Hartley hadn't spoken to me since the roof. The moment he'd clambered down—during which he hadn't even looked at me—he'd sought out Callie, falling into step beside her as if we hadn't just spent the past hour acting like, well, friends. Good friends. We'd laughed and joked and teased, and it had felt comfortable in a way that the newfound friendship hadn't yet. It seemed that it hadn't been as revolutionary and world-altering for Hartley as it had been for me.

The pair of them had suggested a walk along the beach after our game of hide and seek, and led the escapade together, his dark head bent next to her golden one conspiratorially. With the winter sun beating down on the tops of their heads, warm despite the season, and the crashing waves as a backdrop, they looked every bit like a golden couple from a magazine. It made me want to throw a shoe at them.

Knight was strolling next to me, with Chance, Kaelin and Alex a small way behind, and Daria bringing up the rear with Cady and Jonah, seemingly encouraging some pep into the pair of them with her bouncing steps and cheery smile.

Knight looked back at Daria with disgust. "Daria actually found me first," he said mournfully.

"No, really? She wasn't fooled by the lying directly behind her trick? Bummer." Then I hit him in the side. "Now shut up."

"Why are we shutting up?" he whispered.

"Because," I hissed. "I'm eavesdropping."

Knight's voice was still lowered. "Is this because you're into Hartley and you're jealous of Callie?"

"No. Now shut it so I can listen to their conversation."

Knight smirked, but remained silent.

"I kept telling Daria to just call you and then we could follow your ringtone, but she kept saying it was cheating!" Callie was saying. "I said that it's not cheating after an hour, but she was steadfast."

Steadfast. A smart word. Okay, so Callie was good at English. Jace was officially already horny. It just worked like that with nerds.

"Here's the thing to know about Daria, right. She is fiercely moral. You couldn't get her to do anything remotely sketchy. Okay, we were out once, right? At the movies or something. We'd just finished watching our film, and I wanted to see the end of the next one playing in the other cinema. She ran out and bought us two tickets to the other movie so that we could watch the last five minutes legally."

"You're kidding," said Callie. "I love her."

More points for Callie. She loved Daria. Well, that was hardly special. I loved Daria, too.

"Oh, same," said Jace. "We've been best friends since, like, forever."

Callie leaned into his side. "Just friends?"

Jace looked down at her, and he was smiling. "Yeah, just friends. Never had anything else between us."

Callie looked coquettishly through her lashes. "Well, that's good," she said. "Because I was thinking of asking you out sometime. If that's okay with you."

Jace looked up then, his eyes falling on me, but I hid my face beneath my cap, turning immediately to Knight, who was distinctly amused. When I chanced a glance upward, Jace's eyes were on Callie again. "That's okay with me."

Callie's answering grin was radiant. "How does tomorrow night sound?"

"It sounds perfect."

I made a small sound in the base of my throat, and Knight poked me in the ribs. "Jealous?"

"No," I insisted. "I just think Callie could do much better. Like, Tommy DeRiva. Right? We should set her up with Tommy. Great kisser, stand-up guy."

"Ship has sailed, love. Accept your fate."

I scoffed. "It doesn't impact me."

"No?"

"No. I just think that Callie is delightful and should explore the vast variety of options before she, uh, settles."

"Yeah, okay, Lena."

"Hey, Lena!" Chance called out from behind me. I turned around to see that he'd broken off from the group, leaving Kaelin and Alex and running after us, panting, sand flying up around his ankles. We halted to wait for him to catch up.

"Chance. What's up?"

He pointed between Knight and I, still exhausted and holding his knees to catch his breath. "Can you explain what this thing is? Why did I have to Mission Impossible to spring some random guy from your bedroom."

"Oh, that," I said. "Knight is a fugitive of the law. They think he murdered seven people, but I have faith in him. He seems like a nice guy, right?"

Chance bolted upright and sprang backward. His hands were flailing slightly in the way he always did when stressed, his glasses slipping slightly down his nose. "What? Lena Katerina-Millicent Montez, tell me you're joking."

Knight grinned at me. "Tell me he's joking about your middle name."

I shoved him lightly.

"Don't shove a potential murderer!" Chance squawked. His hands were wheeling at impressive speeds now. It would've been a good weapon if Knight was, you know, vaguely threatening in any way whatsoever. "He will kill you."

"Oh, but I do so love living life on the edge," I said seriously. "Let me push the murderer, please, Mum."

I thought Chance would combust on the spot.

