Jace Wallace

he had been standing peacefully by his own locker, minding his own business until one guy with his ‘squad’ came up to him. asking him about his homework which he had forced elijah to make. once elijah told the guy that he didn’t had time to finish it by today because he had shit himself to do; he punched elijah against the lockers as they walked off afterwards. the boy sighed out loud and turned around to his own locker. ashamedly trying to ignore the looks of people. he could feel their eyes burning into his back. his cheeks turning slightly red. if only he could just fit into his locker, he would’ve locked himself into it. 

Lottie moved her bag off her shoulder and to the floor as she sat down next to the boy and gave him a little smile as if to say thank you without using words. As she noticed the boy’s eyes on her she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at him. “Okay do I have something in my hair or teeth?” She wondered as she ran a hand over her high ponytail. she looked at him again almost ready to go find a mirror. “Oh well yes and no. I was just trying to get my time up myself. Plus I had the night off so I why not run a little.” She grinned at the boy with a little shrug of her shoulders. “And what leaves you here so late? Practice? Detention? A school project? Or do you just love this school so much you hate leaving it.”

“No, no. You’re- you’re good.” Jace tried to quickly recover from the stuttering, slightly embarrassed to have been caught staring. Shit, she probably thought he was being weird now. Good job, Jason... Nodding at her answer, he shrugged when it was time to give his. “It’s definitely not the last one. I can promise you that.” He laughed, shaking his head and shrugging. It was none of the above, to be honest. “I failed a test so I had to retake it...” What suck the most was that he really knew the material, he just couldn’t concentrate that morning. There were many factors playing against him but he couldn’t say half of them. Besides, no teacher ever tried to believe him before so he had long stopped bringing it up. “It’s no big deal. I’m sure I did fine now but, you know, if I can’t make the grade I get the boot from the team and I can’t let that happen.” Football was his life. His constant. And his one-way ticket out of that hell hole. “Anyway, I’ll probably just wait around until they come pick you up. Was your dad on the way?” 

Mason was awful at conversations like this, considering  he came from a family where they tended to avoid their problems or just push them away. That’s exactly what Mason did, and he constantly thought about it. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Jace in the eyes, and it wasn’t even out of guilt, he felt as if he didn’t deserve it. Jace had been one of the best people that helped him learn to love his sexuality and that nothing was wrong with it when he had a religion telling him the complete opposite.

“J-jace I’m not..I’m not trying to pimp you out okay?” Mason tried his absolute best to stay calm. He knew that he wasn’t allowed to be the upset or hurt one. He kept his eyes on the road while going through many words in his head as he attempted to figure out the right thing to say. “That’s not all it ever was to me. And i actually am sorry about that - okay? I..know that I caused you a lot of pain.” Mason thankfully was able to stop at the red light, fully looking into the hues of Jace’s eyes. “I’m not expecting you to forgive me but I want you to know that I fucked up. You didn’t deserve me ghosting you. I’m a huge piece of shit for what I did but please don’t say I’m pretending or pretended to care because that’s far from the truth.” Mason heard the car behind him honk, not realizing the light turned green. “And it is a big deal. What I did was fucked up. Even with the shit going on with my parents kicking me out of the house and even with the shit going on with my sexuality..doing what I did to you wasn’t right. I think about it..all the time.” Mason sighed. “And I wouldn’t be mad if you didn’t want to talk to me anymore and never want anything to do with me but just know that i really am sorry.”

Jace shrugged and turned his eyes back on the road. It didn’t take someone to be too close to him to know he had less than most of the rest of his peers but he had made it through this far, he wasn’t about to start begging for scraps now. Especially not to Mason. His attitude seemed somewhat ungrateful, what with the other giving him a ride and all but, for the most part, Jace was calm. His voice remained even, quiet as usual, except that his eyes hid some sort of internal rage he was trying very hard to keep under control. He hated it. Hated how much he let the whole situation affect him even now. “Trust me, Mason. I’ve been through worse. At least you I can get over...” Even if he wasn’t trying to hurt Mason, it was his way to keep his own emotions guarded. His words were cutting and the indifference in his tone was even worse. This being the first time they really exchanged any kind of words since it all went down to hell was partly one of the reasons why he couldn’t help it. He really hadn’t gotten over it. No one truly did forget their first love... or heartbreak. “Don’t kick yourself over it. I ain’t losing any sleep and neither should you.” 

