DISCLAIMER! I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE MERCER FAMILY OR ANYONE FROM THE MOVIE FOUR BROTHERS. I ONLY OWN MY CHARACTERS.

Chapter One

I'm in the business of misery,
Let's take it from the top.
She's got a body like an hourglass, it's ticking like a clock.
It's a matter of time before we all run out,
When I thought he was mine she caught him by the mouth.

My best friend of four years broke my heart when I saw him making out with my worst enemy. Her arms wrapped around his neck and her fingers lost in his messy dirty blonde hair. His arms wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her closer every time she let out a moan, and his hands slipping ever so slightly up her tight orange tank top.

How on earth anyone could ever wear a tank top in the middle of January in Detroit was beyond me. Not that I had anything against the color orange, but the sight of the shade on a shirt, worn by this particular person, made me cringe as much as watching my best friend have his tongue down her throat, and vice versa.

I stared at them for what felt like forever, but only lasted two seconds, before I bolted from his room and ran down the hallway of his house, down the stairs, and out the door. Forgetting my jacket as the snow beating down on my uncovered arms as I ran three blocks to my house, I ripped open the screen door and tried my hardest to open the locked door. I took a deep breath in as I remember my keys where in the pocket of my coat, that was back at his house, where he was with her.

The thought of that brought tears to my eyes as I banged on the door to my house. Evelyn told me that he had a friend upstairs with him, but I had just thought that it was one of his band mates, Eric, Peter, or Spider. The last person I thought it would be was the only person I hated. The only person that giggled when I spoke up in class. The only person that tripped me by
"accident " in the hallway. The only person I thought he hated as much as I did.

My mother opened the door and looked down at me as my teeth began to chatter from the cold.

"Oh, Lacey! Are you alright?" She asked and pulled me in.

"I'm fine," I said through my teeth. Stepping inside, I headed straight for the staircase and up to my room.

"Do you want any hot tea?" She called out to me.

"No, I said I'm fine." Normally I wouldn't be this snappy to my own mother but I was about to break down. And one thing I hated more than her was people seeing me weak.

I closed my door and pushed my chair underneath the door handle so no one would open it. I looked around my room as I turned around. The first thing I saw was a picture in a silver frame of him and me making rockstar poises with our guitars. I walked over to it and slammed it face down so I wouldn't see it.

I felt betrayed. I felt heartbroken. No, I felt worse than that. I felt like he had personally ripped out my heart and stepped on it.

I honestly hadn't felt this bad since he had told me he didn't like tomboys. Which was something I was since I picked up my first guitar.

No one knew how much I liked my best friend. No one knew how much the butterflies in my stomach went crazy whenever he smiled at me. Or when he took my hand to teach me how to play the guitar, my heart beat went 400 miles per hour and I knew that the world froze for us. But what I didn't know was that he didn't feel the same way as I did. I had always thought that on some level he liked me as well. But that thought came to a crashing halt when I saw him eyeing the hottest and sluttish girl in our school. Then turning to me and telling me that he wanted to do her so bad it made his crotch hurt.

I wanted to change so badly for him that it tore me up inside. It drove me crazy trying to impress him with anything that seemed girly. But he laughed at me and said that it was the best joke in the world to see me acting like a girl.

My mother always told me I was pretty. I had long frizzy curly brown hair that matched my chocolate brown eyes. Standing at 5'6 I had the body that most girls would kill for. My breast seemed like the perfect C cup that I hid away with a sports bra and baggy t-shirts. I covered my body with baggy cargo pants and band shirts I stole from my brother, because I was too afraid to go shopping for some real girl clothes. My hair was either in a pony tail or trapped under my skater hat that I stole from Spider. I had no concern to impress people. And they had no concern to be impressed by me.

But seeing my best friend of four years make out with the only girl in the school that I had a problem with, made me want to change. It made me want to be more like a girl and less like a guy.

I wanted to be what he wanted. I wanted to be the person that he turned to and say "You're beautiful," before he kissed me. Most importantly, I wanted to smile at him, wrap my arms around his neck and whisper in his ear that I loved him.

After thinking that I sat up and reached for the phone beside my bed. I dialed the number for my other best friend. Her name was Ashley and she was about as girly as she was.

"Ashley Hansen speaking," Her voice rang as she picked up.

"Hey Ash, I was wondering what you were doing today." I said pulling at my tan cargo pants.

"Um, nothing that I know of. Why?" She asked. Probably twirling her hair.

"Want to make your day?"

There was a moment of silence before her voice came back on line. "You better not be shitting me, Lace. I have waited for you to let me give you a makeover since freshman year!" She exclaimed and I just sighed.

"I know, I know. So are you going to do it or not?" I asked impatiently.

