Chapter 1
Leo gets his first confession a month after he transfers in. Jace watches it from the upper windows with the rest of the audience Leo doesn't seem to realize he has—the audience Jace would, if he were a better man, warn him about.
He isn't a better man.
The girl's voice is too soft to hear, but Leo's carries well against the concrete of their old school building.
"I can't," Leo tells her.
The twist in Jace hadn't realized his gut was caught up in uncoils, but only for that instant, because Leo follows it with, "I'm seeing someone."
The floor slips out from under Jace like it's on wheels.
Someone grabs him by the back of the shirt before he can slip out the window and meet his untimely—timely, actually—demise at Leo's feet.
Someone else leans in close and asks him, "Ashford has a girlfriend?
Did you know?"
The hushed whispers filling the room die as the entirety of the class hangs on his answer.
He dusts himself off, picks up the part of him that's still spiraling across the floor, and gives the only one he possibly can:
Of course, I knew."
He didn't, of course.
The facts of his life Leo shares are simple and spare and as far between as a summer snow.
No; bad metaphor, it never snowed in Suncoast before Leo showed up.
Every fact of his life is something Jace has had to beg out of him, and it's not even that he's trying to hide anything.
It's not even that Leo is too cool to share.
It simply wouldn't occur to him anyone else wanted to know.
A secret girlfriend is so on point for Leo that Jace wonders why he ever assumed otherwise.
Won't hit on girls, won't go to meetups, won't talk about girls period, come to that.
Jace works up the courage to ask between then and the ride home.
"I saw what happened at lunch," Jace tells him, and, "Sorry," and hopes his voice sounds as light as he's trying to force it to be.
"Who's the new girlfriend?" It almost comes out too casual, if that's possible.
Evidently, yes, by the look Leo gives him.
"Oh.
Her?
I don't remember her name."
Jace snorts.
"Man, that's brutal.
No, I meant, I heard what you told her.
You're seeing someone.
Who's the lucky girl?"
It takes all of his mustered courage and a little more to come out with all that in a solid row of coherent words, but of course all it earns him is a roll of Leo's eyes.
"Haha," Leo says.
"Funny."
Jace throws out his hand without meaning to, more for emphasis than anything else, because Leo still has that dumb-simple look like none of this matters.
It connects with Leo's shoulder, a light slap.
"No, I'm serious.
Why didn't you tell me you had someone?"
Leo pulls up short.
"You're joking."
"But...
Okay, wait." He puts a hand to his head like he's trying to hold it on straight.
"You're serious?
You're not joking?"
It's times like these his Valorian starts to fail him in little ways.
The words come out stunted, accented, the syllables drawn out.
It would be cute if Jace weren't so—something.
"Yes," he bites out.
"Why wouldn't you tell me?
That's kind of a big deal!" He isn't trying to keep the hurt from his voice anymore.
"I thought," Leo starts, and stops.
He puts his face in his hands, and continues in a muffled voice in no language Jace knows.
It makes him mad, and he knows it's not rational, but he still reaches out and slaps Leo on the shoulder again, lightly.
With his hurt hand, it occurs to him after, but the pain is a little bit good even as he clutches it to his chest.
It's a part of him that hurts for an actual reason.
"We're friends.
You're supposed to tell me this stuff."
Leo's shoulders jump.
"Friends," he says to his hand.
"Right.
We are friends."
And, come on.
They are that, at least.
Leo has to know that.
What else could it be?
Work colleagues?
Classmates?
Or—no, what if Leo thinks he's some kind of skateboarding instructor?
His best friend in seventeen years thinks he's a skateboarding instructor.
Makes sense.
Super cool.
He sits back on his heels and savors the ache in his hand and makes himself ask, "Is it someone from class?"
Leo pushes his board back and forth, the little rumble of the tires filling the late afternoon quiet between them as he takes a deep, audible breath, looks directly at Jace, and nods.
"Yes."
And that's a surprise.
Jace tries not to let it show.
"Have you guys been on any dates?"
I mean, I thought they were dates."
That's... kind of sweet.
Sweet in the way that feels like it's going to make Jace sick.
"How have you even had time for that?" he mutters.
"You spend all your time with me."
Leo gives him a look.
Or, gives the wall over Jace's shoulder a look, before he kicks off.
"If you figure out who it is, I'll tell you."
How is that fair?
"Is it Yuna?"
"No."
"Are you pissed at me?"
"Are you lying?"
"...No."
There are few places to go in the city that Leo won't follow, and right now, Jace needs to put his head on straight, no blue eyes in sight.
Luckily, he's been dodging an invite from Taro to crash a local restaurant for weeks.
A quick text and he's got someone to distract him from the sad reality he's been dropped into, because even if Taro is annoying, he's at least less annoying than the voice in the back of Jace's mind that's been whispering a thin chorus of what the fuck since Leo left him at his door.
"What's wrong?
You look like you busted your nuts on a board," Taro says when he walks in.
Jace sets his bag down, and his head on the counter.
"Don't.
Don't talk like that.
It's creepy coming from you."
If anything, Taro seems to take it as a compliment.
"Is this about Leo?"
"How did you know?"
"Who else?" Taro takes a long lick off his spoon.
"Where is he, anyway?
I thought you two were attached at the hip."
Probably with his new girlfriend."