Wild Chase

by L. A. Bressett

  “It’s my favorite. Why?”

  His hand tightened around mine and the smile on his face turned to a devilish grin.

  “RUN!”

  I had never run so hard or so fast in my life. By the time we had traveled four blocks, we were panting and laughing so hard that I didn’t have enough air in my lungs to even ask why the rush.

  Of course, I didn’t have to because Avery tugged at my hand and took me into a shop where an older woman was turning off some lights in the back. I glanced up at the clock on the wall, and we had three minutes until closing. I took in my surroundings as Avery spoke to the clerk. We were in an old ice cream parlor, but it had been turned into a gelato place. I traced my fingers along one of the old, white iron chairs until a tug at my hand snapped me out of my daze.

  “What’s your poison?” Avery asked, waving a hand at the glass case. I licked my lips and walked over, not sure if I would ever be able to pick just one. My eyes rolled over dark chocolate, vanilla bean, wedding cake, fruit melody, and all kinds of flavors until I found one I knew I had to have.

  “That one! The chocolate strawberry one!”

  He smiled and ordered, choosing the same kind as me, paid the clerk and out the door we went.

  I took a quick bite, not expecting it to be as rich as it was. The strawberry flavor was so real, not like the fake stuff at all. I leaned my head back and let out a soft groan. Avery laughed and nudged me gently with his elbow,

  “I know, right? Totally worth the run, I hope?”

  I let out a soft giggle as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

  “Oh yeah, totally worth the run.”

  We made our way back down to the fountain and sat down along the cold, concrete edge, watching the lights sparkle through the falling water. Avery cleared his throat and I found myself instantly turning my attention back to him completely.

  “So, Chase,” he said softly, smiling, “Tell me something about yourself?”

  I don’t know what it was about this night or this guy, but I felt like I could open up to him in a way that I hadn’t been able to with anyone but Vic.

  “Which self would that be?” I asked, sounding almost as sad as the question made me feel.

  His smile slipped, but I could see the understanding in his eyes.

  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” I sighed, shaking my head and setting my almost empty ice cream cup down.

  Suddenly, a warm hand took mine and gently squeezed it. I looked up at Avery, and he shook his head at me.

  “Nah, don’t apologize. Nothing in life is simple. I can tell you kind of hold back, but I do hope you tell me about all the many Chases’ there are because I think this one is pretty awesome.”

  I didn’t even know this boy’s last name, but I knew immediately that he would wreck me for any other guy that came along.

  “My parents are just… they are incredibly strict and very religious.” I paused to steal a look at him before continuing. “They don’t approve of anything except church and school. It was a fight to get them to allow me to even go to public school, but I was so bored with being home-schooled, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I’m not really allowed to go anywhere or do anything. Can’t have a phone, no TV, and no radio. I can’t choose my own clothes.” I shrugged, “They don’t mean any harm, but it’s just… consuming. I don’t know who I am supposed to be when I’m with them because what I like isn’t allowed in our house.”

  “You feel lost,” he stated softly. I nod, still not sure why I shared so much with him.

  “My life has been nothing but fake smiles, church sermons, chores, early bedtimes, and constant discipline for things that I’ve done wrong. The other part of me,” I smiled up at him as I looked up from picking at my nails, “this Chase, well, she is the rebel, so to speak. I have this battery-powered radio hidden under my bed, and I listen to it every night when I know my parents are sleeping. They don’t believe in popular music, whatever that means. I just know that I need it to breathe. They would kill me if they knew what I was really doing tonight. I practically had to sell my soul just to get them to let me spend the night away from home. If it weren’t for Vic, and the countless hours I spend with her, or the time I spend attached to her computer, I’d probably be damn near Amish.”

  I slapped a hand over my mouth when I realized I swore, but when he laughed, I found myself laughing, too. “See mom, no lightning struck me down!” I thought with a laugh.

  “So they keep you sheltered from everything, huh?” he asked, taking my hand and turning it palm up and lightly tracing his fingers over it. My heart started to race again. I swallowed and nodded.

