10. SELF-EGO

Nearly everyone in this world has something they really want to protect, either it's them, or someone or something else. They would certainly get mad if that they wished to protect would be in danger or is damaged or is hurt.

Jayce froze at the messages, watching the video. He had certainly stabbed her in the back and up in the front. He wanted something, and he got it. But as in surrounded with problems, she solved them within a second.

She turned off her phone and went about her usual morning routine, as if nothing happened, although her mind was on the edge of becoming a storm. There was only one way out of this: guilt tripping.

When Jayce was done with her bath, Amber was waiting outside the door of the bathroom. Jayce winced.

"Is this the part where 'murder is okay sometimes' comes in?" Amber said.

Jayce sighed, "Look, Amber, I'm-"

"Sorry? Eric will think I'm an immediate idiot. I TOLD YOU TO STOP THE FIGHT BETWEEN YOU AND ASHTON BEFORE IT BECOMES TO LATE SO YOU NEED TO STOP NOW." Amber said.

Jayce looked at her sister with sad eyes, "I have a plan, and I'm sure of it,"

"That's what you always freaking say," Amber said.

"Amber, remember that what I'll be saying to Ashton will not be something about guilt tripping you, think of it that I hid it to protect you. I'm your older sister, your twin, and you should trust me and all I did in the past was not to make you feel bad in the present but it was to protect you from mental illness, okay?" Jayce said.

"I have no idea what you mean,"

"The only person who will be guilt tripped when I execute my plan is Ashton, no one else, okay?"

Amber pursed her lips worriedly, and nodded slowly but angrily.

After they both were ready, they went down the elevator, and with a lot of people looking at them, whispering through the lounge room and even when they went to the school building.

Ashton had done it. Ashton had taken her heart and broken it.

~~~

Around 3 hours before

Ashton couldn't sleep, he really didn't know what to choose.

His choices were:

1.Post the video and tea after school to make sure her day ended bad

2.Post the video and tea during school to make sure her day was bad

3.Post the video and tea before school to make sure her day started bad

Dilemma, he thought, but he liked maximum suffering for someone he barely knew. Ashton never really thought about feelings, he didn't really know what sympathy and empathy was. Nevertheless, he chose option 3: Post the video and tea before school to make sure her day started bad.

"You're still awake?" Eric woke up to get a drink, seeing Ashton still on the couch, eating popcorn.

"Can't sleep, about to make history," Ashton said, "Aye, where's Jaxon by the way?"

"He decided to stay with his sister for the night,"

"Oh," he replied, "I'm making history right now,"

Ashton posted the video and the notice of Jayce and Amber's little lies. Eric read the chats that were flooded by messages already at that time, "Is this the part where I break up with Amber?"

"Did you both even start dating?" Ashton raised a brow, "Doesn't matter, Jayce's self-esteem is done,"

~~~

Jasmine woke up earlier to prepare breakfast for her brother, their dad's food wasn't that delicious above it all. The siblings slept in the same room, separated beds.

But she woke up to Jaxon's phone blowing up with messages. She wasn't really the curious sister, but she wanted to make sure nothing was going on. She opened the notifications to find Ashton's text and the news he had posted in the school community.

She furrowed. Her brother had conned her. They weren't friends of Jayce, they had used her for it. And now she was to blame. Was she too gullible above it?

Jasmine went to the bathroom and took a bucket of water, brought it to the side of Jaxon and splashed all over him. Jaxon choked on water and woke up, angry.

He saw Jasmine with the bucket on the foot of his bed. He winced and then yelled, "JASMINE WHAT THE ACTUAL-"

"What the actual what?" Jasmine said, "You used me," she pushed him in the chest, all his pajamas wet, "To extract information about Jayce?"

"Do you not even know how much alike your ex-girlfriend and trash is?" Jaxon asked, rage in his eyes.

"Do I have to? If she wanted herself to be known as the daughter of Izzie Brooks, let her be,"

"She started a fight with Ashton Walker and did everything to embarrass and fool him," Jaxon said, "Is he really just supposed to stay still? Jayce lied to the entire school for it,"

"And if your mother and father were announced as cheaters who divorced and both are alcoholics, would you want to announce that loudly when someone asks you who your parents are in a prestigious school?" Jasmine asked, "Izzie Brooks is their mother, biological or not, she was the one who took care of them, not Nadia Brooks,"

"I don't care, Jasmine," Jaxon said, "I'm just doing what my friend wants,"

"You think he's your friend?"

