AN: Sorry about not updating. But you know the drill, high school...homework...friends...there's no time for writing any more. :( But I'll keep trying to write a little bit every day so you can get it faster next time!
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Chapter 6 - Give Me A Chance
"There's never anything on TV this early." I complained while flipping through the channels on Torres' tube. She sat next to me, curled up in a ball.
"Maybe we should call your parents so they know you're okay. If you were my kid I'd be calling in the army or something." She laughed while handing the home pohone out for me.
I took it and stared at it. Calling them would only get me in more trouble, but she's been bugging me to do something like this all morning. There was even talk about actually going home. And I can't have that.
"Do I get a reward?" I asked with my smirk on.
"Depends." She replied back while watching the television. A simple smile on her face.
"Here goes nothing." I muttered while dialing my house number. It rang for like a whole freakin minute before my stupid mother picked up.
"Hello?" She asked in a stressed out voice. I could hear something breaking in the background. They must be in another fight. Perfect.
"Hey mom, it's Caitlyn." I tried sound bored. Like I was just doing this because I had to.
"What the hell do you want?" She asked, disapointed that it was me and not any one else in the world. She'd be happier to hear the tax guy calling then her own daughter.
"I was calling to let you know that I'm still alive. I won't be home any time soon. I'm staying at a friend's this weekend." I told her. I quickly gave Torres' and nudge and she nodded to say that I could stay.
"And you thought I'd actually care? You know this phone cost money and I don't see you out working for it." She told me while the sound of good ole dad yelling in the background filled my ear.
"Let me have the stupid phone!" He yelled at her. There was a pause and Torres' stiffened next to me. I guess she can hear everything that's being said...
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He shouted into the phone. "What is this, your one phone call? I told you that I was only getting you out of jail that one time! You better be glad that stupid officer only gave your stupid ass a warning too."
"Dad!" I yelled back. "I was just..."
"No, I'll tell you what you're doing! You're still out fooling around with other little girls. Well while you're out on the streets, try and make me some money will ya? Make sure you do one of them CEO's a good one. We need a new car since you wrecked the last one! And don't bother even showing up around here until you bring me some goddamn money! You have no idea how mad I am at you right now. You're the biggest mistake your stupid mother ever made!" I thought about how his face must be red and that dangerous vein sticking out of his forehead.
"Dad just..." I didn't get to finish.
"Shut up! You don't get to tell me what to do. For all I care you can go to hell! All you do is spend our money. And guess what? We're about to get kicked out by the land lord. So if you don't want all you're crap sold on ebay I suggest that you come down here and get it!" He growled.
"But you just said not to come home." I reminded him. Aw crap. Rule one: don't tell dad he made a mistake.
"Who the hell do think you are? I should just smack the skin right off your ass! Nobody talks to me like that. Not you, not your stupid mother, not no one! Ya hear?" He screamed. I could hear mom crying in the background.
"Whatever, just leave my stuff in the alley in the back and I'll get it. You'll never even know I was there." I declared, wishing for this conversation to end. I was suddenly very aware of Torres sitting next to me.
"You little..." He stopped yelling for a second before he quickly added, "It better be gone by dark."
The line went dead.
I dropped the phone and stared intensely at the television as my eyes burned. Usually I'd just ignore whatever stupid comments my stupid ass father would say. But this time it just...hurt. Something inside me, the part that wants to be loved or whatever, was pulling apart in my chest. A giant hole was forming and with it came hot, burning tears.
"Caitlyn." Her voice made the tears all fall. It was the final push. The reminder that someone had witnessed my version of hell.
"No." I shook my head and wiped my salty tears on my sleeves as she sat up straight and looked at me. "I'm fine. I don't need anything. I'm fine."
"No, you're not. No one should have to go through that." She told me. She looked like she might cry too.
"It's okay. It's nothing new. They're just drunk and they we're already having another fight. It's just bad timing." I told her, begging God to make the tears stop. I felt so weak.
"Caitlyn...well just know that I'm hear for you. I may have only known you for a week...but that's long enough for me to see how special and amazing you are. I'd do anything for a person like you." She said while pushing a lock of my hair behind my ear.
"Don't worry about me." I told her. "I'll be fine. We've got enough to deal with without my idiot parents adding to it."
