[Zach's POV]

Today had been a strange day. Jace was quiet and not his usual self during our session. It was a Saturday and even though we had no school, the building was open because of a theatre performance so Jace really wanted to have it at school instead of at his house like usual, before the punishment.

Today was the day that marked two weeks since I slept over Jace's house and I was finally able to see him after school hours. I thought, that he'd want me to come over his house so we can get it on, like last time but apparently there's renovations being done so it's too noisy to have a physics lesson there and somebody might walk in on us at the wrong time.

So we had our physics session at school, in room 42 and you could hear the school musical going on down the hall because we were directly under the auditorium. They played Michael Jacksons Blame It On The Boogie and I started awkwardly dancing in an attempt to cheer a certain someone up but alas, it didn't work. He just held a phlegmatic expression the whole time.

"Dude? What's up?" I asked him as I tucked my chair underneath the table.

"Camellia." He sighed.

"Come on, I bet that's not even everything."

And then he looked at me the same way I look at the last jar of Nutella.

"How'd you guess?"

"I know things." I smirked, "so what is it?"

"Nothing for you to worry about." He sluggishly swung his rucksack on and took off his black thick framed glasses, using his t-shirt to clean them and then putting them back on.

"You're weird." I pointed out, blunt as ever of course.

"Gee thanks, tell me something I don't know."

"I'm just saying, you're being all quiet and it's bugging me and for the first time ever, you're wearing your glasses on school grounds instead of your contact lenses."

"Didn't realise my glasses annoyed you that much." He said monotonously.

"They don't, I like them." I smiled. He just made a 'hmm' noise as a response. "Stop being moody, come on, Molly's waiting outside." I grabbed his hand and intwined our fingers, dragging him out the room. His touch sent shivers up my spine and It felt nice.

"Molly?" He cocked a brow.

"Yes, she came over because she had the week off. Suspended."

He snickered, he actually snickered, he showed some sort of emotion!

"Why are you sad?" I asked him once again and put my lips into a frown.

"Nothing."

"That's so believable."

"I know right."

I wondered how somebody could be witty and sarcastic while they're sad at the same time and then I remembered that Jace wasn't just somebody. This was Jace and he could never lose his wit, even at the rough times.

"Spill."

And then he hugged me, and this was one of the very few times he has initiated the hug. His arms wrapped tightly around my waist and his head fit perfectly in the crook between my shoulders and neck. I used my free hand to comfort him by running it up and down his back.

I didn't care that we were stood outside in the school's car park where people might spot is. Jace was obviously very upset and he needed comforting and I was going to be the one to help him no matter what. It hurts to see someone so close you so upset, it literally tears you apart. We were together in whatever his issue is and I was not going to drop out, ever. Not even if I was offered a million pounds or an infinite supply of pizza.

"You don't want to tell me? Fine." I sighed. I wasn't going to force it out of him, that's just mean but I really wanted to know at the same time.

"I do... I just, I don't know." He mumbled into my shoulder.

"You know, keeping it in isn't good for you." I informed him. The best way to resolve something is to share it with other people who can offer their help.

"It's my dad." He looked up at me with sad pale blue eyes. He looked like he was going to burst into tears at any given moment.

"Vince? What about him?"

"I'm an absolute failure of a brother and son." He said with shaky breaths. He really wanted to cry.

"No, you're not. Don't say that." He didn't say anything after that but instead, relaxed his head onto my shoulder again. I continued running my hands up and down his sides. "Let's go to your place, I'll ask Molly to drop us off there."

"No." He said sternly and gave me an almost pleading look. I could only wonder what Vince had done to make Jace so upset.

"Why?"

"Because my dad is home and mum's gone abroad for work, again."

"You can't resolve something by walking away from it." I informed him, "you need to face it head on."

"Ugh, you're always right." He cracked a small, teary smile and pecked me on the cheek.

"Oh, I know." I said with a smile plastered on my lips. Now he's initiating a kiss... Now, I could say that I prefer depressed Jace but that would be ruthless of me; I'd prefer a happy but unaffectionate Jace any day because depressed Jace just makes me feel sad.

My mum's car pulled up a little while after. I actually heard it from the front of the car park with the loud music booming through the speakers. You could literally hear the lyrics word for word because that's how loud it was.