"Oh my god, Lacey! I have to get my stuff together! I'll be there in like twenty minutes. Bye!" She said and hung up the phone.

I stared at the phone before I hung up. Ashley had seriously wanted me to be a girl since she saw me come to school wearing my brothers torn up shoes that were two sizes too big, my cargo pants held together by a studded belt, and my hair so tangled and messy some swear there were actually rats in it.

I jumped when my phone started to ring. Figuring it was Ashley I picked it up and sighed into the phone. "I don't care what you do to me just please don't make it hurt."

I heard a deep chuckle on the other side and my heart stop beating.

"That has got to be the kinkiest thing you have ever said to me." My best friend said to me.

I looked up at the ceiling; some reason tears stung my eyes. "I try," I said unenthusiastically.

He chuckled again, unnoticed by my unhappiness that he was on the other line. "Mom said you stopped by. You left your coat here."

"It's yours I wanted to give it back to you." She said and played with my finger nails.

"Oh, well your keys are in it."

"Just give them to Angel and he'll bring them to me when he comes to see Aaron."

"You don't want to come get them?"

"I have other plans."

"Can you get them later then?"

"These plans last a long time."

"Tomorrow?"

"Just give them to Angel, okay?" I finally snapped. I didn't want to talk to him right now.

"Damn what's your problem? You PMSing or something?"

"Like you care." I snapped again.

"What the hell, Lace?"

"Look, I don't want you worrying about me right now, okay? Go back to your little make out session with your new girlfriend."

He was silent for a good minute before he responded again. "You saw that?"

"And if I did?"

"You weren't meant to."

"Mhmm,"

"Lace . . ."

"Listen, I have someone coming over soon. So you can go back to your little slut okay?"

"Lacey, don't be bitter."

"What's there to be bitter over? My best friend going behind my back and sticking his tongue down Megan Boler's throat? Do you have any idea how much of a backstabber you are being right now?"

"Maybe I liked her for a really long time, Lace. Maybe I wanted to go out with her. Maybe I wanted this to happen. Did you ever think about that? No, because you're so fucking selfish that you didn't see that I wanted to be with her. She's exactly what I want so just back off and at least pretend to be happy for me. Okay?"

Words have never felt like daggers before now. I wanted to scream, I wanted to yell at him and tell him he was the worst friend in the history of the word. But mostly, I wanted to break down and cry.

I held my breath and angrily wiped the tears off my face.

I didn't say anything for five minutes. I wouldn't say anything. If I did, I would just cry more.

"Lace?" He said. "Are you there?"

I said nothing.

"Way to be mature, Lacey. You know what; give me a call when you can fucking grow up." He said harshly and hung up on me.

I choked back a sob and hung the phone up without a word. If he wanted her, that was fine with me.

"You're strangely quiet." Ashley said as she brushed my hair.

"Hm?" I looked up at her and she touched my forehead. "Do you feel alright?" She asked.

I looked back down at myself in my mirror. "Fine." I muttered and leaned back in my chair.

"You are going to look so hot on the first day of school." Ashley smiled at my reflection. "No one will know what hit them."

"Mm," I answered and played with my fingers.

"Okay, I know this isn't exactly the funniest thing in the world, but could you at least be a bit excited?"

"I can try," I said looking up at her.

"Okay, what's up?" Ashley asked and put her hands on her hips. Her straight brown hair hanging down past her boobs.

I sighed and told her what happened when I went to the Mercer's house today.

"What? He was making out with Megan? But you hate her."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." I muttered and rolled my eyes.

"But can you blame her? He has the gentlest lips and the softest hands."

I looked away from the mirror and back down at my hands. Ashley and he dated for three months back in 10th grade. She swore to me that she was in love with him.

"Yeah, well those lips and hands didn't stop you from cheating on him." I pointed out coldly.

"Hey, he forgave me for that. Besides, don't won't to piss off the person who's going to be plucking at your eyebrows." She said and bent down in front of me.

I took a deep breath and let out a small shriek when she pulled out some eyebrow hair.

I looked at myself one more time in the mirror before my mom called my downstairs to tell me it was time for school.

I didn't even look like myself. My once frizzy curly hair was managed and actually looked good. I looked down at my chest as they almost bulged out of my tight shirt. I bit my lips as I tried to stretch in the killer tight jeans that Ashley made me wear. Walking downstairs my mother smiled at me and my brother's mouth dropped.

"Who the hell are you and what have you done to my sister?" Aaron asked me and I hit his arm hard.

"Shut up, Aaron. Can we get already?" I asked and pulled my backpack over my shoulders and walked out to Aaron's car.

Aaron chuckled as he got into the car and I buckled my seatbelt. "What the hell is so funny?" I asked him and he laughed a little bit more.

