Present

Alley POV

The rest of the week I stayed with Ace and we hung out wrapped around each other. He was supposed to go into the city but he told his dad he had a big game coming up. One thing his dad caved for was winning any kind of competition. He wanted the Blackwood name to be known as the smartest, sexist, most ruthless, and even most athletic out of anyone else.

We didn't talk about what happened that night or anything that we fought about the weeks before. We were just us again. I had my friends over again Thursday night but I could still see the distance between Ace and my brother. Derek and Layla seemed to be a lot closer so I was happy about that. Ethan brought Jess with him and I was starting to warm up to her. She didn't grow up here so I'm sure this fucked up little town was strange to her. I was giving her the benefit of the doubt plus Ethan seemed to be happy and he deserved that.

At school no one so much as gave me a dirty look. The whole school knew that even if Christian