One of the Guys (30 page)

“
Fine, I’ll take to my place,
Jeez!” He threw his hands up before getting in his car and driving
home.

“
If Chase saw
her here, she’d never speak to me again.” I said quietly to myself.
Knowing that it was quite possible she already knew, my stomach
turned. I didn’t want her to think it was me with
Cassie.
Fuck
no. I
never
wanted to be with anybody other than Chase.

My Chase.

School was another nightmare.
Walking through the parking lot, I noticed the black mustang, the
same one that passed my house, parked close to the
front.

Whomever it belonged to, went to
our school. Or at least visiting today.

Walking to my homeroom, I heard a
few whispers about the homecoming dance.

Chase had been asked, as I’d
expected, and I didn’t know whether she’d accepted. Dances weren’t
our thing. We stayed home to hang out. We watched movies, played
video games, ate pizza…

I scrubbed my hand down my face
remembering all of the precious times we’d spent alone.

Logan, get a grip.
I thought, walking into class.

Once I’d gotten into math class, I
sank into my chair, waiting for Chase to arrive. I knew she had
when the whispers picked up. All fucking week, people had commented
on how hot she looked. How different she looked and how much of a
tight body she had.

I was seriously going to lose it on
the next guy who asked if we’d broken up.

Chase sat gracefully into her seat,
her scent wafting over me and my pants tightening in recognition.
Glancing to her, I saw she was wearing blue jeans that widened at
the ankle to cover her boots, still showing off her shapely legs.
She wore a deep red batwing top that fell off one shoulder, showing
the black strap of a vest underneath.

I wanted to run my tongue over her
skin.

Jesus!
I
was losing my mind.

“
Here’s your tests back. Chase, A
plus, as expected…” Mr. Garrett said, smiling at her.

I’ll knock that fucking smile off
your face, pervert.
I thought to
myself.

“
Logan, B-minus. Not as good as
your finals. Maybe Chase could help you.”

“
No.” Chase said flatly, and my
eyes snapped to her.

“
Why ever not?” Mr. Garrett asked,
narrowing his eyes in wonder.

“
I’m not being
used…again.”

Chase didn’t look at me as she
spoke, but I knew there would be fire in her eyes. Just like when
she’d punched Carl.

Fucking
Carl! His comment had stuck, and Chase thought I’d used her
for my grades. That’s why she’d reacted the way she did after I’d
left her waiting. It looked like I’d gotten my grade, then left
her.

I’m such a dick!

Charlotte met Chase outside our
math class, before we headed to chem. I wanted to at least try to
explain that I hadn’t used her. Fat chance of that. She’d bolted
the second the bell sounded.

Miss. Ebbs handed back our pop quiz
papers. She came to me first.

Awesome…not.

“
B, Logan.” She said. “I know this
subject is your strongest, and I’m concerned that your grades may
slip if your marks dropped like this.”

Usually, I would have aced it.
Gotten an A minus at least.

I didn’t say anything as Miss. Ebbs
walked around the class. I listened as she got to Chase.

“
Perfect, Chase. I see you’ve kept
up your studies.”

“
Yeah. It’s amazing what you can do
in your free time.”

“
I hope others follow your
example.”

“
Well, I
guess
some
people think more about
who
to do than w
hat
to do instead.”

That was aimed at me, and I knew
what she meant.

Cassie.

Chase thought that I slept with
her. I fucking
knew
it! The way she wouldn’t even acknowledge me. The way she
would completely avoid me… I looked like a complete
liar.

Right then, I hated my brother more
than anything for hooking up with that bitch.

Luckily, I hadn’t seen her around
school. However, I didn’t know whether Chase had; or if Cassie, or
one of her friends, had said something.

Cassie was friends with the other
girls, but I hadn’t seen her with them. Maybe Chase had told them,
and they were siding with her.

This was so messed up.

I wanted my best friend back; I
wanted my beautiful girl back, and nothing or no-one was going to
get in my way.

If Chase wanted to keep ignoring
me, then fine, but I wasn’t going to let her stop me from making
her listen. Even if I had to show her.

I didn’t get a chance to catch up
with Chase after last class, so I walked to the exit to meet up
with the guys.

Lex and Pike were staring at the
Mustang.

“
That is one sweet ass ride.” Said
Lex, looking over the body of the car.

“
I’m pretty sure I saw this at the
store.” Said Pike. “Yeah, definitely. Same wheels and
everything.”

“
Whoa, whose
is
that?”
Asked Carl when he caught up to us.

“
I don’t know, but I’ve seen it go
past my house a couple of times.” I said.

The other kids were looking
appreciatively at the car too, and were mumbling to each
other.

“
Excuse me boys.” A female voice
said from behind us.

Chase.

I turned to see her waiting to get
past, as we were blocking her path, and Poppy was with
her.

Pulling something from her bag, the
car unlocked and we stood there gawking as Chase got into the
driver’s side of the car; Poppy the passenger.

Putting on her usual aviators,
Chase turned on the engine and pulled away, driving out of the
parking lot.

“
That’s
Chase’s
car?” Lex said, his voice raising in pitch with
surprise.

“
I guess so.” I said, my voice
barely a whisper.

