The Message He Shouldn’t Have Sent
1161 Words
THE NEXT MORNING
I didn’t sleep.
I closed my eyes, but every time I drifted off, I heard his voice again.
Don’t come early tomorrow.
Please.
Jace Blackwood didn’t say please unless something was seriously wrong.
By the time sunlight crept across my bedroom floor, my stomach was a knot of nerves.
I stared at my phone for the hundredth time.
No new messages.
No explanation.
No hint of why he wanted me to stay home until second period.
I shouldn’t care this much.
I shouldn’t feel this anxious over a boy who keeps pushing me away.
But something about Jace’s tone last night…
It didn’t sound like a warning.
It sounded like fear.
And Jace Blackwood wasn’t someone who feared easily.
AUNT MIRA
“You’re not dressed,” Aunt Mira said as she stepped into my room with a basket of laundry.
“I’m… not going for first period today,” I said, trying to sound casual.
She frowned. “Why? You’re not sick, are you?”
“No, just… starting later.”
She studied me for a moment then sighed.
“Alright. Just don’t make a habit of it.”
“I won’t.”
But the truth?
I would’ve skipped the entire day if Jace told me to.
I hated that.
I hated how easily he got into my head.
SECOND PERIOD
By the time I arrived at school, the campus felt strangely tense.
Not noisy.
Not chaotic.
Just… off.
Students huddled in small groups, whispering.
Teachers looked stressed.
Security guards were positioned near the entrances, which almost never happened.
My chest tightened.
What the hell happened?
I headed toward my locker, but before I could reach it, a hand closed around my elbow, firm and urgent.
I turned sharply and breath caught.
Jace.
His hood was up, jaw tight, eyes darker than I’d ever seen them.
“Are you crazy?” he hissed.
“What—”
“I told you not to come early.”
“I didn’t. It’s second period—”
“Yes, and that’s already too early.”
Okay, what?
“Jace, what’s going on?”
He glanced around, jaw ticking, shoulders tense like he was barely keeping it together.
His hand was still on my arm, his warm, strong and slightly trembling arms.
That scared me more than anything.
“Jace,” I whispered, “you’re shaking.”
He dropped my arm instantly, stepping back.
“I’m fine.”
He wasn’t.
A guy like Jace didn’t tremble unless something was deeply wrong.
I lowered my voice. “Tell me.”
“Can’t,” he muttered.
“Why not?”
“Because the less you know, the safer you are.”
I hated that sentence.
I hated how familiar it sounded like every cliché in every dangerous-boy story.
But this wasn’t fiction.
This was real.
And his eyes…
They weren’t cold today.
They were scared.
“What happened this morning?” I asked softly.
Jace looked away. “There was… an incident.”
My heart dropped. “What kind of incident?”
“A fight.”
I stared. “People fight here all the time.”
His jaw clenched. “Not like this.”
A chill ran through me.
He wasn’t telling me everything.
He wasn’t even telling me half.
“Jace… were you in it?”
His silence was enough.
He didn’t confirm it.
He didn’t deny it.
But the faint bruise on his cheekbone?
The split skin along his knuckles?
The way he held his ribs like they hurt?
Yeah. He’d been in it.
“Who?” I whispered. “Who were you fighting?”
He exhaled harshly. “Ariel—”
“Tell me.”
His eyes snapped to mine. “No.”
“Why?”
“Because it doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
His eyes changed, softened, darkened, twisted with something that scared me more than anger.
“Ariel…” he said quietly. “You shouldn’t care.”
“I do.”
His chest rose sharply like that single sentence was a hit he didn’t expect.
He took a step back, shaking his head.
“This is exactly why I told you to stay away.”
I let out a frustrated breath. “You keep saying that, but you’re the one finding me. You’re the one texting me warnings. You’re the one—”
“Because you don’t understand the people involved,” he cut in quietly. “You don’t know what they’re capable of.”
“And you do?”
He didn’t answer.
“Jace…” My voice softened. “You’re scaring me.”
He swallowed.
“Good,” he whispered. “Maybe that will keep you alive.”
Before I could respond, Mason jogged toward us from down the hall, eyes wide.
“There you are! Bro—Principal Rowan is looking for you. And he’s pissed.”
Jace closed his eyes, muttering something under his breath.
Mason turned to me.
“And you—you should absolutely not be here right now. Like at all.”
My stomach twisted. “Why?”
Mason hesitated, glancing at Jace.
Jace shook his head.
Mason sighed. “This is going to blow up.”
Jace shot him a sharp look. “Mason.”
“What? She deserves to know at least part of it.”
I grabbed Mason’s sleeve. “Know what?”
He lowered his voice.
“Someone brought your name up during the fight.”
My heart stopped.
“What?” I whispered.
Jace’s head snapped toward Mason. “Shut your mouth.”
Mason held up his hands. “I didn’t say who.”
A cold shock rippled through me.
“My name? Why—”
“Ariel, go home,” Jace said, voice like dark steel. “Now.”
“No.”
“Ariel—”
“No,” I repeated, louder this time. “I’m done running. I’m done being left in the dark. If my name is being dragged into something, I deserve to know why.”
Jace stared at me, long, intense, tortured.
Then softly, almost painfully:
“You’re my weakness.”
My breath hitched. “What?”
He closed the distance between us in two steps, not touching me but close enough that heat radiated off him.
“Someone used your name to get to me,” he whispered. “To distract me. To piss me off. To break my focus.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why would they do that?”
And then—
The truth I wasn’t ready for.
“Because everyone knows,” Jace said hoarsely, “that the fastest way to hurt me… is through you.”
The hallway disappeared.
My heartbeat drowned out everything.
I didn’t know what scared me more—
The fact that someone used me as leverage…
Or the fact that Jace Blackwood just admitted I mattered.
In the worst, most dangerous way possible.
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