Chasing Leah (Journey Series) (11 page)

“Bummer.
Yeah Marks a good guy he’ll treat Remy right. Now if it was Teddy I might warn
her a little bit, he’s a player and doesn’t do the whole dating thing. He’s
more interested in the groupies that come out for the band, I’m pretty sure
that’s the whole reason he started up the band in the first place.”

I’m not really sure what the
‘bummer’ was about. Maybe he was interested in Remy the other night and Mark
swooped in first.

“You don’t see yourself doing
that? Trying to make something of the band,” I clarify. “You guys are pretty
good and it seems like you already have a really good following.”

He shakes his head and grabs one
of the complimentary towels that are stacked up wiping the sweat from his
forehead.

“Nah, I’ve written a lot of the
lyrics for the songs we do.
Mainly using poems that I’ve
written over the years.
But teaching has been the only thing I wanted to
do.”

“Poems?”
I lift an eyebrow at him as I jump off the treadmill, wiping the sweat off my
face. Every time we’re together I learn something new about him that surprises
me. “I never realized you were that
kinda
guy,” I say
teasingly.

“Yeah, my mom has a whole book
of ‘
em
somewhere starting with ones from like first
grade. Comes in handy with the ladies though they eat that shit up,” he smirks
back at me.

I throw my towel at him, “Oh I’m
sure. Now I see why they’re always following you around like lost puppies.”

He takes my towel and holds it
up to his nose, inhaling,
“
Mmm
even your sweat smells sexy Leah. I think I’ll have to stash this up in my
apartment.”

I laugh and head towards the
laundry room,
“ ‘
kay
Chase,
if that really turns you on go for it. I’ve
gotta
grab my laundry and head to another class. See
ya
.”
Maybe I can snag one of his towels while we’re at it.

“See you Leah,” he says as he
lays
back down and begins lifting weights again.

Chase

I’m sitting in a coffee shop
between classes reminiscing about Leah and the sexy view I had running behind
her when I took her out Friday to show her some of the good running spots I had
found over the years of being on campus. She had strapped Caleb into a stroller
and we took turns pushing it along as we ran. I could definitely get a good
workout in pushing that kid around but he sure made it interesting with the
comments he made while we ran along the path. Leah and I kept up a steady
stream of conversation as we ran along and I was happy to see that she enjoyed
running just about as much as me. Every time I was with this girl I learned
something new about her that made me fall for her even harder than I already
had. Too bad she kept bringing up the whole lets be friends line, isn’t that
like the worst thing you could hear come out of a girls mouth?

“
Chhhaaasseee
?!?!”
I hear a voice squeal behind me
interrupting my pleasant thoughts of Leah and her sexiness. Oh god please no,
it can’t be but I would know that voice anywhere. I slump down in my seat a
little bit as if that would hide me. Maybe she won’t see me, right? Yeah right
dumbass slumping downs really
gonna
hide your six
foot three frame. “It is you,
ohmigawd
I can’t
believe I ran into you, must be fate or something.” I reluctantly turn around
and look at the girl belonging to the high pitched nasally voice. “Hey Ash,
haven’t seen you around lately. How’s it been going?” Not that I’ve been trying
to avoid her or anything.
Not at all.
Ashley was one
of the first girls I hooked up when we put the band together after Teddy
practically pushed me into it. “These girls will do anything you want dude,
trust me,” he had said. Yeah anything I wanted but didn’t mean I could get her
to leave me alone.

And she hadn’t changed much in
the year and a half since I had broken it off. She was a little shorter than me
with long blonde hair and a rack that I know for a fact is
fake
.
She looked like a typical blonde Barbie and had pretty much the brains to match
but we had some fun together and she really was a nice girl, just not the right
one for me.

“Oh you know Chase, not the same
since you broke things off.” Ah the guilt trip even Ashley knew how to play
those. She sits down in the seat across from me, plopping down her overly
looking expensive purse that I’m sure her daddy bought for her.

