27. SELF-RESTRAINT

Maybe sometimes, it was better not to have a quick brain, and a fast response to things, because you'd know things you'd never want to know. It was better to be dumb and not know anything that would break yourself.

"Niel?" Ashton scoffed, "That bench kid?"

"Bench kid?"

"I hate him, that's the point," he said, "That kid stalked you?"

"It makes sense," she replied.

"It doesn't make sense to me?" he scratched his head.

"He never liked our relationship in the first place,"

"Oh, yeah, I definitely knew that," Ashton said, rage heard somewhere in his voice.

"He's always been telling me to stay away from you all, especially after Eric's death," Jayce continued, ignoring Ashton.

"Then what proof could he possibly have?" Jasmine asked, "And how could he have gotten it?"

"I can't think of anything right now," he groaned, "Another dead-end."

Jayce's expression twitched, her hand fell to her side, and her face became pale enough for both of them to be worried.

"Hey, you good?" Ashton asked, but she didn't seem to snap out of her paleness.

"Jayce?" Jasmine poked her shoulder.

"I might have a crazy thought," she mumbled.

"What crazy thought?" he queried.

"What if-" she blurted out, then gulped again, looking back down at her feet, her face becoming pale once again.

"What if what? Speak properly," Ashton ordered back, more as a concern than a yell.

Jayce didn't reply, and put her head back up, in alert mode, "We have to get back to my dorm," she stood up.

"Hey," Ashton stood up, stepping in front of her, "You are not going anywhere unless you tell me what's happening,"

"I think I know what he did," she said in a panicked manner.

"What did he do?" he asked.

"It's just something I think he did, I don't know," she said as if something was haunting her.

"We're not supposed to hide anything from each other, remember?" he queried, in a warning tone, "What do you think he did?"

"The unicorn," she said in a breath, "That disgusting unicorn," she cursed.

Ashton narrowed his eyes at first then realized as well, having the ability to kill someone of a sudden, "That disgusting unicorn," he locked eyes with Jayce then took her arm, and bolted outside.

Jasmine stood there, not understanding anything, "Care to explain?" she followed them in front, as both of them were rushing to the car, "No?"

She walked ahead, running to say the least, up to Jayce and taking her hand, as her face was pale.

"What's going on?" she asked her.

"Jaz, thanks for your help," Jayce said, looking at her, "Just don't tell anyone else about this, okay?"

"President, let's go," Ashton said from afar.

Jayce reached in her pocket, taking out a 20-dollar bill, "For your taxi," she said palely before turning back and bolting to Ashton's jeep and getting in.

Jasmine looked at them both in disbelief, then scratched her head, confused, "What exactly is their relationship?"

~~~

Jayce was biting her fingers in the car, holding onto her phone and dialing Amber.

"Where are you?" she asked, as Amber picked up the phone.

It was on speaker mode, and Ashton could hear everything.

"That's what I should be asking you," she replied back, "Where the heck are you? I thought you said you'd find Eric's killer by the end of the day,"

Jayce gritted her teeth, "Don't go back to the dorm, stay in the lounge,"

"Is that your sister?" a voice broke in from the telephone. Jaxon's.

"Yeah," Amber replied.

"Can I talk to her? Is Ashton with her?"

Ashton's eyes widened, and Jayce's as well, immediately ending the call, and shutting down her phone completely.

He gritted his teeth in return, punching the gas up to max, speeding through the lane that he never used. The graveyard, and still, it felt like someone was haunting him.

"What are we going to say to Jaxon?" she asked in pnaic.

"We had quality time at the house, that's it," he replied, as he turned a sharp curve making both of them lose balance on their seats, and she accidentally grabbed his hand for balance.

They both froze for a while before she backed away, flustering like a lost pet. Out of nowhere, he grabbed her hand again and kept it by his side, "We need to make ourselves comfortable first with each other if we're going to lie to Jaxon,"

"Right," she said, pursing her lips back as they arrived at the boarding school, hurriedly going through the buildings, and arriving at the dorm building.

~~~

"She ended the call," Amber furrowed, "That's weird,"

"What did she say?" Jaxon asked.

"To not go back to the dorm," she replied, "She's weird, don't mind her,"

"Was Ashton with her?"

"She and Ashton were both gone after the show, so I'm guessing yes," Amber scowled, "So much for finding a murderer,"

"A murderer?" Jaxon raised a brow, "They're trying to find a murderer?"

"She promised me she'd find Eric's murderer by today, yet she's spending time with her boyfriend," she scoffed in disgust.

Jaxon gritted his teeth. There was no good ending.

Suddenly, from the doors, Ashton and Jayce appeared, with cold and stunned faces, but with intertwined hands, and still in their formal wear.

"Jayce," Amber said.

"Ashton," Jaxon said.

"Hey, guys, sorry for the stagger," she pursed her lips.

"What's wrong with both your hands?" Jaxon asked, seeing both of their palms covered in cloth.

