Chapter 20 – Cracks in the Mask
831 Words
The thing about fire?
It doesn’t always explode.
Sometimes, it starts with a spark.
A whisper.
A flicker of heat behind a locked door.
And then, slowly… it eats through everything.
Lena felt it as she sat at the dinner table that night, her fork poised mid-air, her thoughts far from the roasted chicken on her plate. Her parents chatted about work, the local HOA drama, and a neighbor’s poorly placed lawn gnome.
Everything was so… normal.
Too normal.
“Lena, you’ve barely touched your food,” her mom said, slicing her chicken into identical triangles. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Fine,” Lena said quickly. “Just tired.”
Her dad looked up from his phone. “You’ve been tired a lot lately.”
“School’s a lot.”
“Are your grades slipping?” he asked, casually—but it landed like a hammer.
“No,” Lena said. “Of course not.”
Because if her grades slipped, the questions would start.
And if the questions started… she didn’t know how long she could keep lying.
Lying felt wrong.
But hiding Jace?
That felt worse.
She excused herself as soon as she could, practically sprinting to her room. Once the door shut behind her, she finally breathed. And then, like muscle memory, she reached for her phone.
Lena: I feel like I’m living a double life.
Jace: You are.
Lena: Why doesn’t it feel wrong when I’m with you?
Jace: Because I’m the only place you get to breathe.
Her throat tightened.
Lena: I wish I could bring you into my world without it collapsing.
Jace: Maybe it’s time to stop trying to protect a world that never fit you in the first place.
She stared at that message for a long time.
Because… he wasn’t wrong.
She didn’t feel like Lena Owens, future valedictorian and Ivy League hopeful anymore.
She felt like someone else.
Someone braver.
Someone real.
Someone who could say no to everything she’d been told to want.
And yes to what she actually did.
⸻
The next morning was a storm waiting to happen.
And like clockwork, it hit in first period.
Ms. Russell’s voice cut through the silence like a blade. “Lena Owens. Principal’s office.”
Heads turned.
Even Riley raised an eyebrow from across the room.
Lena stood slowly, her pulse hammering. She hadn’t done anything—had she?
But as she reached the main office and saw her mom already waiting, arms crossed and lips pressed into a line of disapproval, Lena knew something had snapped.
Her mom didn’t even wait for the door to shut.
“I got a call this morning.”
Lena stayed silent.
“From a parent,” her mom continued. “Apparently, you were seen leaving a party… with Jace Blackwood. On his motorcycle.”
Lena’s heart sank.
So this was it.
Her mom’s eyes were fire. “Is it true?”
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Then: “Yes.”
Silence. Sharp. Cold.
“I thought you were smarter than this, Lena.”
“I am smart. You just don’t like that I’m making my own choices.”
Her mom stepped forward. “He’s trouble. That boy has a file in this office thicker than the school handbook.”
“He’s more than that. You don’t know him.”
Her mom’s voice was ice. “And clearly, neither do you.”
The words hit like a slap.
“You think because you’ve followed the rules your whole life, you’re immune to mistakes?” her mom added. “This isn’t a storybook. That boy is going to ruin you.”
Lena clenched her fists.
“I don’t care what the file says,” she said. “I’ve seen who he is when no one’s watching. When he’s not defending himself. When he’s just him.”
“And what about you, Lena?” her mom asked. “Who are you when you’re with him?”
Lena swallowed.
She didn’t say the answer out loud.
But she knew it in her bones.
Free.
⸻
After school, she didn’t wait for Jace to find her.
She went to him.
He was leaning against his bike in the lot, earbuds in, hoodie half-zipped, the very picture of beautiful defiance.
When he saw her storming toward him, he straightened.
“You okay?”
“My mom knows.”
Jace blinked. “What did she say?”
“That I’m ruining my life.”
He hesitated. “Am I?”
Lena stepped closer. “If anything, you’re the only part of it that makes sense.”
And before he could say anything, she pulled him into a kiss.
Right there.
In the middle of the parking lot.
In front of cars. Teachers. Students. Anyone who might be watching.
She didn’t care.
Not anymore.
Because maybe the world needed to see it.
That Lena Owens had rules.
But she also had a rebellion.
And his name was Jace Blackwood.
- Writer