“So Chase like
I said fate intervened today.
I so need a favor from you, please?” She
pouts
out her pink puffy lips at me. Why do girls think
that’s sexy? And what will I be getting myself into if I do any kind of favor
for her?

“Remember how you ditched me
that one night because something came up with your family? I was totally
looking hot all dressed up and then you called me last minute to cancel?” I
crook my head at her. Of course I do one of my little sisters, Sarah, had been
rushed to the emergency room after falling off a balancing beam at one of her
gymnastic things and cracked her head open. Even after explaining the situation
Ashley had bitched at me for like a week about standing her up. I ended things
with her pretty quickly after that. Not that the situation mattered apparently.
I just nod my head at her bracing for what she’s about to ask.

“Well there’s a party tomorrow night
and my date cancelled at last minute. Will you pretty please take me?” And now
she’s resorted to her little girl voice that I just love.
Great.
And she’s probably talking about the same party that I was already planning on
going to so I know I’ll run into her there.

“Um I don’t know Ash. I have
a thing before that so I was
gonna
get
there late and….” She cuts me off with a wave of her perfectly polished nails.
“Not a problem Chase. We could meet up, I totally don’t mind being late.” Yeah
I know that for a fact, she was never on time for anything with all of the time
it took her to get ready.

“Well…..” I try to come up with
some kind of excuse without hurting her feelings. Ashley might come off as an
uppity bitch sometimes but she can be really sensitive. And I did kind of
destroy her when I broke things off. Apparently she thought we were going to
get married and have babies together after only being together for about two
months.

“Please Chase?” she begs. “You
kind of owe me, it took me like a month to get over you and seeing you today
totally means you owe me.”

I huff out a breath at this. Of
course she’s going to pull that card.
“Fine Ashley.
Me
and the guys are going to be at
Kilroys
, do you want
to meet up there?”

“Ah perfect Chase!” She stands
up and plants a kiss on my cheek and I inhale a
nosefull
of her overpowering perfume. “I’ll meet you there, I can’t wait!
Gotta
get to class, I’ll see you then.”

Oh great I can’t believe I just
agreed to that and who knows how Leah will be when she sees me with a date.
Maybe she’ll want to confess her undying love for me when she sees me with
Ashley.
Nope not Leah, a smirk creeping up on my face as I
picture her in my head.

Leah

I finished up my shift on
Thursday around 4:00 and Remy offered to drop me off at home. She was heading
over to catch Mark and the bands performance at the same place I had seen them
perform and then she was going to meet up with me at the party. My phone rang
and I grabbed it out of my purse as Remy drove towards my complex.

“Hey Al,” I answer. “Yup, uh
huh, ok, ok, fine Ally.
We’ll see, I have final say.
NO MATTER WHAT!”
I add forcefully. “’Kay see
ya
in a minute.” I hang up the phone and look over at Remy
who has a confused look on her face. “What was that about?”

I huff out a breath, “
Uhh
Ally! I told her that I was not dressing
up,
I really don’t want to go as a naughty nurse or a school
girl. But she insists on at least picking out my outfit. We’ll see about that
one.”

Remy giggles at me as she pulls
up to the curb to drop me off, “Oh Leah it’s just a onetime thing every year, a
little dressing up won’t hurt you. Besides you don’t
wanna
make me look like a total slut all by myself with what I have planned to wear
for Mark tonight,” she says with a sly grin.

“Trust me Remy there will be
lots of other sluts around. But you have too much class for that, Mark will
still
wanna
do you by the end of the night.” I scoop
my purse up off the floor and open the door. “Thanks for the ride
Rem
, see you tonight.”

“Bye Leah, take it easy on Ally
you know how she loves to use you as her own personal dress up doll. And you
know she always makes you look even hotter than you already are. She doesn’t
try and put you in any of that crazy shit she wears,” she says with a smirk.

