Summary: He fell for her then, he still falls for her now
Summary: He fell for her then, he still falls for her now. A Zoey and Chase Threeshot.
A/N: Part dos, people.
Falling For You
Chapter Two
The two of them looked in between two branches of a tree, on the look out for Trisha and pondering the task ahead.
Chase was still in shocked about the plan. And excited too. But also nervous. He was going to be Zoey's boyfriend (even if it was for only a few minutes)! He was surprised he even had the guts to suggest this idea, but it was a really good way to convince Trisha to leave Chase alone and go date a bank robber or something.
"Okay, there's Trisha." Zoey announced, waking him from his thoughts.
"Yup," he answered, distracted.
She looked at him. "So, ready to be my boyfriend?" He almost laughed at that question, thinking that there probably wasn't anything in the world he was more ready for.
"Yup," he repeated, still at a loss for anything else to say.
"Okay," Zoey put out her hand, making sure Trisha was coming their way. "Hold my hand."
"Right," he said nervously. He did as he was told and swore he felt sparks when they touched. "Here we go."
He'd been wondering for months now what it would be like to hold Zoey Brooks' hand, and found it made his day.
They both put on a smile and walked towards Trisha, who was leaving one of the dorms.
Chase was the first to speak up. "Oh look, it's Trisha!"
"Hey Trisha!" Zoey said happily.
Trisha blew a bubble and then it popped. "Hey…"
"Listen," Chase began, his mind racing in ten thousands directions. "Zoey told me she talked to you about…us…and, uh, I hope you understand." Trisha just kept standing there, looking either bored or angry. It was hard to tell.
"We can't help that we're in love!" Zoey said, and the two of them laughed awkwardly. If only this were real…
"You sure this is for real?" Trisha said rudely, obviously not buying it.
"Oh yeah, totally!" Zoey answered, looking at Chase for confirmation.
"Absolutely." Chase made clear. He was obviously enjoying this.
Trisha raised an eyebrow and smirked. "So, how long have you two been dating?"
"A year/six months." Chase had said six months, Zoey had said a year. There was a momentary pause.
"A year…" Chase started.
"And six months." Zoey finished.
"Eighteen months if ya add on holidays." Chase added. They both smiled.
"Okay…" Trisha said, still not convinced. "If you're boyfriend and girlfriend…let's see ya kiss."
Zoey and Chase turned to either, shocked. They had definitely not planned for that.
"Um, I'm sorry, what?!" Zoey asked, confused. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my –
Trisha popped her gum again. I leaned in to Zoey and whispered quietly. "Uh, she wants to see us to kiss…"
"I heard what she said." Zoey whispered back, sharply. This made Chase's heart sink a little.
"Okay." He whispered, and shrugged.
"Well, do it!" Trisha demanded. "Kiss!" Zoey and Chase looked at each other again, trying to figure out what to do. Then they laughed lightly.
"Come on, is this really necessary?" Zoey asked, laughing, hoping Trisha would reason with her. Chase closed his eyes. Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes!
"Yeah." Trisha said matter-of-factedly.
"Sh-she said yes," Chase pointed out.
"Um…Trisha…" said Zoey, about to speak.
"I knew you were lying." Trisha stated. By this point Chase had a feeling Zoey was just going to confess that they were, in fact, lying. So Chase decided to do it first.
"Okay listen Trisha –"
"Fine! We'll kiss!" Zoey said, obviously angered by Trisha and wanting to prove her wrong. Chase's heart sped up. Oh. My. God.
"What?" he asked, pretty shocked by her statement.
"She doesn't believe us, we'll show her."
"Sh-show her?"
"Just kiss me like you always do." Zoey said, in a tone that meant, 'just stick with the plan'.
"Oh. Right. No biggie!" Chase obeyed. But it really wasn't no biggie. It was a big biggie. Was he really going to get to kiss Zoey Brooks?
They turned to each other. Chase looked at Zoey questioningly, as if to say 'are you sure'? Zoey nodded.
"Okay…here it goes." Chase said to Trisha.
They both leaned in. They were getting closer and closer. Everything else around them was gone. The buildings, the people, even, no, especially Trisha. So close…
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Dustin ran into Chase. And he fell.
"Dustin!" Zoey yelled.
"I told you I'd get you for stealing my woman!" Dustin yelled.
Chase, now lying on the ground, spoke. "Why do these things always happen to me?"
Three and a half years. Forty-two months. One hundred sixty eight weeks. One thousand one hundred seventy-six days. He had waited one thousand one hundred seventy-six days for her, and she couldn't even wait for one semester.
