Three years ago.

Jace's POV.

She walks into the kitchen wearing a black sundress that stops right above her knees, denim jacket and flat shoes.

She looks like a church girl.

"Do you go to church, Livy?" I ask, sliding off the seat.

"Every Sunday." She smiles.

Of course.

"Well, I don't." I say as we head towards the front door.

"Why not?" She asks, pulling the door open.

"Because I don't believe in God." I answer honestly.

She gasps, she literally gasps at my response like not believing in God is some sort of illegal act.

"What? You go to church every Sunday but you've never heard of nonbelievers?" I lean my shoulder against the wall as she locks the door.

"I've just never met one before." She shrugs.

"Well, here I am, in the flesh." We walk down the steps.

"I feel uncomfortable being around you now, what if you worship the devil or something?" She says playfully.

"See? That's why I don't believe, Christians are so judgemental." I shake my head.

"I'm inviting you to church this Sunday." She says.

"No, thank you, I'd rather sit at home, lock myself in my room and listen to rock music all day."

"Oh my God, you do worship the devil." She half laughs.

I grin at her laugh. I don't know, there's just something beautiful that comes with the fact that I made her laugh.

We continue walking on the sidewalk, in total silence.

I wanna ask her questions, personal questions but I guess it's too early for those so I just keep my mouth shut during the entire walk.

The crowd at Daisy's party isn't as crazy as the Friday night parties Diego and I usually go to, it just looks like a small gathering but the music is way too loud.

I hold Olivia's hand as we enter the house, she tightens her grip like I might let go, I look at her over my shoulder and her eyes are wondering around the place, staring at all the crazy drunk kids around us.

We march into the living room where I spot Daisy and Matt making out on the couch next to a guy who looks uncomfortable, I drop next to the kissing couple which leaves no room for Olivia.

I hold her hand, leading her to sit on my lap, she does, surprisingly.

Daisy and Matt break apart, acknowledging us, or maybe her.

"This is Olivia." I feed their curious brains.

"Did you just replace Sandra in less than twenty-four hours?" Daisy sounds shocked.

"What's your poison?" I turn to Olivia, ignoring Daisy's question.

"My poison?" She asks in confusion.

"Alcohol? Drugs? Pot? Cigarettes? Or that other stuff?" I clarify, she blinks at me.

"I'll have a bottle of water." She says.

I chuckle, thinking it's a joke.

She gives me a blank stare.

"Shit, Liv, you don't drink?"

"No."

"Did you stop or.."

"Alcohol makes people act out of character, people who smoke cigarettes get lung cancer and people who smoke weed kill their brain cells and are most likely to be mentally unstable, people who drug themselves-."

"You don't have to preach, church girl, we get it, you're so pure and clean." I say sarcastically.

"I... wasn't preaching, it's true." She stammers.

"You sure you don't want a cider?" I squint my eyes at her.

"I'm sure."

"Okay," I place my hands on her waist, lifting her and standing up, "I'll go get you a bottle of water while you don't talk to my shitty friends." I tell her, she nods in understanding before sitting back down then she neatly tucks her dress underneath her thighs, interlocking her fingers on her lap like she's at some tea party.

I scoff, shaking my head at her as I head to the kitchen.

I stiffly slip passed a couple that's grinding against each other by the kitchen entrance.

My eyes land on Kevin, the guy that got me suspended, talking to Sandra, the girl I dated for fuck knows how long. she's sitting on the kitchen counter while he's leaning against the fridge door, probably the only place I'm going find Olivia's water.

Fuck my life.

I take a step closer but I halt, hating the fact that I'm gonna have to interact with them.

Sandra and I have been doing this on and off thing for a long time, I guess it's probably because she was my first real girlfriend and no matter who I dated after she and I broke up, I always knew I'd go back to her and that she'd take me back.

But this time, this break up? It feels final and honestly, I feel the void in my chest.

