A Hope and a Chance

by Jennifer Foor

  Once Buffy and my dad went inside I ran up to my room and changed my clothes. I decided on black capris and a black shirt. I wanted to be invisible when they showed up, in case they weren’t alone. Before heading out I ran to the pool house and found a bat that Chance kept in his closet. There was no way I was going there without something to defend myself.

  On the way, my heart was pounding through my chest. I heard my phone ringing over and over, but knew it was my dad. If I told them what I had planned they never would have let me go through with it.

  When I pulled up I realized I was alone. The park was empty and dark with only the sounds of insects harping in the distance. I exited my vehicle and sat down on a bench located directly in front of where I parked my car. The headlights illuminated where I sat, causing it to be difficult for me to see the approaching vehicle. I could hear the tires on the gravel road and decided to stand up to see how close the car was getting. When it pulled up beside mine, I tried to remain calm by holding my head up high and focusing on what I had come there for.

  Trevor stepped out of the car first. He looked angry but I refused to fear him anymore. If he wanted to hurt me, it wasn’t going to happen. After what he did to Chance today, and the things that he’d said to me, I wouldn’t care if I killed him myself. When he got about five feet away from me I yelled at him. “Stop! Don’t come any further,” I warned.

  “What do you want, Hope? Why have you drug me out here in the middle of nowhere? What do you think you’re going to accomplish?” Trevor questioned.

  “I have a proposition for you,” I replied.

  Even though I knew I was in quite a predicament, it felt good to be calling the shots.

  “Okay, let’s hear it.”

  “I want you to drop the charges against Chance.”

  “Hell no! Why would you think I would do such a thing? Do you think I owe you some kind of favor? Everything I did to you was because you wanted it, Hope. Stop acting like you didn’t like it. Everyone likes what I have to offer.” Trevor was an egotistical bastard. He was the scum of the earth.

  I snickered. “It’s so funny that you ask that.” I held the bat tightly in one hand, but began circling around Trevor. For some reason I felt like I had someone standing behind me, ready to attack Trevor if he made any moves. “I never enjoyed it, Trevor. In fact, being with you was like giving myself thousands of paper cuts. You disgust me.”

  “You expect me to do you a favor after you claim I disgust you? Are you fucking insane?” Trevor asked.

  I pointed the bat at his head. “No, I’m not crazy, but I can be if I need to. Now, here’s my deal. You are going to drop the charges against Chance, or I will notify the police of how many times you sexually assaulted me. Included in that confession would be the documented photographs to prove what happened.”

  “Anyone could have given you those bruises, you little bitch. Are you really trying to blackmail me right now? Nobody is going to believe that story coming from you, Hope. Everyone knows how poor your mother is. They will just assume it is some ploy to get money from my family.”

  I hadn’t considered that Trevor would be smart enough to turn things around on me. The truth was that everyone in town knew my mother; it was a small town. The fact that he brought her into this made me angrier. “We have video surveillance at the house, Trevor. How do you plan on getting your way out of that one? Not to mention that your brother was involved. If I go after you, he goes down too,” I lied.

  One minute Trevor was standing five feet away, but in a matter of only a second he had jumped on top of me, causing the bat to fly out of my hand, choking me. “You stupid little cunt! I’m going to kill you.” He roared, as his hand squeezed harder, constricting my airflow.

  I tried to claw at him, kicking with my legs, and even punching him, but I couldn’t free his adrenaline-fueled hold. Just as I was about to lose consciousness, I felt his hands release me.

  Rylee stood over me with the bat in her hand. Next to me, rolling around in pain, was Trevor. He was holding his side, screaming in agony. Rylee extended a hand to me as she kept a close eye on Trevor. “Are you okay, Hope?”

  My throat was in immediate pain, but I managed to get out a “yeah”.

  Rylee hiked over to where Trevor was still curled up. “Get up, you son of a bitch!” She ordered with tear-filled eyes.