"Come on lovebirds." Cassie grinned as she rolled down her window. Jace gave me a confused look and I just smiled and told him that it was Molly's girlfriend even though they weren't dating.

"So this is the infamous Jace." Cassie snickered.

"You weren't supposed to make it obvious to him that I told you!" Molly sighed.

"Oh right, whoops." Cassie grinned sheepishly.

"Molly can you drop me to Jace's house and tell Mum that I'll be home for dinner."

"Kay."

Jace stepped out the car first, I followed suit but was violently yanked back by my sleeve and rucksack. Jesus Christ, these girls were going to be the death of me. Cassie grinned at me from the front seat as she chewed on some gum and pulled out a familiar red box and instantly, my eyes widened.

"Bad time." I told them and Cassie pouted, pulling the box back to her lap.

When Jace and I arrived at the door, I noticed how weary he felt about unlocking it. When he finally did he kicked his shoes off and put them nearly against the wall and I copied and then he grabbed my hand, looking down at the ground.

A strong smell of alcohol filled my nose when the door to the living room opened. Vince was asleep on the sofa, a whisky bottle in his hand and plenty of other alcoholic beverages surrounding him. Jace's eyes were still glued to the floor and for a moment, I felt hurt. Hurt for him, hurt for his family, hurt for the lack of love he receives, hurt because... I felt selfish.

I was always complaining about my own family and when Liam turned his back on me when I came out, I was upset when really, Jace's issue was ten times worse than mine. His parents are always away abroad, just like he had once informed me and Vince being a drunken sod was definitely not a prime example of a loving father who wants to spend as much time as possible with his children whenever he can.

"He's only on a binge twice a month or so." Jace muttered and shook his head. "It lasts for a few days."

"Oh." Was all I was able to say.

He started picking up all the glass bottles and taking them to the kitchen so I helped and soon enough, the living room was decently tidy and Vince was wrapped up in a warm, wooly blanket.

I left Vince's phone on the coffee table because it had fallen to the floor and I noticed that it kept flashing because someone kept calling and texting him continuously. I didn't bother to pick it up or anything but I did catch the name of the annoying little twat, it was a he and the name of his caller id was 'Eli'. I just shrugged and faced the phone downwards so that I wouldn't have to see the screen of it flashing every minute.

"You should find some help for him." I said as we sat down on Jace's bed.

"We've tried." Jace sighed and brought his knees up to his chest.

"But?"

"But it doesn't work. I don't want to go as far as rehab though, I don't want him to suffer like that. He's still my dad."

"I see."

"I just.. He's so nice when he's sober but when he's drunk, he's just..." A tear fell down his cheek. "He's awful to me."

My mind wondered to what Vince could do when he's drunk. "He doesn't abuse you-"

"No of course not, he's never laid a finger on me like that ever. He's just... Mean." He rubbed at his eyes, "yesterday he said I was being a bad brother to Camellia and it shocked me because he's never said something so horrible."

"Hey," I wiped a tear away, "you're an awesome brother to Camellia and even though she's being bullied, there's only so much you could do."

"Stop being right!" He cracked a small smile.

"Whatever Vince says, it's all lies. I think you're doing a better job at being a better person than he is, I mean, it's completely downgrading to be a father of two and be an alcoholic, right?"

"God, your bluntness is..."

"I know." I grinned, "can't help it." He looked down at the floor again, to his black socks and glanced to the left of him to his disgraceful father, "we'll help him together ok?" I caressed his face and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. He brought his hand up to mine and kept it there, on his cheek.

"Yeah, ok." He mumbled almost inaudibly.

"First we'll start by gathering up all the alcohol in the house." I told him, "and we'll limit the amount he is allowed."

"It's a start, I guess."

And that's what we did. We gathered up all the alcohol and even snuck into Jace's parents room to see if there was a hidden stash. As expected, there was. I wasn't the one to find it because I didn't want to go snooping through Jace's parent's things but I gave Jace ideas of where it could be in the room. We found two bottles in the wardrobe, four under the bed and one in the bathroom, hidden behind the shower curtain.

