A/N: I'm so glad I still have readers! Thank you for not abandoning me during my time of difficulty! ;) It seems that since I overcame my block, I can't put this story down, so to speak. I've been writing like crazy on it the past several days and I like where it's going. I hope y'all do too!

Picking Up

Chapter Ten: Game Over

"I can't believe they would do that!" The whispers and stares that followed me back to my dorm made me nervous. Some of the guys looked angry, some jealous, some impressed. Every girl looked ready to throttle me.

"James!" I heard Quinn's voice as my hand touched the door to my building. I turned to face her and she grabbed my arm. "Do not go in there," she advised in a low voice, her eyes demanding that I take her seriously. Wondering why the entire school seemed to be standing outside the building watching us, and if maybe she had left off a poisonous gas on accident, I pulled my arm gently from her vice-like grip.

"Why not?" I asked, rubbing the skin where her nails had pierced it. She glanced over my shoulder and her eyes went wide. "What?" I demanded.

Before she could answer, before I could turn around, something hard hit the back of my head. Some of the watching crowd cheered. I stumbled forward into Quinn, who helped me regain my balance before ducking out of the way.

I spun around, but not quickly enough to see Chase's fist before it connected with my face. Staggering from the blow, I took several steps backward, clutching my bleeding lip.

"I trusted you, dammit!" He shouted. "I was nice to you! I didn't have to be, you know! I could have been an ass and no one would have thought less of me. I had every right to hate you, but I had to go and be Mr. Nice Guy!" He swung again and I ducked this time, blocking his arm so that I pushed him sideways, far enough away from me that I could recover a little before he came at me again.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I demanded. Surely he didn't think I had wanted Zoey to kiss me?

My comment seemed to make him angrier than ever. I had never seen calm, mellow, goofy Chase like this before. "Are you kidding me?" He roared. "Are you effing kidding me? Don't you dare stand there and act like you don't know!"

"I didn't do anything wrong!" I shouted back. "I don't know what you think happened, but I didn't do a damn thing wrong!"

Without warning, he swung again, and I barely got my arm up to block him in time. I pushed him back away from me, but I didn't hit him.

"What are you doing?" I heard Zoey's voice through the cheering crowd. "Chase, stop it!"

"You stay out of this!" He shouted. He made another swipe at me and I pushed him away again. He hit the ground, his rage making him incomprehensible.

"Fight back, dammit!" He spat out. "We should have done this weeks ago!" I stared down at him, wondering if there was anything I could say to calm him down, or if I should just let him hit me until his anger abated.

I shook my head, and he sprang to his feet, charging at me like a bull. He tackled me and we hit the ground, but I was bigger and I easily flipped him over and pinned him to the ground. He put up his hands to shield his face, but I simply got off of him and stood up. I reached out a hand to help him up, but he shoved it away.

"Fight back!" He was on his feet again, his face inches from me. I shook my head again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rebecca standing on the edge of the circle.

"No," I said firmly

"Coward!" He shouted. I took the insult. "Go ahead, try to hit me!" He took a step forward and swung again, but I blocked it.

"No!" I snapped. "I'm not going to hit you!"

"Chase!" Michael and Logan showed up, shoving their way through the crowd, past Zoey and Rebecca, who didn't seem to realize they stood inches away from each other, with similar horrorstruck expressions.

"Chase, stop it!" Michael grabbed Chase by his shoulders, pulling him away from me. "What has gotten into you?" Logan put one hand on my arm, but when I looked at him, he seemed to realize I didn't need restraint and let go. I wiped blood from my mouth where Chase had first hit me.

"I'm not giving up without a fight!" Chase snapped at Michael, tears in his eyes. "Why won't you fight back?"

"Because I'm giving up," I said calmly. "Without a fight." A murmur rippled through the watching crowd. I couldn't see Zoey or Rebecca clearly, but I didn't take my eyes from Chase's face.

His body sagged against Michael's grip, but his gaze locked with mine. "Why?" He demanded weakly.