They definitely didn't think this through.

"We were gardening, and we accidentally got scratched by some thorns," Jayce replied.

"Jayce," Amber exclaimed, "So who did it to Eric?"

She exhaled at the statement Amber made, "We've been trying Amber, but we haven't found them,"

"Is there any clue though?" Jaxon asked.

"We decided to escape from all this mess by spending quality time with each other," Ashton said, "Sorry,"

Jayce knew that Amber would think that she was trying to get information from Ashton in that quality time. And Ashton knew that Jaxon would think that he was trying to get information from Jayce as well.

"Anyways," she continued, "I wanna take you to the house Ashton bought for us," she lied, "Do you want to come?"

"Definitely," Amber said, "Your home is my home, so you have to share it,"

Jayce nodded, "I'm gonna go upstairs first to take some things, so just wait in Ashton's jeep okay?"

Amber nodded, "And the funding?" she asked.

"Mom's gonna cover it, she'll be okay with it," she replied.

"Jayce is going to tell us something and we'll find Eric's killer eventually," Ashton lied and whispered in Jaxon's ear, making sure he took the lie, "Don't worry, just go back to the dorm,"

Jaxon nodded sadly, as if he was in pain, when he caused the pain.

"President, let me help you with your stuff," Ashton exclaimed and they both went upstairs, along with Jaxon, who went back to his dorm.

Amber went back to playing on her phone, and walking towards the parking lot to find Ashton's jeep.

~~~

Jayce went into her dorm quietly, making sure Ashton was quiet too.

Then she took out her phone and opened it, dialing Niel. He picked up immediately.

"Hey Niel," she said, "I need your help,"

"What help? I'd be happy to help," he sounded so cheerful.

"Can you go to the library and hand write and copy the chemistry textbook from page 88-104, and summarize it, and put it in a folder with equal margins? I need it but I have other plans to do and tests are coming soon too," she said, hoping it would lead him out of his dorm and away from his phone, "And I need it ASAP too, so make sure to not play with your phone okay?"

"Oh, okay okay, I understand," he said, "I'm on my way to the library right now,"

"Can you send me a photo of the book later when you arrive, and also the pages I asked you to copy, for more reference?" she pleaded again.

"Of course, I will. I'll send them in 10 minutes,"

"Okay, thanks,"

"No problem,"

The call ended and Jayce sighed.

Ashton took out his phone, keeping himself quiet, then texted Jayce as they had to be completely quiet and had to wait until Niel arrived at the library.

'are u sure this is gonna work?' he asked.

Her contact name was still 'my dear president'.

'lets just hope, he needs to be away from any gadgets'

His contact name was still 'the boy who doesnt erase hyperlinks'.

He gave her a look of worry, and she ignored it, knowing that everything was just a mess at this point.

A few minutes later, Niel had sent pictures of the textbook pages, and also a short video of him starting to do it.

'thanks niel :) i need it asap so make sure to be quick okay'

'anytime jayce :D'

Jayce gave a nod to Ashton as they walked further into the room and grabbed the plushie unicorn that was sitting on her desk.

She took the knife, from her bag, that still had the shine of blood on it and was about to cut the plushie open when Ashton took the knife from her hand, worried with her insanity and that she could hurt herself, and the plushie as well, and stabbed it with no mercy, ripping it apart. The wool fell to the ground, and the doll started coming apart.

It wasn't a unicorn of rainbows and cupcakes, it was a unicorn of storms and burnt biscuits.

And there it was. A small black box with a blinking red light on it. A camera.

Jayce's heart sank, as Ashton's one raged. He put the camera back on the table, as Jayce sat on her bed in disbelief.

"I was right," she said bitterly. Both their speculations were right.

And with his knife in one hand, "I'm gonna go kill him," he walked ahead and was about to step out of the door.

"That's not fun," she said in an unstable state.

"You expect me to stay still when someone has been spying and stalking you?" he asked hastily.

"Why just kill him?" she asked.

"Get to the point, because I really wanna rip his head off right now,"

She stayed quiet for a while then looked back at him, "Killing him will be just that. Just death, and he gets to sleep in a coffin," she said, "Destroy what you can as he lives,"

"Jayce, this isn't the time for games,"

"Destroy his reputation, his ego, humiliate him in front of everyone. Make everyone know that he's a disgusting pervert and stalker," Jayce said, standing up, placing the camera back to where it was on her desk so Niel wouldn't be suspicious that she knew, "Those hurt more than death,"

"I will not let your hands get dirty with his dirty blood," Ashton stated.

"It's my revenge, Ashton, not yours," she said calmly, feeling all the craziness and sadism in her voice.

"Your revenge is my revenge too, Jayce," he stated back, "What infuriates you, what hurts you, it infuriates and hurts me too,"

"We aren't in love, Ashton," she frowned as she went across the room and took the things she needed.

"Who is 'we'?" he asked, making Jayce stop what she was doing.

She slowly turned to look at him with a beating heart. What could have she possibly answered?

You're in love with me? she would have asked, but that wouldn't change that their 'relationship' really existed. But he'd confessed too many times for her to count.

"We're going to go to your house, 'cause Jaxon would definitely come to the wooden house after what we said on where we'd be staying," she changed the topic, filling her backpack with some essentials like clothes, etc.

Ashton knew she was ignoring him, and he didn't want to push her far. He had no right.

"And the revenge plot I had said to Niel," she said, "Can you arrange a basketball game with some other school by tomorrow or something?"

"What's your plan?" he asked, feeling the pressure on him.

"Humiliate him in front of everyone, then we interrogate him, force him to give everything that he's-" she stayed silent for a while in uneasiness, "...recorded, and hopefully find the person who stole my pen,"

"Yeah, okay," he said, "Then after you interrogate him, can I kill him?" he asks rather innocently.

"Torture has always been better than killing," she ended the discussion, and Ashton thought she had an excellent point. She zipped up her bag, looking at the torn unicorn plushie on her table, then looked back at Ashton with an expressionless pair of eyes.

He was true to his words, and she was a deceiving girl. Deceiving people was what she did.

"The knife, please," she lent out her hand.

"I'll keep this," he said, putting it inside his black tux, "In case you try to slice your palm again,"

"And why on earth would I do that?" she scowled, walking past him.

"Because you're Jayce Brooks," he said, "And you're God damn insane,"