"Well your always welcome to stay here." She promised with a small smile.
"Thanks." I smiled back.
We ended up watching more television for a long time. It was after we'd both finished eating some cereal that the doorbell rang. It startled us both and Torres jumped off the couch. She walked towards the door and when she opened it I listened to her talk. I love her voice.
"What are you doing here?" She asked the person who'd rung the bell. I knew something was wrong. Something was off in her voice. It wasn't friendly, it was more like hostile.
"I just came by to say...hi, gosh you're beautiful." It was a man's voice, but a young man. I turned around on the couch to try and see who it was trying to hit on my woman.
Oh. My. God.
It's the guy from the picture. The prom guy! The one that broke her heart. Her first kiss. The one from Camp Rock.
"Maybe you should leave." She told him in that same voice.
"Come on, Mitchie." He flashed her a pearly white smile. "Let's just talk."
"Maybe another time." She suggested.
"There's no time like the present." He told her while walking right into the house. He walked in a little ways before stopping in the middle of the room.
Staring at me.
"Oh, I didn't realize you had company." He stated while eyeing me carefully. I was glad my eyes weren't red and puffy any more.
"Shane, I think you should leave." She repeated, leaving the door open and standing by it.
"But I only just got here." He replied in a cheery voice, still watching me.
"Shane..." She said, desperation starting to show in her voice.
I stood up and walked around the couch. I stopped right in front of him. He smiled at me and gave him a fake smile back.
"Well aren't you adorable." He smiled at me, looking down since he's like a foot or two taller then me. I made my fake smile bigger. "I think they should put your cute little face on a billboard."
"And I think you should get the fuck out of this house." I replied in a first grader voice with the fake smile on.
He didn't say anything at first, but once the shock fled his body he turned back to look at Torres. "Did I interrupt a special therapy session or something?"
"Shane...just go. Now!" She was looking pretty pissed now. Even I was ready to duck and cover.
"Mitchie, please!" He begged taking a step closer to her but stopping a good distance from the door. "It will just take one second to see how sorry I am! I've really missed you."
She looked like she might cry but at the same time I saw a flash of hope in her eyes. Shit!
With a green rage of jealousy helping me, I walked towards the Shane guy and placed my hands on his back. I pushed as hard as I could. His body moved forward and thankfully his feet followed.
"What the?!" He shouted in surprise. I got him all the way to the door before he finally stopped me and turned around.
"Caitlyn." Torres shot me a warning look. "Maybe you should just stay out of this."
"Maybe he should leave." I glared at him.
"Okay, I'm going." He put his hands up in defeat. He stuck one foot out the door but stopped to look at Torres again. "But I will be back later. We will talk about this, Mitchie. I really am sorry for everything that happened but that was years ago! I'm a different person. All those girls, they didn't mean anything to me. I was just in denial that I had feelings for someone else. Someone really special to me. You."
WTF!? How could anyone believe that bull?!
I turned to see just how pissed she'd be at that sorry excuse but her face was like a love struck teenager. God hates me like that.
"Shane I..." She stopped and with a goofy smile on her face she blushed.
"It's true. I've really missed you. I never stopped thinking about you." He smiled at her. Just my luck. I hook a totally hottie who just happens to be older, smart, and funny. Then Mister Prince Charming comes skipping along and she's gone, poof! Just like that?! Yeah, my life officially sucks now.
Only one thing to do.
Kill this man. Hey, it wouldn't be that hard. I know people. Caitlyn Gellar has friends. Lots of them. Big friends. Really big friends.
Finally one of them glanced over at me and the smile fest was over.
"We'll, um..." Torres cleared her throat with a smile on. "...we'll finish this later."
"Over dinner?" He asked with that smile that could make cupid fall in love. She blushed harder but I wasn't gonna let her go that easy.
"We have plans." I spat before she could answer him. They both looked at me. Both equally ticked off at the comment.
"Okay, how about tomorrow then?" He asked, smiling again.
"Yeah. Sure. Sounds like fun." She giggled.
"Great. I'll be back here at around six to pick you up? I already spotted this great french place I wanna take you to." He told her while taking another step out the door.
"Yeah, sounds good." She smiled as he started walking backwards to an expensive car parked in the driveway next to Torres' junk on wheels car.
