Page 12 of Broken Beauty

“Fuck off, Jace.” She rolls her eyes and scoots away from him.

Jace Sanchez is another close friend of Bridgette and me. I met him through Bridgette because he was in her English class in high school and after he kept hitting on her he started to get close to me in order to be a part of our small friend group.

Bridgette tells me they don't have a thing but I swear they do. The way he looks at her and is jealous of any guy who comes her way shows how much he wants her.

Bridgette has a thing for him too but she doesn't like to admit it. I can tell she does because of the way she looks at him whenever he is close by or with another girl. She looks like she wants to pull the girl's hair out of her scalp when she sees them a foot away from Jace.

“Can you please stop playing games with me Bridge? I know you want me.” Jace smirks at her and I see his finger caress her shoulder.

“Can you guys please not do this in front of me? I want to be able to have the stomach to actually eat something today,” I beg.

“Ask him. He is the asshole who is always trying to pull something.” Bridgette looks at Jace. “Don't you have some other girl you can bother, Jace? Ariella and I are trying to have lunch.”

“I am only here because I am meeting one of my friends. He said to meet him here.”

I am about to call Jace out on his bullshit but then a familiar figure walks inside the diner and I can't keep my eyes away from him.

Ash Jones walks inside the diner, wearing black baggy jeans and a black zip up jacket.

I remember that jacket. One night I was cold and he gave me that specific jacket to wear so that I wouldn't freeze.

He walks in like he owns the place. I don't know what's more attractive, him, or the way he carries himself with so much confidence it almost makes you feel intimidated to be in his presence.

The whole entire summer, I was always intimidated whenever he would come a little too close to me or whenever he touched me, but I loved being intimidated by him because I always felt butterflies swarm in my stomach and chills would go down my back.

What I don't expect Ash to do is walk towards the table I'm sitting at with Jace and Bridgette.

What I definitely don't expect him to do is stop in front of our table and smile at Jace before shaking his hand.

Bridgette looks at me and widens her eyes.

I try to ignore how fast my heart is beating and keep my eyes on Bridgette, even when Ash makes an attempt to sit next to me in the booth.

“Ariella, stop being a bitch and let Ash sit,” Jace says and I refrain from rolling my eyes and scoot down the booth, as far away from Ash as I can.

Even from being on the opposite side of the booth I still feel hot as if he is right next to me, touching me.

I hate how much he has an effect on me and I hate how much he knows he does too.

“Jace never told me that he has such a good looking friend,” Bridgette says and I see Jace's jaw clench and unclench.

“Ash is originally from New York. He went to NYU, was it?” Jace asks Ash.

“Yea. I was living in New York with my father and moved out this summer.”

Not what he told me.

“What are you studying?” Bridgette asks.

Psychology.

“Psychology,” Ash answers.

“So why did you decide to move out here then?” I look at Ash and raise an eyebrow at him.

Ash's lips lift in a small smirk. “At first, I was just visiting for the first week of summer but then I decided to stay.”

“There's nothing special in California. You should have stayed in New York.”