  “Some— Sometimes I just wish I could be like this all the time,” I said with my voice catching as I watched him.

  He looked up from my hand, his gray eyes stirring up those butterflies again. “You should be. No one should have to pretend to be something else when they are already special enough.”

  Yeah, this guy has completely and utterly ruined me for all other men, I thought to myself.

  I wanted to kiss him so badly when those words left his lips. He had no idea the effect they had on me. My old world was barely hanging on by a thread. I had a feeling that kissing him again would cut me free entirely and leave me spiraling out of control, but I was almost craving the fall. That thought woke me up a little bit, just enough to open my mouth and keep it from leaning into his for the moment.

  “You’re turn.”

  “Well, I’m Avery McGuire. Born and raised in a small town in New York. I’m twenty-one and I find your southern accent absolutely adorable. I’m in a band, making it pretty big you know, playing random bars every weekend,” he says with a laugh, I blush as he continues, “I like hockey, Hawaiian pizza, and all things music.”

  We both laughed as we intertwined our fingers together slowly.

  I shivered, not entirely sure if it was from the chemistry between us or the late night air, but he pulled me in closer to him, swinging a leg around me, and also an arm. I don’t know what possessed me to snuggle my face into the crook of his shoulder and tattooed neck. Maybe it was how he smelled like one of those spicy amber scented body washes, or how warm his body felt against mine. He held me close that way, finding my hand again and lacing our fingers together. I shut my eyes, mentally writing down everything. I didn’t want to forget a single second of this. I took a deep breath and sighed, content, feeling his hair brush against my forehead as he leaned his head into me slightly. I could feel his warm breath on my hair as he lightly kissed the top of my head.

  “Can I keep you?” I whispered, remembering my favorite line from a childhood movie. Before I could take it back and site a brain malfunction, his lips crashed into mine like a force of nature.

  We kissed for what seemed like hours, or mere seconds. I’ll never know how long we sat there beside the glittering waterfall, but when you’re lost in kissing someone like Avery, time stands still and flies by all at once.

  When he finally pulled away and whispered that he needed to get me back to my friend, the separation from him left me feeling off balance.

  Breathless didn’t quite cover the state he had just left me in. His lips and his tongue had just wiped my brain clear of all rational ability to think. He helped me up and we started walking back toward the bar.

  When the neon sign came into view, I tightened my grip on his hand and I felt a tightening in my chest. I didn’t have a chance to think about it before I felt his warm hand on my cheek.

  “I hate to say goodbye already,” he says softly, tilting my head back so I could look into his beautiful eyes. I couldn’t help but smile.

  “Me, too. I only live a few hours from here, though. Maybe we can get together next weekend?” I asked breathlessly, feeling my swollen lips tingle as I finally spoke.

  When his smile instantly faded, I suddenly felt sick. That tightening feeling in my chest was back with a vengeance. I heard him clear his throat, and I blinked for
a long moment.

  “My family is flying back to New York next weekend,” he says, shattering my heart with each word.

  I stared around my bedroom, and the old, plain white walls started to feel as if they were closing in around me, suffocating me. I tossed the pen in my hand down on my notebook and pushed away from my desk. Homework could wait a little longer. I threw myself onto my simple, white bed and let out a deep sigh; I gave in and closed my eyes knowing there was only one thing I was going to see when I did, Avery’s beautiful face.

  Last night still felt like a dream, as if I had been Cinderella at a ball. However, in the light of the day after, nothing felt the same. Nothing looked the same.

  Nothing was the same.

  Between performing, cutting loose with my best friend, and meeting an amazing guy, I never wanted last night to end.

  The night came to a crashing finish when he uttered those words about leaving. The constricting feeling in my chest snuck up on me every single time I thought about it. I liked him a lot, but to feel so undone about him leaving, just didn’t make sense.

  I’d rather think about the way his voice sounded while he sang to me, the way his hand found mine every chance he got, and especially about the way he kissed me.