Shrugging, he clicked his tongue and tapped his window, signaling for Mason to take a right. “Me too.” Jace muttered under his breath, looking down at his feet, kicking his bag out of the way and running a hand through his hair. He really was sorry but it wouldn’t change a thing. Not the fact that Mason was sorry or the fact that there had been more to them than just some teenagers discovering their sexuality together and fooling around. “I wasn’t the one who stopped talking to you or the one who didn’t want to have anything to do with you.” Jace retorted, sighing. “Look, it’s fine, ok? I mean it. We go to the same school now. We’re bound to see each other a lot. Whatever happened between us, the rest of the school doesn’t have to find out about it. So we’re good. We don’t have to fight. It’s in the past. We can be... friends, maybe. I don’t know. Just don’t fucking patronize me because I have enough of that from everyone else at BH. I won’t take it from you too.”

Lottie took a couple steps back and turned away as the boy started to talk on the phone, she didn’t really want to be rude and listen in to what he was saying, which was a little new for the girl. When she heard the boy’s voice she took her phone back from him and pushed it back into her back pocket. “Alright.” She told him softly and smile. Her father was late which wasn’t anything new to her, he was probably hung up at work. “Oh yeah, Jace,” Lottie repeated after the boy as she tried to think of all the people who were in her fourth-period class. Lottie was loud, talked a lot and to almost everyone around her. From what she could remember Jace was pretty quiet and the two didn’t talk at all. “But yes I’m Lottie, hi nice to finally meet you.” She smiled softly. “Well, I’m stuck here till my dad comes so if you want I can wait with you.” She asked the boy. “Or is that weird?” 

Jace didn’t have anyone coming for him. He was going to have to walk 6 miles home to Crenshaw most likely and it was just a matter of time before it got dark. He still nodded at her suggestion, scooting over to give her some space on the bench as he dragged his backpack from the broken strap to his feet. “No, it’s not weird. You can sit here if you want.” Jace couldn’t take his eyes off of her as though trying to find something there yet he didn’t know what, exactly. There was no supernatural pull or some magical instinctive affection towards the girl, mostly curiosity. He didn’t feel anything else. Not hatred or love. Not anger. Not jealousy. He was intrigued but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to open the Pandora box if he were to dig deeper. That’s why he had kept his distance, why he hadn’t really told anyone, not even his best friend. “You’re here late.” He said, trying for a casual conversation, pointing at her track bag. “Practice ran over?”

Lottie had had just gotten done track practice or not so much practice as much as she was just timing herself. As she walked to the front of the school after texting her father for a ride home she saw a young man, sitting and waiting. Waiting a moment before saying anything she finally walked up to him “Need to borrow my phone to call someone for a ride?” She asked him as she pulled her phone from her jeans pocket and handed it out for him to take if he wanted.

Jace was mostly talking to himself and didn’t expect anyone to hear him so he was a little surprised when the girl seemed to spring out of nowhere offering him her phone. He had been watching her, not in a creepy way but carefully. He was half convinced he was being paranoid and he kept trying to tell himself it couldn’t be, but he had been in this very same spot when he first saw her hop into the car, her mom waving at her from the driver’s seat. He had been in this same spot on many other occasions, enough to steal closer glances. The photograph he held of his mother was old but the resemblance was uncanny. It was the only thing he had. That and a name. Reaching his hand slowly as he took the phone, he didn’t even know what to say. They hadn’t really spoken before. “Uh- yeah, thanks.” He scratched his forehead for a moment trying to remember a number but he was blanking. Even when no one memorized numbers anymore, Jace did. He was still using public phones whenever he could find one mostly because his cellphone was almost always dead or disconnected. He called his best friend though he knew it’d go straight to voicemail, yet he still pretended there was someone on the other line. He didn’t really want to come up as helpless in front of her. It wasn’t really the first impression he wanted to give his sister... “Someone will be over soon... I’ll just, uh- wait here.” Jace handed the phone back carefully, his eyes intent on the girl’s. “Lottie, right? I’m Jace. I think we have fourth period together...”

Mason nodded his head, taking the car out of the parking gear and moving it into drive. His grandfather’s mustang was a stick shift, learning to drive it wasn’t easy but with a lot of patience on his grandfather’s end and being forced to drive the vehicle when his grandfather needed to go to the hospital he learned quickly.  He’d been listening to Childish Gambino in the car, wanting to turn up the music to not make the ride as awkward but he avoided it. 

“I don’t even pay for gas, i’m not going to make you do that, J.” Mason refused Jace giving him anything considering what he’d done to him. There was no excuse for what he did even with what he was going through. “I’d never thought that you’d go to Beverly but I’m glad you’re here.” When he saw Jace at Beverly he was shocked and all of the guilt he pushed away. He texted Jace every once in a while but never expected a response. Mason didn’t know what to say and if he had the right to even talk about the past. “I know that..I’m probably the last person you want to see or talk to but if you ever need a ride I don’t mind giving you one or covering your uber. Just like his grandparents, he showed his feelings and apologies through giving. “how have you been?”

