"What?"
"Chase is here. He's waiting downstairs."
"What?"
Max looked confused. "Chase is downstairs. Didn't I say that?"
"Uh . . . I'll be down in a minute." I told him, and opened the door so he could walk out. Max hesitated for a minute, still confused. He shook his head and walked out, almost running into the doorframe. Once he was gone, I closed the door and ran my hand through my hair. I needed to figure out how I was going to handle this. I could just go down, tell him I don't want to see him for a while, and then leave, or I could go and talk to him, figure things out. Like a mummified zombie, I walked slowly down the stairs to find Chase sitting on the couch, drinking an iced tea. When he saw me he waved and gave me an I'm-sorry-but-I-couldn't-stay-away look.
"Hey." He said, taking a sip of the tea.
"Hmph."
"Can I talk to you?" He asked, setting the tea down and walking towards the stairs. I took a step back up and he stopped, raising his hands. "Alright, so you don't want to talk. Then will you please listen?"
I shrugged. I didn't know if I'd listen or not, I only knew I didn't want him to be here. He pointed to the deck. I nodded and followed him out, standing just a few feet from the door. He sat down on one of the chairs, both of our backs facing the house.
"Look, I like you. You know that. I don't know if you like me or not, but, that doesn't matter right now." I raised an eyebrow, "It's not why I came here. I don't want to have just one date. I don't want to sneak behind your boyfriend's back."
"That makes you sound terrible."
"I know, but what I meant was . . . I want to be your boyfriend. Not him." He waited to see if I'd react, but my face stayed neutral. He took a deep breath before continuing, "I also wanted to apologize for the date. " I glared at him, "I'll admit it had been my plan from the beginning to kiss you, but I didn't know you'd get so uptight about it."
"You . . . didn't know? You didn't even think that I'd be angry? Honestly, you really thought that?" I asked, feeling anger starting to swell up inside me.
"No, I didn't."
"Even though I'm dating Mason, and I love him, you didn't know I'd be mad when you kissed me behind his back?" I exclaimed, trying to control my anger, and only barely succeeding.
"You're the one who agreed to the date in the first place, Alex."
"Don't accuse me of that! It was your idea! I said yes because I had to!"
"You had to?" he looked hurt and his eyebrows, knit together- trying to make sense of it.
"Yes, I had to! I can't be thinking about you when I'm dating Mason! I went to ask you if I could repay you for saving my life, and you wanted a date! So sorry if I hurt you, but everything I did, was for Mason."
His jaw tightened, "So kissing me . . . that was for Mason?"
"You kissed me."
"You kissed back."
"You kissed him?" a voice behind us said. I felt my heart stop right then and there. I turned around to find Mason standing in the doorway of the deck-confusion and hurt and hatred written all over his face. I stepped toward him.
"Mason, I-"
"Stop!" he held up his hands, "I'm done hearing excuses from you."
"Look, Mason-Can I call you that? Doesn't matter, I'm going to anyways- I kissed her. Just face it, she's over you-Otherwise she wouldn't have kissed back." Chase spat, standing up slowly, glaring at Mason.
"Chase!" I exclaimed, but both of them shoved me out of the way. Chase shoved Mason, and Mason growled, clenching and unclenching his fists. I could see him battling with himself, he couldn't wolf up, it would pin him as dangerous and Chase would have an excuse to fight back with any beast taming weapons, other than, you know, hating him because I love him. Chase swung at Mason, but Mason ducked in time and swung up at Chase, hitting him square in the jaw.
"Ah!" Chase exclaimed, staggering back a little bit, but he regained balance soon enough and lunged at Mason, who jumped out of the way; knocking over a chair in the process. That was it, Mason wolfed up, and Chase laughed. "You're dating a werewolf? Awesome . . . for me."
Mason growled and snapped at him, almost biting Chase's head off. "Woah! Down boy!" Chase cackled, kicking Mason in the stomach, causing him to fall backwards over the other chairs. He stood up and jumped at Chase, scratching right next to his eye. Chase grabbed Mason's hand/paw and twisted it away from him, but Mason used his other hand to attack. For almost ten minutes they continued fighting, and all I could do was stand there, watching them stupidly. Right as I came to my senses, Chase kicked Mason so hard he stumbled backwards over the railing.
"Mason!" I screamed, racing to the railing, reaching out to him, but I couldn't reach him. I felt tears sting my eyes, and I didn't resist them. I ran as fast as I could to where Mason fell, tripping and stumbling because the tears were blurring my vision.
"Somebody call 911! NOW!" I cried, racing through the front doors of the sub shop. I cried even harder when I saw him. He was on the ground, his arms bent in unnatural angles, his right leg clearly broken. His head was bleeding and he was unconscious. He was back to normal-that is; he wasn't wolfed up. My hand shot to my mouth, and I heard someone walk up behind me. I felt Chase's hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it away. I turned sharply around, a newfound hatred for him boiling up inside of me. "You!" I jabbed his chest with my finger, "Everything was so simple before you came around! Mason would be okay! He wouldn't be mad at me, he'd trust me, he wouldn't be like . . . like this! You did this to me, to him, to us. And you are going to pay for it!"
Chase stepped backwards, but I swung at him, punching him square on the nose. There was a loud crack, and blood started pouring out of his nose like a faucet. I swung again, giving him a black eye. I kneed him in his stomach and he doubled over, coughing and moaning. I continued kicking him and screaming at him. Anger, rage and fear clouded my mind, and I didn't notice my dad and Justin until they were carrying me away from Chase. I kicked and screamed and struggled, trying my hardest to get back to Chase, so I could make him hurt as much as Mason did.
"He did this! He did this! Let me get him! He did this!" I screeched, squirming in my dad's grasp, kicking Justin in the knee, but they wouldn't let me go. "He pushed Mason! HE DID THIS!"
"Alex, honey, you need to calm down." I vaguely heard my dad tell me, but I wouldn't listen. Chase was going to pay, whether it was now or not didn't matter- Although I'd prefer it to be now. I stopped kicking but continued to struggle. They carried me into the sub shop, up the stairs, into my room, and set me on my bed. Justin sat on my legs so I couldn't get up, and took my wand out of my boot. He gave it to my dad, who searched my room for any other ways out. Once he was certain he'd gotten rid of any escape options, Justin got up and they raced out of my room. I heard the lock on the door click and screamed, running to the door and punching it as hard as I could.
"You can't lock me in here forever! I will get out! And when I do, Chase had better watch his back!"
