Three years ago.

Jace's POV.

Today, I won the race because Olivia's parents are finally out of town and I'm finally free to see her at her house whenever I want.

I can't stop thinking about getting the hell out of here and spending the rest of my night cuddling and kissing her.

Yeah, I'm a walking cliche, I know.

"Holy mother of abs," Blair stands in front of my bike and dramatically widens her eyes at my chest.

"You like?" I playfully smooth a hand down my sweaty chest.

"Uh-huh," she nods and takes out her phone to take a picture of me.

"No, Blair, come on," I lift my hand to my face as an attempt to hide it from the camera.

"Relax, it's not for me, this is Cassandra's phone, imagine her face when she finds this picture in her phone," She laughs and I drop my hand, grinning at her.

"There we go," she takes the picture.

"Wait, Cass is here?" I look around the crowded place for the blonde.

"Yep, had to drag her out of bed and everything," she says as her thumbs fractionally type on Cassandra's phone, "Oops," she utters, still staring at the phone.

"What?" I ask.

"I just accidentally posted your picture on her Instagram and captioned it as Loml," she wiggles the phone in the air, my eyes pop out of their sockets.

"Accidentally? Bro, what the fuck, Liv can see that shit," I freak out.

"It won't mean anything if she loves you, relax," she rolls her eyes at me like I'm overreacting.

"Blair, delete it," I order.

"Then people will take it seriously?" Her eyes narrow to slits.

Good point.

"Damnit, pray to God my girlfriend doesn't see it or I swear to God..."

"Yeah, yeah, we going to the after party or what?" She slips the phone in her back pocket and rests her hands on her hips as Diego swoops in from behind her and kisses her neck.

"Nah, I have to meet up with Liv in an hour," I answer, Diego's eyes snap to me.

"No, fuck that, this was your last race, she didn't even show her ass to fucking support you, you don't get to put her first when she doesn't do the same thing, now c'mon, let's go party," he's not asking me, he's commanding me and I don't really know how to argue with him when he commands.

"Okay but I'm leaving early," I announce while I pull my phone from my pocket to text Olivia.

I expect to find a text from her but there's only a message from Tyler.

"I'm hosting a party at mine, you down?"

"Busy tonight, maybe next time?"

*************************

I finally stand in front of Olivia's front door, I'm nervous and I still smell like sweat from my race but I actually don't care. I just wanna see her.

I lift my fist, knocking on the door.

Olivia opens the door, sees that it's me and walks outside, not inviting me in.

Okay?

"Hey, baby," I kiss her on the lips but she doesn't kiss me back. "What's wrong? Parents still here?" I look at her door then back at her serious expression.

"No, they left, I already told you that," she says coldly.

"Yeah but what's with the wrong face?" I playfully pinch her cheek, she shoves my hand away.

"Where were you? You were supposed to be here at 5PM," she glares at me.

"I know but Diego and Blair forced me to stay for the after-party, I was going to text you but then I forgot," I tell her, she keeps her eyes on my face and doesn't say anything.

"Olivia Conner, that face scares me, please get rid of it," I cup her face, my thumbs caressing her cheeks.

"Jace, are you lying to me?" She glances into my eyes.

"No? What makes you think that?" I chuckle at her question for some reason.

"Because I know you are and I want you to tell me the truth but you just keep lying to me," she steps away from me and grips her hair at the roots.

I watch as she paces, she only paces when she's angry, which tells me that she's pissed at me over something.

What could I have possibly done this time?

"Olivia, you're overreacting again, I'm not lying to you," my tone turns serious.

She quits pacing and pins me with that glare, she pulls out her phone from the pocket of her hoodie and presses a couple times.

"Then what's this," she turns the screen to my face, showing me the picture that Blair had taken earlier.

"Why do you follow Cass?" I shift my eyes to her face.

"Because everyone else does?" She points out.

"Well, just because everyone follows her doesn't mean you should too, you don't even like her," I say.

"Maybe I followed her because I knew something like this would happen," she shoves her phone back into her pocket.

I sigh.

"Blair took that picture, she had Cassandra's phone and she thought it would be funny if Cass found the picture in her phone but then she took it too far by posting it," I explain, she lets out a hysterical laughter.

"You've got to be kidding me right now, Jace, you seriously expect me to believe that?"

"I'm not lying to you, ask Blair yourself if you like, you know she can't lie to you," I shake my head, she rubs her forehead and begins to pace again.

She doesn't believe me.

"And what about last night? At Shake n' Sip? Were you really there with Mason Kress?" There's a hint of an accusation in her tone, I don't think I quite like it.