“Great, that makes one of us.” Jace had offered to cover the gas just because it was the right thing to do, especially when Crenshaw was 6 miles out of Beverly Hills and they weren’t even friends. They never really had been, come to think of it. He was still looking out the window as he spoke, scoffing whenever someone said they were glad to have them there. Given how half the students still looked at them, and how the faculty seemed to just find every fault in them just to make their lives miserable no matter how hard they tried, he just couldn’t help but disagree. He really wished the music was louder so they couldn’t speak. He didn’t know what they could possibly talk about other than a few superficial pleasantries. He needed a ride badly but maybe it hadn’t been the best idea. 

“Thank you for the offer but I don’t need a pimp, Mason.” Even if he knew the other did it with the best intention, Jace couldn’t help but feel slightly insulter, finally turning to face the driver with an arched brow at the question. Do you really want to do this? He wanted to ask in return, biting his tongue for half a minute. It was hard to think about what could’ve been so Jace didn’t. Mason had pulled him into the kiss and the moment he got caught, he blamed him for it. He blocked him out of everything. It had hurt like a mother because Jace had actually let himself get attached. First mistake. He should’ve known better. He was a fast learner, though, and it hadn’t happened again. He wouldn’t let it happen again. So when Mace seemed to change his mind and the texts started coming in, he had blocked his contact. Now he had to see his face up and down the hall and pretend he didn’t know what a broken heart felt like. So he mustered all the strength he had left in him and shrugged through the lies. “Better than ever. You don’t really have to overcomplicate this or pretend you care or that you’re sorry, you know. It isn’t that big of a deal. We fooled around. That’s all it ever was." 

Some of the open spots:

bad influence ((m/f/nb)

booty call (m)

confidant (m/f/nb)

enemies with benefits (m)

ex-friends (m/f/nb)

exes on good terms (m/f/nb)

fuck buddies (m)

neighbors (m/f/nb)

one night stand (m)

party pals (m/f/nb)

secret/unrequited crush (m/f/nb)

tutor (m/f/nb)

workout buddy (m/f/nb)

“Look, if my dad is ever too tough on any of y’all, just just come to me - alright? I know that he wants to have a strong, winning team but I know from first hand experience how he can get. I really don’t want to see him treating any of you guys unfairly,” she replied, in all honesty. She was trying her hardest to not judge the transfer guys on the team, unlike most of her fellow classmates. The merging of the two schools has caused a lot of drama and chaos, but Aurora didn’t want to be involved in any of it.  “Mushrooms? Good thing my momma doesn’t bake anything with those in it!“Um, I think I’m good? Unless you wanted to walk me to my next class? I could use the company and conversation,” she replied. “Plus, this container is a little heavy for me.” 

“Right. Noted.” Jace wouldn’t, though, but he felt it was polite to agree. To be honest, it would be hard for him to tell if the coach was being too tough or not. His tolerance was stronger than most just simply because he had it worse at home. At least the pain of practice was productive. “He’s alright.” The Crenshaw students were still treated visibly differently than the rest but Jace didn’t like to complain. After all, it’d get them nowhere. No one listened. No one cared. So he just put up with it and tried to see each day through with the goal in mind. Scholarship. Graduation. Getting the hell out of that place. Taking the tray from her with a nod, he quietly tilted his head for Aurora to lead the way. “I don’t mind, I’m heading in that direction anyway. What do you have now?” He asked, trying to think if they shared any class in their schedule.

“fuckin’ mrs. decker,” miles confirmed with a shake of his head, even just saying her name aloud made him hate her more. it was clear that offering twenty spots to crenshaw kids after the fire had not been agreed upon by every staff member at the school, because some were just particularly cruel and unjust, mrs. decker being one of the many. “she’s the worst,” he adds, as he spit onto the sidewalk. the system was against them no matter which way you put it, and unless the sanchez family happened to stumble across a few million in the near future, he couldn’t imagine himself ever fitting in at beverly high. “not cammie,” he says pointedly. “guess we can try tasha, not sure coach would be down to drive that tesla into crenshaw.” 