I wave over my shoulder, “I
know. Bye Rem.” And jog up the stairs to see what Ally has in store for me.

                                                               
                                                                                               
*****************************

“You sure this isn’t too short,”
I say as I look back at my reflection on the floor length mirror in
Allys
mirror, tugging down at the hem to see if it will go
any lower. I guess I needed to make sure I didn’t bend over at all tonight or
everyone would be getting a whole lot of Leah.

Ally slaps at my hands, “No, now
stop it. You look sexy, not slutty. There’s a huge difference. Chase won’t be
able to keep his hands off of you.” She slaps my hand again as I try to pull up
the black corset top that has my barely c cups pushed up and adding at least
two sizes.

“
Ally
I told you, Chase and I are just friends. I’m not even sure what time he’ll
show up.” She plops a silky black witch’s hat on my dark brown ringlets that
just fall past my shoulders. “There.
Can’t get in the door
without a costume.”

“Oh we wouldn’t want that,” I
grumble.

Ally ignores my moodiness and
finishes putting her costume on. After my complaining of her and
Skylar
sounding just like Sonny and Cher when I had to
listen to their singing the whole way
to
and
from
Allys
parents house, they thought it would be a perfect
couples
costume. Well more like Ally, I’m pretty sure
Skylar
went along with whatever she said. She slid a dark
long wig over her hair that was streaked with orange in celebration of
Halloween. “Sky should be here in a few minutes to pick us up. Here these go
with the outfit.” She shoves a pair of laced black boots with a pointy heel
that are cut off at the ankle.

“Have fun Caleb and be good.
Remember you get to go trick or treating tomorrow!” This would probably be the
first year that Caleb would actually be interested in going out for candy and
he had picked out his Spiderman costume almost two months before Halloween was
even here. They had already had their Halloween party at his daycare and came
all hopped up on sugar so I would need to make sure I limited his intake.

“Bye bye Mommy.
Me
and
Rissa
will be good. And I
can’t wait to get lots and lots of candy!” He squealed out the last part and I
rolled my eyes at his excitement for the candy. I would definitely need to find
a good hiding spot from him and Ally.

“We are so going to hit up all
the awesome houses for candy little dude.” Ally says as she leans down to hug
Caleb. I’m pretty sure her and
Skylar
are just as
excited to go with us. “Kay lets go. We’ll meet Sky out at the car. I told Tara
I would try and get there a little early to help with some drinks.”

We ran down the stairs and met
Sky at the bottom. He looked like Sonny to the T with a flowered long sleeve
shirt on a tan leather vest over it. He even had grown out a small mustache.
Ally beamed at him and threw her arms around him. “Wow you look great. We are
the perfect Sonny and Cher. Don’t you think L?”

“Yes but please don’t serenade
me in the car. I think I had enough the last time.”

“Hey Leah,”
Skylar
says as he places a kiss on
Allys
forehead. “You look
great, Ally was nervous about you agreeing to what she had in store.”

“Thanks Sky,” I say as I pull on
my skirt for the millionth time, I’m sure I’ll be doing that all night. “You
don’t think it’s too revealing do you?”

“Seriously
Leah?”
He looks down at Ally like he’s looking for permission to answer
me and she gives him a nod. “I mean I love Ally and all I don’t really need to
look at other girls. But if I did you would definitely be number two in my book
after Ally of course. But you don’t look like one of those
skanks
I’m sure we’re going to see a lot of tonight.”

I guess that was sort of a
compliment in a weird
Skylar
kind of way? “Uh thanks
Sky.”

We drove back over to the area
near campus where we had gone the night we had went out for our first party.
That block was close to campus and consisted of oversized houses that could be
filled to the max with tenants.
Skylar
easily found a
spot on the street that was close to the house that we were going to since we were
arriving
a little early.

“Can you help bring some of this
stuff in Leah?” Ally asks as she motions to the trunk that is filled with boxes
of alcohol.