Chase had been driving that car
down the street. She’d seen Cassie coming out of my house with her
own eyes.

Without saying another word, I
dropped my head, and walked to my car.

I was so fucked.

“
Chase
was driving that car!” I
roared at Matt when I got home.

I’d seen his car in the drive, yet
again.

“
Whoa, what the fuck are you
talking about?” He asked, his hands up.

“
The Mustang; it’s Chase’s car. She
drove past here when Cassie was coming out of the house. She saw
her! She thinks she was with me!” I yelled.

“
Steady on. How can you be so
sure?”

I briefly told him what Chase had
said in chem class.

“
Look, if it’s any consolation,
Cassie told me she wouldn’t say anything to you, or anybody else.
She’s been steering clear. Also, the other girls aren’t talking to
her anyway. I guess that has something to do with this?”

“
Ya think?!” I said,
sarcastically.

It was obvious. Matt had screwed up
my chances of getting Chase to talk to me again. Now, that she
thought I’d been with Cassie… I couldn’t even imagine what she
thought of me.

“
I think Chase
likes you…” He said, pausing to lean against the counter with his
hip. “…
That
way.”

“
What?” I looked at him like he was
talking a different language.

“
Yeah. I noticed that last time she
was here. When we all watched the racing on TV.”

“
How? What did you see?”

“
The way she looked at
you.”

I made a gesture with my hand for
him to elaborate. Leaving me with just
that
wasn’t enough.

“
When she handed me a twizzler. I
watched her as she turned to look at you. There was something
there, I swear.”

“
And you didn’t think to mention
this, why?”

“
I didn’t know if you liked her
that way. At least not enough.”

I ran my hands through my hair and
over my face. Matt knew something and he hadn’t thought of telling
me.

“
Oh
my
God
Matt! How could you not see that I liked her? Wasn’t it
obvious to you?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Yeah? Is that
all you got?
Yeah?!
You held me when I cried my fucking heart out
over what she did for my birthday!
”

“
Look,
Logan. If you really wanted her, you’d get your dick out of your
ass and go for her instead of acting like a whiny
pussy.”

I was taken aback at Matt’s words,
but he was right.

Nothing he’d said to Chase had
stopped me from telling her how I felt. It was my own fault and,
yes, I was being a ‘whiny pussy’.

Fuck! I’m such a huge cry
baby!
I thought to myself.

Nothing, or nobody, had made me
react the way Chase had.

“
Anyway, homecoming game is
starting in a couple of hours. Let’s get ready to go.” Matt said,
before leaving me standing alone in the kitchen.

*****

Chase

“
This is it girls.” Said Carly.
Smiling at us all like a proud mamma. “Go out there today, and show
them what our squad is made of.

"She made it sound as though we
were going for national championships or something. Not a high
school football game.

“
The other teams’ squad are
performing first. You girls are performing after half time. I need
to go out there now, but I want to wish you all the best of
luck.”

Carly opened her arms and hugged
each one of us in turn. Our going to her, of course.

“
Thank you, Chase.” She said when I
hugged her. “I’m sorry for what I said about you in the past. I was
wrong.”

“
Forget about it. I’m sorry
too.”

The girls had judged me by my
appearance, and I’d judged them. We were both guilty but now, we
were friends.

As we waited, and talked among
ourselves, we watched from the sidelines out of view of the crowds.
My stomach was rolling, and I felt as if I were going to throw
up.

“
Chase, are you ok?” Poppy asked,
rubbing my arm.

“
Yeah. I just feel a little
self-concious in this getup.” I said, looking down at the outfit I
was wearing.

The red and white cheer outfit was
tight and small. The sleeves were long and white, with the body of
the tank white with double red stripes crossing over the front. The
letters ‘FT’ in red on the front of the stripes.

The body, from under the crossover
to the hips was red also, but the skirt was white with a red double
cross around the hem.

That wasn’t all. There was a big
triangular cut out over the left thigh. Allowing ease of
movement.

I felt really exposed. I wasn’t
used to showing my legs, but now hundreds of people were going to
get a good look.

“
You look hot as hell.” Poppy
assured me. “You have a great set of pins and, to be honest, I’m a
little jealous.”

That got my attention.

“
Why? Jealous of what?” I looked
myself up and down.

“
Oh Chase, you are totally
gorgeous!” She said, shaking her head because I didn’t see it.
“Seriously, I don’t know why you hid yourself away.”

I bounced up and down on my toes a
little, showing her why. Poppy giggled.

“
Jesus, those things need their own
zip code.” She laughed, making me laugh along with her.

“
Kate’s here.” Sian said, coming
over to us. “She made it. I saw her sitting next to Lex.” She
smiled, a twinkle in her eye.

“
Well, I think someone’s gonna get
lucky tonight.” Poppy giggled.

Sian’s face paled, and her eyes
snapped to Poppy, then me.

“
Come on, Sian. I’m well aware of
you and Kate.” Poppy lowered her voice as she spoke. “You can’t
keep your eyes off each other.”

“
I… uh…” Sian was
speechless.

“
Nobody cares, Sian. Least of all
your friends.”

“
I told you.” I said.

“
Thanks girls.” Sian smiled, then
her look changed from sweet to devilish. “Let’s go out there and
tease our bitches.”