the sleepless elite
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chapter twelve
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You remind me just how good it can get
– Vance Joy, I'm With You
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She's speeding. Speeding speeding speeding so the tears don't leak and blur her vision.
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"Chase!"
Chase Redford cracks his blue eyes open slowly, gurgling gibberish words and groaning at the orange light the setting sun has cast.
"Chase!"
"… Wha –?"
"Chase, let me in! I'm freezing my butt off here!"
"… Darling?" Chase mutters, blinking his eyes as he takes in his surroundings. He's fallen asleep on his living room couch again, long legs poking out.
"I texted you." Darling Charming speaks between the front door, keeping her promise of giving Chase a head's up when she visits. "You didn't reply." Then she says rather sheepishly, "But I knew you'd be home so I came anyway. I'm sorry."
Chase sits up, still sleepy, trying to register everything. "It's okay." He fades out for a second, trying to get his bearings right. "Um … is my … is my concept of time that bad? Has it been three weeks already?"
"No," Darling replies as she's shivering outside, pulling her Winter coat closer around her body. "It's only been a week plus." – Ten days to be exact.
"What? Did you miss me?" Chase teases with a yawn and unlocks his front door for Darling to step in.
"No, my brothers are busy with their assignments so I'm bored." Darling replies, it's half a truth and half a lie. She says this all while turning her head in a way so Chase doesn't see her full face.
"Ouch, you hurt my heart." Chase laughs, not sensing anything out of the ordinary as he closes the door and Darling takes off her coat, revealing her pyjamas underneath.
Feeling sensitive to her words, really sensitive, Darling picks her next delivery carefully. She doesn't want to spark a fight with Chase. She says, "I'm kidding."
"I know you are." Chase answers. "You'd never intentionally hurt me. Besides, I'm a big boy, tough and stuff, words don't hurt me."
"Sure," Darling snorts, the feeling of disappointment in her chest already fading. Going to Chase's place was a good decision. She smiles at him. "May I have some hot chocolate? I promise I'll drink it this time."
"Sure," Chase smiles and the house instantly feels warmer.
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Darling comes back the next day, still crossed with her brothers though she doesn't say a word of that to Chase. Instead, Darling asks as she touches faded bleached hair, "Hey, Chase, can I dye your hair? I noticed you haven't done any touch ups since last Summer."
Chase hums, low and deep as he thinks. "I mean, I never thought I needed to, but you can if you want." He sticks out his index finger, telling her there was a condition. "But only if it's red. No other funky colours."
Darling's blue eyes sparkles. She gives Chase a warm smile and presses down her squeal as she exclaims, "Deal!"
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Really, Chase should have suspected it but there was no reason for him to suspect otherwise so he doesn't catch on until much later.
"Look, I'm not going to disagree on you that ABBA is a great singer but why are we watching Mamma Mia! again?" Chase asks after he and Darling had sat down on his couch and watched the movie through a pirated website. It's the third day she's spent at his house, consistent.
"Don't speak or you'll ruin your face mask." Darling merely says and plopped her feet on his lap, trapping Chase on the couch, silver heels dangling off her feet.
"Why am I even wearing a face mask?" Chase talks regardless as the movie opens up with Amanda Seyfried singing 'I Have A Dream'.
Darling reasons, smoothening out her face mask. "You get rid of your eyebags. I'm helping you, that's what friends do."
"If you say so –"
"Just shush for like twenty minutes, okay?" Darling silences him by touching Chase's lips with her fingertips before he can say another word.
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"Wakey-wakey, no eggs and bakey." A voice hums as Chase feels his shoulder jabbed by a pointed finger.
Wait, what?
"So Chase, so I've been Googling around and exploring Google Maps, looking at your area." Darling says, shoving her phone in Chase's sleepy face. "And it got me thinking,"
Chase stares confused, his eyes dazed from suddenly being woken up from a nap. He doesn't even know what day it is. Has it been five days since Darling has come over to his place?
