"54... 53... 52... 51..."

I whirled around, my eyes scanning the terrain. "Fuck, shit, fuck, shit."

There were not as many places to hide in a public park as one might think. I mean, there was the classics; trees, bushes, or, if you were Knight and had clearly been dropped on your head as a baby, lying flat on your face in the middle of the grass and hoping you simply wouldn't be seen.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"If you can't see them, they can't see you," Knight recited. I raised an eyebrow. He was lying about five feet behind the counting Daria, and his black t-shirt wasn't exactly high-tech camo. "Besides, I wanted to stay close to the food." He stretched an arm out and grabbed a grape.

"Well, I refuse to be roped in with you," I said, searching for somewhere to hide. It would surprise no one that I was a slightly competitive person, and I had no interest in coming anywhere but first place.

"32... 31... 30..." called Daria, spinning in slow circles as she counted.

Hide and seek was perhaps not the most mature, grown-up game for teenagers to play, but everyone had seemed rather on board with the plan when Daria suggested it might be fun and offered to count first. I thought I would be awesome at it; I'd played with Alec, Kaelin, Harry, Liv, Austin and the rest of my cousins weekly as a child, but apparently, I'd just known all of the hiding places at her country retreat and did not simply have a hidden talent for, well, hiding.

I could spy the edge of Jonah's coat hanging from a tree branch—he was clearly perched amongst the leaves, and would likely be spotted immediately. Clearly, once he'd seen Knight's awful position, he realized effort was not required to avoid being the next seeker. I couldn't see any of the others.

"Ugh, shit," I cursed, jogging away from Daria as she reached the teen numbers with a nervous energy my gut. "Shitty, shitty ball sacks."

Bushes? Too obvious. Tree? Pathetic. Car boot? Out of the agreed upon perimeter.

There were limited spots within the confines of the agreed upon space. The greenery was an option, but not one that guaranteed, or at least semi-secured, a hide and seek victory. The rest of the terrain was made up of an old toilet block, a wooden gamekeeper's shack that I'd seen Callie duck behind earlier and other families and wine aunts gathered in their own picnic lunches. This was the route that Alex appeared to have taken, given I could see him wearing an awfully excessive sunhat, feminine sunglasses and a borrowed floral cardigan, clinking wine glasses for a boomerang.

Given I had spotted him immediately, it seemed that hiding place was far more related to flirting with thirty-year-old women than actually winning the game.

Daria's voice was singsong. "24... 23... 22..."

"Psst, Lena."

I turned towards the sound of the voice, which appeared to be coming from the old toilet block, but there was no one in sight, as if the voice had manifested from thin air. "Peeta Mellark?" I whispered back.

Jace's head popped over the top of the toilet block. He was on the roof. "What the fuck?"

I grinned up at him. "He's the master of camouflage, Jace. If we're going to be friends, I need you to get snappy on this Hunger Games trivia."

"10... 9..."

Jace waved at me impatiently. "Yeah, okay, done. Just get your ass up here. There's a gas cupboard round the back that you can climb."

I rounded the side of the old toilet blocks. They were run-down and filthy on the inside, as was customary for a local shit station that was likely cleaned only semi-regularly and was outfitted with metal toilets. As I walked past the men's bathroom, it smelt faintly of weed and had a suspiciously yellow-tinted puddle at the entrance. My nose wrinkled with distaste.

The outside, fortunately, had clearly been freshly painted in the last year or so, and other than the occasional cobweb of small splash of dried bird poo, didn't make my stomach lurch with the urge to vomit. It was slightly gross, sure, but slightly gross was exactly the environment I needed around Hartley at the moment.

Jace poked his head over the side when I reached the back of the toilet block—thankfully out of Daria's field of vision as she reached the "5... 4..." stage—and gazed sceptically at the gas cupboard Jace had suggested I climb.

"Yeah, um. Respectfully, no."

The cupboard was falling apart and rickety, the wood aged by the elements and splintering at the edges. There were a decent few feet between the top of the cupboard and the edge of the roof, which meant I would have to rely on the wooden slat at the top to hold all of my weight as I reached for the corner.

"Don't be wuss," said Jace, with a teasing smile. "I did it."

"Ready or not, here I come!" Daria yelled.

Jace's expression softened and he held his hand out. "I'll help you up."

In the distance, I heard Daria say, "Really, Cole?" and Knight's answering protests that his grandmother had lied to him and he was going to sue the chameleon community.

"Oh, alright," I said. Daria was moving now, Knight chattering away at her side, and I needed to be hidden now.

I placed my foot on the lowest shelf of the cupboard, testing the wood beneath my weight tentatively before committing myself to clambering upwards. The wood ached, but didn't budge. It was a small relief. It didn't take me long to reach the narrow slip of wood on top of the cupboard.

