There's No Price On Love

Jace was now sitting on the floor in the middle of the hallway, his brow furrowed in concentration as he folded, twisted and examined the piece of paper he was creating into a paper airplane. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure why he was doing it in the first place, all I really do know is that it kept the loud-mouthed ass in check and kept him from wandering out of the house into the rain. Somehow, he thought he was invincible and impervious to the cold virus that seemed to worm it’s way into my system. I’ve been sniffling for about an hour now and my throat has already gone raw from yelling at Jace.

It’s times like these that make me realize why I hate the sensitive and humanitarian side of me. It’s almost easier to just not care about anything, especially not the poverty-stricken idiot that happened to save me from only the worst possible thing ever. Okay, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Sleeping with William wasn’t exactly the worst possible thing to do out there but it’s probably ranked in the top five of things I never, ever, ever want to do in my life. Not even if I’m given a life or death ultimatum.

Jace aimed around the room, one eye squeezed shut while the other traced possible targets. His tongue stuck out the corner of his mouth and the whole action made him look more like a twelve year old boy rather than an 18 year old man. He dropped his aim to fix a slightly crooked corner on the plane before sighing heavily and tossing it at me, nailing me in the head with perfect aim.

“Hey!” I barked as I watched the white object tumble to the floor. The nose of the plane was jammed back and crinkled, looking neglected and abused. I bent over to pick it up, only to have myself knocked over and pinned to the ground by a blonde-headed boy.

His hand snaked around my wrist and up to the hand holding the plane, squeezing around my fingers. I let out a small gasp and let go, the green eyes staring down at me now shone victoriously. Jace picked up the plane and got off of me, a smirk plastered on his face.

I sat up and glared at him, my wrist now throbbing in tune with my heart. Jace raised an eyebrow and began to straighten out the nose of the plane, his face now challenging me to ask what the hell just happened. Of course, that was the one question playing over and over through my mind. Unfortunately, the last thing I wanted to do was give him the satisfaction of asking him why on Earth he had to be so excessively violent about the whole situation.

“You tried to take my plane.” He said simply and I glanced up at him in question. He rolled his eyes and then tossed the plane over the staircase before kneeling in front of me, his face just inches away from mine. “That’s what your wondering isn’t it? Why I ‘assaulted’ you? Don’t worry, it’s just something personal.”

“I... I wasn’t wondering that at all.” I retorted the best I could without seeming distracted by how close he was to me yet again. Jace rolled his eyes again and moved away from me, his slender hands gripping the banister of the staircase as he looked down.

“Of course you were! Girls like you have simple minds, they’re not hard to figure out. You’re the type of person to analyze everything someone like me would do, which pretty much says that if I do something that you aren’t used to, you’re going to drive yourself crazy until you figure out why.” He stated simply with a smug expression. His long arms were draping over the edge of the banister, tanned and lean. I dragged my eyes away, my face reddening slightly.

“I hate how you think you know me so well. What you just said wasn’t even close to the actual thing.” I answered with my most snotty tone. Jace laughed and turned around, crossing his arms over his chest.

“So you were thinking about what sex with me would be like, weren’t you?” He asked teasingly although his face said otherwise. My jaw dropped, leaving my mouth as a gaping hole in surprise.

“God no! Why the hell would you even think that!?” I exclaimed, my voice going up an octave. Jace noticed this instantly and chuckled, his eyes sparkling in amusement.

“For one thing, your voice went super high and your face is redder than a Scottish man’s beard. Secondly, what else would you be thinking about with someone like me straddling you on the floor?” His mouth curved upward on one side while I clenched my teeth in embarassment. “It’s no big deal Emma, I’m flattered, really. It’s just sad that you have a boyfriend and everything who’s completely oblivious that his girlfriend’s after a hot delinquent like myself.”

“I’m not after you, you homeless idiot!” I shouted and clenched my fists. “Don’t talk about Sam that way either!”

Jace narrowed his forest green eyes and brushed his bangs out of his eyes, leaning back against the banister.

“Does Sam even know about your little stunt anyway?” He questioned sharply. I turned my gaze away and scowled, so incredibly angry at him. “Seems like he doesn’t. So tell me this, if you really care so much about this guy then why on Earth do you go messing around with someone like William Theoret?”

I got to my feet and stormed toward Jace, pointing my index finger in his face.