Then we went searching through the rest of the house. I waved to Cammie when we walked into her room while she was watching Netflix and she seemed confused. We explained everything and she flashed the biggest grin I've ever seen on her and then she made Jace smile too. She closed her laptop and started helping us but she wasn't doing a good job at searching in the high places because she's a midget. Jace was a little taller than me and he managed to find a bottle on top of nearly all the wardrobes of the bedrooms. God, Vince must've been crazy planting bottles in everyone's rooms.

When we had finally searched through the entire house, we hid it all in the shed, under the gardening tools and behind the infinite array plant pots. Janine must've loved gardening. Speaking of Janine...

"Does your mum know about Vince's problem?"

"She's caught him on a binge once, but never again." He shrugged. "I don't want to tell her about him being on one every single month because she'd get a heart attack. He only drinks when she's away."

"Do you have any clue why he'd drink so much? Is he depressed or something?"

Jace scratched his head and straightened his glasses on his nose. "It started after grandpa died, he would never leave his room, he never ate, he was just so... Detached from the world you know?" I nodded. "Within a couple months, he and mum earned promotions and started going abroad more than usual for ages at a time..."

"And?"

"Well, they're madly in love obviously, he probably misses her or something, or at least that's what I think. The man can't even do any housework himself, except for hoovering of course, but even then he manages to overflow the vacuum bag or he sucks something up that wasn't meant to be vacuumed. Camellia and I cook on most nights, the rest of the time, we live off takeaway."

What did I say? Love can do funny things.

"Hey, it's a better love story than Twilight." I countered and chuckled but Jace just gave me an 'are you kidding me' look, which of course made me chuckle more. I was only trying to lighten the mood. He didn't laugh at that either, no, he just stood rigid in his place with fury in his eyes. They once bright blue eyes were now just a darker shade and they looked stone cold.

"What is it?" I brought my hand back up his cheek and almost resembling a cat, he hugged his cheek all up against it. "You're so adorable." I say, all my worries flying out the window at this absolutely adorable sight.

"Now is not the time, Dickwad." He sighed and moved away.

I really did wonder what exactly it was that made his face suddenly contort into one of fury, I hope I found out soon. I hate being left hanging.

"So uh..." I started, a few silent moments later.

"Um." He replied.

I wiped a hand down my face and pecked his cheek then stood back again, looking him dead in the eye.

I really like you Jace.

I had to say it.

I just...

But it was such a bad time!

"I..I.." I could feel my face getting hot as well as my entire body. My heart drummed at an abnormal speed against my chest, it was as if It would just explode out of my chest at any moment.

Jace took his fingers into my own and raises his eyebrows, ushering me on.

I took a deep breath and took a few moments to compose myself, maybe here wasn't a great time to say it. It was disturbing that we were in the living room and Vince was right there. I tugged on his arm and pulled him into the kitchen, closing the glass door behind me.

"You don't have to tell me you know-" he said but I cut him off.

"I really like you." I confessed to him and had my eyes squeezed shut, even after I felt a familiar set of lips connected to mine. The kiss ended as soon as it started and when I opened my eyes again I saw Jace staring up at me with a grin plastered on his lips. This guy was definitely bipolar or something.

I scratched the back of my neck and brought my other hand to his waist, pulling him towards me. "I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date?"

"Sure." Was all he said and I let out a long exhale. I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I just confessed my feelings to someone I really like for the first time ever.

And it felt amazing.

Now I could only wonder where I could take Jace on a date. It's cold and muggy in England so it has to be indoors. Jace doesn't like sitting for too long either so dinner is off the list, it's so mainstream, it has to be something practical.

But first...

"You know, you're welcome round my house anytime when your dad's like this, or anytime in general. I like having you around-" shut up Zach, just shut up! "It's nice when I get to see you because it brightens up my day and my mum absolutely loves you. Speaking of her, I think she loves you more than she loves me-"

"Hey," Jace clamped my mouth shut with his hand, "you're rambling."

"I know." I mumbled from behind his hand.

"You're cute." He said casually and sneaked in a cheeky wink.

"I, Zach Hamilton, am not cute!" I crossed my arms across my chest stubbornly.

"You are."

"I learn off the best, obviously." I stuck my chin high up in the air as I motioned to the boy In front of me.

"Hey! Did you just- did you seriously just backfire my own joke on me?"

"Indeed I did. You're not the only one good at being snarky." I stuck my tongue out at him and walked back into the living room.