A/N: Hello all. Sorry for waiting so long to update. I know I said I was super excited about this chapter, and I was, but I needed to put the basic stepping stones in place before anything else could happen. With the help of a friend *coughcoughkcought*, those stones are now pretty much in place and I hope to be getting out with chapters quickly.
I won't pretend to be the best writer in the world, that my stories are worth anything more than a fanfiction account, or that I offer super quick updates, but I at least hope they entertain some people. They give me something to do, at least. And I know I have no experience in love because of my age (or should I say lack of it?), but I really do appreciate all the reviewers, people who added my story in their list of favorites and put this story on story alerts. Even if you just read it, give yourself a pat on the back. I love you all! Angela's POV
Disclaimer: I still don't own Harvest Moon or any of the songs used in this story.
Ring...
Ring...
Ring...
The phone's ringing put some odd, yet comforting rhythm and rhyme directly into my ear. It calmed me down quite a bit. The soothing ringing continued until I thought I would be referred to the annoying and mechanical voice of the answering machine. Instead he picked up.
"Hello?" he asked with his voice in deep gasps. I could hear more panting in the background.
"Oh, Chase, sorry! Did I reach you at a bad time?" I asked the phone. The ringing had stopped, which made me a little peeved, but I was glad to hear Chase's voice all the same.
"No, it's alright," he said, but the background told a different story.
"Chase! Hang up the phone!" the background's high-pitched voice told me. Maya.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I frantically said. Of course, it was a bad time. It was the worst of times. I checked the clock on the wall. 9:30. What was Maya doing back from work so early?
"Who is it?" Maya asked.
"No, Angela, don't hang up the phone! What did you want to tell me?" he asked. He must've known he would get in trouble saying my name. He could've just as easily said, 'No! Don't hang up the phone!'. Maybe he just wanted to make Maya jealous or what not.
"Angela! That brat? What does she want, Chase?" Maya asked.
"No, it's really nothing. Just me being stupid again. It doesn't matter anymore," I said and hung up for lack of something better to do. If there were a door between us, I would've slammed it. That would've made me feel better, anyways. Slamming doors were a specialty of mine.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The loud bang from the door seemed to echo throughout the hall. "No! Go away!" I screamed to the person who was actually in the hall and would have proof that the door was truly that loud.
"Oh, come on? Can't we talk about this?" Chase asked.
"Don't you think you had enough time to tell me all about it? I wouldn't have minded all that much if you would've told me, but instead I had to find out from that bragging, useless, bit-"
"Don't even go there," he said sternly. I usually didn't cuss, but I was furious. I saved the cussing for moments like these when I could feel steam coming out of my ears. Chase always restrained me though.
"You could've at least told me she was your first. Or were you not a virgin before her?" I asked loudly. "I thought we were best friends. I would've told you if I were laid by some random person I hardly knew. It's not even like you were dating or anything. Or were you holding that back from me too?"
"No, it's not like that and you know it."
"No, I don't know it, so why don't you tell me?" I asked, pretty sure my chocolate eyes looked more amber now with flames boiling inside them.
He took a deep breath as if gathering all his courage and muttered out, "I was trying to make a girl jealous."
"Okay, first of all, you do not get a girl jealous that way. If you try to get another girl jealous again in that way, I will beat the living shi-"
"Crap," he suggested.
"That too! And don't underestimate me. I can and will hunt you down."
"Don't worry. I know," he said as if bored of the conversation already.
"And don't take that kind of attitude about it, either! This is not something to just be bored about. That poor girl. She could be pregnant!"
"Um, first of all, I used protection. Secondly, since when is she 'that poor girl'? You were just calling her names?"
"Yes, but no girl deserves that," I said.
"Are you saying no girl deserves me?"
"No! That's not it at all. You're a great guy and any girl would be lucky to have you. What I was saying is that no girl deserves to be pregnant at such a young age."
"So now any girl would be lucky to have me, huh?" he asked. I had to change the subject.
"It was Sandra Smith wasn't it? The girl you were trying to make jealous? I know you said you didn't like her before, but I can't help but notice you glancing on our side of the room all the time," I sputtered. The door squeaked a little as I opened it and watched him fall to the floor as if he had been leaning on it only seconds earlier. I couldn't help but laugh. And in my angry state, it probably sounded like an evil-I'm-plotting-revenge-on-the-world laugh.