He wanted so badly to be angry but knew he couldn't be. They had agreed to see other people. It was just…he was so sure she'd wait. She had even told him she loved him.
Chase, you idiot! She probably meant in a brotherly way or something! Stupid, stupid, stupid! He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
Michael noticed this and tried yet again to talk to his best friend. He was finishing up getting ready for the prom (Logan was surprisingly the first to be ready and already downstairs), which was in about an hour. He was going with Lisa and was beyond excited, but also worried about his best bud. All he knew was that two days ago, he'd talked to Zoey. He found this out from Lola; it was all Zoey had told her.
He also knew that when he arrived at he, Logan and James' dorm (originally his as well), something wasn't right. They'd greeted in the assumed way, and he seemed pretty happy to be back but something was off.
"Dude, prom's in an hour." Michael reminded Chase, putting his jacket on. "You sure you don't wanna come? You can chill with me and my girl Lisa…" he stopped. "You know, for some of it…"
Chase shook his head and took a sip of Blix. "Nah, man, it's cool. I'm just going to sit here and read some magazines."
Michael looked around. "There's no magazine in here."
Chase pretended to be holding a magazine. "There is now. Hey, looks like red is the new orange! Who would've thought?"
"Oh, my bad!" Michael said sarcastically. Then he sighed. "Look man, I know this is about Zoey."
"Who's Zoey?" Chase asked, flipping an invisible page in his invisible magazine. It hurt him to say that, but decided it'd be best to just forget about her. After all, she'd forgotten about him, hadn't he?
Michael couldn't believe his ears. "Man, give me that!" He was about to grab the magazine. "Wait, what am I doing?" He pulled up a chair. "Look man, I'm really sorry about whatever happened. I'm guessing it has to do with James, and –"
"Oh yeah," Chase glared. "It would've been nice if my best friend, I don't know, toldme about him?!"
"Well what was I gonna say?" Michael argued. "'Hey man, how's Covington? Oh, by the way, the girl of your dreams is dating our new roommate!'?"
"Well you know what?" Chase answered angrily.
"What?"
"Dreams are meant for when you fall asleep. And nothing else." Chase ended. "Now let me get back to my magazine."
There was a brief silence.
Then a knock on the door. "Well, that's Lisa."
"Great, tell her I say, 'what's up'." Chase yelled, not looking up.
"It's not too late yet, man." was the last thing his friend said before opening the door to greet his date.
"Hey!" Zoey's voice came out of nowhere. Where am I?
Chase lifted his head to find himself lying on the ground, Zoey lying right in front of him, face-to-face. Zoey-to-Chase.
"Hello," he greeted with a smile.
"Whatcha doin?" she asked.
"Resting."
"Why?"
Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I woke up at 2 AM to dig up your time capsule DVD to find out what you think of me, 'til 3 AM to rebury the capsule, and then 'til 5 AM to dig and bury again because I felt guilty. That could be why. Not too sure. "Well, I haven't gotten much sleep in the past couple days."
"How come?" she questioned.
"You know, I've just been busy." He smiled. "Doin' stuff."
"Yeah, stuff can keep you busy." She agreed.
"Yeah."
There was a pause, and he looked into her eyes. They were honestly the prettiest eyes he'd ever seen.
"So listen." She broke him from his brief trance.
"Yeah?"
"You know how you've been asking me what I said about you on my DVD?" Yeah, pretty sure I remember.
"Uh huh."
"And I said you'll find out in 20 years?"
Chase frowned slightly. "Right."
"Well, I decided that was a little mean." She admitted.
"Ya did?" he asked, somewhat happily. Was she gonna tell me?
"Mhm."
"So?"
"So I'm gonna tell you." She stated. Oh my god. She is gonna tell me. Yes!
"You're gonna tell me?" he asked excitedly, just to make sure it wasn't a joke.
"Yep." She smiled. "In 10 years!"
"What?!"
"Bye!" she started to get up. O-ho, it's on now, Brooks!
"Oh, you're dead!" Chase yelled, and started getting up.
"Ooh, I'm scared!" Zoey mocked, and ran for her Jet-X.
Chase got up and started running after her, but fell right back down again. "What the -?"
Zoey tied my shoes together.
"Okay, now you're really dead!" Chase warned jokingly. He stood up and started hopping after her.
"Gotta catch me to kill me!"
"Zoey, you look awesome!" Lola gasped when she stepped back into the room. It was true. She was wearing a pink spaghetti-strapped dress with gold overlay, gold ballet flats, hey key necklace, as always, gold hoop earrings, and her hair was down and curly as usual, but had glitter in it.
