Page 141 of The Scientist

Jace’s phone started to ring, so he excused himself to take the call. After he walked away, I peeked at my phone for what felt like the thousandth time today to find I still had no calls or texts from Lex.

I sighed. It had been two days since I'd heard from him. He asked me to give him some time to think, so I was trying to respect that, but I was growing more fearful with every passing minute that he was pulling away, and soon he’d be gone from my life for good.

Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was the horrified look on his face when I had said we could try long distance. AndI guess I knew why. It was no secret that Garrett and I broke up because I didn’t believe we could make long distance work. But this was different.Wewere different, and I thought he knew that.

I massaged my temples, feeling completely exhausted. I couldn’t sleep at all last night, just imagining Lex telling me that things were over when I saw him again. I lay awake, staring at the ceiling, unable to quiet the storm of thoughts swirling inside me. The more I replayed our conversation, the tighter the grip of fear became, until it felt like I was drowning in it.

“Sorry about that,” Jace said, interrupting my melancholic trance as he came back in.

“No worries,” I said, trying to keep it together, but failing miserably as I felt the sadness settle on my shoulders.

Jace easily picked up on where my mind was at. “He’s just as miserable as you are, you know,” he said, taking a seat next to me.

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t know,” I said. “He left Sunday night after I told him I thought he should take the job, and he hasn’t spoken to me since.”

He looked taken aback. “Jesus, so you don’t know.”

I was immediately struck with anxiety. “Don’t know what?”

He sighed. “I shouldn’t have opened my big mouth. I’m sure he was going to tell you eventually.”

“What is it?” I asked apprehensively.

“He took the job,” he answered reluctantly.

A pang of sadness sliced through me. It was what I wanted for him but hearing it from someone other than Lex made the hurt feel bone-deep.

“Are you going with them?” I asked quietly, fighting back the tears. Sarah had made it seem like he was still unsure.

“Yes. I need to do this. I didn’t want to but… Sarah convinced me,” he said with a smile. “She said she knew what we had was real, and a year apart wasn’t going to change that.”

“I wish other people felt the same way,” I said glumly.

Jace stared at me for a brief moment. “Did Lex ever tell you how he and I met?”

I shook my head. “I assumed it was through work.”

“We became a lot closer through work, but we actually met in our first semester at MIT.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said. “I always thought Stuart was his oldest friend out of everyone in the group.”

“No, you were right,” he responded. “Stuart is his oldest friend in the group.”

I titled my head, giving him a questioning look.

“I’ve known him longer than Stuart, but let’s just say he and I weren’t exactly friends back then,” he explained, a smile playing across his lips. “Rivals might be a better way to describe our relationship in college.”

“You and Lex?” I couldn’t have chosen two more unlikely people to have a rivalry. “Were you guys like the modern-day Tesla vs. Edison? Was there backstabbing and pistols at dawn?”

Jace started to laugh. “Hardly,” he answered. “It wasn’t much of a competition. It was pretty clear from day one just how much smarter he was than everyone else, and I’m ashamed to admit how much that bothered me.”

I gazed at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

“Just that it was the first time in my life that I had met anyone who was better than me at anything academic. I had to work twice as hard to keep up with him, but no matter how hard I tried, he still always outshined me.”

“What a know-it-all,” I teased.

He chuckled. “That’s the thing. He really wasn’t. Lex never seemed to care or even notice how hard I was working to try and beat him. The jealousy was all one-sided.”