“You know nothing about who I am or anything involving my life for that matter so SHUT UP!” I screeched and Jace raised his eyebrows in surprise. He grinned as he slowly moved my hand downward and out of his face. He sighed heavily and shook his head, his blonde strands brushing against his face. I had to stop screaming for a moment, my throat was burning roughly and I thought that I might just end up crying.

Talking about Sam was just not the right thing to do right now.

“Ouch, you know I think I might just cry.” He replied sarcastically and moved past me. He hopped onto the banister and slid down, leaving me to stand there with tears brimming on my lower lashes. What on Earth am I supposed to do?

I swallowed roughly then wiped my eyes quickly with a sniffle befire trailing after Jace, who turns out, was once again raiding the kitchen with a bright red apple in his left hand. Unluckily, Brett was standing in the kitchen with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich half in his mouth with a frozen expression on his face as he watched Jace tromp around the kitchen. IT’s amazing to me how this idiot just makes himself right at home.

Brett’s sandwich flopped onto the floor as he began yelling and bolting out of the kitchen, only to barrage into me while not paying attention to what direction he was headed into. We toppled into a heap onto the floor, a tangle of arms and legs, and I was positive that I received a concussion after smacking my head on the hardwood floor. Jace did nothing but stare before taking an enormous bite of his apple, chomping on it silently as Brett and I distangled ourselves.

Brett then reached for the nearest object then ran in front of me, the long coatrack clenched in his hands like a weapon.

“What are you doing in here!?” He screeched while waving the coatrack around. Jace smirked and raised an eyebrow at me in amusement.

“I’m living here.” Jace replied simply then took another bite of the red fruit. Brett then swung the coatrack, knocking the apple from Jace’s hand. The fruit rolled quickly and hit a wall, stopping then rolling slightly before stopping again. Jace glanced down at the apple then back at Brett, a slightly surprised look crossing his face. “Was that really necessary?”

“Damn rights it was! What are you doing in our house!?”

I love how my little almost-red-headed half-brother is such a little demon. I reached over and pulled the coat rack out of his hands before setting it back where it belonged. Brett gave me a dirty look then turned back to glare at Jace, who was now picking up the abandoned apple from the floor. He examined carefully before shrugging and taking a bite.

Both Brett and I stared in repulsed fascination, our eyes trailing from the apple to Jace’s jaw which was moving rhythmically and repetitively. Jace then stuck out his tongue and pointed to the chewed up apple, making us drop our gazes in disgust instantly. He then let out a noise of satisfaction.

“So you must be Emma’s little brother.” Brett lowered his eyes dangerously at Jace, to a point where I had to look and make sure they were actually still a part of his face. Brett moved in front of me protectively and placed his hands on his hips, trying to make the most of his small frame.

“Jace maybe this isn’t the t-“ I began but was shushed by Jace. He took a step forward and slouched down to be eyelevel with Brett. He curved the right side of his mouth upward and studied Brett’s face, his green eyes filled with concentration. Brett pulled away slightly, his face contorted with agitation.

“I’m her half brother.” Brett replied rudely, his eyebrows furrowed deeply. I shot him a dirty look and scowled.

The last thing I needed was another thing out in the open for Jace to pounce on. He was going to devour this one, with a huge smile on his face and a napkin dabbing his chin. God, I really hate my life right now.

“Half-brother?” Jace inquired and darted his gaze toward me. He sat down on the chair across the room, curling up in it like a cat with one leg draped over the arm of the chair while he leaned on his elbow.

“Did I stutter?” Brett snapped and I grasped his shoulder.

“That’s enough Brett!” I hissed and Brett jerked his shoulder away from me, his eyes still fixed on Jace. Jace plucked a flower from a vase beside the chair and twirled it in his fingers before placing the stem between his teeth.

“So,” he began as he nibbled the plant. “You’re the misplaced one in the family. The outcast, the one caught in the wedge of things.”

My jaw dropped and Brett’s face faltered slightly.

“Jace! Enough!” I shouted.

“I know how you feel.” Jace murmured as he plucked the leaves off the stem of the flower, dropping each one on the floor while watching them float daintily downward. Brett and I both jerked our heads upward.

“How could you know?” Brett retorted, his face red in anger.

Jace met Brett’s stare and gave a half-smile in return.

“I’m the same way in my family.” His voice was barely above a whisper. Truth was, he wasn’t lying. “My mother had an affair with her co-worker. Turns out he looked almost identical to my father which was funny because she obviously knew what she was doing. It wasn’t a hoax and it wasn’t a fix. In the end, she had me and my father never knew about it. Or at least, not until I was about 14 and we got into a huge fight.”

