One of the Guys (27 page)

Stu was the reason Carl hung with
us in the first place.

“
Carl, you’re being unreasonable.
They guys know the reason you never wanted her there. They’re not
fucking stupid.” Stu said to him, pointing at his chest.

Carl looked around at us. Of
course, I knew, but he didn’t know the others had realized why he
was a colossal dick.

Jealousy.

“
Fuck this, I’m out.” Carl
growled.

“
Carl.” I said, with a threatening
tone in my voice. “You’re part of this team. Don’t let your
jealousy affect our game.”

“
Our game? Seriously, Logan?” He
asked, sarcastically, raising his hands in emphasis. “Our game is
affected, right now, because you’re so hung up about Chase.” He
spat, but he never stepped closer to me. He knew I’d swing for him
too.

“
That may be so, Carl. But I’m not
taking it out on anybody else, and I’m certainly not blaming other
people for my mistake.”

Not anymore.

“
Fuck you.” Carl said, turning and
walking away.

“
Let him go.” Said Stu. “It killing
him that Poppy gave him a dirty look today, and now that Chase is
hanging with her… He thinks she’s said something bad about
him.”

I had no idea about that, because
Carl never said anything. Of course, he wouldn’t want us to know,
but Chase wouldn’t do that. Would she?

“
Poppy’s looked at him like that
since Chase started to hang with us.” Pike added. “Is that the
reason? He thinks Poppy doesn’t like him because of
Chase?”

“
Yeah.” Stu nodded. “I thought you
knew?”

“
I knew he thought we couldn’t get
girls because of her, which is stupid, but I didn’t know it was
Poppy.”

“
He’s an asshole, and I wish Chase
had kicked him in the nuts.” I added.

“
Whatever. Let’s get back to
practice. Adam and the others are here now.” Lex said, jerking his
chin in the direction of the other team members.

Baseball was the last thing I
wanted to be doing, but I needed to take my mind off of
Chase.

Yeah right.

All through practice, all I could
think about was Chase. How she looked the last time I saw her, and
how she looked today. I squirmed on the bench as my body reacted
instantly to thoughts of her. It didn’t matter that she wore loose
clothes, I found her totally sexy anyway, but today… Today I was a
complete hormonal mess.

For the rest of the day, I
constantly heard Chase’s name mentioned along the halls.

Chase is so hot!

I never thought she was hiding
such a sweet ass.

Wow, Chase has a smokin’
rack!

And the worst I’d heard muttered
from somebody, whom I didn’t know:

I wonder if she fucks as good as
she looks?

The second I heard that I turned
around, ready to kill whoever had said it. I knew it was a guy; I’d
heard his voice. The thing was, everybody had avoided eye contact
with me the moment I turned. They probably didn’t know I could hear
them.

If I found out who it was, they
were going to be very sorry.

I continued walking to my last
class when I stopped, a sick feeling hitting me in the gut. Chase
was leaning against the lockers, and one of the football players
was talking to her. Thankfully, she looked as bored as ever, but I
could tell he was trying hard to get her attention.

I walked closer, keeping my head
down as if I hadn’t seen. I was just in earshot when I heard her
answering whatever he’d asked.

“
No. I’m not interested. I have
things to do anyway.” She said, blowing out a breath. “I gotta
go.”

Chase straightened and walked away.
The football player just watched her leave, raking his hand through
his hair.

“
Logan.” He said, when he spotted
me.

Fuck!

“
Yeah?” I asked, trying to look as
though I didn’t wish he was dead.

“
So…um… you and Chase broke
up?”

Oh my God, I wanted to strangle
the guy so much. He’d hit on Chase
before
getting confirmation from me?
So, we weren’t actually dating, but I wanted to choke him all the
same.

“
What do you want?” I asked, not
answering his question.

“
Just asking. She’s hot, and now
you’re not together, a bunch of guys have been asking about her,
and wanting to take her to the dance. Nobody’s gotten a ‘yes’ yet
though.”

I felt as if I were going to throw
up. Chase had already been asked out by guys on our first day back.
I could feel the sting in my nose, and before I made a fool of
myself, I turned and walked out of the building.

Last class wasn’t going to happen
today.

Chapter
13

Chase

I felt numb inside.

Walking back into school, after the
summer I’d had, felt as though I was in a dream. I couldn’t break
myself out of the coldness of my mood. I was angry, hurt, upset,
and to top it all off Logan acted as if nothing had happened; like
I hadn’t witnessed the sickening sight a few days
before.

It’s got nothing to do with
me.
I kept telling myself.

Logan wasn’t mine, and I had no
right to feel angry.

Oh who was I kidding? I had
every
right
to be
angry.

Of all the times he was extra nice
to me, making me feel things for him, making me fall in love with
him… No. I wasn’t going back to there and I felt my hard shield
snap firmly in place as I walked down the hall.

I could feel eyes on me, and even
though I was listening to my music, I knew people were talking
about me.

I looked different.

Gone were the baggy clothing to
hide my body, and out were the skinny jeans, tight vests, and even
wearing my long hair loose and flowing down my back.

Ok, so I had a loose vest over my
tight one that had big arm holes so you could see the vest
underneath, and the neckline hung lower too, but they went
together, and I wasn’t completely comfortable allowing people to
see the entire shape of my body. It was noticeable
though.