“Shit.” The treatment the Crenshaw students received from practically half of the faculty at Beverly Hills High was ridiculous but they had no one to vouch for them either so it would only make it worse if they were to complain. “She is.” He ended up agreeing with Miles, shaking his head as he dialed Tasha’s number, rolling his eyes at his best friend for a) spitting on the sidewalk and b) being so stubborn when it came to calling Cammie. “She’s not picking up.” Jace groaned, waiting for the voicemail. “I mean, it’d be neat to ride one of those.” Jace shrugged, quickly following to drop a voicemail with location and some added info regarding where they’d start walking just in case she got the message late maybe she could meet them half way before handing the device back to Miles. “I guess I’ll miss my shift tonight... again.” He needed the part time. He was barely making ends meet working extra hours, he couldn’t afford being sacked now too. “If we start walking now maybe we make it there before nightfall... or we could always hitchhike.”

Mason’s grandparents usually asked him to pick up their medicine when it was time for their refills. He was sure that legally he wasn’t supposed to pick up their prescriptions but was a local pharmacy and his grandparents had been visitors since the place opened and Mason was a familiar face. Mason had his own car but decided to drive one of his grandfather’s mustangs rather than his truck just because he could. He drove a couple of blocks away from the pharmacy when he spotted a very familiar face, one that unintentionally led to him being in the situation he was in with his parents.

“J.” Mason wasn’t as close to Jace as he was then, part of him always wondered where’d they stand currently if his parents never caught them kissing in front of the church that resulted in him being kicked out of the house and being ignored by his parents. He unlocked the door, not giving Jace an option because he was telling him to get inside the car. “Just so you know,  you have no choice but to get in the car. I’ll drive you.” Mason’s car speakers were blasting Childish Gambino, smiling at Jace as he waited for him to get inside. 

Great. It wasn’t so much the fact that Jace was avoiding Mason, he really wasn’t, but that he now had to put up with seeing him every other day around the school and pretend that they were friends, which they weren’t. Not really. He didn’t know if they ever were. Mason had been one of the very, very few people he had opened up to that weren’t his best friends who had known him since they were children and it turned out . to be a mistake. Part of him always knew it wasn’t going to go anywhere, that sooner or later, he’d leave. After all, everyone did at one point or another. But the way he saw it, he had one of two options. Suck up his pride and accept the ride or stay there and walk 6 miles home. He was tired from practice and hungry—not that he would find anything in his fridge anyway. 

Sighing, he hopped in the car and ran a hand through his hair, looking out the window as he spoke a little louder than usual to compete with the music. “Do you know where you’re going?” Jace didn’t want to assume Mason remembered the way to his place, not that he ever stepped inside his house but it certainly wasn’t the first time he drove him. That was another time. Now he could barely look at him in the eye. Jace was usually in control of his emotions and yet all he wanted to do when Mason was near was demand an explanation. It wouldn’t change anything anyway, so he didn’t. He sucked up his pride and swallowed his anger... or pain. “I’ll pitch in for gas. Damn bus never showed up.”

he threw his head back with a laugh, nodding his head in agreement. miles didn’t feel like walking home much, either. it was bound to take over an hour — los angeles really needed to invest in some better working public transportation, especially going inland. nobody needed another bus to santa monica. “ha,” he smiled, shrugging his shoulders. at least jace knew him well enough to know he hadn’t stayed late studying, or going to a club meeting. “doing my homework in class. and then talking back when she called me out,” he replied, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders. “all i said was ‘ you try doing homework with six kids running around the house. ’” at least the class had gotten a laugh out of his retort, but mrs. decker surely hadn’t. “here,” he pulls out his phone from the back pocket of his jeans, “i’ll let you use my last seven minutes if you can get us a ride.” 

They had made the walk before, more than once at that, but Jace really really didn’t feel like walking the distance. He was hungry, too, but he was also always hungry. As if his stomach knew what he was thinking, it growled and he groaned. “Let me guess... Mrs. Decker?” Even Jace, who liked to think he was Switzerland in this whole situation, could see how unfair some teachers were against them Crenshaw kids. The whole system was fucked up, he thought, but he wasn’t too surprised either. He just... put up with it and tried to ignore it as much as he could. He just kept his eyes on the goal—scholarship and graduation. He was so close to getting the hell out of that place. So close. Taking his best friend’s phone, he tried to think of someone who would pull through and get them. “Fuck, you think Tasha will answer? It’s either her, Cammie or Coach Lancaster... you got a better choice?”

“They’re gonna need a nice sugar rush after my dad is done with y’all,” she joked with the boy. She knew how tough a lot of their practices were, from watching them throughout the years.  “My mom’s always trying to make sure you and the rest of the guys are well fed. God, I won’t be surprised if by next week she’s wanting to invite everybody for a three course feast,” she let out a chuckle. The Lancaster parents were always striving to create a ‘family-like’ environment with the team that her dad coached. It didn’t matter which school they went to, her parents saw them as all equal. “I’ll have to relay the message back to mama Lancaster. She always enjoy positive feedback.”