~~~

"What the hell is taking you so long to find Eric's killer?" Amber whined.

"Me and Ashton both know we aren't truly dating," Jayce replied, "So maybe by tomorrow we'll find the actual truth,"

Jayce felt bad for Amber, as it was not only her that Niel had spied on, it was also Amber.

"Amber, I'm sorry," she said out of the blue.

"Kinda sudden but whatever," she muttered, "I'll accept that 'sorry' when you find Eric's killer. Do you even have a suspect?"

"Yes," Ashton replied, 'That's why we need to wait until tomorrow to find out,"

"I thought we were going to whatever house you were both talking about," Amber furrowed as they entered the elite area.

"There's some complications so we're going to Ashton's house now," Jayce said.

"Oh, right,"

Jayce's phone rang with a message from Niel.

'im done btw'

'oh thats great!' she replied, 'im going somewhere with ash and my sis rn so just keep it with u and i'll take it tmrw morning...thanks btw :)'

'okay, welcome'

She was definitely super mad about what he had done. And she had suspicion in herself towards Niel, and she regretted that it never developed to a point where he should've been caught earlier. But it was never her fault.

Suddenly a call came in. From her dad. She cursed under her breath, knowing she promised the murderer to be caught by that day. She put the phone on her ear and began talking.

"Hey dad," she said awkwardly. Ashton turned to look at her.

"Where are you right now? Harrison said that you and Ashton were not seen after the show, and now Izzie is going to be the funder?" Dave asked.

"Sorry, dad, for not telling you earlier," she said, "The rich people were jerks so please tell Izzie to fund the school, because we're out of options at this point,"

"Yeah, I understand, okay. But are you okay? Are you kidnapped? Did he do something to you?" he panicked.

"I'm fine, dad, but there's some other things that I need to take care of,"

"About Eric's case?"

"Yes, about Eric's case,"

"Ashton did it, didn't he? He's with you right now, isn't he?" he asked again.

"He didn't do it, and I trust him," Jayce said, "It's a long story. Amber's with me, she's safe. Everything's okay," Ashton seemed to flinch as she said that, he knew the 'he' she was talking about was him, but he never had a thought that she trusted him.

"Jayce, just know that if you reach a dead end, don't you dare find another way. It's too dangerous. If you can't find the murderer, then stop," Dave warned.

"We're close dad," she said, "I can assure you that by any day, I'll give you a certain answer, okay?"

"Okay, stay safe and keep me updated, okay?"

"Yeah, I will-" Jayce's eyes hovered to what was in front of her. An ambulance, with its loud sirens ringing, parked in front of a house, with a corpse bag on a stretcher.

"Are those sirens? Jayce, where are you?" Dave panicked on the phone.

"That's Eric's house," Amber said from behind.

Ashton's heart sank, "Why is there an ambulance-?"

He stopped the car as the three of them stepped out of the car, stepping closer to the ambulance. Yells were heard from a girl.

Ella was crying vigorously on her wheelchair, yelling the word "Mom! Mom! Don't leave me!"

Amber's heart thumped as Jayce took her wrist and tugged on it, holding her back. Ashton couldn't believe what the hell he was saying.

"Jayce?" Dave asked again on the phone.

"Dad," Jayce whimpered in shock, "I think- I think someone else is dead,"

"What? What do you mean dead? Jayce?" he panicked on the phone, "Jayce! Answer the damn question! Who's dead?"

"I think Georgia Rodriguez is dead,"