I’d shaken my head when I looked at
my reflection that morning. It was like something out of ‘she’s all
that’ where the dowdy girl becomes beautiful. Not that I thought I
was gorgeous by any means, but I knew I looked good. Poppy had told
me so.

Over the summer weeks, I’d found
out that if Poppy told you, you looked good, you did. She didn’t
lie about that. She’d told me I looked like I was hiding, and that
the loose pants and tops were doing nothing for me. I knew that
myself, but when
she
told me, she was spot on. Changing into the new jeans and top
I’d been forced to buy, she looked so excited she even bounced up
and down and clapped her hands.

I wasn’t quite as ecstatic as she
was, but it was time for me to grow up. Time for me to stop hiding
and to be seen.

I knew Logan had seen me too, but I
didn’t even acknowledge him. I walked straight past as if he
weren't even there.

Doesn’t feel good, does
it?

Math class was easier than
expected. Logan had sat at the table next to me, staring. Trying to
get my attention hadn’t worked. I wasn’t giving him the
satisfaction of me acknowledging his stares.

Yawning, I made it perfectly clear
that I was bored.

When I’d met up with Poppy
afterwards, she’d told me that he’d watched me as I walked towards
her.

I didn’t care. He could go fuck
himself, or the girl I’d seen outside his house. I didn’t even want
to say her name.

Punching Carl had been
sweet.

Hearing his words, something inside
me snapped. Before I knew it, I was marching towards him, having an
out-of-body-experience as my fist connected with his
jaw.

I could see myself doing it, but it
didn’t feel like me.

But now it was.

The Chase that didn’t take
shit.

The Chase that didn’t just fight
back with words.

This
Chase could get physical.

I looked down to my knuckles. They
were still a little red. I’d connected with his jaw, causing a
bruise to my own hand.

It was totally worth it.

I’d been leaning against my locker
when Joel, the high school football -whatever the position was, I
didn’t know- approached me, asking whether I was busy and would I
like to go to the movies with him.

I’d blown him off, leaving him
standing there. Out of the corner of my eye, I’d noticed Logan
walking towards me and I wasn’t about to stand there and listen to
anything he had to say.

I was tired of the guys already.
Since walking into school, I’d gotten:

Hey Chase, what are you doing
later?

I simply said ‘stuff’.

Hey Chase, wanna go out
sometime?

Again, a one word answer.
No.

Some even had the audacity to ask
me to homecoming dance!

None of the guys had noticed me
around school, unless I was with Logan, and not in
that
way either.
Shedding a jacket, ok a little more, had them approaching me fast.
It was disgusting.

I smiled as I walked to the last
class of the day.

It was funny. I could use that to
my advantage.
I thought,
wickedly.

So the guys thought I was suddenly
dateable? They were wrong. Very wrong.

Yeah I would’ve liked to have been
wanted by somebody. Just wanted, not actually going out with them,
but it would’ve been nice to have been asked.

I’d wanted it to be Logan, but now…
Now I had a lot of guys wanting me the first day back.

Quite the turnaround.

I was going to show them what it
was like to be unwanted and just ignored. Let’s see how they like
that.

I knew, deep down, that the person
I was aiming my revenge on was Logan, but I wanted to give the
others a taste of their own medicine too.

That would be coming in the form of
homecoming game.

I smiled again.

Last class was quiet. Except for
the whispers at the back of class, nobody said anything to me.
Which had been the norm, but it was because they didn’t know what
to say. I’d caught a couple of things from a group of
guys.

“
Are you going to talk to
her?”

“
I don’t know. I
mean, I want to but… look at her. She’s hot!
She won’t talk to
us
.”

“
Come on, guys. We have to at
least try. There’s three of us. She’ll talk to one of us, at
least.”

I chuckled under my breath. I knew
who the guys were. They were mostly quiet, like me, but they had a
large group of friends and knew how to entertain at a party. I
turned in my seat to get a look at them. Let them know I’d heard
them.

The looks on their faces were
hilarious.

Their eyes widened, and their
cheeks flushed bright red, putting their heads down away from eye
contact.

Slowly, I turned to the front when
I heard ‘
shit’
muttered from their direction.

When class had finished I rose from
my seat, picking up my bag, and made my way out of the class.
Passing the boys who were trying to act as though they weren’t
looking, I made eye contact. I smiled as I walked past.

That was easier than I
thought.
I thought to myself.

Just a simple smile at them would
have been difficult in the past. Not a friendly one but a ‘I know
what you did’ one.

*****

After school, I
was going to go shopping for Bren. I hadn’t been for a while
because I’d been busy with practice and the kids in gym. Today,
though, I was going. My Mom, even though she meant well, never
bought her the extra stuff that I had. Loading up my cart, I walked
around. Not caring who looked or what people said. I kept my ear
buds in so I couldn’t hear.

Oh, yeah. The usual shoppers who
knew me recognized me and just stared.

It wasn’t like I’d gone on extreme
makeover or anything.

Fuck! All I’d done was shed the
loose clothing and left my hair down. A little more eye makeup,
maybe, but that was it. I still looked the same.

Putting it to one side, I continued
shopping. I bought the things Bren liked, even her favorite
cookies, which were specifically for diabetics, and I made my way
to the checkout.