Zoey POV Continued

"Oh, right, you two are together. See, I keep forgetting that, since she's always with him." He pointed to a clearly annoyed Chase.

"Logan, this is Rebecca" Chase gestured in her direction.

For whatever reason, Logan laughed. "Okay, I get it, I get it." He reached down in a cooler and pulled out some cans of pop. "I'd say go long, Chase, but I don't think my mom would appreciate getting pop on the carpet." He laughed again. We all remained stone-faced.

We each took a can and made our way over to the corner of the kitchen.

"Don't let him get to you," I said to Chase.

"But he's right. I can't catch anything … except grief." He shook his head.

I turned my back to Rebecca and Ian. I knew how embarrassed Chase got about his lack of catching skills. "You're getting much better. The other day, Darryl was telling me you caught a ball nearly all the way down the block."

"I guess." His voice was faint. "But it's so humiliating sitting on that bench every single game."

"I thought you only wanted to play football to make some friends and fit in."

He shrugged. "But it doesn't mean I don't want to play."

"I know, but look around. You're at a party and Logan invited you."

"He invited everybody."

"But at least you're here. And he's ribbing you. Isn't that the bro way of being friendly?"

"The bro way." He laughed.

"You know, how guys show affection. Or mark their turf. Kind of like how dogs pee on something to let you know it's theirs."

"Do you have any idea of what you're talking about?"

"Of course not," I admitted. "But does it at least make you feel a little better?"

"Yeah, just a little."

I elbowed him playfully. "Well, that will not do. Clearly my job here is not done. Let me count the ways that you're a stud."

"Wait, wait." Chase pulled out his phone. "I need to record this. I may even make it my ringtone."

I grabbed his phone and spoke directly into the mic. "I, Zoey Brooks, do hereby swear that Chase Matthews is a total manly man, the ultimate bro. Reason number one, he does a mean British accent. Reason number two, he knows to always compliment a lady's cooking skills. Um, reason number three. Um …"

"Nice." He grabbed his phone back. "You can't even come up with three reasons?"

"See, there are just so many reasons, my poor brain is on overload."

"Good save."

"Phew!" I wiped my brow dramatically.

"Hey!" Quinn approached us. "I didn't see you guys come in. But then I saw your dates outside and figured you were doing that thing you do."

Quinn could read the nonverbal exchange Chase and I shared. "Let me guess. You didn't realize your dates left."

I grimaced.

She shook her head. "You guys are too much."

"Clearly," Chase and I said in unison.

"Well, may I suggest that you take your party outside and keep your dates company?"

"Thanks!" I gave Quinn a quick hug before she returned to her marching band friends.

Chase and I went to the glass patio door and saw Rebecca and Ian leaning against the deck railing. Ian was telling some story that was making Rebbeca laugh.

"Well, at least they're having a good time," Chase remarked. "In fact, it looks like they're having a better time now than they did at dinner."

"Chase." I stopped him from opening the door. "I think that maybe it's not the best idea for us to go on double dates."

He nodded. "I know. It's hard to throw anybody into our mix. I don't want to mess things up with Becca."

"You and I will still hang out. I'm only saying that maybe date night should just be date night. Not forcing our dates to put up with the two of us."

Chase's gaze was fixed straight ahead. His jaw was tightly clenched.

"Chase?"

When he didn't respond, I followed his stare. Ian moved closer to Rebbeca and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. She blushed, but leaned into him. He then put his arm around her.

"Are they flirting?" I gasped out. There was no way this was happening.

Chase and I remained frozen as we watched Ian and Rebecca get closer and closer. He said something else that made her laugh. She twirled a piece of hair with her finger. Then he leaned farther into her. Her smile dropped. They were studying each other. Intensely.

I recognized that look on Ian. He tilted his head and put his index finger up to her chin.

This was so not happening.

"I can't …" Chase's pained voice snapped me into action.

I slid the glass door so quickly it rattled.

"How could you?" I found myself in front of Rebbeca. I know I should've been more upset with Ian, but at that moment I was furious at Rebecca. Chase had been on a few dates with her, he'd asked her to come hang out with his friends and go to a party he was invited to, and this was how she repaid him?

Rebbeca shrank from me. But Ian stepped closer. "Are you being serious right now?" I'd never seen him mad before. But he was mad now.

"Are you being serious right now?" I threw back.

