He Promised Me A Home And Gave It To Her Chapter 02

Before our graduation trip, we went to Jace’s family’s grocery store to get everything organized.

He’d packed a backpack for each of us.

Vivian’s was white. Mine was black.

Inside mine were glucose tablets, Band-Aids, motion sickness pills, and a lightweight jacket tucked at the very bottom.

“It gets cold at the beach at night.”

Jace tossed the backpack to me.

“Don’t go turning blue from the cold and then tell everyone you’re fine.”

I touched the jacket.

It was my size.

Even the sleeves were the right length for once.

Vivian hugged her own backpack and teased him with a smile.

“Wow, Jace. You really do take good care of Elena, don’t you?”

Jace flushed.

“She’s a pain. Someone’s gotta keep her from getting herself killed.”

He sounded annoyed, but he was already unscrewing the cap of a bottle of room-temperature water and handing it to me.

The coolers were packed with cold drinks, but he remembered that I avoided them whenever I was on my period.

It was these little things that made me wonder, every time I thought about leaving, whether I was making too much of everything.

The door to the apartment upstairs was unlocked.

I pushed it open and stopped.

The gray sheets I’d always used had been replaced with pink ones.

Vivian’s medication sat beside the pillow, and a small night-light had appeared on the nightstand.

My books and spare clothes had been packed into cardboard boxes and stacked outside the stockroom.

The note that had hung on the wall for years was gone, too.

Jace had written it in his messy handwriting when we were kids.

[Elena gets low blood sugar. Candy’s on the second shelf. Whoever eats the last piece is a jerk!]

Now there was a different note in its place.

[Vivian’s a light sleeper. Don’t come upstairs after 11 p.m.]

Vivian picked up the stuffed rabbit on the bed.

“Elena, I’m so sorry.”

“I’ve barely been sleeping lately. Jace said this place is close to the hospital and insisted I stay here for a while.”

She apologized, but there was little unease in her voice.

I supposed she was used to this by now.

All she had to do was say she wasn’t feeling well, and someone would take care of everything for her.

Jace came upstairs behind us. When he saw my boxes, he looked a little awkward.

“Haven’t you been working a bunch of shifts lately?”

“You’re hardly ever here anyway, so I figured Vivian could use the bed for now.”

He opened the stockroom door.

“I packed all your stuff myself. I didn’t throw a single thing away.”

“Once we get to Kingswell, I’ll find you a room ten times bigger than this one.”

There it was again. Someday.

They always seemed to think that if they promised me something wonderful in the future, I wouldn’t mind what they took away from me today.

I crouched down and opened one of the boxes.

Sitting on top was a rusty metal tin.

Inside were dozens of candy wrappers.

When I was ten, Jace realized I was going hungry most days. After that, he started sneaking a piece of candy off the shelves at his family’s store for me every day.

Eventually, his father caught him and chased him down two blocks, hitting him along the way.

Even after getting beaten, Jace had pulled a piece of candy out of his sock and pressed it into my hand.

“Here. Eat it.”

“My family owns a grocery store. You think we can’t spare a little food?”

That was when he’d slipped the key onto the cord around my neck.

He’d told me there would always be a bed for me above his family’s store.

Holding that old tin, I suddenly didn’t know who to blame.

Jace hadn’t forgotten to pack glucose tablets for me.

But apparently, someone else needed my old bed more than I did.

“Maybe I should just go back home,” Vivian offered.

She bit her lip.

“Elena seems upset.”

Jace frowned immediately.

“With your heart, you can’t keep going back and forth like that.”

Only then did he turn to me.

“Elena, it’s just for a month.”

“You’ve always been the understanding one. Don’t make Vivian move again.”

I put the tin in my backpack and nodded.

“Okay.”

That afternoon, they went to the mall to buy supplies for the trip.

Vivian wanted ice cream from a new place that had just opened, so she dragged all three guys over to wait in line.

Jace had only gone a few steps when he turned around and called to me.

“Elena, still vanilla?”

I smiled and nodded.

“Yeah.”

He remembered everything I liked.

He just hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t planning to go to the beach with them anymore.

Once the four of them disappeared into the crowd, I went back to the grocery store.

I slipped the first key off the cord around my neck and left it at the register.

The cashier looked surprised.

“Is this for Jace, too?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not going to stay upstairs anymore?”

I looked up toward the second floor.

The breeze lifted the pink curtains, revealing a new framed picture on the nightstand.

The four of them were gathered around a birthday cake.

I wasn’t in the picture.

“Vivian lives up there now.”

“It wouldn’t be right for me to keep letting myself in whenever I want.”

A message from Jace came through almost immediately.

Jace: [Why’d you leave your key?]

Jace: [I’ll bring it back when I get home.]

I replied.

Me: [Keep it. I won’t need it once we’re in Kingswell anyway.]

He sent back a cheerful voice message.

“Sure. I’ll get you a new one when we get to Kingswell.”

I listened to it three times.

By the third time, my eyes had started to well up.

He had no idea.

I’d given back so much more than a key.