"You." He said simply.

"Care to elaborate?"

He started the car and drove out of are driveway and down the street to our school. "What made you so keen on changing so fast?"

"That's none of your business, Aaron. Maybe I was tired of being ugly."

"You were never ugly."

"Then I was tired of looking ugly."

He sighed. "Guys like girls that are true to themselves. This isn't you, Lace."

"First of all, if guys really liked that, then how come the only male attention I got was from acting like a male? And secondly, how do you know this isn't me? Maybe this is the real me, and I'm just finding her now."

"That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard."

"Well deal with it, because you like it or not, you are going to be seeing a lot of me looking like this."

He sighed louder as he parked the car in the student parking lot. I got out and quickly made my way into the school to escape the freezing wind.

"So, I was wondering, you like to go to the ice rink with me this weekend?" Troy Jensen asked me as I sat in English III. I looked up at him and raised a brow.

"Want me to kick your ass at hockey?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "No, I want to you to go on a date with me."

It was my turn to laugh. "That was funny, Troy. Did you come up with that all on your own?"

He turned serious and looked down at me. Or should I say my boobs.

"Lacey, come on. I know you've been crushing on me for awhile now. And I would really like to take you out sometime." He said.

I shook my head and my eyes landed on the doorway. I bit my lip hard as my best friend walked in holding hands with Megan. He scanned the room for a moment before his gaze stopped on me. His mouth fell open slightly and he stared at me.

I couldn't help but feel good at the fact of him taking in all of me. I waved at him sweetly and turned back to Troy.

"Sorry, I have plans." I smiled flirtatiously and twirled my hair around my finger.

He nodded and bit his lip as he took one last look at my breasts. I sighed and rolled my eyes as he went to sit down.

I looked down at my assignment and concentrated on that. Before I knew it, my back stabbing best friend was in front of me.

"Lace?" He said staring down at me. "Is that you?"

I looked up at him and smiled. "Why yes. It is."

"You look so different."

I raised a brow at him.

"Not like a bad different. A good different. A great differ--." He groaned and rubbed his face. "I mean, you look good. Great."

"Thanks," I couldn't help but smile, honestly and truly. "That means a lot."

He nodded and rubbed the back of his head. "Um, I'll, um, I'll see you at lunch?" He asked nervously.

I smiled more and nodded. "Yeah. I'm looking forward to it."

He took a deep breath in that seemed like he was holding it. He grinned wildly. "Awesome, so am I."

"Mr. Mercer," The teacher said to him. "Take your seat." He nodded and started to back up. "See you at lunch," He smiled more as he ran into a desk.

I giggled as the class erupted in laughs. He cursed and picked it up. His face bright red as he sat down in his own seat.

I felt a wave of happiness inside of me as I watched him.

He rubbed the side of his cheek to feel the warmth of his face. Something he did when he was nervous.

The fact that I was making him nervous and act completely stupid made me all the happier.

In five minutes, I had the guy that I was in love with smitten by me. I had him flustered and probably confused.

Stand aside Megan Boler.

Lacey Adams is making her way into Jack Mercer's heart.

Four weeks.

Four fucking weeks.

They had been dating for a month now.

Jack never looked at me the same way he did that day. In fact, he barely even talked to me anymore since he started dating her.



Megan had him wrapped around her little fucking finger, I barely had him wrapped around a strand of my hair.

Every time I would try to talk to him, she would pop out of nowhere and steal him away. Every time I called him, I could hear her sucking on his neck. Or doing other things.

I hated it. I hadn't talked to him in a week because of her. And he honestly didn't seem to care. He stopped returning my calls. He never wrote back when I sent him a note in class. He would look at it, look back at me, and wave before he threw the note into his backpack.

I was pissed. I was angry. I wanted to take that little bitch and choke her with her own fake blonde hair.

But mostly, I was heartbroken.

I didn't even care that he was dating her anymore. I just cared that I was losing the most important in my life besides my family.

I changed myself for him and he chose Megan.

I went against everything I believed in because he said he wanted that kind of girl.

I was so stupid.

Worst of all, I was still in love.

Whenever that thought comes to mind, I can't help but think of my parents. I was only four years old when my parents got divorced. My father had found another woman he claimed he loved. And instead of fighting for him, my mom let him go. I had asked her why, and she said "If you really love someone, and you want them to be happy, you let them. Even if that means they aren't happy with you."

If Jack was really happy with Megan, I was going to let him be with her. I wouldn't object and I wouldn't stand in the way of his happiness.

If Jack wanted to reach out to me and talk to me, then I would be there for him.

I would wait for him.

yeah im just trying this out right now

if you like it tell me lol

song - misery business by paramore