” Mom asks.

“Hold on, I’ll be back in a minute!” I say as I go out the front door.

I start walking to their house and rang their doorbell.

I actually debated with myself whether or not I should throw it in through his window. But that would be weird and unethical. So obviously I’m doing what normal people do, ring someone’s doorbell at 7 in the morning.

Ace opens the door and I sighed in relief when I saw him finally wearing a white shirt.

“Hi, um, here’s your hoodie,” I say giving him a small smile and handed him back his hoodie.

He looks at me, head to toe, and I realized that I was still wearing my outfit from when I was jogging. I actually felt a bit self- conscious since I was still sweaty and a few of my baby hairs were all over the place.

“Stop looking at me,” I blurt out.

“Why? I can’t?” He asks.

“I’m sweaty and disgusting,” I frown.

“Yeah, you are,” He says with an amused smile and I scowl.

“You could have kept it, you know,” He says but still gets it from me.

“Yeah, whatever,” I roll my eyes then I walked back to my house.

I'd rather not.

After breakfast, I took a shower. I had no plans for today and next week is exam week so I should probably make reviewers.

Ace’s POV

“Was that Mel?” Ally asks from the living room as I close the door.

“Yup,” I answer and walked upstairs to my room, holding my hoodie she returned.

It’s early. Too early. Normally I would wake up at 10, but for some reason I woke up at 4 and I wasn’t able to continue my sleep. I was surprised to look out my window and saw Mel probably out for a jog based on her outfit. She didn’t seem like the type who works out though.

I wanted to tease her about it but she didn’t seem to be in a good mood. I didn’t get why she said she looked disgusting just because she’s sweaty. The sun was rising when she returned my hoodie, it was hitting her face and she didn’t look unattractive at all. The grey outfit complimented her green eyes, the baby hairs framed her face. She’s beautiful.

I lied back on my bed and put on my hoodie. It smelled like her. Well, I’m not really sure if it smelled like her but it doesn’t smell like me so I figured.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The smell was welcoming. It wasn’t like a perfume or cologne, it was her natural smell. I like it.

I fell asleep for a few more hours and I woke up at lunchtime. I still didn’t take off my hoodie, it still smelled like her. It was like she was hugging me. I’m never washing this.

“Didn’t you bring that hoodie to that thing? With the fire?” Ally asks me while struggling to put soup in her bowl.

“Yeah so? What about it?"

“That’s nasty,” She frowns and I chuckle while I helped her fill her bowl with soup.

No Allison, it’s not nasty at all.