“What... What was the fight about?” Brett asked, taking cautious steps forward before plunking on the floor in front of the chair Jace was sitting on. Jace placed the flower back in the vase and adjusted his position.

“You know how teenage boys are when it comes to girls,” Jace began as a small smile formed on his handsome face. “Her parents said they’d be home late and so we thought that we’d get away with a few things. We both ended up getting wasted out of our minds, making out on the couch when her father entered the room. Let’s just say that her father had a long talk with me and my dad, leading to both of us getting grounded.”

I found myself sitting on the floor beside Brett, now slightly interested in what Jace had to say.

“When you’re young like that, you don’t really know how to respond to the consequences we receieve from our actions and then next thing you know, you’re in a huge fight because you aren’t really sure what you did wrong. I grew up with my parents never caring about whether or not I drank, well, not really caring about anything I ever did. All of a sudden I was getting punished for doing something that I always did and I couldn’t understand why. It made no sense.”

“How did you find out about your mother?” Brett asked, slipping his hat off of his head and slapping it down on the floor beside him. Jace chewed on his lip for a second and settled his brilliant eyes on my face.

“One time I was home alone with her and there was a visitor. Her co-worker had been fired two years prior to this, moving to Michigan soon after to start over after my mother broke things off with him. I was playing videogames in the living room and my mom told me to answer the door. I was twelve at the time and had this idealistic of the perfect family, my family. I answered the door to meet the same green eyes and blond hair just as my mother made her way down the stairs. The expression on her face was something I can’t ever forget.”

Jace paused, his expression glazed over through memory.

“They started to talk, slowly at first like exes then after awhile it arose into argument. I had already left the room but I could still hear them clearly. Especially the part when they began to scream at each other about me. It was when my mother told him that I was his that I realized everything I had thought my life was, was nothing more than a lie. I was someone else’s son and the memories I had with my ‘dad’ were with someone that I had no real relation to. My mother sent him out minutes later and found me sitting on the floor, the glass I had in my hand just seconds before shattered beside me.”

I could picture Jace, his face rounder and less defined but still with the piercing green eyes. Those eyes filling steadily with tears as his mother tried to explain everything to him, as she tried to make him understand. Jace wouldn’t.

“Ever since then, it was our secret. More like a poisonous bond,” Jace laughed before continuing. “It wasn’t until John had grounded me from everthing that the secret became a fact. I had screamed at him that he wasn’t really my father and that he couldn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to. Until that point, John was a hero to me and like the father I never knew. I was perfectly fine living a lie until then. Eventually, he forgave my mother and later on my older siblings learnt that I wasn’t their full brother either and then later on they had my younger sister as well, another member of the family while I was the only one who wasn’t.”

“You do know.” Brett murmured and folded his arms insecurely. Jace nodded and picked at the fraying hole in his jeans, avoiding both Brett’s and my gaze.

“More than you know.”

Brett then got to his feet and stuck out his hand.

“We never did have a formal introduction, man to man.” Brett said softly. “I’m Brett Taylor, pleased to meet you.”

Jace smirked and then took Brett’s hand, clasping it firmly.

“Jace Fox.”

Brett gave Jace one shy smile before letting go and leaving the area, the sound of his footsteps echoing in my ears. Jace and I were left alone in the room, a silence filling the air around us. It was like a weight had been lifted and all of a sudden, I didn’t feel so angry at Jace. It was like everything he had said earlier didn’t matter, it was just another part of my life I could leave behind me as I moved on.

“That-“ I began then stopped when he raised his face. I blushed furiously and got to my feet, nearly tripping.

“That?” Jace repeated with a curious expression. I wrapped my sweater tighter around my body before inhaling deeply.

“That wasn’t... the reason you were kicked out of your home, was it?” I asked, blushing deeper. Jace stared at me for what felt like a really long time before getting to his feet. He stood less than a foot away from me, his hands reaching out to rest on my shoulders. I felt his breath tickle my ear as he whispered:

“That is something you can ask me when we’re actually considered friends.”

He then pulled away and smiled smugly, following after Brett and leaving me alone once again.

My heart was pounding loudly in my chest and I reached up a hand to feel, the steady rhythm just barely raising my palm along with my hectic breathing. I’m sure this isn’t a normal reaction to people, I’ve never felt this happen when Sam came near me.

The phone rang and I dropped my hand in order to pick up the cordless object, my eyes scanning over the Caller I.D.

It was Sam.