Page 48 of A Sky Full Of Stars

Jace and I kept in touch after I went to New York. He was accepted to Yale the year after I moved, so I caught a bus to meet him a few times while I was there. Despite having my Gran around, I was lonely at times. I knew of a cousin living in New York City, but it had been years since any of us had spoken to him. It was nice knowing I wasn’t too far away from a friend, and Jace helped me a lot, being a shoulder to cry on inthe early days when I wanted to talk about Thomas or the fact that Melissa and I drifted apart when I left.

Unlike me, Jace’s story has a happy ending. When he went home after our summer together, he worked hard and won over the girl he wanted. They’re still together. She’s planning on moving closer to him when she graduates from college back in their home state of Arizona.

“Are you heading home for Thanksgiving? Or is Samantha coming to you?” I ask, changing the subject. I always prefer talking about other people.

“She’s, ah…” He pauses and a few seconds of silence tick over. “We’re waiting for Christmas.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s great. It’s just so hard.” His voice wavers and I wish I was there to hug him. I couldn’t imagine having a long distance relationship, and because I’ve seen how hard it is for Jace, I never would.

“Let’s not talk about it,” he says, but of course, I don’t drop it.

“Iwantto talk about it. I’m here to listen. You can tell me anything, Jace.”

Jace sighs. “I know that, but I also know you like to focus onmyissues to forget about your own.”

“What? That’s not what this is… I don’t do that.”I do. And it’s not exclusively him. I’ll do anything to forget.

“You’re right,” he states, but his tone makes it obvious he doesn’t believe me, and to prove it, he adds, “So tell me… Have you saved anyone else since I last spoke to you?” he teases and I roll my eyes.

“I didn’tsaveher,” I tell him.Again.

“Lainey,you beat a guy up.”

“I didn’t beat him up.” Seriously, you tell one person a story, and by the end of the day it’s blown out of proportion. In this case, it’s me telling Luke, who then told our parents, who then told Jace’s parents, who then told Jace. The reality is… “I punched him in the face.”And I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

“Whatever, we both know you were awesome.”

I laugh even though the reminder of that day still pains me. “Thank you, but as I said when it first happened, I only did what anyone would have done in the same situation.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

I hear the smile in his voice as my mind flashes back to that night, my chest tightening with the memory.

“I need air. I’ll be right back.”

I love my brother, but I have no idea why I’m here. At a bar. Watching his game. Heath waves as I walk away, not even bothering to ask if I want him to come with me, that new relationship spark gone after only a few weeks.

The second I step out the back door, something doesn’t feel right, but it’s not until I walk toward Heath’s car that the panic takes over.

“The fight only makes this more fun,” a guy says with his body crushing a woman into the ground. She wriggles beneath him, but I don’t have time to see if she can help herself. Instead, I rush over, grabbing his shoulders to pull him back.

He struggles against me, only letting go when I kick at his legs, and he drops the woman to the dirt.

He turns on me instantly with a menacing expression, and something comes over me. Without thinking, I rear my fist back and slam it into his face, shocking the hell out of both of us.

The woman screams, drawing our attention before the guy pushes me to the ground and jumps up, running away like a coward.

My heart races as I watch him go, but the second he’s out of sight, I move over to the woman and help her up. “Jesus, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“I’m okay,” she says, a small smile on her lips as she brushes her blonde hair out of her face. “Thanks to you. You are one badass chick. Did he hurt you?”

To this day, I have no idea how I did that; the guy was huge, and other than some minor bruising, my hand was fine. It didn’t even hurt until I got home and the adrenaline wore off.

Whatdidhurt was discovering that the woman in front of me—the woman I’d “saved”—wasSummer Kelly. I’d helped Thomas’s little sister and she had no idea who I was. Talk about heartbreaking.

I may have only been at Heartwood U for a few months, but I’d heard the rumors about Summer and Thomas. Mostly because of Luke. From the whispers, I’d learned what had happened the morning Thomas begged me to talk to him, and to this day, the guilt of that overwhelms me.

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