5. SELF-CENTERED

Jayce usually could read people's faces, whether they were in anxiety or whether they were in happiness. And like Ashton who can read people's actions, he couldn't hide his own actions well. But both of them couldn't read Ashton himself.

"Ash, bro, what the heck?" Eric shook his friend's shoulder.

Amber covered her mouth with her hand, while Jayce still stood behind the wall.

Does he have a personality disorder or something? Jayce thought in her head.

"Ash, what the hell? Wake up," Eric tapped his shoulder, but he was still trying to breathe, in a heavy panic attack.

Jayce's brows knitted together. She knew what this was, but she wasn't fully sure of the reason he was triggered. A panic attack, which she has been used to from the heavy years of healing her trauma.

She stepped out of the wall, "Can you bring Ashton to my dorm?"

"Jayce?" Amber gasped in confusion, "Did you do this?"

Jayce looked at her sister with a restless face, "Do you really think I'm the type of person who uses someone's trauma against them? Besides, I have no idea what the heck triggered this,"

"Whatever," Eric said, "What are you going to do to him in your dorm?"

Jayce pursed her lips, "I have tranquilizers,"

"You do?" Amber furrowed.

"Fine, whatever," Eric said, "I used Ash's car, just get it there,"

Jayce nodded and took the key from Eric's pocket. She knew how it felt, how to be in that situation, with different traumas and locations and problems and fears, there was one thing she knew so much. And the thing that would trigger her panic and anxiety attacks was dormant...for now.

Dave Brooks taught her how to drive, and he taught her well. Ashton's breathing was still uneven, and he was still trying to recover from the panic attack.

"Give him water," Jayce said.

"How the hell do you know?" Amber shrieked, panicking.

"Don't freaking panic in front of me," she stated.

"That's Ashton Walker, if anything happens to him, I swear-,"

"I know what to do,"

"You don't know, you don't even know what he's having right now," Amber yelled.

"Have common sense for once, Amber," Jayce said, "Why would I offer myself to help him if I didn't know how?"

Amber huffed beside her as Jayce speeded up the car.

As soon as they got to the dorm building, Jayce stepped out of the car and opened the middle seat's door, as Eric helped Ashton.

"Take me back to my dorm," Ashton said.

"But-"

"Take me back to my dorm," he repeated, pale.

Jayce gave him a furrowed face, "I don't want to negotiate," she said calmly, "Take him back to his dorm if that's what he wants,"

Amber flinched, "Jayce, you said-"

"I would rather have anyone in this world take care of me but you," Ashton said.

"So tell me, how will you take care of yourself? Or how will others take care of you?" Jayce asked.

Ashton flustered.

"That's not really any of my business so go now," Jayce jerked her head to the doors of the dorm building.

"Ashton, I think you should really take-"

"Oh, so that I will thank her and she'll feel better and she'll feel in control?" Ashton said.

"I never use people's biggest scars or traumas against them," Jayce said, "I have a sense of mind, I have empathy over that," she stated.

Ashton stopped breathing hard, he knew he wasn't that. And he had exactly found her weakness. He was in control now, she could never be in control.

"Take me to the meds," Ashton said immediately.

Jayce knitted her brows, then huffed, "Fine, whatever,"

~~~

Amber followed Jayce as they walked towards the elevator and went up to their dorm. Jayce took the key and opened the door and went in.

Eric brought Ashton and put him on her bed.

"Amber, get him some water," Jayce said emotionlessly.

The dispenser was at the end of the hallway, and Amber went out of the room to get it. Eric followed her. He needed to take her heart in order to help Ashton destroy Jayce.

As soon as Eric and Amber stepped out of the dorm, Ashton, who was staring at Jayce, reading her every movement which was definitely nervousness, he felt something was bugging her in all of this.

From the corner of Ashton's eye, Jayce opened the drawer on her study table, and Ashton saw in a glimpse that there were bottles of pills. Not one, not two, but at least four bottles.

Ashton furrowed, "What are you? An addict or are you just crazily ill?"

Jayce didn't find an answer to that, "I haven't taken any of this in the past few months," she replied, "It's not really any of your business," she took out a bottle for tranquilizers and gave it to him.

Amber came back with a glass of water and Jayce immediately shut the drawer closed. Ashton furrowed.

"You really have tranquilizers," Amber gasped.

"I need it sometimes, before tests and exams and big days," she replied as if it was a routine of her coming up with lies.

Ashton furrowed. Amber had not known that Jayce had bottles of pills, and that truly meant that there was no information that could be extracted out of Amber about Jayce, if simple things like this weren't even known by her.

Ashton took the water and gulped down the tranquilizer.

"I want to have a private chat with Jayce," he said and stood up.

Before walking out, he gave an eye stare at Eric, signaling him to leave Amber and go to the dorm. His heart was still beating from seeing the black smoke still fluttering behind Eric. Eric nodded and left the room and Ashton went out behind him.