"At the time of the phone call, yes," I answer honestly, a tear slips from her eye and she quickly wipes it away.

"Hey," I try to touch her but she takes a step away from my outstretched hand.

"Don't." She warns.

"Liv, I don't understand, what are we even fighting about?" I ask.

"I saw you, Jace, you told me you were there with Mason and I went there because I wanted to surprise you but then I saw you hugging Cassandra in the shop." She says in a brittle tone.

Well, shit.

"Mason was there before that, I swear, he really was but then he got a phone call and he disappeared," I explain.

"Why didn't you tell me that she was there?" She asks.

"Because she wasn't there when you called me, Olivia," I say.

"See? You keep lying to me," she launches towards the door.

"Liv, Liv, Liv, baby, please, don't do this to me," I grasp her hand, keeping her from going inside.

"Do what? You're clearly seeing her behind my back and you're lying about it to my face, do you have any idea how much that hurts my feelings?" She's now crying.

"I know, Olivia, I know but this is clearly a misunderstanding, I can call Cass right now, she can explain the whole thing to you," I speak desperately.

"Don't bother, Jace, all you had to do was choose," she tells me.

"But I did choose, Olivia, I chose you and I'd choose you again and again because I love you," my eyes dance wildly around her face.

"But you love her too, right?" Her voice breaks.

"No," I swallow, shaking my head.

"I think we should take a break," she declares, dropping her eyes to my chest.

I drop my hand from her arm, it's my turn to pace and grip my hair because my chest feels like someone sliced it open and started poking a sharp needle into my heart.

"You know what? I'm gonna go home and leave you to think about all this, you're not thinking clearly," I amble towards her and I kiss her head, "I'll be back tomorrow, okay?" I ask but she doesn't respond or look me in the eye.

That's okay, she'll talk to me tomorrow or the day after that.

I descend down the steps and shove my hand in my pocket for a cigarette cause I clearly need it.

"I slept with Tristan," I hear her say behind me.

I halt, slowly turning around.

"Okay now you're just saying things," I release a nervous laugh.

She doesn't respond, her gaze falls and she wipes a tear from her cheek, her bottom lip trembles and she starts sobbing.

My heart drops to the dark pits of my stomach, rage engulfs every organ inside my body, my blood boils, I feel like hitting something but then all those emotions drain from my body and I feel empty, I feel numb.

"You did what?" My voice is unbelievably calm.

"It was after I saw you hugging Cass in the shop, I called him to come pick me up and when he came, I started telling him what happened and he started saying all the right things and I kissed him and it happened so quickly," she rushes to where I'm standing.

It happened so quickly.

I kissed him.

He started saying all the right things.

"Okay," I find myself nodding like I understand, I don't, then I'm turning around and walking to my bike.

"Okay? Jace, listen," she stands in front of me again.

"Yeah?" I tend to listen.

"You cheated, I cheated, we're even now, right?" She's shaking.

"Even? But I didn't-"

"I take it back, I d-don't even wanna... break up, let's just forget everything, I forgive you for.. whatever you did with Cass, you don't even have to tell me, okay?" She stutters, grabbing my hands, I look down at our hands with furrowed brows.

The fuck?

"I didn't do anything with Cass," I say, retrieving my hands, "fuck! How many times do I have to tell you that? Cheating on you was the last thing I was ever going to do to you, Liv, you know why?" I lower my tone.

"Why?" She says through her sobs.

"Because someone cheated on me and it hurt, my fucking Dad got cheated on and my parent's marriage will never be the same again, I didn't wanna hurt you like that and I told you about it but what did you do? You went straight ahead and did exactly that," I say.

"I don't know why I did it, but I really do love you, Jace," she says eagerly.

"Maybe you don't, maybe I don't, maybe we rushed all of this," I realize.

"No, no, why would you say that?" She grabs my face and our eyes meet glancingly.

"Because right now I feel like I don't know you at all, the Olivia I thought I knew would have never let something like that happen but here we are," my heart beats rapidly.

"And you? What's your excuse?" She asks.

"Me? I think I just liked the idea of you, the whole sweet and innocent thing you had going on, I liked that but I bet even that was a lie, wasn't it?" I close my hands around her wrists, pulling them from my face.

"I'm sorry," she shudders.

"I'm sorry too, Liv, I really am but I can't do this back and forth thing with you anymore, I think we're both better off without each other," I mutter, she shakes her head, disagreeing with me.

"You're breaking up with me," she states.

"Yeah, but you expected it, didn't you?" I walk passed her and this time, she doesn't follow me.

I reach my bike and decide to shoot Tyler a text before hopping on.

"Save me a bottle of something strong,"