chapter two!
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"Ned?" Chuck asked as she opened the door to Ned's apartment later that day. She had hardly seen him that day, and when she couldn't find him in the Piehole she figured he must be upstairs.
When there was no answer Chuck almost shut the door to go check on the roof, But then something flying across the hallway out of Ned's bedroom caught her eye. "Ned?" Chuck called again to no response. Grabbing an umbrella from the front hall she began to make her way to what had flown across the hall.
It was a t-shirt, a plain black t-shirt, she realized as she bent down to examine it. Hearing the rustle of an opening drawer Chuck jumped and turned towards the bedroom door raising the umbrella over her head. When she entered the room she saw a man kneeling next to Ned's dresser. Then the man shifted and chuck could see his face,
"Ned?" she asked for a third time still holding the umbrella over her head.
Ned turned to see who had said his name, but all he noticed at first was the umbrella held above the speaker's head. And he flew to his feet.
"Jesus, Ch-Chuck!" he stuttered after jumping up. "What are you doing with the umbrella?"
"I'm sorry, I thought you were a burglar. Oh, I'm sorry Ned. But what are you doing?" Chuck asked him as she dropped the umbrella and walked to sit on the bed where she noticed the orange and green vest hanging over the headboard. "Are you going to another cook off?" She asked.
When Ned didn't answer again Chuck wondered what was on his mind. "Ned?" she asked once more.
"What?" Ned asked while he dug through his bottom drawer.
"What are you looking for?"
"The armbands for my cook off outfit." He said still not looking up from the drawer.
"So are you going to another cook off?"
"Yeah, um, with olive." He said with a short glance over his shoulder.
"I figured you would go with" but she was cut off by a loud,
"A-hah" from Ned who had finally found his armbands buried beneath the many aprons in his bottom drawer. "Sorry, what were you saying?" he asked.
"Never mind, when are you leaving?"
Ned stood and then sat on the bed beside Chuck careful as ever not to touch her. "I think tomorrow morning, but we'll be gone for three days, so we'll be home on Friday."
Chuck's brow furrowed and she looked as if she was upset, but Ned ignored it for now, to let her speak.
"Could I come?" she looked like a small child asking for ice cream as she looked up to Ned.
"I asked Olive if you could already, she said that you didn't have a costume."
"If she didn't want me to come she could have just said so." Chuck spoke as she stood off the bed, now clearly upset. Ned realized he shouldn't have told her what olive had said.
"We're also kind of like a team… you know? A two person team…also Emerson needs someone to help him with his new case." Ned said trying to makeup for his other reason Chuck could not come.
"Yeah, Ned I know. I just wanted to help." Chuck was mad, Ned could tell.
"Why are you getting so mad about this chuck? You didn't come to the last one either." Ned hated making people mad, especially chuck, but when he did not know why they were angry; it was hard to fix the problem.
Chuck just looked at him and shook her head before walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.
"Chuck?" Ned yelled from behind the door before flinging it open and following her to the kitchen.
"What is making you so upset Chuck?" Ned really did not understand how she could be so mad all of a sudden. She was never like this.
"You are so oblivious Ned. I'm mad because you probably wouldn't have even told me about the cook off until tomorrow if I hadn't have asked. I'm mad because Olive, my supposed best friend doesn't want me to go with you to the cook off so she can have you for herself. I'm mad that you're taking her side, not mine." Chuck blurted out, no longer able to contain her feelings.
"I don't pick sides, you know that… and I am most definitely not picking olive's." Ned said surprised and hurt by Chuck's accusations.
With that, Chuck strode out of the apartment slamming the door on her way.