"He is my friend,"

"He used you, Ashton used you," Jasmine said.

"Don't act like you know everything about him," Jaxon said, "His mother abuses him at home, his dad is dead, and when I first came to this school, broken home, with a quiet personality, he became my first friend. So don't act like you know everything," he pushed his sister away and went to the bathroom.

Soon after, he went down, leaving Jasmine with the wet room, and leaving for school with the bike from the school.

Jasmine stood there in silence, not knowing what to do.

~~~

Jayce and Amber went to the school building, everyone talking about them, staring at them, calling their names. Everyone avoided talking with them and Amber felt both humiliation and anger in her.

Jayce took it calm, she was going to meet Ashton in the class, and that's what she wanted.

Amber stuck close to Jayce as they both sat down in a class full of whispering towards them and rumors that circulated the room.

"I can't believe you made me look like a moron," a girl broke in. Jayce turned around seeing Brenda disappointed in her, "I look like someone who spread around a hoax,"

Jayce stayed silent towards Brenda, looking at her, listening to her. She didn't respond, and Brenda left immediately.

"What is your magnificent plan?" Amber asked, nervous.

Jayce jerked her head to two people at the door, "Him," she stated.

Ashton and Eric arrived at the door and they went in. Their glares went sharply to the twins. Amber kept her head low.

The two boys approached the twins, and Eric started his words, "I'm sorry, but I can't date a trickster," he said and walked away.

Amber clenched her fists together, wanting to kill Jayce for it.

Ashton peered over Jayce's shoulder and whispered in her ear, "Feeling a little down, president?"

Jayce took a breath, showing a frowning face, "You're smart," she admitted fakely, "You did it so I didn't have anywhere to go to, because we were in the same student council, and there's no way I can get away from that. You won and I was dumb enough to trust you,"

"Thank you, Jayce, for your honesty," Ashton smirked.

Jayce pursed her lips, made her eyes watery, "But over that, I need to tell you something," she walked out of the classroom. Ashton raised a brow and followed her as well.

The entire classroom noticed and they all went to follow the two, Amber as well. Drama, everyone thought.

They arrived at a corridor, near the yard. Everyone peeked from behind the walls, and Jayce saw. Reputations, reputations. She smiled slyly as she lowered her head.

She looked back up with a pale and scared face, "Remember when I told you that I never use people's traumas against them?"

Ashton furrowed, "Yeah, so? Is there something wrong? Isn't the point of a fight is to find the opponent's weakness and use it against them?"

"I am ashamed of my mother, because she was alcoholic," Jayce said out loud, Ashton stepped back, knitting his brows, not knowing what she was trying to do, "And abusive," she completed.

Everyone gasped.

"What?" Ashton asked.

Jayce felt bad in doing this, she didn't want to guilt trip anyone but Ashton had to know that what he did was shameful, in her eyes and everyone's eyes. The toxicity she had towards her own selfishness was the worst kind of all.

"When I was 7, my father was solving a really big murder case," she started, explaining out loud and clear, knowing some people were recording, "So he didn't come home for days and weeks,"

Amber pursed her lips, squeezing her hands, looking at Jayce. She wouldn't change her mind on hating her sister, for ruining her relationship with Eric.

"My mother, who was born in a family who gave her little attention, lacked attention. For weeks, my mother had an affair with a guy she met at a bar," it hurt saying it, and now Jayce was no longer thinking of anything cruel, she simply cried of it, "One day, I heard crying from the bathroom. I see from the door that my mother was holding a stick. Long-story short, that stick was a pregnancy test that came out positive. And it was not my dad's child,"

Ashton pursed his lips, feeling mixed emotions within him.

"My mother went to meet that guy on that day. She came home at midnight and she was drunk, she broke the telephone. As a child, I thought she was simply sick so I really didn't care until she started slapping me, kicking me, beating me, hitting me with objects. She didn't recognise who I am, and I didn't want Amber to worry so she never knew. But that doesn't mean she doesn't remember anything of those days,"

The whole crowd, including Amber, held their breaths.

"The house looked like a catastrophe, and the hospital my mother was working in always tried to call her, and I simply said she's sick and she wants to stay at home," Jayce said, crying literally, "As a child, I thought she was simply sick. Amber and I had pizza everyday for dinner, and cereal for breakfast, which made me sick whenever I think of it. Two weeks until our father was called by the hospital that mom had not come for work and he came,"

"Jayce, I-" Ashton couldn't speak.

"My mother was divorced and sent into rehab, with the note that she had lost her baby. And I went into therapy for years, and I still need to drink meds every now and then," Jayce said, "And now that my mother is coming out of rehab, I need to drink it everyday because I get anxious about it. I started this fight is because I didn't want to end up like my mother, I wanted to run away from her tracks, and I wanted to be successful," she wiped off her tears, "And it wasn't really on your fault because you didn't know,"

Ashton couldn't speak, considering everything he had done.

Jayce turned to look at the crowd, and everything she told them next was truly from her heart, "The reason I lied to you all is because I wanted allies, friends, a feeling where I felt people were beside, in front, behind and with me. When I was in those two weeks of hell, I felt lonely as heck," she said, "In this prestigious school, I wouldn't have said my mother was an alcoholic because that would be a hard story to tell. But I will tell you that Izzie Brooks, biological mother or not, was my mother-figure, she was my mother, not Nadia Brooks. And I'm standing here, not so you all will forgive me, or seek pity on me, or that I'm seeking attention, I'm simply clarifying the fact on it,"

She turned back to Ashton, taking a breath. She wasn't feeling sly or cunning anymore, she felt more dumbfounded and unsure.

"Jayce, I'm sorry, I didn't know," Ashton said, not even forming the words, "I just don't know how to-"

"I'm the one who should've been sorry since I started it all," Jayce said, "So, allow me to help you, and it's my battle to fight now," she said.

And with that, Jayce felt both mixed feelings in her: her greed for success that now she and Ashton were both forgiven, and she didn't know if the fact of Ashton's real father would help him or tear him down.

The guilt she had for starting this, and she would pay for it, one way or another. And she had made up her mind about it.