~~~

Jayce went out of the room and followed Ashton to behind a wall near the elevator.

"Why not just leave me be?" he immediately went straight to point.

"You must really think you're good at mind games, right?" Jayce scoffed.

"Excuse me?" Ashton furrowed.

"You must really think my mental state is so fragile that it'll be so easy to knock me over, and you must really think you've found my weakness. You must also think that Amber is now useless and you must also think that I'm being kind so you can go easy on me," Jayce replied, approaching him, "Mind games aren't fun, Ashton,"

Ashton bit his lip, then let out a disbelieving scoff, "All I need to do is to find what triggers your weakness,"

"And your weakness," Jayce started, with a threatening tone, "Your main weakness wasn't your mother, or how much she damaged your mentality. In my guess, you don't even care about her," she stepped towards him, "You and me, we're not too different, aren't we?"

"I don't care about my mother. In truth, I'm just with her because she provides me a luxurious life, so that I don't fall poor," Ashton said back, stepping towards her instead, quickly pacing, "The only difference is that I will find your weakness first,"

"Hurry," Jayce whispered, "When I find a chance to tear you down, I'll use what I have: a video, that I don't think you will care about," she sneered and walked away.

Ashton furrowed, rethinking his and her words. What in the world was she saying?

In Jayce's thought, it was all the video she recorded of Kimberly Walker and her not-so-mom traits. It would destroy Kimberly's reputation, and pity will come to Ashton, but then Kimberly would pass all her stress and anger down to Ashton. Destroying him down, and down, and down, to pieces.

Like he said, he didn't care about his mother. And that opened a gate for Jayce to destroy him from the inside.

"You still have not told me why you helped me," Ashton said, annoyed.

"I didn't want to be accused of being the one to trigger your panic attack since I was around there," Jayce replied, lying, "That's all,"

"And damn right I'm believing that," he cursed under his breath and went back to his dorm.

~~~

"There's no need for me to approach Amber anymore?" Eric asked.

"She's pretty much useless," Ashton said.

"I don't think so," Eric hesitated, "I have a feeling that she's hiding something,"

"Like?"

"She's always inconsistent," Eric said, "She first said that her mother is working on another project about royal clothes for the end of the year, then she said that she was working on a 90s vibe for the end of the year. She also sometimes said that she would come and eat steak with them, even though we both know that Izzie Brooks is vegetarian,"

Ashton furrowed, "Izzie was never open about her personal life," he stated, "There's nothing about her on the Internet and she doesn't use social media. Her management handles everything. We don't have any information about her besides her works, we need to find the truth by ourselves,"

Eric nodded, "I'll spy on her and try to take as much information as I can,"

Ashton nodded, "Appreciate the help my friend,"

~~~

By next week, and the entire week before that, Ashton and Jayce were busy finding information about each other that came to an end.

But it wasn't that true. This time, Jayce was determined to win against him, by using him then throwing him away.

Student council election, a position where it would be useful for leadership skills in her portfolio.

Ashton had received the message from his mother to be part of the student council and that he had to volunteer. Jayce volunteered because she damn well knew he would, but this time, it wouldn't be that easy.

Ashton was on the court, playing basketball with Eric and Jaxon, for fun, and for stress relief. A few girls and boys sat in the benches, cheering and just staring at the three. Jayce walked in the court, and as if she was someone they feared, everyone shut their mouths. She gave them a small smile as a greeting.

Ashton noticed and glared at her, "What brings you here?" he said emotionlessly and threw the ball to the back that it passed the hoop.

"To give you an offer," Jayce said calmly, sitting down on one of the benches.

"What?" Ashton asked.

"Would you like to be my partner for the student council?"

Ashton gave out a mocking laugh, "Me? Me, the Ashton Walker? Why should I?"

"I don't see a reason why not," she replied hastily.

His pretty face, his magnificent reputation, his entire personality, and his rule upon the school, a small ticket to victory, a large opportunity to use to get to the peak, and once that happens, the best and only opportunity to roll him down the peak.

Ashton couldn't deal with this greed anymore. He clenched his fists and opened them, grabbing Jayce by her collar and made her stand up. She flinched.

Everyone else in the court gasped.

"Everyone out of the court," Ashton said in his breath, staring sharply at Jayce.

No one listened.

"Everyone out of the damn court," he yelled.

Eric and Jaxon both flustered but jerked their head to everyone else to get out. The court went silent with only Jayce and Ashton staring deadly into each other's eyes.