  I had gotten myself up and leaned against the car. My throat felt like it was scratched from the inside, and just out of natural reaction I held the outside of my neck.

  Rylee pushed Trevor with the tip of the bat. “Sit down on your ass, Trevor. I can’t believe you were going to actually hurt her, maybe even kill her. I thought that you had changed. I thought you finally wanted a life with me, but your anger ruins everything.”

  Trevor scrunched up his face and spit at her feet. “You were never anything but a common whore, Rylee. You knew damn well that all I wanted from you was some easy ass. My father would never let me get serious with someone like you.”

  I couldn’t see Rylee’s face because her back was to me, but I knew what Trevor said was like a kick in the stomach for her. The park was silent for at least a whole minute. Rylee never backed away.

  Finally, she moved closer to him, poking him with the bat. “This is how things are going to go.” She pushed the bat into his side, causing him to squeal in pain. “You’re going to get up and get into my car in the backseat. I’ll climb in beside you, to prevent you from moving an inch. Then we’re going to drive to the police station, where you will be dropping all of the charges against Chance Avery. If Hope’s evidence isn’t enough to convict you, I am sure that an eyewitness testimony will,” she threatened.

  Trevor didn’t say a word. Instead, he held his head down and finally got up and started walking toward the car. Rylee had the bat pushed into his back the entire time. When I got into the driver’s side, I handed her my keys with my pepper spray attached. I didn’t have to tell her the reason; she nodded and pointed the bottle at his face.

  While I began our drive back to the station I heard Rylee saying, “I’m so sorry, Hope,” from the backseat.

  Maybe I could forgive her someday, but for right now all I wanted to do was to see Chance, nothing else mattered to me.

  Trevor reluctantly made his way into the station and immediately began pleading his case. He told the officers that Chance had reacted in self-defense and that he didn’t wish to press charges after all. A detective came and did a thorough interview with him, in which I have no idea what was said. Once I saw his father come into the station I knew the shit had just gotten serious. As they walked back toward Rylee and me, she held my hand. I think she was afraid of what they’d say to her.

  “If I never see either of you again, it will be too soon.” He said as he sauntered out of the police station doors beside his father.

  I started to get up and go after him to give him and his father another piece of my mind, but Rylee pulled me back when she saw Chance emerging from a closed door. Our eyes met and I couldn’t help but run toward him. We embraced and I immediately started to cry. “I’m so sorry.”

  “How did you get me out, Hope? What did you do?” He asked.

  No part of me wanted to be mad at him for assuming I had to do something shady, but wasn’t that what I had done? “It doesn’t matter. Trevor will never bother us again,” I promised.

  Rylee gave Trevor the finger and we all staggered out to her car. On the way back to get my vehicle she drove while Chance and I stayed locked in each other’s arms in the backseat. When we finally reached the park I leaned inside the window and thanked Rylee, before getting into my own car and driving us home.

  It was no surprise that Buffy and my father were frantically waiting for my return.

  40

  Seeing Hope at the police station felt like a dream. I still didn’t know how she changed Trevor’s mind, and part of me was afraid to ask, but I trusted her. When she came into my arms for the first time I knew I wa
sn’t dreaming. She felt so warm, just like being home.

  I didn’t say anything to her in either of the cars on the ride home; instead, I just held her hand and gazed at her beautiful face. She seemed happy, almost satisfied, in a way that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Of course, when we pulled up at the house we were faced with two very distraught family members.

  Before they approached us, I had to know what had happened. “Hope, care to fill me in?”

  She looked over at me and then back to her father and Buffy. “I told you already that Trevor will never be a problem for us again.”

  “Should I be worried about you?” I asked.

  “Nope. I’ll be fine. I just finally stood my ground and threatened to turn him in for everything he ever did to me, and I also kind of said that we had video surveillance of the outside of the house.”

  I laughed. “Wow! Well here come the parental units. Maybe we shouldn’t be so close together?”