“Tell me about it.” Jace knew from his own experience that Coach Lancaster was one of the strictest on the field but he was also heavily involved in the team’s members wellbeing. Jace didn’t know how he felt about it. He didn’t know if he could trust it all to be genuine. After all, in his experience, relying on others, especially adults, never ended up well. “So I guess this is a good time to say I’m allergic to mushrooms?” He tried joking though it was a real thing. It was rare and most people thought it was that he just didn’t like mushrooms so he used it as an excuse but one time someone forced him to do it and his body covered with hives not too long after that. “Well, I should be heading back to the locker room and get ready for practice... do you, uh, need me to walk you anywhere? I can help carry those.”

“You say broken, I say secrets” Cammie joked trying to lighten the mood between the two of them, giving him a smile as she started to walk where her car was parked. “Come on.” She looked over her shoulder with a smile. “I promise not to touch the bag of secrets.” She grinned again. “Okay, that I can do.” She smiled as she unlocked her car and slid in, throwing her backpack into the backseat as always. “You don’t owe me anything, its just one person being nice to another.” She smiled. “And plus I’m scared that if I don’t get you home I’ll be sleeping in the locker room then I’ll be worried all night.”

Jace just shrugged and chuckled quietly if only just to play into the girl’s attempts to lighten the mood. He didn’t really have anything to hide. He could’t afford another backpack and the team hadn’t given them new ones yet so this one would have to do for another while. “You might not want to see what’s inside... I’m doing you a favor, trust me.” Getting into the passenger seat and putting on hi seatbelt, dropping his backpack on his feet. “Right. Well. Thanks anyway.” She was nice. At least Jace thought so. His best friend had a different opinion about all BH students but truly Jace didn’t care at this point. It didn’t matter where he was, he just needed to finish the year and get the hell out of California. “No, not the locker room. I’d probably sneak into the principal’s office. The carpet there’s nice...” Jace joked, not wanting to admit that even the locker rooms were better than his own room some days. “You stay late often?”

“Sorry I can be kind of bad with names.” She told the male as she gave her shoulders a little shrug and maybe that was true apart of her really did try to remember names but the other part of her just couldn’t care. When it came to her school she was there to learn and with all the new students sometimes it was hard to keep up. “That’s alright, I don’t mind driving and plus if I don’t drive you home how are you going to get home?” she asked the boy. “So yes I’m sure, I’ll even take your bag to my car myself to show you how sure I am.” She smiled softly at him. “Just tell me where to go and I’ll get you there.”

“You got it right, though.” Jace tried to offer her a smile though he wasn’t sure if he should accept the ride. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was a long way home and that he was beat from practice, he would’ve probably said no and mostly just to save her the long drive to Crenshaw. His thoughts were interrupted once she tried to go for his backpack, quickly reaching for it himself. “That’s okay, I got it. It’s... broken, the strap, see, I’ll take it. Thanks.” They were doing this, he guessed. Hopefully traffic wasn’t too bad. “Take La Cienega Blvd once you’re off Route 10 and I’ll let you know where to go.” He still feel a little awkward as he followed her to the car, waiting on his side. “Camden? Thanks. I really owe you a big one.”

it was well past the last bell, but miles had been stuck in detention for the past hour for failure to listen to his english teacher, or something along those lines — he wasn’t exactly listening. but what he did know was that he’d certainly missed the bus back home, which meant he had one hell of a long walk to get through. backpack slung over his shoulder, hoodie on with the sleeves rolled up thanks to the california autumn heat, he made the trek down the sidewalk, stopping when he caught sight of the familiar figure sitting at the bus stop. “happy fucking halloween to you too,” he grinned, giving the boy a nod of acknowledgment as he stopped at the foot of the bench, “what the fuck are you doing just sitting here?”

“I really don’t feel like walking all the fucking way home.” Jace didn’t have to look over his shoulder to know who the voice belonged to but did so anyway. He was about to ask what Miles was still doing there himself but he already knew the answer. It wasn’t the first time nor was it going to be the last time his best friend got himself stuck in detention. He made it even more the obvious that he knew when he shook his head as the other approached him. “What did they call you in for now?” Jace asked instead. He knew Miles was a handful but he also knew the system would just pick on them for the smallest things even if their Beverly Hill peers did far worse things. He wasn’t too worried about it, though, tilting his phone in Miles’ direction. “Phone’s dead... again.”