He mutters back her words, unable to piece things together, "Thinking? Darling … what?"
"Let's go get some fresh air!"
"What about breakfast?"
"We'll get some McDonalds on the way." Is all Darling replies before she pulls Chase's blanket off of him.
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"We're going to die! Oh my God, I am going to die –"
"Don't let go, Chase!"
"Oh my God! Are we going faster?! Why are we spinning faster?!"
"Live a little!" Darling laughs then repeats herself. "Just don't let go!"
"Why would I want to let go?! I'd fall!" Chase yells back at her.
"Stop screaming!"
"You're screaming too!"
Chase cannot believe the situation he's in. He can't believe it! He is a twenty-one year old man for goodness sakes! He can't believe he's hanging out at a playground, in Winter, dangerously teetering to death's door due to a kiddy ride that's threatening his life!
He feels almost disgusted if this was to be his demise!
"Why are you doing this to me, Darling Charming?!" Chase yells. There was so much screaming.
"I don't know! I just like hanging out with you!" Darling answers, throwing back her head and telling her laugh contently – And this time, they were away from his bikes.
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"Oh, hi, Mrs Jester … Just getting some fresh air." Chase mutters dizzily. Twenty-one years old, caught staggering to the nearest bench to rest in a children's playground, and greeting his judgemental elderly neighbour who just so happens to know his mom – oh yes, this is turning out to be such a 'highlight' in Chase Redford's life.
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By the time Darling had spent an entire week around Chase, whether it was at his home, at his work place or after work, Chase was starting to question himself and all the time Darling had.
He's done some questionable stuff for the past few days. Like play at the playground and that time they Googled the Teletubbies reboot for Darling's curiosity and debating about who's the parents of which Tiddly Tubbie.
"The Wikipedia page isn't saying anything so technically, we can ship any Teletubbie with whichever Teletubbie we want." Darling says after Chase confirms the internet had no resources on the news.
Chase makes a face. "Why would we ship the Teletubbies?"
"For fun," – Lord, help him!
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Time was up, three weeks has passed in a blink of an eye and Christmas break will be over soon.
"Where's Darling?"
"I don't know, dear. I never do. You know how spontaneous she is and, you know how your father and I are never at home."
Dexter knows Darling like the back of his hand, she is his sister, she is his other half, his opposite, his twin. Unfortunately, he didn't (couldn't) have the luxury of spending every moment with his sister but he wants to be there for her in her hardest time.
So one afternoon when his father is working and Daring is at the Beauty's again and Darling is out somewhere, Dexter sits down away from his laptop and assignment and mountain of reference books. He sits in the living room with his mother, with the TV as background noise and a pot of tea cooling. Conversation starts and it isn't pleasant.
"All this time, while Dare and I were away, did you leave Darling alone?" Dexter asks, feeling a sinking drop in his stomach for not noticing first, for regulating his college life over his life at home.
Mrs Charming looks at her son in the eyes, blue eyes filling with too much emotion to bear. If eyes are windows to the soul then Dexter's eyes are a glass house that showed everything; from the pretty polish indoor pool to the mess flooding the bathroom, blue like ocean eyes, completely exposed.
"Not completely alone," Is all Mrs Charming can say. She loves her daughter but even she is grown used to having Darling away at boarding school so to have her here all the time, well, she doesn't know what to do with Darling. The older woman says, "She always leaves a note, saying she'd be with her friends."
"Which friends?" Dexter asks again.
Mrs Charming's face twists in confusion. "You should know them, isn't she the captain of your little group? The nap team?"
"The sleepless elite," Dexter corrects.
"Yes, well, I assume she must be with them then."
"You never checked?"
"Should I? Boarding school should have taught her mannerisms of a lady, or at least some of it." Mrs Charming takes a sip of her tea and remembers how obsessed her daughter is with motorbikes and adventure. "As long as she's not reckless and comes home, should I be fretting over her every move? She is the youngest but I think we've babied her enough, Dexterous."