  Hope squeezed my hand. “I’m tired of lying, Chance. I think we should just tell him.”

  “I just got back, Hope. Do you really think that is a good idea?” I asked, but as I did, I heard the car door opening on my side.

  “Chance? How did you…? What the…?” Buffy said.

  We both climbed out of the car at the same time. “I can explain, but I think we all need to go inside,” Hope said.

  When her father looked at Buffy, he had a concerned look on his face. He put his arm around her as they headed inside, but never said a single word to either of us, which I found weird.

  We all headed into the kitchen. I leaned against the counter after Buffy had handed me a beer while she and Mark sat at the breakfast bar waiting for an explanation.

  I looked over to Hope and then back to them. “Hope is going to have to tell you how I got out. She did it all herself.”

  Hope looked at her dad. “Well first I need to go back to last year. I guess you already know about mine and Trevor’s relationship, but it was worse than I ever led on. Dad, on several occasions he forced me to do things with him.” Hope put her head down. She couldn’t look him in the eye.

  “I will kill that bastard!” Mark yelled.

  Hope looked up at him as the tears ran down her cheeks. “When I got the nerve to break up with him, I severed all ties, and then eventually moved here with you. He still tried to call, but I never spoke with him, not even once.”

  I looked up at Mark who still seemed like he was fuming. “How did you get Chance out, Hope? Did he make you do something? Did he make you be with him again?” Mark asked.

  I cringed at the thought.

  “No! No way, dad! I texted him and Rylee to meet me in the park. I took Chance’s baseball bat to protect myself. I only went there to threaten him, not to do anything physical.” Hope seemed to be thinking about her next words. “When I gave him an ultimatum, he came at me. Eventually Rylee stepped in and saved me. With her on my side I was able to convince him that I had proof of what he’d done to me and I would use it against him if he didn’t drop the charges against Chance.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at her as she talked about her brave move, and there was the fact that she knew where I kept my favorite bat, and also that she’d used that bat to harm Trevor.

  I wanted Hope to stop with the story and leave it at that, but Mark wasn’t finished with his interrogation.

  “Hope, it’s really nice of you to do so much for Chance, but I have to wonder why you would risk your life in a dark park for him? You were very foolish and could have gotten yourself killed,” Mark said.

  “It doesn’t matter. The charges are dropped and we’re all here together, right?” Buffy chimed in.

  Fear stabbed me in the gut when Mark looked from me to Hope. “No, that isn’t it. For the past two months, I have regretted sending Chance away. I honestly feared that he was a bad influence on you, Hope, but now I see that you two are great friends. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you; for both of you.”

  Marks confession made me feel guilty and I worried what Hope was thinking, and what she would say next. I just got home and I couldn’t leave her again. It will kill me, especially after this.

  “I think Chance has proven that he would do anything for this family. It wasn’t fair for him to get into trouble because he was helping me.” I wanted to scream out loud how much I loved Chance, how I loved him for always saving me, how he would never hurt me or leave my side. I wanted everyone to be able to see us holding hands; to know that I was his and he was mine.

  However, it was just impossible…

  My father was finally seeing Chance in the positive and not the negative that he’d always assumed. It was important for me to keep things that way. If my dad knew that Chance and I were intimate then everything would be ruined. I couldn’t take the chance, literally.

  Before I could make any more excuses for myself, my dad and Buffy looked at each other and nodded. “Well it’s been a really long day. Maybe we should all just call it a night,” he suggested.

  “Yeah, I am pretty tired,” Buffy admitted.

  Chance leaned against the counter. He snatched the last apple in the wooden bowl and took a big bite out of it. I watched as his lips covered a part of the fruit. I realized half way through that I had begun licking my lips. Just as fast as I’d started, I turned around and stopped. “Yeah, I’ll be right behind you guys. Goodnight!” I said as they headed toward the stairs.

  “Goodnight, sweetie! Goodnight, Chance!” My dad announced.