Jace, lying stomach first on the roof, reached down with an offered hand. "I'll pull you up."

I eyed his hand suspiciously. "Are you going to drop me on my ass? Because that prank is not as funny when I'm on top of a not very sturdy cupboard. I do not need to break another leg."

Jace's grin was crooked. "Why would I do that? You're my friend."

The smile I gave him in return was small and genuine. I grabbed his hand, generously offered, savouring the feeling of smooth, warm skin and elegant fingers. Jace was peering down at me with a strange look in his eyes, something dancing and... well, happy. I guess I wasn't used to this expression on Jace Hartley's face.

I looked up at him, the sun beating down and casting his hair in a brilliant gold. "Are you going to pull me up?"

Jace swallowed and readjusted his grip. "Uh, yeah. Of course."

It was almost effortless for him. All I had to do was perch on the tips of my toes, and Jace pulled me over and onto the roof in one fluid motion. The kind of fluid motion that meant he had was pushed onto his back, and caused me to land squarely on top of him.

"Hey," said Jace.

My hair fell like a curtain around us, and if I liked Jace Hartley even a little bit, I would've kissed him. "We never used to find ourselves in this position. Why do we suddenly keep finding ourselves in this position?"

"Why, Lena Montez, you just can't stop throwing yourself at me."

"Oh, shut up."

I rolled off him with all the grace of a beached platypus, because really, any longer spent on top of him would breech the bounds of what was strictly a friendship. And hardly even a close one. Thirty seconds of bodies pressed together and shared laughter? Homies, a casual Friday night with the boys. Any longer and that was practically doing it. Absolute anarchy.

With my attention strictly focussed on the game at hand and victory—well, shared victory, for it seemed Hartley and I were in this together—the pros and cons of the roof hiding place became immediately evident. The real question was, after a cost-benefit analysis, was the awesome hiding place worth it?

Benefits of the roof:

Firstly, incredible vantage point. With my head slightly ducked, I practically had vision of the whole park while remaining completely undetectable. I felt like Natasha Romanov.

"We are like, so totally going to win."

"Doesn't it count as my win since I found the hiding place?"

"Over my dead body."

Secondly, no one would find us. Like, at all. Winning was pretty much inevitable. Due to the awesome vantage point, I could see Daria as she found our friends one-by-one, in their stupid bushes and lame-ass trees. Knight, then Jonah, then Callie, and she was approaching Cady's bush quickly.

Thirdly, the roof was great for my tan.

"I'm going to look like a supermodel!"

"For Skin Cancer Australia?"

"Literally, go die."

"I'm sorry, that's your job, melanoma."

Things that utterly sucked about the roof:

Firstly, bird shit.

"I think I simply must now accept this new lifestyle. I now must live in constant fear of a passing bird flying by and just dropping a big bird turd on me. Hartley, seriously, what if a bird shits on me?"

"I think that's supposed to be good luck."

"You know what would be real good luck? If the bird shat on your and I got to watch it."

Secondly, roof was a good look on Jace Hartley, and I didn't like it.

"Your hair looks weird today."

"Aw, Lena, are you suggesting that I look devastatingly handsome in the sunshine?"

"...No. Ugh. Literally jump off the roof. And die."

"It's okay, I won't spill your little secret."

"Didn't we ban this kind of blasphemy? We totally banned this kind of blasphemy."

As it turned out, Jace Hartley and I had a knack for talking about literally everything and anything under the sun. Both literally and figuratively. Taunts and barbs so easily mellowed into friendly banter; fiery anger simply became languid contentment. Our conversations were spurred on by small comments and observations.

One lazy reference to my future golden skin inspired Jace to rant for five whole minutes—which, believe me, I didn't realise was an eternity until this moment—about cancer and the necessity for avoiding natural tans and wearing sunscreen.

"Who would you rather hook up with, Daria or Cady?" I asked. The sun was beating down on us, the roof completely exposed to the burning rays. Daria was still searching for us and Chance, the rest of the group following behind her at a leisurely pace like they were her posse. Cady had gone back to the food.

Jace propped his head up with his hand. "Um... Daria. I am terrified of Cady."

"Really?"

Jace raised an eyebrow. "Does that surprise you?"

I looked over at Daria, who was practically skipping around the gardens. "I guess not. I just didn't think you'd want to jeopardise your Wonder Twins thing."

Jace shrugged. "Daria and I are kind of beyond any point of ever screwing up our friendship, I guess."

"What if she killed someone?"

"Daria?"

"Okay, you're right. If she does though, I hope it's Nate."

"Oh, God, same," said Jace with a sigh. "He's such a tool."

"She's way too good for him."

