Three years ago.

Jace's POV.

"Hey, hey, hey, take it easy" Tyler yanks the bottle from my hand.

"I just can't stop picturing them having sex in his car while my mind was filled with stuff like where I was going to take her for our second date, I mean, I suck at those things but for her, I was willing to try," I rub my clammy hands against my jeans.

"What was so special about this girl anyway?" He wrinkles his face at me.

"She made me feel like I was ready to change, you know? Like I was ready to be a better version of me," I slur thoughtfully.

"And what do you feel right now?" He asks.

"I feel like staying single for a very long time, I don't want anyone else to make me feel this fucked up again," my chest heaves and I swallow the heavy lump in my throat.

"Yeah, the life of the party is the easiest thing there is," he pats my shoulder.

"Do you have any pills?" I bring my shaking hand to my neck, feeling the lump grow stronger and stronger.

"I'm not giving you any pills," he sounds determined.

"Oh c'mon, I just wanna feel something else, I can't keep feeling like I'm gonna die at a fucking party," my hand falls from my throat to the arching thing in my chest.

"Cassie's gonna kill me," he mumbles underneath his tone, sounding defeated, "I only have molly," he tells me.

"I'll have it," I respond quickly, his hand reaches inside his front pocket but then his eyes travel behind me and he seizes his movements.

"Oh, shit," he retrieves his hand from his pocket.

"What?" I ask without turning around.

"Cass is here," he announces.

"Is she looking?" I ask in a lazy tone.

"Yep," he nods, "and now she's coming over." He shifts in his seat and looks to his other side.

"What is he doing here?" She towers over us.

"I invited him," Tyler responds.

"Shouldn't you be at Olivia's?" She looks at me, scolding me.

"Why do you care?" I half whine, half groan as I sink into the couch.

"I was looking for you earlier at the race, Blair said you went to Olivia's," she explains.

"Why were you looking for me?" I reach for the bottle on the table where Tyler had placed it.

"Because I wanted to kick your ass for posting that damn picture, how do you expect me to explain that shit to my manager? She specifically said, no more teen drama," she says.

"I didn't post it, Blair did," I lean back on the couch, taking a long sip.

"But she...." she cuts herself mid-sentence, "That little bitch," her face lights up in realization.

"Yep," I sip again, my mind suddenly reminding me of Olivia.

I slept with Tristan.

Her voice whispers itself in my head and I groan, ruffling my hair in anger.

"What's wrong with him?" She sits down beside Tyler.

"Nothing," I answer.

"He got dumped," he tells her.

"By who?" She asks, "Cause I know it's not Olivia," She says.

"I dumped her, actually," I correct Tyler.

"I call bullshit," says Cass.

"She cheated on him," Tyler informs her, I take another long sip.

"Double bullshit," She laughs.

"Okay then," he sighs, giving up, I pass him the bottle and takes it but passes it to Cass who just scowls her face and sits it on the table.

"Wait, for real?" She asks me, "Who did she cheat on you with? Diego?" She sounds surprised.

"I wish it was Diego, cause then I would have beat his ass and we could have moved on because I've fucked multiple of his girlfriends in the past but it wasn't Diego," that's my drunk self speaking.

"Is he serious?" Tyler asks Cass.

"Dead serious," She whispers to him, "who was it then?" She looks at me again.

"Her fucking ex," I seethe.

"The one she dumbed for you?" She sounds confused, so am I.

"Yep," I stare into Oblivion, "I better not run into him anytime soon," I say more to myself.

"Okay but doesn't this make it a truce? You fell for me and she fucked someone else, shouldn't you start from scratch and live happily ever after?" She asks me, I turn my eyes to her and for the first time since we've met, I'm actually glaring at her.

She's saying the exact same thing Olivia had said earlier.

"Falling for someone else and fucking someone else are two different things, don't you get it? another guy's dick was inside my girlfriend, you and I played call of duty and skipped school together, we never even kissed, I can write two scripts based on those two events, one for HBO and the other for Disney channel," I say in frustration.

