Three years ago

Jace's POV.

"Have you ever felt like you were meant to meet certain people?" I ask Cass's friend Tyler from Hawthorne, who has been patient enough to sit here and listen to me blubber about senseless things.

We're sitting at the poolside table, he's smoking himself to death while I'm staring at Cass chat with her other friends across the pool.

I've been thinking about our conversation earlier, about how she doesn't want to lose our friendship cause it's the only good thing she has right now.

Yeah, so here's the thing.... It's not gonna work out.

Our friendship is bound to fail one way or the other.

"You mean like destiny or some shit?" He blows out smoke.

"Yeah, like destiny." I nod.

"Some people will bring meaning to your life and some will bring the kind of pain that will later turn into a lesson so yeah, I believe in destiny." He responds, lifting the joint back to his lips.

I sigh, leaning back in my chair, "So where am I supposed to put her?" I mutter more to myself.

"Cassie?" He asks.

"Yeah." I grab the bottle of booze and I take a swing.

"Dude, she's a heartbreaker." He chuckles.

"Or maybe she's just misunderstood." I shrug.

"Judging by the way she smiles at you, of you course you think that." He says.

"And how does she smile at me?" I ask quietly, looking down at the table.

"Like she can't control it, like you bring genuine happiness to her whenever she sets her eyes on you." He answers.

That answer makes me feel more guilty than I already am cause it proves that Cass likes me back. I think I would have lived with her denying it.

"Okay, sorry I asked." I say, drinking from the bottle.

"I want that for Cass, I know I betrayed her and Jake betrayed her and her brothers are not there and her Mom is barely a Mom and her Dad is a huge dick but it looks like you're getting her mind off of all that stuff and that's-"

"I have a girlfriend." I blurt out before he goes too far with his speech.

"Girlfriend?" He looks confused, "You mean Cass?"

"No. Her name is Olivia," I tell him, "Cass knows, she and I have only been fake dating this whole time but then I caught feelings for her." I now chug on my drink, "And so did she." I add, his face freezes in shock.

"Well that's not good." He shakes his head.

"I know, I swear I'm obsessed with my girlfriend, she's everything a guy wants but then..... then there's Cass." I shift my eyes to her, she looks our way at the same time and waves at us with a big bright smile, Tyler and I awkwardly wave back.

"So what are you going to do?" He asks me.

"Honestly? I have no clue." I grip my hair at the roots in frustration, "Is that bad? Am I a bad person for liking two girls?" My questioning gaze bounces on his face.

"No, man, I don't think so." He sighs.

"You're only saying that to make me feel better, aren't you?" I roll my eyes at him.

He scoffs, shaking his head and looking elsewhere without responding to me.

I stare at my bottle of booze, frowning even. I wonder how much more I have to take in order to let go of all these thoughts and just have fun.

"I'm bisexual." Says Tyler.

"Congrats?" I furrow my brows at him.

"I was sixteen when I found out I also liked boys, my family is big on religion which is why my parents pretty much disowned me, my siblings barely talk to me, it wasn't just them though, my male friends pretty much felt uncomfortable getting undressed around me." He explains.

"That sucks, bro."

"No, that's life. But you know what? Cass understood me and she got me through it, we weren't even that close at the time but she told me it was okay to like both and she told me there was absolutely nothing wrong with me. That advise saved my life and I'll always be in debt to that girl." He smiles.

"She's really good with her words." I gesture with my hands.

"Yeah, so I'm gonna use her words with you. It's okay to like them both and there's absolutely nothing wrong with you, falling in love with two people is a thing that people experience, I mean why do you think the term throuple exists?"

"To normalize threesomes?" I snort.

"Well, yes and no." He laughs.

We both go silent and I realize that his weird explanation lifted something off my chest, I still feel like a shitty person but the guilt is gone.

I like them both and I can't change that, I'm not in control.

My feelings are.

"To the mysteries of a human's emotions and hormones." Tyler lifts his red cup, I chuckle, grabbing my bottle and clicking it with his cup.

"Cheers." We both drink.