"So she hasn't done anything except hang out with her friends?"
"I suppose?"
And the conversation feels awfully trailed off, like they didn't know Darling at all.
But a part of Dexter knows Darling hates waiting, waiting like some Damsel in a tower, so the fact that Darling is still in Book End instead of doing something blood pumping like sky diving or snorkelling or travelling Europe is beyond weird.
"So Darling hasn't found herself at all?" Dexter asks, he feels like he's done nothing but ask throughout this entire conversation. Why is he even asking his mother instead of having his own twin tell him these things?
Mrs Charming blinks in a way that tells Dexter she wants to look away. "No. No, she hasn't."
"It's been –" Dexter does the quick Math in his brain. "– four months. She's wasted four months doing nothing. Seven if you count last Summer. Darling's had all this time to think of what she might want to do and try it but she hasn't even done that."
Then Dexter gets off the couch, spins around and paces with worry. This is not the Darling he knows. The Darling he knows loves excitement and putting herself out there to do thrilling activities that's a rush. Not sitting around, not waiting for something. Was Dexter so blind to see that Senior prom had really hurt Darling to the point where she was scared to try anything new?
"What are you implying?" His mother asks.
"I'm implying something for Darling to do if her year is up and if she doesn't find herself in time." Dexter answers, his pacing stops and he stands in front of the coffee table, not knowing whether to sit or stand.
"If her year is up then she'll go to college like you and Daring." His mother says.
Dexter only shakes his head. If anyone thought boarding school was constricting then college is even more so. Sometimes he don't even have time to cry because of all the work and deadlines. He says, "I want a year off,"
Mrs Charming frowns, putting her cup down. "You can't take a year off without a reasonable explanation, the educational board won't accept it. That's not how college works. You should have asked for a year off before you went off." If this was a rebellion, it was oddly late.
Dexter shakes his head again, "It's not for me,"
Mrs Charming picks her cup back up just to do something. She is confused by her son's words.
"It's for Darling." Dexter explains.
"She's already asked for a year off." His mother replies.
"And I haven't until now so I'm giving her mine."
His mother snaps. Actually snaps. And a lady should never snap. "That's not how things work." – Well, it does in movies – "Dexterous, Darling has another eight months to find herself."
"But what if that's not enough, Mother? What if she doesn't find herself by the time the deadline is up? What if she still hasn't done anything?"
So many 'what ifs'.
"What do you want me to do?" Mrs Charming asks this time. "We can't baby her forever, we can't let her always have her way."
Dexter thinks, using that big brain of his. "Just – Just give her a little bit more time."
"How much more time?" Mrs Charming sighs. They can afford to spend money but wasting time is ... waiting is ...
"She's wasted four months so far, right? So give her another four months to decide on something. If she finally does then let her pursue it. Give her my year off to see if she likes it or not." Dexter says, finally taking his seat and thumbing the side of his cup, his now cold tea. "But if she hasn't found anything by the time her year off is done, then ... send her off to college."
Mrs Charming looks at her son again. Those ocean eyes of his, deep enough to drown her in it. Charmings' have always had has the ability to persuade and charm others. "I can't guarantee I'll like the decision she chooses, I can't guarantee I'll let her keep it." She sips her tea, thinking, "But I'll give it a shot."
"Thank you, Mother."
Mrs Charming reaches out and holds her son's hand. "I hope this decision won't disappoint the others."
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Notes
Okay, I'm done updating for today but next chapter is where the ChaseDarling adventure and bonding really starts :)
Also, the Teletubbies conversation is a real one. Thanks, Sarah! And the whole park thing actually did happen to us in real life. And by us, I mean, me, Jezmaiya and Sarah. I was the one laughing and recording everything while Jezmaiya was the one dying.
– 31 May 2018