~~~

Ashton trembled in pain. He couldn't really expect if this was just the truth or it was just some way so she could guilt trip him, make him feel and look bad.

Amber stayed silent around Eric. Her thoughts were wild, she still thought what Jayce had done was damaging to her relationship with Eric. It was fully blamed on Jayce.

The video of Ashton and Jayce's conversation went wild in the school community as Jayce choked herself in tears and frustration in the bathroom.

She was no longer feeling the need to guilt trip, and she felt wrong to blame it on Ashton. Unclear, it was something she couldn't control. Her walls were ruined and everything turned blurry in a sight. She had decided to bring Kimberly Walker down, and make sure everything went on healthy, pure and with no lies and cheats involved.

She had brought her tranquilizers with her and she drank pill by pill on it until her phone rang. It was Ashton.

She lazily picked up, "Yeah?"

"Jayce, I didn't know-"

"It wasn't your fault," she said, "But I do have something I'm going to do,"

"What?" Ashton asked.

"It'll benefit you since you hate your mother, make her ashamed so that you get a high status, make her feel embarrassed of all she's done," Jayce said, "You don't have to worry,"

"Jayce, I swear, don't do anything stupid or I-"

She ended the call and for some reason, she had scissors in her bag. She took out the scissors and went out of the stall. In front of the sink and mirror, she adjusted the scissor to her hair and started cutting it off, chunk by chunk.

She didn't care, if she was as far as what she looked from her mother, the long brown hair, the green eyes, the freckles and the attitude, she needed to change some bits. With every chunk she had cutten off, it went to the sink, and as soon as she was finished, her hair was above her shoulder level, far from what she had looked like.

She put the scissor back into her bag and walked out of the bathroom, leaving the chunks of hair in the bathroom sink. As she walked out, with everyone looking at her, she took out her phone, and began typing, to ruin Kimberly's reputation, with the video that she took last time under it.

'Ashton's mom, Kimberly Walker, is an abuser and cheater, his birth dad is principal Anthony Harrison.'