Four

I walked out of that cafeteria so fast you would think my ass was on fire. I expected Ace to run after me but to my surprise, he didn’t.

‘Maybe he figured out a lot faster than I thought he would. I guess it would be hard to forget someone like who I was in high school.’

I still had 20 minutes until my next class, and it was right next to the library building, so I wandered over to kill time and read a book. It was another passion of mine that I loved to do, but I stopped reading in public after Ace constantly shouted out the embarrassing and weird books I read. Eventually, I just stopped reading.

How could a guy like that ever think he could stand a chance of being my friend? He wouldn’t last two minutes with me before he ran off crying.

Maybe that was it. This was my chance to finally get back at him for all those years of bullying me.

That was laughable.

I scanned the library's aisles until I came upon a beloved classic; A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. I fell in love with this book freshman year of high school, and the tormented and tragic life of Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay.

I found a corner of the library where there was a desk and chair to sit and read. I was so invested in the words I had read a thousand times; that I didn’t hear anyone approach me.

“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other,” Ace said.

My head shot up and I glared at him. “What are you doing here?”

“You rushed out so fast after lunch, why?”

I sighed and put the book down. “I’ve already told you; that I’m not interested in making friends. Why can’t you just accept that?”

He shrugged. “Because I want to be your friend, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

I had a feeling he wasn’t going to listen to me no matter how much I argued, and there were only 10 more minutes before my next class.

“What nonsense were you talking about earlier?” I asked.

He frowned. “It’s a quote from the book.” He pointed at my book.

“How many times have you read this that you memorized quotes like that?” I asked in pure shock. I didn’t ever remember him reading back in high school and he still didn’t strike me as the illiterate type.

“I started reading it after I saw a girl in my high school reading it. The book looked interesting enough and turns out it was nothing like I thought it was. I expected it to be a romance story, which it was, but there was so much more to it that it really caught my interest and quickly became my favourite book.”

My mouth dropped open. There was no way he was talking about me. There were tons of students who were reading this book in high school, it was mandatory freshman year.

“What, does that shock you?” he asked with a grin.

“Kind of, yes.”

He rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to be so blunt about it. Just because I’m a dumb jock, doesn’t mean I don’t like doing things other than playing hockey.”

I hated that I felt a little bad, he did have a point.

“Sorry, that isn’t what I meant,” I muttered.

He pulled up a chair and sat down backward on it next to me.

“You know, you talk sometimes like you’ve met me before, and something tells me you didn’t like me.”

I froze and waited for him to call me out.

“Why would you assume that?” I asked when he didn’t say anything.

He shrugged. “Just a hunch, guess I was wrong, and you’re just mean.” He stuck out his tongue at me.

“Wow, you’re mature.”

Ace put a hand over his chest. “Oh, why thank you.”

“Ugh, it wasn’t a compliment. What is it you want?”

He shrugged again and slouched over on the chair. “I’m bored, I have another half hour to kill before practice. So, I came to bother you.”

I slammed my book shut and grabbed my bag.

“Gee, thanks for blessing me with your presence, but I have class now.”

“Let me walk you there.” He jumped up and followed me.

I rolled my eyes and stayed quiet, there was no use in arguing, I was coming to realize that very quickly. How in the world did I stand this guy in the past? I wasn’t sure what Ace I preferred more; the one who bullied me or the one who won’t leave me alone.

Thankfully, my class wasn’t far from the library.

“Well, here we are,” I said and hoped he got the message.

Instead, he peered inside the class and watched as a few ballet dancers stretched.

“You’re taking dance? I never saw you as a dancer, I thought for sure you were a music junkie,” he said.

“A what?”

He chuckled. “It’s what we call the music students here, it’s all they talk about, like junkies.”

“I happen to love music,” I glared at him.

“Hey, so do I, it’s just a funny name and they’re all well aware of it, trust me.”

“What do you call the dance students then?” I asked.

He grinned. “I’m not sure you want to know.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right about that. Anyway, I got to go.”

“Wait, we’re having another game this Friday. Are you going to come and watch it again? I can save you a seat closer to the ice.”

For a moment I was thrown back to the past, to when I was a naïve teenager who just wanted to be accepted and would’ve killed to have had a handsome and popular guy like Ace Huxley. Instead, all I got was rejection and harassment.

I wanted to say no and walk away, but for some reason, it was hard to be mean when he looked so hopeful. “I’ll think about it,” I said instead.

He cheered anyway. “I might hold you to that, Isla.”

My heart thumped a little when he said my name. It was the first time even since high school that he had ever said it. Whenever he bullied me before, he had just called me names.

If someone had told me this day would’ve come 3 years ago, I would’ve laughed at them, then smacked them. This was almost a dream come true, I really could bully the bully.