  I leaned on the other side of the counter and watched Chance taking another bite of his apple. With his mouth full of fruit, he smiled. “So are you really heading up to bed?” He asked with one eyebrow cocked.

  I reached across the counter and grabbed the apple from him. Before he could argue, I took a big bite out of the same side of it. “Mmm. Do you have another option for me?” I whispered.

  “Maybe,” he said with a half smile.

  “So what do you have in mind?” I asked curiously while biting down on my lip.

  “Did you ever sneak out of your house when you were a kid?” He asked.

  I put my head down, feeling like I had missed out on something. “Not really. My mother would have known, and I was too good when I was really little to even consider doing something like that.”

  He leaned over and gently ran his fingers across my mouth. All I could do was watch him biting down on his own lip as he did it. As his finger trailed over my bottom lip I licked the tip slowly. When he didn’t remove his finger, I sucked it into my mouth and drug my tongue against it.

  I could see the eagerness in his eyes. “If you continue to do that, I’ll be taking you right on this counter top with no regard as to who may see us.”

  I climbed on top of the counter top until I was directly in front of him. I was risking it all, but nothing else was on my mind. My lips reached his and I immediately felt his hands in my hair, pulling me deeper into our kiss. I gripped the collar of his shirt and did the same thing. Our tongues mingled together, and I could feel my body tingling everywhere with eagerness.

  Chance backed away. Our foreheads pressed together as we both gasped for air. “Your bedroom or mine, Hope?” It was all he could get out.

  “Give me ten minutes?”

  He pulled my legs down in front of me and kissed me slowly once more. When he moved away, he opened his eyes and looked right into mine. “Please don’t make me wait too long.”

  41

  It only took me about ten seconds to make it up the stairs to my bedroom. I obtained all of my pillows and put them under my covers making it appear like a person was in there. My father had never come in my room to wake me up so I figured I was safe from that. If for some reason he sent Buffy upstairs and I wasn’t there, she would know where to find me.

  Once I had the bed looking as good as I could get it, I headed over to the mirror and let my hair down. My natural waves looked disheveled, but that was how Chance liked it. I
stared at my plain clothes and decided to change into a small cami top with matching shorts. The material was so thin that I could almost see my nipples through it. I looked at myself in the mirror knowing Chance would go nuts when he saw me, in a good way of course.

  Climbing out of my window was easy, but with my dad in bed already, I decided to just go downstairs and saunter out the back door. I still had to maneuver my way around the bushes so they couldn’t see me walking if they were in their bathroom, but realistically they would have to be standing in their Jacuzzi tub, as their bathroom was the mirror image of mine.

  When I got to Chance’s door I went right inside. He was standing there without a shirt waiting for me. After pulling me up against his chest and kissing me right away, I realized he hadn’t seen my choice of pajamas. What I was wearing was nothing erotic. My own mother had bought them for me as summer pajamas, but I hated how thin they were and never wore them. I pushed Chance into his chair, the first place I’d ever seduced him, the place where it all began for us.

  He tried to pull me back toward him. I smiled but continued walking backwards. He noticed immediately why I was doing it, and I found his eyes focusing on everything but my face. I watched his lips parting and his tongue slipping out for just a second before he bit down.

  “What’s your favorite part about me, Chance?”

  “Definitely your knees,” he said calmly, while never taking his eyes off of my body. I watched him lick his lips, causing me to react by licking mine.

  I tried not to laugh, but let out a small chuckle before continuing. I gripped the bottom of my cami and pulled it up revealing my navel. “I want you to kiss me here first,” I said as I pointed to my abdomen.

  Chance started to get up. “No stay!” I ordered.

  I let go of my cami and reached both hands around the back of my neck. It made my chest stick out more, and I watched as he started readjusting the way he was sitting. My hands slid slowly down the front of my neck until finally reaching my breasts. As I slid my fingers across the fabric where my nipples were, I stared right at him. “Then you can kiss me here.”