"I'll see you tomorrow!" He called as I slammed the door shut with a pissed off expression. She didn't notice though, she was too dreamy eyed over Mister Perfect.
"What the hell?" I asked her as we walked back into the room.
"What?" She asked like nothing had just happened.
"That guy hasn't talked to in years, and with that the last time you saw him he broke your heart, and now right after you just agreed to be with me he shows up and you're all ga-ga over him?!" I wanted to scream.
"Relax, it's just a dinner to talk about things." She explained while sitting on the couch.
"Yeah, then you'll be over at his hotel room. Talking about things. Then you'll be sitting on the bed. Talking about things. Then, oops! You wake up naked the next morning!" I wanted to rip all his perfect hair off his stupid head. He's screwing up everything.
"Caitlyn, you really think I don't have any control over myself? Besides, we have school on Monday so I'll obviously have to be back here Sunday night." She replied like it was obvious.
"It's not you I'm worried about." I announced while sitting next to her with my arms crossed. "What happened? I thought we were trying to be together."
"Caitlyn...it's complicated. Truth is I've known Shane longer and I've really missed him too. He deserves a second chance. Everyone does." She told me.
"If he really loved you he'd wait." I muttered.
"Exactly. But no one can know about...us. And I'm not comfortable lying to him." She confessed.
"Do you even know him?" I asked, thinking about finding a computer and google-ing his ass.
"Of course...I did. But like he said, people change. I'm not the same person now that I was back then, and neither is he." She explained.
"It's because he's a guy." I muttered, not wanting to look at her.
"Caitlyn..." She began. "It's because there are more reasons to be with him then to be with a younger girl."
"Name three." I dared her.
"He's my age. He's already started his career and is successful at it. He's...he's a really great guy." She listed.
"And I'm not great enough for you?" I asked in a pissy tone.
"I didn't mean it like that." She sighed.
Sure.
"I just can't believe that one second you're comforting me after my stupid dad yelled at me and now you're head over heels for some guy that magically showed up at your door step after years of nothing but post cards. What about those kisses? I thought we had something?" The last part surprised me.
"Caitlyn...I have to give him a chance. Just...take that as my answer for now, okay? Can you please just take that until I've had time to sort all this out?" She placed her hand over mine. The warmth made stupid butterflies fly around in my stomach.
"Fine...but you owe me." I told her. "And since you already promised I could sleep here you can't bring him back. I can't say that I won't take a knife to him or throw a really big rock at him. A really big rock that's coated with some kind of hard, heavy metal stuff. And had man eating bugs all over it."
"Okay." She laughed. Her smile made me grin. Without warning I pressed my lips to hers and thankfully she didn't push away. When I pulled my lips back a few inches she slowly opened her eyes and stared at me.
"I'm not so sure I won't get jealous while you're out talking to him." I told her with a small smirk on.
"You have nothing to worry about." She smiled. "Besides, I've known you how long? Shane is an old friend. It's just two friends having dinner. But who knows what will happen?"
"I bet he has a pretty good idea of what he wants to happen." I told her and she giggled. "But then again I can't blame him. I've kinda got the same plans."
I added in a wink and she blushed before leaning away from me with a small smile that she tried to hide. I sighed and stood up, having only one thing left to do.
"Where's your computer?" I asked.
"Why?" She questioned while standing up too. She paused before quickly adding, "You're not gonna go on a porn site are you? Because I'm not into that sort of stuff."
"What? No." I quickly replied, secretly thinking about how I do think she's into that sort of stuff. "I want to look up some stuff on this Shane guy."
"How? There's probably a lot of Shane Gray's in the world." She replied, leading me towards her bedroom.
"Well if there's anything we should know about him then we'll find it pretty easily." I told her.
"Stuff like what?" She asked while pushing open her bedroom door.
"You know, getting arrested...stealing from a store...getting caught with drugs...sleeping around..." I listed. "...murder."
"Shane's not capable of killing someone." She laughed.
"But it's just like you said. You're not the same person you were back when you met him." I explained. "He's a completely different person now. Someone you know nothing about. And I can't let you run off with a guy who could be an old lady killer."
"Wait...are you calling me old?" She asked.
I hesitated before muttering, "Um...no...", and walking past her into the room.
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AN: Sorry again for the long wait.