They both stop talking when they notice me, Kevin has a black eye and stitches on his forehead, I guess that's why he looks like he's three seconds away from running off.

But he doesn't do that so I guess we could say he never learns.

I send him a fuck off look when I reach him and he quickly pushes off the fridge, inching closer to Sandra.

I open the fridge and I furrow my brows when I see everything intact like it's just a normal night at home. I guess no one really opens fridges at parties.

I grab the bottle of water and I let the door shut, I look at Sandra then Kevin, I roll my eyes before walking away.

I bump into Luke Richardson's sister in the hallway, she's drunk.

"Hello there beautiful." I smirk.

"Pretty lips." She fists the collar of my shirt and yanks me down to kiss me, I hum at her cherry flavored lips or lip gloss or whatever.

"Jesus, Cass, that's enough." Someone pulls her away from me, a girl from three of my classes.

Cass whines as her friend drags her away, I smile at her, she's kinda crazy.

"Cops!" I hear someone shout and suddenly, the whole place turns chaotic. People are running and screaming everywhere while I stand there, not knowing if it's a false alarm.

I hear the police car sirens and that's when I rush to the living room for Olivia, we meet halfway and I hold her hand, leading her to the back door where everyone else is escaping from.

We make it out of the house but in order to get out of the yard, we all need to go around the house to where the cops are.

I've been to jail and it's nothing pretty, plus I promised my Dad that he would never bail me out ever again.

I lead us to the fence that separates Daisy's house and the house nextdoor, there's a small opening at the bottom of the fence where I slip through to the next house, she looks around her, hesitating to follow me.

"Liv, c'mon." I whisper shout, waving my hand.

She gets on her knees and crawls through the fence, her dress hooks in a wire and I hear the sound of it ripping.

"Careful." I grab her hand, helping her through and we run to the other side of the house.

The house looks empty but the lights outside are on.

We hide behind the bushes, waiting for the cops to go.

Olivia is out of breath, panting and breathing heavily like she ran a mile, I don't know if it's just me and my twisted mind but her breathing sounds so... sexual and it's fucking with my head and I'm trying really hard to ignore it but the more I try to ignore it, the more I concentrate on it.

I turn my head to look at her, her eyes are closed, lips are parted, her hand is on her chest and.... I know she doesn't like it when I touch her but fuck it.

I place my hand on the back of her neck, the other one covering her mouth. She takes a sharp intake of breath through her nose and holds it in.

"Stop it." I whisper, searching her eyes, she responds by shooting her brows together, "Stop breathing like that." I add.

She places her hand on mine, slowly pulling it away from her mouth, my fingers brush her soft lips, her hand leaves traces of blood where she had touched me and my eyes search her everywhere.

Her thigh, where the wire hooked on her dress, it pricked her.

I gently touch her thigh and she gasps, instinctively jerking her leg away from my hand.

"Sorry." I breath out.

My eyes cut to her face, she's staring at my hand, breathlessly staring at my hand.

I clench my hand, the feeling of her skin still lingering in my palm, soft and warm.

I feel like I can't breathe or maybe I forgot, I don't know, it's a very confusing feeling.

To breathe and not to breathe, I don't really feel the difference right now.

It gets worse when her eyes lift to mine, now I'm just a shaking mess, everything around me is spinning and my insides are colliding.

I know I'm not supposed to fuck it up this fast but I need it, I need that one kiss from this girl, I can always blame it on the alcohol I never took later afterwards.

With that, I lean into her, staring at her face from part to part, bringing my hand to the side of her face. Her eyes shut and so do mine, I tilt my head, leaning in further.

Her breath fans my lips, I bury my fingers in her hair, opening my eyes and staring at her with her eyes closed, she flutters her eyes open and we gaze at each other, so close we can basically taste each other's breaths.

"Liv-"

"We should go." She quickly stands, dusting her hands and walking away.

I run a hand through my curls, chuckling to myself.

Fuck.