Chapter Two
Lily
? “Breakin’ Dishes” – Rihanna ?
I grab my stomach when I hear it rumble, warning me it will eat me alive if I don’t feed it. It took me an extra two hours to finish my test, which means it was late, and I will probably receive a failing grade. But at least I finished.
I walk out of my room, heading to the kitchen, but my quest to feed myself is suspended when I see Jace sitting on my couch.
I had completely forgotten I have a stranger in my house.
I should try to make him leave again. Force him out.
Threaten him out, but my tummy says to wait, so I head toward the fridge, leaning my head inside to see only mayonnaise, bread, butter, ketchup, and milk.
Great.
“I ordered us pizza.”
I flinch, my head hitting the top of the fridge. “Mother fu—” I turn around, rubbing at the top of my head to see Jace standing right behind me. “Announce yourself before you end up giving someone a heart attack.”
“My apologies.”
I wish I could smack those freckles right off his face.
He is wearing dark-wash jeans and a white T-shirt tight enough to see the outline of his abs.
I roll my eyes and walk past him to go into the living room.
I turn on the TV and sit on the couch, and for a fraction of a moment, I think about asking him what he wants to watch, but then I remember this is my house and he is practically trespassing—so I turn the TV on to True Blood.
I turn my head toward the hallway when I hear the front door slam shut, Jace coming around the corner with four boxes of pizza in his hands.
“Why so many?” I ask.
He shrugs his shoulders as he drops the boxes on the coffee table. “I didn’t know what you liked.”
He opens the top of the pizza box. Pineapple and ham.
“Um. Ew.”
“Don’t knock it until ya try it,” he says as he grabs a slice and winks at me. He sits down on the couch only inches away and swings his arm to rest above my head.
I scoot away from him to try and avoid any physical contact. “Don’t knock it until ya try it.” I’ve heard him speak without an accent. He can turn it on and off like a switch. Which is completely and utterly annoying. Either be yourself or don’t.
I glance to my right, seeing how comfortable he is, eating pizza on my couch, in my house, in my space.
I am internally screaming. I don’t allow men into my house for a reason—I have no control.
There is no way Jace and I would ever happen but I have this sick issue where anytime I get stressed with school or work, I end up under a man, in bed, having sex.
Which I tend to regret because it always ends up leaving me unsatisfied.
I mean, c’mon, how hard is it to find the clit?
Do I need to put a diamond on it? Need a tattoo saying, lick here?
Write down a fantasy football draft sheet ending at the clit?
“What are we watching?” Jace asks as he leans down to grab a second slice.
I give in, grabbing the second box under the disgusting pineapple and ham and opening it to see a normal cheese pizza. “True Blood.”
“What is it about?”
“Vampires,” I say.
“Like that one guy who sparkles and the girl whose facial expression makes her look constipated?”
I turn to him, shaking my head. “What? No. That’s Twilight. This”—I point to the TV— “is the adult version.”
“Well, this main character is annoying already. Like she has a stick up her ass,” he says as he stares at the TV.
I tuck my legs under me, turning toward him and pointing my pizza slice in his face.
“Do not ever disrespect Anna Paquin like that again. She is a classic and deserves a lot more credit. She’s from New Zealand.
Aren’t you guys supposed to stick up for each other or something?
” I turn my body away from him, taking a bite of pizza to hide my smile because I know he is not from New Zealand. I just wanted to piss him off.
He drops his arm from the top of the couch, and I can feel his eyes burn a hole in the side of my face. “I am from Ireland.”
“To-may-to, to-mah-to,” I say, waving my hand in the air to brush the fact off.
“What? What is that supposed to mean? Aren’t ye in college? Do you not know your countries?”
“Do you not know when you’re an uninvited guest?” I turn to look at him, sucking the pizza crust dust off my fingers. He stares at me with a blank face, completely oblivious. “When are you leaving?”
“Look…” He digs his fingers into his eyes. “I don’t want to be here—”
“Oh great! Something we can agree on.” I force my attention back to the TV.
I am missing out on one of my favorite episodes because of him.
My comfort show may be a little outrageous but—Actually, there is no “but.” It’s outrageous.
I’ve watched every season more than twice and I love it. End of story.
“I am not leaving until Rowan and Celeste come back,” Jace finishes.
“And when will they be back?” I ask. How am I supposed to walk around the house naked and sing terribly at the top of my lungs when I’m having a bad day? Or get so drunk from wine that I fall asleep barely hanging onto the couch?
“A while,” he says.
He doesn’t want to be here as much as I don’t want him here, but he is forced to be here on Rowan’s order. Maybe if I make his life absolute hell, he will take off and tell Rowan he couldn’t do it.
I fake-sigh, stretching my arms out above my head and lying down on the couch. I extend my legs out and push all my force into Jace’s leg.
“Can ye not?”
I peek my head above my shoulder to look at him. “Can you not?”
His eyebrows furrow. “I am not doing anything.”
“Uh, yes. You’re in my vicinity!”
He makes a weird scoffing noise before scooting over to give me more room.
I lie my head back down in my hands with a grin on my face.
I am going to make sure this babysitting gig is a job from hell for him, but before I can think of the next destructive and annoying thing to do, I hear my phone ring and turn the TV volume down to walk to my bedroom and answer it.
When I pick it up, I see the caller ID is unknown.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Lily.”
I stand in silence before the voice finally clicks.
Oh my god. I run back to my bedroom door, slamming it shut.
“Where the fuck are you? This fucking Irish lover boy is refusing to leave our house. He said something about you and Rowan having an emergency? Made me pack clothes for you and told me you would be gone for a while. What the fuck is going on?! Jesus, Celeste, when I said go talk to the man, I didn’t mean disappear with him as well! ”
Celeste responds by telling me she is fine, and they are in Italy.
She doesn’t know how long they are going to be there and Jace is here to watch me, and she tells me to be nice.
I explain to her in very vivid detail how I am not going to be nice and that I told him to leave, I don’t need a babysitter, and that she knows how I get when I am stressed and around men!
When I finally stop babbling, I realize the other side of the line is too quiet. “Oh my god, Celeste! Are you listening to me?!”
“Yes, I am here.”
I roll my eyes. She was not listening. When she gets home, I am going to strangle her to death.
“Look, I will call you as much as I can. Just don’t do anything stupid,” she pleads.
“Anything stupid? Are you kidding me right now?” The line starts beeping.
Wow. She hung up on me. I throw my phone on the bed, walking back out to the living room and sitting on the couch. Jace is completely in his own world, working on his laptop again.
I clear my throat. “So, just got off the phone with Celeste. She told me that you don’t need to be here. So, you can leave now.”
“If you want some privacy to watch your porn, I can go into another room.” He turns to me with a smirk on his face.
I look toward the TV to see the very vivid sex scene on the screen. My cheeks burn up as if I’m standing ten feet away from the sun. I continue to avoid his eye contact and say, “It’s not porn. It’s quality entertainment.”
“Yeah, porn-o-holics say the same thing.”
I think I hate him.
I hate him.
I hate him.