"Thanks, so do you!" Lola was wearing a dark blue strapless mini-dress, matching high-heels, a long silver necklace, and her hair was up in a fancy knot. "Where's Quinn?"
"Already down there." Lola answered. "It's weird; she doesn't have a date, yet she got down there as fast as she could."
"Yeah, that is really odd." Zoey agreed distractedly. It's not that she wasn't listening; she always listened to her friends. It was just that, she didn't feel like she was making the right choice, going with James to prom. After Chase had his dramatic exit, she had reluctantly agreed to go with him, but was mow wholly regretting it.
"So, have you talked to Chase at all since…you know…that?" Lola asked, suddenly concerned for her good friend. The mentioned of his name made her heart drop. "I'm no idiot; I can see that distracted look in your eyes. Like when Orlando Bloom comes on TV for me."
Zoey laughed lightly. "No. And even if I tried I don't think he'd talk to me anyway. I hurt him a lot."
"He loves you, Zoey." Probably not anymore. "It'll work out eventually. In the meantime…" She picked up two pairs of earrings. "Pick for me! Please?"
Zoey sighed and laughed a little. "One's on the right. Definitely."
"Thanks Zoe!" Lola smiled and started humming to herself, putting her earrings on.
"Sure," she replied. "So, hey, when's Vince comin'?"
"Soon. Ooh, I'm so excited!" Lola squealed. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, James is coming with Vince."
"Great," Zoey said, trying to sound happy. As if on cue, there was a knock on their door and Lola went to open it,
"Hey beau!" she greeted Vince, and they kissed.
"Why, don't you look pretty?" James complimented, and kissed Zoey on the cheek.
"You're sweet." She thanked him, half-heartedly.
"Ready to go?" James asked.
"Are you guys coming or are we gonna have to skip the prom and wait 'til our 10 year reunion?" Lola said jokingly. She was now standing halfway out the door with her date.
All eyes were on her when they realized she hadn't answered.
"Zoey?" James looked at her, half concerned, half slightly impatient. She opened her mouth, and then closed it again.
He looked at her, surprised to find her so defenseless. There they were in the pool, standing on a platform each, only a few feet apart. His baton was in his hand. Hers was now floating calmly in the water.
He continued to look at her, and she continued to look at him. He saw beauty, of course. But he also saw anger…betrayal…Things he never wanted to see directed at him, especially by his best girl friend in the world.
His teammates were screaming at him to finish her off, that she had no way of winning now.
In a moment he realized he couldn't do it. He couldn't hurt Zoey. He couldn't take away the win that rightfully belonged to her and her team. After all, if he hadn't stolen her Tek-mate, they would've won.
So he slowly shook his head, still staring into Zoey's eyes, and stepped off his platform. And he didn't take his eyes off of Zoey Brooks until he'd fallen into the water.
The prom had begun over an hour ago. She was probably having the time of her life, with her perfect, smooth boyfriend.
But why would Chase care? He was perfectly content sitting alone in Michael, Logan and James' dorm playing with Michael's clackers. Except for the fact that every time he used them, they'd end up tangle in either his hair or his fingers…and occasionally both.
Sighing, he threw the clackers to the side. Nothing was going right for him since he'd gotten back. I guess it was my fault. I assumed the best and then got disappointed.
It was all a waste. All the wondering, all the admiring, all the constant falling, conversations, dancing in the middle of the night, grape fights, rock skipping…none of it probably mattered to her.
Even though it all meant the world to him.
What else could he do? He'd flown halfway across the world, and back, for her. There was nothing left to try. It was hopeless. It was too late.
"It's not too late yet, man." What had Michael meant by that, he wanted to know. Did he know something Chase did not?
Chase sat up abruptly, realizing he had to. He was Michael, and Michael, as insane as he was, had never been wrong before. He had been telling Chase all along to just tell Zoey his feelings. If he'd just listened to him, everything would be going well.
So it was then, an hour and fifteen minutes into prom, that Chase Matthews got up from Logan's beanbag chair, looked in the mirror, glanced awkwardly at his bushy mess, and then raced out of the building, on his way to the gym to give his dream one more try. And on the way there, he didn't trip. Not even once.
A/N: I've decided to make this a Three-Shot because Part two would've been way too long. The third and last part we'll come shortly.
By the way, I found it funny that James said "What are boyfriends for?" This was only because the night before, I had made him say something really similar. It just proves he's annoying. Alright, review please!
-Colors