"Okay but he has a pretty great point there," Tyler faces Cass.

"Yeah, I get your point but-"

"Why do you do that?" I cut her off, resting my elbows on my knees as I stare at her.

"Do... what?" She stammers.

"You always defend her and whenever I doubted my relationship with her, you gave me those fuck ass speech about why I shouldn't and yet you still claimed to like me, why is that?" I question.

"Yeah, man, why? other girls would say, may the best woman win and then do anything to get the guy." Tyler Chuckles.

"Well, I don't know, I never looked at it as some kind of a competition, I mostly just felt bad for Olivia, she really liked Jace and I felt like I came in between them and I felt like I was doing something wrong by liking him in that way so the least I could do was push you to her whenever you got too close, what I felt didn't matter just as long as you were both happy," she shrugs.

Tyler and I exchange a glance, he wants to say something but he looks like he's afraid to say it.

"Say it," I push.

"People who wish you happiness even when they're not the ones giving you that happiness are superior," he whispers in my ear so she doesn't hear.

"Hey!" She grabs the back of his shirt and yanks him back, "No whispering." She whines.

"So no part of you ever imagined us being together?" I ask her.

"Dude, I'm a teenage girl, being with my crush is all I dream about all day long, I imagined it all, the relationship, the kissing, the sex, the laughter, all of it and it was perfect but I also reminded myself that it would never happen," her level of honesty amuses me.

"Never is a little dramatic," I say.

"Jace, the fact that you just broke up with Olivia doesn't change anything," she shakes her head at me.

"I know that, and if I'm ever going to make a move on you, I want it to be on different circumstances, I want my mind to be fresh and free of any doubts and I want to be subtle, not this person that I am right now so no, I'm not making a move on you, Cassandra, I'm just telling you that never is a little dramatic," I lift my shoulders.

"Okay, glad we cleared that up," she mumbles, looking at Tyler's face.

"Friends?" I stretch my hand for a hand shake, she smiles.

"Friends," she shakes my hand.

"Hmm, I don't know, I still want you guys to fuck or something," Tyler stares at our locked hands in front of him.

"Ty, shut up!" Cass slaps the back of his head.

"I'll just leave," Tyler gets up and leaves us alone.

"You still look really sad," she scoots closer to me.

"It just hurts really bad, I've never trusted a girl the way I trusted Olivia, I saw myself marrying her and everything," I manage to smile at all the silly thoughts I used to have at night.

"You know, I think each one of us get to meet that one person that we're never gonna forget, someone that will haunt your dreams long after they've walked out of your life, someone that you're gonna find yourself thinking about even though you don't want to, someone you're gonna miss at least once a month. Olivia is definitely that someone in your life," she tells me.

"Yeah," I agree, "well, what about you? Do you also have that person?" I ask curiously.

"Yeah, actually, I do," she sucks in a breath through her teeth.

"Oh?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Relax, it's not you," she giggles.

"Who is it then?" I nudge her shoulder with mine.

"I hate to say it out loud but it's... Damien." She says the name like it burns her tongue, "He haunts my dreams and I think about him even when I don't want to," she's literally cringing at this point.

"Damien's still in your life, Cass, I don't think he's that person, you're only seventeen, I bet you might even run into him on your way back home," I say.

"Don't put that picture in my head," she dramatically rubs her temples.

"Life's not going to give you someone you like, when you like," I smile at her, "Plus, Damien looks like someone who can carry the baggage like it weighs nothing," I utter.

"Huh?" She leans her head closer cause she didn't hear me.

"Do you think it's my fault that she cheated? Am I the one to blame?" I scream in her ear cause of the noise.

"Signs of a toxic relationship. You always feel like it's your fault even when it's really not," she shouts back in my ear, "Sex isn't something you can do with someone else while you're in a relationship with someone you love, I honestly expected you to do something like that, not her and that's really saying something." She says.

I breathe out, turning my face to hers.

"It's not my fault?" I gaze into her eyes.

"It's not your fault," her eyes bore mine.

It's not my fault.