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“So, uh, Ace?” I said. “T-there was something I wanted to ask you.”
“Hmm?” he responded, still frowning at his phone.
I was tempted to make him look up at me, but then thought it might be easier if he didn’t make eye contact with me. “Do you, um, maybe want to go out to dinner together tonight? Like on a date?”
I swallowed. “I know this might be sort of sudden, but I was maybe hoping we could start going out with each other…like as more than just friends.
“We hang out with each other enough as it is. Maybe we could make it official.
What…what do you think?”
We came to a halt when we reached the door of the girls’ locker room. I still couldn’t bring myself to look at him. Instead, I kept my chin tucked tightly to my chest.
A few seconds passed. Ace said nothing. Feeling confused, I forced my head up.
Ace was still looking at his stupid phone, his brow furrowed in concentration. He hadn’t heard a single word I’d just said. Or maybe he had just ignored it? My stomach lined itself with lead.
“Ace?” I tried again, my voice sounding weak.
“What?” he finally replied, still not looking at me.
Why did it feel like my legs were made of gelatin? “I asked if you wanted to go out for dinner with me tonight.”
He finally glanced up at me. “Dinner?”
I nodded. “Yeah. We could try that new steak place that just opened downtown if you wanted or we could, um…”
Once again, he looked down at his phone, obviously not listening to me anymore.
Embarrassment heated the back of my neck, making me feel all hot and clammy.
Holy shit, this is humiliating.
“Never mind,” I whispered, deciding that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Ace seemed to catch the dejection in my tone and looked up at me. Concern took over his face.
He immediately dropped his phone into his pocket and gave me his full attention.
“Sorry. Important text. I’m listening now. What were you saying?”
My temple pulsed with annoyance. Was he seriously going to make me ask him out a third time?
“I was wondering if you wanted to go to that new steak place downtown with me tonight. Just t-the two of us. Like…like a d-date?” I winced at my nervous stuttering.
Ace didn’t even stop to think about it before answering. “I would love to but I’m not sure what my plans are looking like tonight. But…”
He sighed. “I probably won’t be able to go. I have a busy night unfortunately. I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
Humiliation became a rotating ball of fire in my stomach. It took all my effort to respond. “You have plans?”
“Nothing you need to worry about for now. I’ll tell you all about it later.” He smiled broadly, totally unaware that he was tearing my whole world apart with his words.
Did I even detect excitement in his tone?
His phone started to ring. Ace took it out of his pocket and looked at the unknown number flashing on the screen. “I have to take this.”
He leaned in and left a quick kiss on my forehead. “I’ll see you in gym, all right?”
Ace turned and pressed his phone to his ear as he walked down the hall.
Well, that definitely didn’t go as planned.
I felt so stupid. My body was numb and unfeeling. The devastation hadn’t hit yet but I knew it would soon.
Was that Ace’s way of rejecting me? Letting me down easy by claiming he was busy? If so, it had to be the oldest, lamest excuse in the book.
He didn’t even react to my admission of wanting to be more than friends. It was like he didn’t even care.
I took a shaky breath and leaned my forehead on the wall beside me.
Who was I kidding? Of course he rejected me. Ace wasn’t looking to go out with me.
He wanted someone like Clara—sexy, confident, funny Clara. That’s who he deserved.
I would always just be the weird girl he saw as more of some lame friend than anything else. I was an idiot for thinking he might have been sending me signals.
My shoulders slumped in defeat.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“Hey, Dorothy!” someone called out just as I was about to turn and open the door of the gym locker room.
I turned to find Clara approaching me, grinning broadly.
Oh, good. This was just what I needed: to talk to the love of my life’s crush right after he rejected me. How perfect.
“Hey, uh, are you okay?” she asked once she was a few feet away, probably noticing the look of endless despair and devastation painted across my face.
She was wearing loose-fitting jeans and a black turtleneck, with a gold moon necklace hanging above her collarbone.
I hated how beautiful she was. She always looked perfect. Hell, she was even making the infamous Dwayne Johnson outfit look good.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I lied.
I was this close to breaking down in pathetic, heart-wrenching sobs. I just had to get somewhere to be alone first, then I was sure the tears would burst out of me like water through a broken pipe.
But somehow, I managed to keep my composure a little while longer. “I was just about to head to class. Did you need something?”
She stepped forward, her friendly smile growing. “Yeah, actually. Is Ace around?”
And that was the moment I became the cliché. I became the girl who hated the other girl in my story solely because I was jealous.
All because Ace liked her and not me.
Clara had done nothing wrong; in fact, she had been nothing but kind to me. My hatred for her said more about my character than it did hers.
And yet, I wanted to punch her in the face. Hard. Again and again.
I wordlessly pointed down the hallway to where Ace was standing, back turned to us, still talking on the phone.
“Oh,” she said, looking in the direction of my finger. Her smile dropped into a slight frown.
My evil, black heart rejoiced.
“Shoot, I have an appointment out of town and I wanted to talk to him before I left for the day.” She pulled her backpack around to her front, opened it, and pulled out a notebook and a pen.
She quickly wrote something down. “Would you do me a favor and give this to him?