"Because I don't want her," I said simply. "And she doesn't want me." At this point, I did look at Zoey, whose eyes were bright. "She doesn't," I said, more to Zoey than Chase.

"How do you know?" Chase's eyes searched my face for signs of deceit.

"Because she loves you. She's always loved you. You win Chase. You win, because I don't want to play anymore." I couldn't meet Rebecca's eye. I saw Quinn place her arm on Zoey's shoulders. I looked once more at Chase, and then I walked away.

Halfway across campus, my aching jaw and bruised body felt suddenly weary, and I collapsed on a bench. After a few minutes, a dark-haired girl joined me, taking out a wet rag and dabbing my lip with it.

"He sure got you good," Lola said quietly. I nodded.

"What the hell happened?" I asked.

"I'm not really sure," she replied. "Quinn and I were in our dorm when Logan and Michael burst in, yelling that Chase was going to kill you and that we needed to find you before he did. We had no idea where to find you, so we all went in different directions. I guess Quinn found you first."

"And Chase."

She nodded sadly, wiping the last of the blood from my chin. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

"It's not your fault," I replied gruffly.

"I know," she said, folding the towel so that the bloodstain was hidden and folding it in her hands. "But I can still be sorry about it."

"If this is anyone's fault, it's mine," Michael said, sitting on my other side. "I shouldn't have forced everyone together like I did. It was too soon." He looked like he might cry. "It's just that you're awesome, and Chase is awesome, and I wanted you guys to see how awesome you are and then everyone could be friends. But I should have realized that this is the real world and not whatever fantasy land I've been living in, thinking everyone was getting along just fine."

I shook my head. "This is not your fault, Michael," I assured him. "This is my fault and Chase's fault and Zoey's fault, but it is not yours."

"And honestly," Lola interjected, "I think this was bound to happen. Not to this extreme, but there had to be some kind of blow out between you and Chase. You were both just going along, harboring all this resentment and being polite, and someone was bound to explode."

"I just wish his fist hadn't exploded on your face," Michael muttered.

"He sure went ballistic," Lola mused. "I've never seen Chase like that."

"Me neither," I agreed, "but I haven't known him for very long."

"I have," Michael said softly. "It's just… Zoey makes Chase a little crazy. He's always been so obsessed with her, from the first time he met her. He tried to give Logan the flu so he wouldn't be able to go onstage and kiss Zoey in a play. He broke up with Rebecca, pretty brutally, for Zoey. And you should have seen him go after Logan, just for ripping a stuffed animal Zoey gave to him. He broke our keyboard."

"Logan did?"

"No, Chase did. With Logan's body."

"Wow," was all I could say. Michael nodded.

"Chase is my best friend, and I love the guy to death, but sometimes I wonder if his obsession with Zoey is a little unhealthy, especially when it looked like she wasn't going to reciprocate." He sighed. "I think maybe it's better that they take some time apart."

"Did you really kiss Zoey?" Lola asked. I shook my head mutinously.

"She kissed me."

"Did you let her?" She asked more meaningfully. I hung my head.

"For about half a second," I admitted. "It was like my brain stopped working, and then when I came to my senses, it was too late. Rebecca saw and…" I trailed off, unable to finish and knowing it was unnecessary.

"Did you mean it when you said you didn't want her?" Lola continued. I nodded vigorously.

"I'll always love Zoey," I told her. "She's the first girl I ever loved and that's never going to go away. But I'm not in love with her anymore. If you had asked me a month ago, I might have said differently, but something… changed."

"You changed," Michael said. "You realized that Zoey wasn't the end all be all, and that there's a life out there without her, waiting for you." He patted my shoulder. "I've got to go check on Chase."

"Is he going to hate me now?" I asked, feeling defeated by fate and circumstances. Michael shrugged.

"Chase isn't the type to hold a grudge, so I would say no. But I would also say you should ask him that yourself."

"Not until I can be sure he won't hit me again," I muttered, and Lola smiled wryly. Michael shook his head and walked away.