"And that's why she's still there." Jace spoke with resignation. Nate and Daria were clearly a conversation that they'd had, over and over again. Honestly, I was on the verge of committing murder too.

Girls like Daria deserved a literal prince. Not some scumbag who treated her with the respect I would offer an invasive moth taking up residence in my bedroom.

"Okay," said Jace, changing the subject. He was still propped up, so that we were face-to-face, and I could see every intricate detail of his features; the strong jaw, golden eyes, dark hair, the subtle curve of his noise. But I wasn't looking. Not really. "Would you rather Alex or Jonah?"

"Jonah," I said automatically.

Jace tilted his head slightly. "Jonah? Now that surprises me."

"Alex would be handsy. You know he would," I said with a shudder. The thought of hooking up with a man I had seen draw a penis on a sleeping teacher made me want to hurl, just slightly. Despite the fact that Alex was, objectively, very attractive, in a mischievous tall, dark and handsome kind of way. "Plus, Jonah is kind of cute. We love Jonah. And he wouldn't bring it up or make jokes about it nearly as much, since he would be asleep."

"That is a good point," said Jace. "Besides, the vibes are more there. Since he used to like you and everything. Jonah, I mean."

I lifted my head off my palm. "Really? Jonah Aristone used to like me?"

Jace laughed. "Yes, and you're definitely the last one to know. Jonah told me that you knew about it."

I gasped. "When was this? When did he like me, I mean?"

He shrugged. "From, like, kindergarten until about two or so years ago? Something like that. Everyone knew about it. Including you, we all thought."

"I had literally no idea," I said. Although, now that he mentioned it, little things came back to me. The closeness of our friendship, the way he used to fall asleep on me, small smiles and shared jokes. But it had never really registered until now.

Jace shook his head. "Surely you knew."

"I swear I had no clue. Is there anyone else I don't know about? Apparently, I'm clueless."

Jace grinned. "You are clueless. C'mon, Lena, every guy in our year has liked you at some point. Well, not Chance."

"Oh, yes, of course."

There was a strange look in Jace's eye. "Of course, they have. You've always been funny and generous and... well, you know."

"Know what?"

"Come on, Lena, you've always known you're really hot."

"Oh, well yes, that I know."

Jace laughed. "That as well. Confident and friendly, and you've always made the effort to talk to everyone." He paused for a moment. "You've really never known?"

"A few guys, maybe. But not Jonah."

"Everyone likes Lena Montez," said Jace, lying back against the roof with his face turned skyward, as if he was confiding this apparent truth to the sun. His voice held a strange quality, as if he wasn't even talking to me anymore. As if he was narrator, telling the story of my life in wistful retrospect. "And she has no clue."

"Except you," I pointed out.

He turned his face towards me, a shadow falling across his left cheek. A soft smile passed across his face. "Yeah. Except me."

We sat in silence for a moment, the stillness punctuated by nothing except Daria's distant calls of our names. Jace turned his face skyward again. "So, uh," he said. "Did you want to catch up tomorrow night? For the, um, the project."

My mouth opened in automatic agreement, but the words tomorrow night stuck in my mind, and I closed it again before I could say anything. "Oh. I can't."

"Why, got a hot date or something?" said Jace with a cheeky grin.

"Um, yeah, actually. One of Knight's friends."

Jace held still, his face still turned away from me so I couldn't see his face. He didn't say anything for a second, and, for the briefest of moments, I thought I imagined a slight clench in his jaw. But his voice was even when he said, "Oh. Well. That sounds fun. I hope he takes you someplace special, and if he treats you badly, I'll deck him. Or send him a strongly worded letter and shake my fist at his lawn."

"Is this what being friends with Jace Hartley is? I get a pacifist body guard?"

Jace rolled over so that he was facing me again. The move, however, meant that he was further away, more distant, than he'd been since I followed him up here. "I can write a very bitchy email."

"I don't doubt it."

Daria's voice came from below, which scared the living shit out of me. "Lena! Jace! I can hear you guys talking up there. I don't even want to know how you got up there, but come down, I found you."

Our friends, at her side, murmured something about finally, which was fair, given we'd been tucked up here for almost an hour now. I peered over the edge, and Daria gave me a cheerful wave. I could see that everyone else was disgruntled; so not only had we won, we had won comfortably.

"She found us," I said mournfully. "But at least we won!"

"You won," said Jace. "I think I lost."

Before I had a chance to ask him what he meant by that, he'd already made his way to the edge of the roof. 

***

This chapter is the longest I've written so far, but I think it might also be my favourite. The combination of Knight content plus extensive Lena and Jace is the bestest

Lemme know some of your thoughts guys! Also, updates be coming extra fast at the moment. So enjoy!

-K