  I could feel my whole body start to blush as I remembered the way his fingers slowly slid up my neck and into my hair. How his lips and tongue gently and expertly caressed mine, and how he tasted like strawberries. I bit my lip and smiled wildly at the scorching memory.

  “Chase! Is your homework done? You know you have chores that need doin’ girl!”

  I shot up off my bed as my mom’s voice cut right through my thoughts. If I had a bedroom door, I might have actually heard her come into my room. However, privacy is for adults, and they have made it perfectly clear I am not.

  “Um, no ma’am. Not yet.”

  She stood in my doorway with an irritated look on her face and her arms crossed. Her hazel eyes definitely looked more angry than tired. Her t-shirt and skirt were covered in flour, so I knew the kitchen was going to be a wonderful mess for me to clean up.

  “Then what are you doing lying in bed? Get it done! You have school tomorrow. I don’t want you up late with your chores because you chose to put off your responsibilities to go hang out with your friend yesterday. I still can’t believe you were late to church this mornin’,” she said haughtily, shaking her head at me.

  For the first time in my life, I actually bit my tongue to keep from talking back. I usually just took whatever she dished out, but this time it was as if her voice alone was trying to cut a very exposed nerve.

  I cleared my throat and took a second to remember my place in her house.

  “Sorry about that, Mama. I woke up late, and I won’t let it happen again. I only have a few more questions to answer so I’ll be in to help you clean up in about 20 minutes.”

  “You’re right about that,” she said, brushing some of her curly reddish-brown hair out of her face, “it won’t happen ever again. I can’t believe you would selfishly embarrass your father and I like that, waltzin’ in ten minutes into the sermon. I’m sure you know your father’s not real happy with you right now.”

  My temper was flaring below the surface, but I wouldn’t let her see it. I clenched my jaw and just nodded.

  “I’ll be down shortly, Mama.” With that I got up and went back to my desk. She took the hint and left me to finish my assignment.

  I don’t know what had gotten into me, but I took a few minutes to calm down and just breathe. I couldn’t go marching downstairs with my blood boiling like that around my daddy. I was already in enough trouble with him as it was.

  “Ok, so what else did he say, Chase? I mean, that can’t be the last time you will see him!” Vic’s brown eyes pleaded with me as she leaned across the cafeteria table asking me the same question she had asked me the whole drive home Saturday night.

  I sighed, brushing some hair out of my face, “I honestly don’t know, Vic. I mean, I don’t have a cell or internet so that shoots keeping in touch with him right out of the park. I gave him my address, told him I had school and that I worked two nights a week at the Pizza Shack. I don’t know what else I am supposed to do! He said he would see what he could do and kissed me goodbye. It’s not like I wanted it to be the last time I saw him, either.”

  I stared down at my jeans and my t-shirt, and started picking imaginary fuzz off both of them, to try to ignore Vic’s sad eyes and the lump forming in my throat.

  “Well, from the way he was looking at you when we drove off, I’m pretty sure he will find a way to see you again. If not, I swear I’ll find a way to sneak you out to see him one more time. Hell, who am I kidding, I wouldn’t mind a parting glance myself,” she added with a half-smile, trying to lighten the mood.

  I looked up and gave her the same half-smile back.

  “I’m sure Luke wouldn’t mind seeing you again.”

  For the first time in the seven years I had known her, Victoria Pierce blushed.

  “He was something, all right,” she mused. Quickly trying to distract me from her pink cheeks, she changed the subject to something naughty. “I wasn’t wrong about him looking like the dirty type either, Chase. Luke couldn’t keep his hands off—”

  I started to laugh and shake my head.

  “I get it, Vic! The infamous Dirty McGuire Brothers. Enough said! Now, if we don’t get going we are going to be late for Spanish.”

  We gathered up our stuff, made a beeline down the hall, and made it through the crowded locker area just in time to slip into our class before the tardy bell rang.

  I sighed as I sank into my seat. Thanks to my bestie, my mind was going to be wandering far, far away from anything Spanish-related for the next hour.

