I once again woke up to the familiar white walls and slow beeping sounds beside my head. It seemed like too many times I was waking up here, it almost felt like a dream. But I knew it was real when I moved my toes and fingers. My head ached as I tried to sit up, but there was a heavy weight on my chest. I saw Ace asleep on top of me, one hand holding mine. I went and gently stroked his hair, but my fingers froze when I realized something. “I remember,” I muttered out loud. Holy shit, I remembered everything! From my father kidnapping me, right down to getting bashed over the head by Amber. Ace stirred below me and groaned. “Isla?” “I’m right here.” He snapped up from the bed. “Isla! Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?” “I’m okay, Ace.” I smiled gently and caressed his cheek. He grabbed my hand and clutched it tight. “Wait…do you remember?” I nodded and gripped his hand back. “I guess that second knock to the head was all I really needed to put things back into place,” I chu
I have hated the majority of my life I could remember. My mother died in a car accident when I was young, on the day of my 10th birthday. From that day my father had blamed me for her death, all because I had thrown a tantrum over not having ice cream with my cake, so she went to get some and was struck by a drunk driver.That was the day the horrors of my childhood had begun. My father had become a recluse drunk who lost his job and claimed disability to sit at home and drink. He would have flashbacks of my mother and get into a drunken rage, which usually ended with me as his punching bag and anger release.I tried several times to tell an adult about it, I showed them the bruises on my legs and arms, but my father was the world’s greatest actor. Every time someone had come to the door under the suspicion something was happening to me in the house, he pretended to act like a sober and loving father, which in turn made me look like a liar.So, I stopped telling people, and I waited f
“Hey, haven’t seen you around here before,” he said with a cocky grin. The same damned cocky grin he always used to pick up skanks, and now he was using it on me.“Here’s your sac back,” I said and tossed it to him, then turned and walked away.“Wha – wait, hold on!” He jogged after me and started walking backwards next to me to keep up. “What class are you headed to; I can maybe help you find it?”I held up the school map I printed out this morning. “Thanks, I got it covered.”This stumped him and he had no choice but to stop and watch as I continued to walk away like he was never there. I kept walking until I saw the signs for the bathrooms and ducked into them, then let out a gasping breath.It had been so long since I last saw him, all the memories of high school had come rushing back. Of all the people to run into on the first day, why did it have to be him?I sat in the bathroom until I thought the coast was clear then snuck out and raced to my first class, which was the History
Weirdly enough, I didn’t see Ace for the rest of the week, not even in the halls or the cafeteria, it was like he disappeared. Only to return on Friday with the biggest grin on his face as he awaited the start of the game.I sat at the top of the bleachers, as far away from the ice as possible and hoped he wouldn’t see me up there, but to my luck, he scanned the crowd and spotted me right away. He gave a huge wave which only attracted all the female attention to me.‘Oh, great. I haven’t even been here hardly a week, and I’m already the target of envy.’ I could feel all the jealous stares as the game started. At first, I didn’t find myself very interested, until I heard the horn go off, which I guessed signalled a goal as the players celebrated on the ice. I looked and realized it wasn’t our team, and it was only the first 5 minutes out of 20 minutes.Maybe this was going to be a lot easier than I thought. I started to pay a little more attention to the game, even though I didn’t und
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 wit
I was on my way to my Jazz-Ballet class when I got a random text message that said to go to the arena after class. I had my hunches that it was Ace, but I never remembered giving him my number. The worst it could be was a trap set by another, but again, how did anyone get my number? I hadn’t changed it since I first got my phone plan back at the end of high school, when I could finally afford one without my Dad knowing, but I wasn’t one to easily give it out or post it around social media like others. It wasn’t that easy to get a hold of. Since my gut told me not to, I avoided the arena for the rest of the morning, until I had saw Ace running down the hall to my classroom just as I was leaving. “Where were you?” he asked and looked quite breathless. I wanted to ask how he knew this was my class and that I had just finished, but I remembered he had been forcefully walking me to class every day since I got there. “What do
We had stayed like that for what seemed like hours before I finally scrambled off of him and stopped crushing him with my weight. “I’m sorry, I overestimated myself,” I muttered. I tried to hide my face as I felt my face heat up, I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. “It’s okay, that’s uh, a good thing. You’re getting the hang of this a lot faster than I expected. Do you want to keep going?” “Uh, no, I think I’m done for today. My ass can’t take the hits anymore.” I crawled on my hands and knees over to the side of the rink and used the wall to help myself up, then scooted along the side toward the door. Ace busted a gut laughing as he watched me shuffle like a penguin off the ice, then glided with ease toward the door and stepped off the ice like it was nothing. “Show off,” I grumbled. I was relieved to sit down and be on stable ground once more, but I was shocked when Ace bent down to start untying my s
I gawked at him for a few seconds, unsure if I had heard him correctly. “Can I go to it if it’s after my game?” He wasn’t kidding. “You…want to go?” He shrugged. “Why not? I’d love to see you dance, I’m sure it’s awesome. What kind of dance competition?” “It starts a few minutes after your game ends, I don’t think you’ll be able to make it in time.” I wanted to think of any excuse for him not to go. That was the last thing I wanted him to see. Knowing about the competition was one fear, seeing me dance was a whole other level of terror I didn’t want to experience with Ace Huxley. I could only imagine what he would’ve done to me back in high school if he had ever seen me dance. Thankfully, it wasn’t a passion I could afford at the time, and now it is the passion that helps me afford everything. “I have my car, if it isn’t too far, I’m sure I can drive there right after. If you let me go, that is.” He smiled, and for the first time, it didn’t touch his eyes. He was acting as if