"Hey, guys, what are we toasting to?" Cass sits on my lap and crosses her arms on top of the table. I blink excessively, my whole body tensing and my heart jerking.

She and Tyler dive into a playful conversation that I don't really pay any attention to, I'm staring at her back, thinking about things I probably shouldn't think about.

I'm not going to cheat on Olivia, I'm better than that but I have this... urge to touch Cass. Touching isn't cheating.

Well, it can be, depending on where you touch.

I'm too drunk to think about where I should and shouldn't touch so I just do it, I possessively wrap my arm around her stomach, leaning over to smell her hair with my eyes closed.

She stiffens and hisses before turning her head to look at my face over her shoulder.

"Sorry." I clear my throat, already regretting my actions.

"What did you give him?" She changes her position, she now sits across my lap, I'm guessing it's so she can look at my face.

"Nothing." Tyler lies.

"Tyler..." She trails his name accusingly.

"Just a pill." He lifts his shoulders defensively.

"What kind of pill?" She glares at him.

"Something to make him feel less... Miserable." He says.

"Tyler, I told you not to give him any drugs, what the fuck!" She grits at him, sounding pissed off.

My eyes involuntarily drop down her body, I swallow, my hands start trembling and my pulse quickens the minute my gaze finds her lips.

I feel like grabbing her and kissing her until my lungs burn for air.

No, no, stop, stop.

I groan, trying to shut down my thoughts by shaking my head.

"Dude's so confused it's hard to watch." Says Tyler in a blunt tone.

"What? Why?" She asks him, keeping her eyes on me.

"I don't.. know... Shut up." He stutters, grabbing his cup and literally running away.

She rolls her eyes, clinging her arm around my neck and placing her palm on my cheek.

"Should we call it a night?" She searches my eyes with that ocean gaze.

"No, not yet." Our faces an inch apart, heated and intense.

I'm thinking about it.

She's thinking about it.

We both want it, we need it and for a second, just for a second, I almost do it.

"Jace-"

"No," I press my index finger against her lips, "I know. It was just a stupid thought." My gaze falls.

"Maybe you should call Olivia, she might be worried about you." She whispers.

"She hasn't called me or returned my texts all day so I'm thinking it's quite the opposite of that." I say.

"Jace?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you trying to tell yourself that she's wrong so you feel better about liking me?" She asks.

"Let me guess? That makes me a bad person?" I stare into her eyes.

"No, just an asshole." She grins, I let out a laugh but it feels wrong and it makes me sad.

"I don't know what to do, Cass, I feel like I'm losing my mind." I run a hand down the side of my face.

"I know but let's worry about that tomorrow, tonight, we're just two teenagers having fun." She gets up, offering me her hand.

"I'm down for that." I stand up, taking her hand and walking with her to the ping pong table.

Cass sucks at playing beer pong and I realize a little too late that this is a drinking game.

I only know we're both drunk when the physical touch gets comfortable and we're laughing more and making jokes and whispering in each other's ears.

Even in my drunken state, I know I can never go there. I can only laugh, dance and flirt with her.

That's how far I'll ever go.

"Jace?" She calls, her gaze focused on something or someone ahead, I turn my head to look.

Olivia and Diego.

They are just standing there, watching us.

"What are they doing here?" I furrow my brows, taken aback by their surprise pop up.

"Seriously, dude? looking for you, obviously." She says in an obvious tone.

I pull out my phone to check if they called and I didn't hear it but nope, just a bunch of messages from my mom.

I chuckle, looking to where Olivia and Diego are standing.

Well, this is interesting.

"Are you laughing right now? Why are you laughing?" Cass questions.

"Have you ever gone somewhere to look for the person you were dating without ringing them up?" I glance at her.

"Yeah but only because I thought they were cheating on me and I wanted to-" she cuts herself off, realization clouding her features, "Oh." She mutters.

"Yeah." I start walking towards them, Olivia's look turns into a glare as she watches my approach.

"Hey, guys, welcome." I fly my hands in the air, stopping in front of them.

"Welcome?" She sounds... Angry.

"Yeah, it's a party, felt like the right thing to say." I show her a fake smile.