  By the time I got home from school, I was sulking even more than I had the day before. A breath of relief slipped from my lips when I realized that it was a Monday, which meant that my parents would be at church until I climbed into bed. That would give me some time to myself to try and get these wild thoughts under control, or at the very least, try and make some sense of them.

  As I got closer to the front of our house I noticed a black mustang parked outside. I figured it had to be someone visiting our neighbors, so I kept walking, lost in memories of gray eyes and lip rings.

  I rounded my mother’s rose bushes and began the fifteen-foot trek up the sidewalk to my front door.

  That’s when I saw him sitting on my front porch steps, causing me to stop suddenly. In fact, I think I stopped breathing because he was even more gorgeous in the daylight.

  He was wearing a red band t-shirt over a long sleeve black shirt and blue jeans, his hair in that same sexy, messy look that made me want to run my hands through it and just mess it up more.

  His gray eyes locked onto mine as he hit me with that heart-stopping grin of his and my body instantly reacted.

  Without any conscious thought, a big smile spread across my face as I threw my book bag to the ground, instantly took off running toward him. My heart was pounding so hard that I knew Avery would feel it this time. Luckily, he had just enough time to get to his feet before I leapt into his arms.

  Breathing him in deeply, I tightened my grip around his neck and shoulders. I didn’t care that I had known him a total of five hours or five years. I felt more comfort in his arms than I had ever felt in my own home. I let go slowly as he sat me down on the ground in front of him, and that same smile never left his face.

  “Happy to see me?” he asked with a laugh.

  I couldn’t stop myself from smiling and shaking my head, “No, not at all.”

  We both laughed and stood there for a moment in a comfortable silence. I stared down at my hands and watched as a couple of his fingers slowly found mine and hooked them together. I bit the corner of my bottom lip and peeked up at him.

  “I would have called, but you don’t have a phone. You gave me your address, but I didn’t want to just show up here like some
creepy stalker. I spent all day yesterday bored out of my mind and the only thing I could think about was you,” Avery said, glancing back and forth between my eyes and our interlaced fingers. “So, obviously, I took the creep-o route. I hope you’re not completely freaked out right now.”

  He cleared his throat and chuckled nervously.

  Why on earth did he sound nervous? I almost tackled him a few minutes ago.

  “As long as you aren’t comparing me to a linebacker right now, then I think we can call it even,” I said softly, laughing to cover up my own nervousness. I don’t remember him being so boyishly cute. The tattoos, messy hair in his face, and lip ring couldn’t hide the fact that he was not only hot, but he was adorable, too. My heartstrings were being tugged so hard I was certain they would snap at any moment.

  He let out a loud laugh. “I promise you it never crossed my mind. I was hoping I could spend the afternoon with you,—if you didn’t have any other plans, that is.”

  My heart started to race and I suddenly couldn’t remember how to use my tongue. I nodded, and his face fell.

  “Oh, ok, well maybe another day this week then?”

  Get it together, Chase! I screamed at myself.

  “Oh, no, I meant yeah, yes, I mean. I’d like to spend the afternoon with you. I don’t have any other plans,” I managed to get out. “If you’ll give me a few minutes I’ll just go throw my stuff in my room and then we can go do whatever. I just need to be back here by eight.”

  The smile that spread across his face reawakened that familiar fluttering feeling I had become so acquainted with on Saturday.

  “Perfect. I’ll wait right here.”

  I darted into the house and literally threw my book bag onto my bed. I knew I had homework, but it was the last thing on my mind. I glanced in the mirror and nearly gagged.

  Seriously? I’m surprised he didn’t act like he had the wrong house. In the words of my bff, I was lookin’ a hot mess!

  My ridiculously long, brown, curly hair was pulled back in a messy bun, and my make-up free face looked young compared to the way it had the other night. I threw off my ratty, old red jacket and stared down at my Bible camp T-shirt. In two seconds flat, I tossed it into the hamper and replaced it with a purple V-neck, long-sleeved shirt. I smoothed the shirt down over my stomach and stared at the curves that seemed to have developed overnight. I wasn’t a scrawny, little thing anymore.