Jayce pursed her lips and started to get irritated by it, "You know, climax should come very soon, either you're going to punch or slap or curse or yell at-"

Ashton wouldn't have cared if it wasn't Jayce, he wouldn't even care if a girl or boy would come near him. But she was just something he wanted to get rid off with pesticide.

With a shove and of sudden movement and gesture, and with not so much care, he pushed Jayce back down the bench harshly and her back hit the step with a huge sound and she gave out a small yelp.

"FOR GOODNESS SAKE, STOP WITH THESE CHILDISH TRICKS," Ashton yelled, "I've tried to be patient with you, and I can't take it anymore,"

Jayce sat down properly, fixing herself against the bench, "Well then just kill me already. Don't be shy," she said soothingly.

"How can a person have no such guilt or shame or fear?" Ashton scoffed in disbelief.

"It's about time that I conquered fear,"

"I don't really think you've conquered fear," he said, trying to read her expression.

Jayce knew his tactics now, "Let's see who draws their card first, Ashton. And think well about my offer," she stood up and patted his shoulder, then walked out with cloudy thoughts.

~~~

Jaxon received a call from someone as he walked towards the dorm building. Eric was with Amber, with nothing much to know. And Ashton was also on his way back to the dorm from the court.

"Jasmine?" Jaxon muttered, looking at the flashing name on the screen. He picked up.

"Jaxon," the girl on the phone exclaimed, "Where are you?"

"What does that mean?" Jaxon furrowed, chuckling.

"It means where the hell are you, moron," she said.

"I'm in front of the dorm building,"

"Oh," the girl said, "Look to your left,"

"Huh?" Jaxon flustered then looked to his left.

A girl with braided black hair and tan skin, in a tank top and shorts, with her hoop earrings.

"Jaz?" Jaxon knitted his brows, turning off the phone, and running towards the girl.

Yes, Jasmine and Jaxon were siblings. And she had not known Jayce was in that school and Jaxon had not known that Jayce and his sister had dated.

~~~

Flashback, 6 years ago

"Mom," Jaxon whined, "I don't want to leave you! Take me with you, please, in fact, let's all go with you," he was 9 years old, and was crying against his mother as he hugged her.

"Let go," his mother, Erica, said, budging him off that he fell.

The house was half as empty, with Jasmine and Erica's things moving out of the apartment.

"You live with your father,"

The divorce was never the kids' fault. It was only the parents. Both were cheaters, both were people, but their selfishness was beyond compared.

"Mom!" Jasmine yelled from the end of the room, "I really want to take Jaxon with us,"

"No! He's a boy, who could be as similar to his father as possible." Erica said, "Hurry up now, leave this house as soon as possible,"

Erica left the door to help with the moving van. Jasmine helped her brother up.

"Remember to keep my phone number, I'll call you often and if I can, I'll visit you, okay?" Jasmine hugged her brother.

And that was it. Jaxon knew that his life crumbled to that, and as a kid with nothing left to say, he had to live on. In his thought, death was too painful to his sister, and he knew that.

~~~

Jayce cycled back to her dorm building with Ashton behind her, using his jeep. She parked her bicycle in front of the dorm.

Jasmine and Jaxon were sitting on the bench in the little yard, eating ice cream, chatting.

From the corner of Jayce's eye, she saw someone familiar. And from the corner of Jasmine's eye, she saw someone familiar, in a school uniform but the hair that seemed so familiar.

Ashton arrived behind them as the two girls turned their heads to each other. They both flustered.

"Why are you-" Jasmine gasped.

Jayce furrowed her brows, "Jaz?"

Jasmine dropped her ice cream.

Ashton raised a brow, curious about what was going on. One thought came to mind: the breakup. He had listened to the conversation and he had heard it all. And he was sure that the name of her phone screen was Jasmine. The world's a little too small.

"You know each other?" Jaxon queried.

Jayce shut her jaw, clenching her fist, "She's my ex," she said confidently, "We broke up, not long ago," she replied.

Jasmine pursed her lips.

"Anyways, it's just the past," Jayce said, "I don't stay too much in the past," she smiled and turned away, walking up to the dorm building and going to the elevator.

"Yeah right, you don't stay too much in the past," Ashton scoffed silently.

Jaxon flinched at what he just saw, "You dated Jayce?"

Jasmine nodded slowly.

"Wow, you better leave before you get known in this school as the person who dumped the daughter of Izzie Brooks," Jaxon snorted.

"What?" Jasmine furrowed.

"Jayce is the daughter of Izzie Brooks, her and Amber," Jaxon said.

"Her birth daughter?" Jaz flinched.

Jaxon nodded, "You didn't know that?"

Jasmine shook her head, biting her lip, "She isn't the birth daughter of Izzie Brooks, her mother is Nadia Brooks, and she's currently in rehab,"