Knight shoved me back and addressed Chance. "Yes, she is very much joking."

Chance exhaled sharply, wiping his brow. His laugh was high. "Ha. I knew that."

I looked to Knight. "The fact that he believed me for a minute there makes me concerned for the way my friends perceive me. Like, do I give off the vibe that I'm an idiot."

Knight's hand came up to rest on my shoulder, halting our walk for a moment. He looked deeply into my eyes. "Yes."

I shoved him off me. "Oh, shut up."

Chance tapped me on my shoulder. "Um, hi? Explanation was pending. One that isn't going to give me a heart attack, please."

I sighed. "Yeah, okay. Knight is a classic riches to rags story. His parents kicked him out and he was homeless, so I smuggled him into my house and now he's living in my wardrobe, but my parents don't know." Knight nodded along with my story.

Chance laughed. "You can't get me a second time, Leens. Can you just tell me?"

Knight raised an eyebrow. "That's the real story."

"Get out of here."

"100% legit."

Chance looked between us, clocking the sincerity of our expressions and tones. There was still an extended moment before realization dawned, and gasped like a fish out of water, his arms flailing awkwardly. "Wha—?"

"Oh, don't worry," I added. "I do know him. Somewhat. He's a friend of a friend. You've heard of the Knight family, right? Son of my parent's business partners? Yeah, this is that kid."

"Why did I make you tell me this?" Chance squeaked. "You should've lied!"

"We did," I pointed out.

Chance ignored me. "I don't want to know this! I don't want any involvement in your crime. Is it a crime? Am I an accessory to something? Do his parents know where he is or is this kind of like kidnapping? Are police looking for him? Are we hiding him from police?"

"I'm like... ninety-five percent sure that stashing Knight in my room isn't a crime," I said reassuringly. Wait, was that a crime? "Calm down."

"Why did you even tell me this? You've lied to everyone else! You didn't need to tell me the truth."

It was true; I'd told the others he was my friend from the rich people world, and they'd all easily shrugged, even after hearing that Chance had smuggled him into his car.

I shrugged. "Uh, 'cause you're the mom friend? And it's not like I can tell my actual parents. They would shoot both me and Knight."

Chance moaned. "Oh, god, they'll shoot me too. I'm roped into you guys' thing. Oh, man."

Knight clapped him on the shoulder. "Mate, you'll be all good. Promise. No one is looking for me, I promise. Consider me a stray puppy, and Lena is just letting you know so you can take me out for walks when she's away."

I laughed at that, and even Chance cracked a small smile, his hyperventilating calming slightly. "Yeah, okay."

Alex and Kaelin had caught up to us by then, mental breakdowns slowing our walking process. "What's Chance having an aneurism about?" Kaelin asked.

"Uh. He remembered he forgot to sharpen a pencil at home," I said.

Chance stabbed me in the side with his finger.

"Oh, okay," said Alex.

Even Daria and the lazy duo had caught up to us by the end of this exchange. Cady and Jonah were looking relatively disgruntled—Daria had clearly dragged them part of the way for speed—while Daria was looking ecstatic and bubbly, despite her obvious exhaustion.

"Hey, guys!" said Daria. "You okay, Chance?"

"Unsharpened pencil at home," I said.

"Ah, that's always, um... rough," said Daria.

"Yes," said Chance without any emotion. He glared at me. "It is a very hard time for me."

"What's a hard time?" said Jace. He and Callie had clearly doubled back on their cute little couples stroll to see what was taking us so long; nice of them to leave their own little bubble of romance. Jace's hair was windblown and messy and beautiful, the beachy waves giving his hair the kind of effortless look that was almost painfully handsome. The sun was really giving me issues today. Heatstroke.

"Unsharpened pencil," said Daria.

"Did someone... use it to stab a relative?" Jace said.

"No," I said. "It's just... Chance forgot to sharpen it. It is just sitting there, uh, sad and unsharpened."

Chance looked as if he wanted to walk into the water with rocks in his pockets.

Jace gave us an odd look. "Uh, well. Okay."

Daria stopped walking for a moment, her phone buzzing incessantly. "Oh, sorry guys. You go ahead. I've got to take this."

"Nate?" Jace asked.

Daria nodded, accepting the call and bringing the phone up to her ear, walking away from the group.

"Who's Nate?" Callie asked.

"Daria's boyfriend," I said with a scowl. "You guys keep walking; I'll wait back for her."

"Me too," said Jace.