"Jace, we've been looking for you everywhere." She says.

"Really, you couldn't just call me to ask where I was?" I lift my phone to drive my point home.

"That's what I said." Diego looks at Olivia pointedly.

"So, now that you've found me, drunk as fuck but totally haven't cheated on you, d'you feel any better about yourself?" I clench my jaw.

"Dick." She spins around and starts trudging through the crowd.

I shift my eyes to Diego.

"Well don't look at me, I was just following instructions." He raises his hands in the air, surrendering.

I go after her, getting ready for whatever argument that's about to happen.

I catch up to her outside, angry walking towards Diego's car.

I grab her arm and spin her around.

"I don't want to talk to you right now." She jerks her arm out of my hold.

She looks like she's holding back tears, trying her best not to cry.

"Really? You don't wanna talk about the fact that you came here hoping you'd catch me cheating on you?" I snap.

"Weren't you?" She accuses, a tear escaping her left eye.

I scoff, "You're kidding, right?"

"Your arm was around her waist, Jace." She raises her tone.

"Ohh! my arm was around her waist, geez, what a betrayal." My sarcastic tone remarks.

"You're being an ass." She tries to walk away from me but I grasp her arm.

"Oh, please, you're no saint, miss "I was just having a chat with my ex in my house for hours."" Diego air quotes as he leans against his car and lights a cigarette.

"D, shut up." She hisses at him.

"Who?" I look back and forth between them.

"Tristan, was it?" Diego speaks when she doesn't, I raise my eyebrows, urging her to explain herself.

"He's my best friend and he's going through something." She defends.

"Yeah, right," Diego calls bullshit, "You know, if you guys don't want to be together then just break up and stop hurting each other's feelings like this." He places the cigarette between his lips and exhales through his nose.

Olivia and I stare at each other, waiting for the other person to say the words that we're too afraid to say.

The silence gets too annoying so I speak.

"Okay, I'll bite," I look away from her, feeling my heart race uncontrollably against my chest, "Do you wanna break up?" I ask her, looking anywhere but her face.

"Why? Because I was with my ex in my house for hours?" Her voice breaks.

"No, because you clearly don't trust me, Olivia, and I don't like seeing other guys around you and I definitely don't like not talking or touching you in public. We don't agree on the same things and it's killing our relationship." I say with honesty.

"So you just give up on us because our relationship is not perfect?" Her eyes water with tears.

"You tried to catch me cheating on you, do you know how fucked up that is?"

"And what? You've never done that before?" She asks me, I don't respond. "How about you?" She turns to Diego, he purses his lips in return.

"Just answer the goddamn question, Liv." I mutter softly.

"No, Jace, I don't want to break up, I want you to talk to me and tell me what you do and do not like cause that is what's going to fix our relationship." She calms down.

I want to fight for our relationship as much as she does and I want her to trust me like I trust her, but in order to do that, I have to be there more and open up more.

The only way I can do that is if I let go of Cass. Ready or not.

"Okay." I nod in agreement.

"Oh, my God, just kiss already." Diego mocks.

"Shut up." I smile, cupping her jaw and smacking a kiss on her lips.

"Can we go now?" She whispers against my mouth.

"Yeah but we have to give Cass a ride," I say the words without thinking things through.

"Uh-uh, if you want this relationship to work then you have to get Cass out of the fucking picture, bro." Diego warns.

"I know but I came here with her and she's drunk and I honestly don't trust any of those people in there."

"They are literally her friends." He points out.

"D, we'll give her a ride, no arguments." Says Olivia.

"What?" He puts on a confused look.

"Also, can she spend the night at your house, D, We kinda told her mom that we were going to a bowling Alley and she'd freak if we dropped her off drunk." I explain.

"We? As in you've met her mom?" She looks a little shocked at this information.

"Yeah, it was before the whole fake dating thing." I wave it off like it's nothing.

"Yeah, whatever, my mom's not home anyway." Diego opens the driver's car door and gets in the car.

"Okay, I'll go grab her." I peck her lips before jogging back to the house.