He quickly got up and brushed himself off. "Sure, we'll go with that."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Looking back on that memory, I was angry as hell. Was it that I had to hear it from unreliable sources only to find it true? Or was it that I wanted to be his first? There was no way to tell at the time, but my guess right now was both. And now I couldn't even be his second, either. The first time had stung a little, but this time hurt so much more.
Suddenly it really didn't matter anymore that the whole town was talking about Chase and I. The whole point of calling him had been pointless. The whole point in being in this town at all was pointless.
Why was I even staying here? Why did I even come here? Wasn't it for Chase? Now he certainly didn't need me. The whole town was talking about me and not in the good way. All eligible bachelors had been married and my reason for staying here was pathetic. Of course, I would miss my animals, but Renee would take good care of them for me. I had nothing to worry about. The only people who would miss me were Chase and Luna. And I would say goodbye to Luna. Chase's goodbye would be much too painful. I was a wimp and I wouldn't be able to do it without crying.
I began throwing my clothes into a suitcase, not caring about the furniture left behind. I could always buy more with my savings. Sell the farm for cheap, furniture included. Not too hard if it was way under priced. After all, I got the farm free anyways. I wouldn't lose money because the only thing I paid for was the furnishings. The price should even out.
There were way too many tears shed here on this stupid island. I was stuck on the past, following Chase around everywhere. I needed to get my own life. And I couldn't do that while I was here.
I latched the suitcase closed and left it on the bed. No matter what, I couldn't cry. I wouldn't let myself. It was just a new stage of my life, nothing to be sad about. Leaving my past behind was a sacrifice I needed to make for a better future. It wasn't a question of would I do it, but could I do it. And the challenge was too big for me to refuse.
The scenery buzzed past me. Except for Chase's house, which stayed very still for a long time. I had stopped running to stare at his house. I would miss him. Even if he was sleeping with Maya in there, that house had some good memories.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Oh, no you didn't!" I said playfully. My usual bole-colored hair had bits of white intertwined in it after interacting with a whole bag of flower. Chase, who had dumped the bag over my head, had forced the interaction between the two.
"What are you going to do about it?" he asked. He must not have realized we were making caramelcookies where the ingredient caramelwas involved. The brown sticky substance slowly oozed its way from the jar, aimed straight for his messy peach hair, but by that time he had moved away and the caramel fell on the floor.
"Oh no, my nice clean floor," he said, smirking. The sarcasm was not at all surprising.
"Yeah, that's what I'll do. I'll mess up your house. You know, un-alphabetize your book shelves, replace the inhabitants of your fridge with rotten ones, put different ingredients in your recipes…"
"You wouldn't," he said menacingly, yet at the same time, he was laughing uncontrollably.
"Just try me," I said, smirking back at him. His violet eyes danced in expectation as he grabbed the caramel jar away from me and dished it into my already gross hair with a spoon.
"No! You have betrayed me, caramel! Why must you listen to him and not me?" I cried melodramatically. "You foods must love Chase. Honestly, he's a chef and he never gets fat! Why can't you love me like that? He hardly ever exercises!" I cried falling to my knees like the harmless substance had wounded me.
Chase rolled his eyes, the gleam still there, making them look more like two big, blinking amethysts. "Mental note: no more sugar for Angela," he said aloud.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him.
"Just that someone needs to stop with the sugar. It's starting to scare me…"
"Hey, what did you expect? You poured a whole jar of sugary brown stuff at my head and expected me not to be hyper? You brought this upon yourself," I chided.
"Since when did food love me? Every time I eat I always think, 'it needs more salt, it needs more pepper, it needs a dash of paprika' or something along those lines. I don't know about you, but to me that doesn't qualify as food loving me."
"It's liked you ever since you could make delicious stuff from it. The food I cook always ends up tasting like fish, even when I'm making something else. It gets so annoying!" I said.
"Have you ever let Toby in your house?" he asked.
"Yes…" I said cautiously.
"There's your reason," he said with a small smile on his face.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Now it was vice versa. Instead of Toby coming to my house, I would be asking admittance into his.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
My knuckles rapped the door making a hollow sound. It felt weird standing in the dark, especially in front of somebody else's house. The farmers' motto 'Early to bed, early to rise' prevented me from just this kind of thing. But no longer would I be a farmer. At least, not in this town. I didn't think the rule applied to me anymore.
The door opened a sliver while a laid-back voice said, "Why, hello, Angela!"
