Inhaling deeply Jace sucked on his cigarette, enjoying the burn down his throat as he held it all back before blowing the smoke out in circles.
“What’s the plan?”
Jace looked up at his best friend Matt who was staring at him eagerly.
“For what?” Jace replied although he had a pretty good idea where this conversation was going.
Matt’s brown eyes sparked with excitement as he ran his hands through his short blonde hair.
“The holidays! We’ve already wasted the first couple days so that gives us just over a week to get into a whole lot of trouble.”
Jace shrugged. “What we do every holidays I guess.”
Matt punched him in the shoulder. “That is not the attitude that is going to bring about an epic adventure.”
“We’ve lived here our whole lives, we’ve done the same s**t every holidays with the same people. Why is this going to be any different?” Jace asked, knowing he was fighting a losing battle here.
Matt rolled his eyes. “Take your dress off and end this tea party. We are going to have an awesome holiday and you are going to start getting on board or I’m getting a new wing man.”
Jace grinned. “Wing man? Dude you’re dating my sister and I’m the single one, if anything I need the wing man, not you.”
Matt returned his grin with a lopsided one of his own. “Tell you what, you stop killing my buzz and I’ll start helping you with girls.”
Jace rolled his eyes. “I don’t need your help.”
“Yeah? Who are you taking to formal?” Matt asked accusingly.
“That’s like six months away dude, how the hell should I know?”
Matt looked at him like he was out of his mind. “You don’t know anything do you? Girls have been planning this for years, most of them already have dates. Your own sister already has her hair appointment booked and you haven’t even thought about asking anyone!”
“Why do I have to? I’ll just go with the boys.”
Jace had no idea why Matt had to make such a huge production out of everything. Then again they’d been best friends for over ten years now so maybe it was his problem for not accepting it by now.
“The boys already have their dates,” Matt told him smugly.
Frustration filled Jace, of course he’d be left out of this too. Isn’t that always the way? The last to be invited to parties because no one wanted to deal with the drama that would inevitably follow him. Banned from family holidays because generally any holidays his mother took were to get away from him.
“I’ll go alone then,” he snapped and stalked out of the room, jogging down the stairs and running right into his sister.
“Where is the fire?” she asked as she bit into an apple, her pixie like face amused.
“Don’t just run away like that!” Matt huffed as he ran into the kitchen after them. “I’m sorry ok? I thought you knew.”
Maia grinned. “Lovers quarrel?”
Matt rolled his eyes at her. “Babe I don’t know how many times we’re going to have to go through this; it’s you that I want.”
Maia smirked. “You spend more time in his room than mine.”
Matt looked to Jace for help but Jace just smiled. “We shouldn’t lie to her anymore honey, what we have is real.”
Maia flicked her black hair over her shoulder and sashayed out of the room with a chuckle.
Matt thumped Jace on the chest. “Now she’s going to be at me for days about our so called love.”
Jace winked. “You’re welcome.”
Matt grunted in frustration. “Whatever, listen, Tyler is throwing a party tonight, we should go.”
Jace couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do less. He was pretty aware of his reputation for being a no hope stoner but that didn’t mean he liked it or embraced it and after being left the man of the house after the drama with his dad it was getting harder to pretend that it didn’t kill him every time he came home smelling like a brewery and his mum couldn’t even muster the energy to yell at him.
“Jace? Hello? Did you hear me?”
Jace looked up and shrugged. He would hate himself for this tomorrow but honestly; where else was he going to go?
Matt saw it the moment he gave in and thumped him on the back in excitement.
“Yes! Finally some entertainment! Just don’t tell Maia this was my idea ok?”
Jace grinned. “You are so whipped.”
Matt went slightly red. “At least I have someone.”
Ouch. There it was, the constant jab that Jace was once again alone and forced to be reminded of everything he was missing from the closest people around him.
“I didn’t mean that,” Matt said quietly. “I’m sorry. Come on, let’s go get a feed and we can work out what we’re doing after.”
Jace followed Matt out of the house passing the removalist truck that was parked next door.
“Who’s that?” he asked Matt.
He was rewarded with a shrug. “I don’t know man, you should ask your mum.”
Jace looked over curiously, trying to get a glimpse of his new neighbours and only catching a brief flash of blonde hair disappearing into the house.
He hoped it was someone his age; he could definitely use a fresh face and a distraction from his loneliness and if it was a pretty face to ease the ache in his heart that would be all the better.