He looked at me with disgust. "Do you realize how messed up this is? You're mad at Rebecca? Do you even care about me? You know what — you don't need to answer that. It's clear that your only concern is Chase, not your boyfriend. No, wait, your former boyfriend."

"Let me make sure I'm getting this straight." My mind was trying to keep up with everything that had happened in the past few minutes. "You were flirting with another girl. If I hadn't stepped in, you were probably going to kiss another girl. You were going to cheat on me. Yet you're mad at me? And you're breaking up with me?"

"Do you have any idea how much this hurts me?" Ian's voice cracked, and I could tell it was completely genuine. I felt awful. Maybe I had hurt him. But I certainly knew I didn't do anything that justified cheating.

"How are you putting this on me?" Confusion swirled around in my head. Ian and I had never fought. Not once. We were talking about going into Milwaukee for our one-year anniversary. And now he was breaking up with me? "Have you been drinking?"

"You know I don't drink," he snapped at me. "Maybe I did do this on purpose, for you to see what it's like to have your boyfriend give another girl all your attention. I really like you, Zoey. But I can't sit here and play second best to Chase anymore."

"You wouldn't think any of this if he was a girl."

"But he's not. And that's the problem. Why don't you two just go out already?"

This was what it always came down to. The perception that there was no way Chase and I could be legitimately best friends and only friends. Nobody ever got that.

Mostly because those people never had a best friend of the opposite sex.

Or maybe it would be more appropriate to say that none of those people had Chase as a best friend.

"If you've had such a problem with it, why are you only saying something now?"

He groaned. "Because I figured that the closer you and I got, the less I'd have to deal with him?"

"Deal with him?"

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't."

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard Chase's voice say, "I'm so sorry." I had forgotten that he and Rebbeca were there. In fact, a whole crowd had started gathering around the door.

Rebecca was hunched over in a clear attempt to disappear. "I should go," she said quietly.

"I'll drive you home." Ian walked into the group of observers with Rebecca following behind him.

I heard some clapping. "Dudes," Logan called out, emerging from the crowd. "I know I can always count on you two for entertainment. If only I had some popcorn! That was insane."

"Really, Logan?" I asked.

Something in my voice stopped him. "Oh, man, I'm sorry, Zoey."

I stood there waiting for him to make a sarcastic follow-up comment. But he had a look of actual sympathy on his face. Which made me feel even worse. If Logan felt bad for you, you knew your life must be pathetic.

"Let's get out of here." I grabbed Chase by the arm and led us out of the house.

"Um, our ride left," Chase said with quiet resignation.

"We'll figure something out." I opened the door and started walking. "I think fresh air might do us some good."

Chase stayed uncharacteristically silent for several minutes. I left him alone with his thoughts, as I had a ton of mine to sort out. Mostly, what had just happened? Maybe I was missing some signals. I racked my brain for signs that Ian had been unhappy. He'd made lots of jabs at how much time I spent with Chase and usually pretended to gag whenever I would talk about him. But he was a guy. I'd thought he was teasing me.

Regardless of what I'd done, it didn't give him any excuse to flirt the second my back was turned. But what made me the most upset was that it had been Chase's girlfriend. I would've thought Ian would've wanted Chase to have a girlfriend.

"Is any of this making sense to you?" I asked Chase.

He shook his head and kept walking. This was bad.

We found ourselves walking to the same place. We didn't discuss where we were going, we just led each other to Riverside Park. We silently walked over to the swing set and sat down. Me in the middle swing with Chase seated to my left. This was how we always sat when we'd go to the park after school in seventh grade.

I started rocking my swing back and forth.

"So I've been thinking," Chase announced, remaining motionless on his swing. "I think you're right. We shouldn't go on any more double dates."

I looked over and saw a slight smile on his face. "Are you making a joke?"

"Well, it's either that or come to face the fact that I've been cheated on twice."

"She didn't technically cheat."

He clicked his tongue. "Yeah, only because you stopped it."

"We don't know what was going to happen." I didn't believe the words as they came out of my mouth. I tried to lighten the mood. "I guess I really need to stop going to parties where your girlfriends are. And where there are doors."

"Tell me about it."

He got up and went behind to push me. I closed my eyes and let the swing take me higher and higher.

We stayed like that for nearly an hour. I glanced down at my watch. "We either have to start walking home or call one of our parents."