"Hi, Toby," I said, giving a little curtsy. "Is Renee home? Well, of course she's home, I mean where else would she be? Wait- no, that's not what I mean. I mean I need to talk to Renee, but all this polite stuff and everything. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything. It's not like that would be the first time tonight- and I'm going to shut up now."
"Of course. Renee's just around the corner preparing a dish of some kind. I sure hope it's fish," he said. The door closed for a minute then opened all the way to reveal the silver haired, squinty eyed boy with some kind of hat almost attached to his back.
I walked inside to see a house not at all like I expected it to be. I had imagined fish on every square inch of wall, yoga mats on the floor, and to top it all off a few birds and pets for Renee's pleasure. But the house was actually warm and inviting; not at all like the mental image I had concocted. Well, besides the fishy smell.
"Just around the corner," Toby reminded me and pointed a finger in the right direction.
"Thanks," I said sheepishly and ran that way. I reached the kitchen to see Renee cooking something. From the smell of it, Toby had gotten his wish of fish for the meal. But then again, the whole house smelled like fish so I could've been easily wrong.
"Hi, Angela. What brings you here so late?" Renee asked while wiping her hands on a dish cloth.
"Well, I was wondering if you could start taking care of my animals tomorrow. I need to go somewhere," I said, scratching the back of my head.
"Sure, how long will you be vacationing?" she asked.
"I'm thinking permanently," I said.
"Oh. What's wrong? Why are you leaving?" she asked.
"Personal reasons," I said uncomfortably. I couldn't let her know that I had fallen for a married man. Although she probably knew from the gossip around here. People in small towns knew every little tid bit of gossip about each other.
"Oh, I see. It's about Chase isn't it?" she asked, confirming my suspicions.
"No! He wasn't cheating on Maya for me! Honestly, what kind of idiot do you think he is? What kind of man would dump a girl like Maya for me?" I said. I hadn't meant it to be that loud, but it came out as a yell.
"Okay, calm down, Angela. I wasn't accusing him of anything. We all know he loves Maya very much. Forget the question, okay? So how much do you want for the animals?"
"Oh, no. I don't want any money. I just want them in good hands. And I know you and you're parents will have that kind of care they need. The only thing you really need to remember is that Caroline has sensitive teeth, so you can't give her the same kind of fodder you give the other animals. She needs some high class food called 'Laminecint'. I know it sounds really weird, but could you just take the money you were going to give me and invest it towards her?" I asked, choking back the sadness from finding refuge in my voice. It would do perfectly fine if it just stayed in my heart.
"Of course," she said politely. "Are you leaving tonight? I don't think Pascal will want to be boating this late at night."
"No. I have a few good byes to say in the morning, but I just wanted to let you know that as of tomorrow, you are the owner of all my livestock."
Just then, Toby walked in. "Yum. It smells like fish," he said. I stared at him in disbelief. It always smelled like fish. Or at least he did.
"Well, I'd better go. It's getting late and I wouldn't want to hold you guys back from your meal. I'll let you take them tomorrow, Renee. Bye, guys."
"Bye," they both called out as if in perfect synchronization.
I ran outside into the star-filled sky and didn't stop this time to look at Chase's house. My animals were already safe and cozy in the barn, so the only thing left that I could do that night was sleep. I pulled the covers up to my shoulders and snuggled in closer to the blankets. With nothing to do, I had to keep reminding myself of the promise I made myself. I always kept my promises. I couldn't break one as simple as this. Luckily, I wasn't used to staying up this late and quickly fell asleep for what could possibly be the last time on this island.
A/N: Okay everybody. That's it for tonight. It's storming like crazy and I run a great risk of having my computer struck by lightning, but I do it all for you guys. I hope you guys like it!
Sorry to everybody (especially BellaLacey because she seems really excited about it) who read that my next chapter would be named after the Boys Like Girls song Heels Over Head. I feel like such a liar :( . But Angela hasn't actually left yet and I have something major happen on the boat, so I'll try to squeeze in another chapter. But I promise to continue with that idea two chapters from now. Hope you can wait that long.
Okay, if you've read all the author's notes so far, you should know what I'm about to say. Review. And I do mean it. Even if you don't like it and think it's a story better deleted than posted, write that. I'm always looking for ways to improve since there is so much room for it. I just need to know what direction. You point up, down, left, right, forward, backward, and I'll try to improve that way. So I hate to reiterate myself so much, but please do review.