The others made eyes at each other, looking for confirmation. Kaelin shrugged. "Yeah, okay. Text us." The rest murmured their confirmations and began to walk further along the beach. Jonah looked back for a moment, his dark eyes resting on the back of Daria's head. I thought he was going to offer to stay back as well, but after a prolonged second, he turned around and followed the others.

"What do you think he's calling for?" I asked Jace. "Do you think he's telling her that he accidentally ran over an old lady or something?"

Jace smiled, but it was tighter than it had been on the roof. "Probably," he agreed, but it was slightly stilted. Well. I guess the friendship thing had hit another speed bump.

"So... you're going out with Callie?" I asked.

Jace shrugged. "I guess so. I think it'll be a casual thing, though. She doesn't seem to want anything serious."

"Do you?"

"Maybe," he said with consideration. "But that would depend on the person."

"Right," I said. I had always assumed that he wasn't looking for something serious. Jace was a pretty committed guy; committed to Daria, committed to footy, committed to his parents, his studies, his friends, his teammates. Committed to terrorizing me. He was just that kind of guy; the one who put his all into everything. But for some reason, I'd never thought the same thing applied to girls. His only relationship had been McKenna, and even that had been broken off after three months, despite the fact she was still a little bit in love with him. I mean, he'd talked to Shara Yung and Jessica Small, and hooked up with Marianna Holbrook and Rebecca Lever at parties. But none of it was ever serious.

I just hadn't pegged Jace Hartley for a relationship guy.

Before I had to think of something else to say, Daria had walked back over to us, her eyes brimming with tears. Her phone was hanging limply at her side.

"You okay, hon?" I asked.

"I don't know," she admitted. "He's just... I don't know."

"A dick?" I supplied.

Daria's smile was watery. "He can be, yeah."

Jace wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "It's okay, Dars. Anything we can do?"

Before Daria could answer, her phone pinged. She couldn't look at it. "Oh, god," she said quietly. She held out the phone to Jace. "I can't look. Can you read it?"

Jace lifted the phone and glanced down with trepidation, hesitating at the words he saw there. He looked to Daria for confirmation, but her head was buried in my shoulder. "Do you honestly feel the need to hang out with your second boyfriend and his..." Jace hesitated. "...slut girlfriend again?"

Daria bolted upright. "He didn't."

I snatched the phone out of Jace's grip. Jace didn't seem to mind, looking relieved that he was no longer the bearer of Nate's filthy words. My eyes scanned over his words. To be honest, this seemed tame compared to the disgusting things he'd said to Daria before, but she was trembling with anger. Daria was defensive of her friends—fiercely so—and it seemed this was one last slight she refused to bare. "I can't believe he called me Jace's girlfriend!"

"That's your issue?" said Jace.

"Kind of!"

Daria smiled slightly at that.

"Hey, Dars," Jace said, touching her arm with a featherlight softness. "What do you wanna do? We'll back you up, no matter what."

She opened her mouth and closed it again. Daria's face was flushed, her usual perkiness completely eclipsed by red-hot rage. It was almost as if she was in a trance. "I can't—" she said. "He can't say things like that."

"I know," Jace said gently. He didn't say I told you so, or lecture her, or patronise her. "And he shouldn't say things like that, not about Lena. But what really matters is what you want to do about it."

I looked over at him with admiration. I liked this version of Jace Hartley. Bet with Austin and our makeshift truce aside, this was the Jace Hartley, the one I caught glimpses of occasionally, where I finally got it. Everyone's thing with him.

This Jace Hartley was the one I'd agreed to be friends with. The Jace Hartley who was, genuinely, a good guy. I had to admit it now; in the wake of our feud, the guy who was left was pure, honest, kind.

He pulled Daria into the cradle of his arms, and she cried, her tiny frame wracked with deep sobs.

Who needed to feud with Jace Hartley when I could hate Nate Lever with the burning passion of a thousand stars instead?

Jace looked at me over Daria's head, his eyes betraying the anger that his voice and body did not. I nodded back, steadfast in my resolve to protect and support Daria. Amongst everything, this was one thing that we were in agreement on.

I placed my hand comfortingly on Daria's shoulder, and Jace smiled.

"I can't believe I'm Jace Hartley's slut girlfriend!" I said.

Daria laughed.

***

I promised 10 chapters for 10K reads, and we have hit that milestone today! Thanks so much guys. Over the next 24 hours, you will be getting 10 chapters from me! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU