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I called Grace. She didn't pick up.

Which was unusual since she answered my calls every time. Only this time, she didn't. Which meant she must've been busy.

I vaguely remembered Mom telling me how Jordyn had kind of seemed busy this morning too. Maybe they were going somewhere for the weekend.

Frowning a little, I dragged a hand through my hair, pushing back my curls. If something's wrong, Grace would tell me. She always did.

Perhaps right now I should've been more focused on the big problem here--my bed. Tubes of paints were scattered around the sheets; little blotches of blues and greens were smeared everywhere.

Mom was going to be so mad. Which should've been normal by now since she knew how much I loved painting. Relied on it, more specifically. Smearing those paints everywhere was what I did all the time.

I looked over at the newly painted canvas in front of me and a smile formed on my lips. Something about those brush strokes--so full of colour--and making the blank canvases come to life had always made me so happy. It was a kind of excitement that made me feel alive.

That, and Grace.

Those felt like the two most important things in my life.

I glanced up at the clock and went towards my closet. Taking off my shirt, I shrugged on a black hoodie and moved towards the door before making sure to close the lights off once I was out.

Lights off and Mom won't pry in here. Usually, when I was done painting, I made sure to store the canvases in the space beside the closet doors. No one went past it. No one, not even Grace knew about that spot--well, almost.

"Mom, I'll be back by midnight," I shouted towards the kitchen before grabbing the car keys.

"Be safe, Luc." I heard her voice as I moved out towards the car. It was Dad's since I didn't have a license yet. Just one more year left but I still drove a lot.

Before going towards the car, I went to the house beside mine; Grace's house. Swinging open the fence, I stepped on the porch stairs and rang the doorbell. The familiar bell chimed as seconds passed by. No one answered at first, but right when I was about to press the bell for the second time, the door opened and Mrs Collins looked at me.

"Jordyn." I smiled at her. "Is Grace coming?"

"Gracie?" She looked behind her as if she had forgotten something. She looked tired, I noticed. Maybe even exhausted. "Oh, she left already. To that party, right?"

"Right." I nodded, the smile slowly falling from my lips. "Left with whom?"

Grace never left without me.

"Mason," Jordyn responded with a tired smile. I smiled back even when I didn't feel like it.

"Oh. I'll...get going too then."

"Sure, dear." She said before stepping back inside the house. "Be safe."

When I got inside my car, I was a little surprised to know that I felt angry. Not exactly angry, but upset, yeah.

Why had Grace gone with Mason of all people? They had dated for the past three months, sure, but she had just broken up with him. And I didn't necessarily have to like Mason, I realised as I wrapped my fingers around the steering wheel. Mason wasn't a nice guy. Always looking for new ways to steal my spot in the soccer team.

Grace knew that.

When I reached the party, I wasn't surprised at the lights or the loud music blaring out of the house. Typical party at Parker's.

"Luc, my man! I thought you weren't coming!" Parker yelled over the loud music as I stepped past the front doors. He looked a decent amount away from being sober.

"Why wouldn't I come?"

"I don't know, man." He shrugged, his words slurring up a bit.

"Luc!" For a second, I thought it was Grace. But then again, she never really called me that. It was always Luca with her.

Instead, it was Emily. "Em, hey," I spoke up, my eyes searching through the crowd for only one person.

"Where's Grace? She didn't come with you?" She asked, her big hazel eyes trained on me.

Emily was pretty. But unlike most of the guys in this town, I didn't like her in that way; I didn't have a crush on her. Grace, on the other hand, thought that I did. I think she even tried to set me up with Emily once during the first few months we joined high school.

Perhaps that was exactly why I had brought up Emily's name at school today, just so that Grace would agree to come here with me. I needed some time alone with her. Grace had seemed distracted for days now and I wanted to know what was bothering her.

But she had brought Mason along.

"No, she came here with Mason." I wasn't surprised by the way I spoke his name. As I said before, I didn't like that guy. "I should catch up with her. Will talk later, Em."

"Oh, all right. I'll see you around!" Em smiled at me right before I started squeezing my way past the dense crowd, looking around for Grace.

I was about to take my phone out and call Grace when I spotted her on one of the stools lining the kitchen counter. It could've been almost anyone, but it was the shirt she was wearing that gave it away.

My blue hoodie.

"Grace." I dodged a person before going over to her. She turned around slowly and eyed me. There was no Mason with her (thankfully).

"Luca." A small hiccup escaped her lips. "What are you doing here?"

My eyes trailed down to the red solo cup in her hand. A small grin took over my lips before I sat down on the stool beside hers. "Gracie, I thought you hated getting drunk."

She hiccuped once again before gulping down all the contents of the cup in her hand. Then she turned her whole self towards me, her thighs grazing softly against my own.

"Luca?" Grace spoke up in the softest of murmurs, making my eyes trail up to her face.

"Yeah?"

"I'll miss you." Her brown eyes swept across my face as if trying to memorize what it looked like. That's what I did when I was about to paint something or someone.

I leaned a little towards her and wrapped my hands around her wrists, making her look me in the eye. "Why are you saying that?"

She went silent for a while. "I miss people after...when I get drunk."

I chuckled at that and she smiled too. This girl right here, this beautiful amazing girl, was the reason I laughed each day, ever since I was seven. Once again, probably for the thousandth time, I found myself thanking the gods out there that I met her. I couldn't imagine where I would be today if I hadn't. If I hadn't met my Grace.

"Doesn't your boyfriend get jealous when he sees you wearing my hoodie?" I asked her quietly, tracing my thumb along the inside of her left wrist.

She blinked and the slight tilt of her head came out rather innocently. "Boyfriend?"

"Mason."

"Didn't I break up with him?" She asked, a furrow forming in between her brows. And I wanted, I wanted so badly to lean forward and rub it off.

Letting go of her wrist, I slowly circled my hand around her waist and pulled her into my chest, into my arms.

My Grace.

It didn't take much since she complied rather easily, so eager and compliant as she placed her head on my shoulder and hiccupped again. I heard her murmur something, but it was too soft and the music was too loud.

"You smell like paint." She said a little louder this time. "Were you painting back at home?"

"Yeah." I let my hand get tangled in between her hair. Her soft, blonde hair. It was a shade in between gold and white; a shade I didn't know the name of. They didn't sell shades like that in the art shop I often went to. If they do ever come up with it someday, I knew that shade would be my favourite one.

"Were you painting a picture of me?" She asked.

I smiled at that. "I never paint pictures of you, Rose."

Grace pulled away and regarded me with a frown. "Why not? Am I not beautiful?"

One of the most beautiful things.

I looked away from her eyes, sighing a little. I knew I shouldn't think like that.

"Of course not," I replied. "I just...never did." I can't paint you, I wanted to say. I don't know how.

"That's so mean of you." The frown still didn't leave her face. "If I knew how to paint, I would've painted you first."

"Really?" I asked, a little surprised.

"Yes, Luca."

I looked over at her brown eyes, specks of gold dancing around her irises. How was I supposed to paint a picture of someone so beautiful?

I was about to say something in response when she turned around and poured some more punch into her cup. This time from a glass bottle.

"I don't think you should drink that much."

"I think I should drink that much." She replied before taking a huge sip. I stared at her with a small frown this time.

She never drank on purpose. Grace hated getting drunk at school parties.

"People are dancing." She placed back her empty cup on the counter and looked over at the spot where most of the people were dancing. "We should dance too."

She never liked dancing.

"Come on, Luca. I'll teach you how to dance." I stood up as her cold fingers wrapped around my wrist, pulling me out of the kitchen.

Once we were outside and had squeezed in between the crowd, Grace stopped. I stopped too, still eyeing her. Something was off about her. I just didn't know what.

Her eyes roamed across the room as the loud music blasted around us.

"Rose--"

"Right, we dance now." She cut me off.

She never cut me off on purpose.

I was surprised when she wrapped her arms around my neck, stepping closer. For some reason, I just couldn't stop frowning. Something was wrong.

I slowly wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer, satisfying myself that she was still here in front of me despite whatever it was that seemed so off about her. Then I looked down at her. "What's going on, Gracie?"

She just looked back at me in response. "Do you really love Emily?"

I felt my eyes widening a little. Saying that I wasn't surprised by that question would be wrong--so incredibly wrong.

"Should we not be doing this?" Grace asked in a small whisper when I made no move to reply. I still didn't say anything.

"Best friends don't touch like this." Her eyes held a faraway look in them as if she was here and wasn't here at the same time. "Best friends don't dance together like this."

"Grace--"

"I'm not supposed to do this." Her fingers absentmindedly touched the back of my head, softly caressing my hair. I stiffened in response. "I'm not supposed to ruin this."

And she was scaring me. The look in her eyes was scaring me. She was always so put together, she always kept me together. But right now, right here, she looked like she was scared of losing everything.

"Gracie, stop." I placed my hands on either side of her face, making her look at me. Really look at me. "Why are you saying all of this?"

I saw her eyes changing colours under the bright party lights. "I love you, Luca."

I didn't just hear the music this time. No, my heart was beating even louder than that fucking music. I slowly pulled my hands away. "I know that, Rose," I murmured, loud enough so she'd hear it.

Her eyes clouded over with something I was very much familiar with. Anger and frustration. "I don't mean it in that way." She said, then took a step away from me with all those thousands of emotions clouding in her eyes.

Before she could've taken another step back, I grabbed her wrist. "What do you mean then?"

The small flinch that escaped her lips didn't go unnoticed by me. Even though I didn't understand what I'd done to make her flinch, I just pulled her closer. "What the hell do you mean, Gracie?" I repeated, much more softly this time.

It took her a long time to say it again, and I was scared of what she'll say. I didn't know what I wanted her to say.

"I love you, Luca."

My eyes widened a little at her words. And it was like time slowed down, or maybe it was just me trying to calm down my fucked up thoughts. But then I looked into her eyes, into her beautiful brown eyes, and I realized she wasn't joking. This wasn't a joke and she wasn't. I just knew.

Hadn't I always known?

We stared at each other as everyone danced around us. Grace's words rang in my head. Again and again and again. Grace still looked scared, I realised. Her eyes were wide and looking at me, waiting and waiting. God, she was scared of how I was going to react.

How was I going to react?

I did the first thing that came to my mind. The first thing that I wanted.

I gripped her wrist and jerked her closer. If she was surprised, which she must've been since I was too, I didn't get to see it. All I did was grab her and kiss her. Softly at first, but when she overcame the sudden surprise and wrapped her arms around my neck, I kissed her harder.

I didn't know what I was doing.

Her lips were so soft. Everything I had ever imagined and so much more. And god, I had imagined this, this magical fucking moment, countless times. Yet it still left me wanting more.

Everything about that kiss was beautiful--so fucking beautiful. Just feeling her, holding her against me fucked me up in a way that I couldn't really explain. It felt like something was ripping apart inside me. Ripping apart and fixing back together all over again.

Grace. Grace. Grace. That's all I could think as I pulled her impossibly closer.

She made a tiny noise, a sound that made me want to tug her even closer, before she pulled away, her eyes looking wild. "Luca, maybe...maybe I shouldn't do this."

"Don't think, Gracie," I whispered against her lips. God, something inside me was aching so bad, to kiss her again and again and again.

"What if you're just doing this to make me happy?" She asked, her brows furrowing in doubt and fear.

A small, incredulous laugh escaped my lips. "Don't think, Rose," I repeated before pressing my lips against her, letting all the colours surround us. A small gasp of surprise escaped her lips, but she kissed me back. She kissed me back the same way I kissed her--softly and desperately, not knowing how to stop.

And I realized one thing then. Something that I hadn't meant to accept, not so soon.

I loved her. I always had--more than anything or anyone. My Grace.

"I love you, Rose."