Chapter Sixteen

Sunday was a long day.

"Something's going on here. No-one's gonna make a fucking idiot out of me." Ace was sitting upright on the arm chair, hands gripping the arm rests like a king on his throne.

"Nothing is going on," I said weakly, trying to refocus on the television.

"So you going to that faggotty dance with faggotty Chambers and not coming home, is coincidentally followed by him showing up to replay me?"

"Not coming home?" Despite my guilt, his choice of words made me furious. "So this is home now is it, Ace? I think you've made it very clear this is not my home. And as for Chris, I saw him at the dance for all of five minutes- he was there with a date who he left with."

That wasn't exactly a lie. Our dance had been less than five minutes long and Chris had left with Lucy Rowe. I just didn't mention that he'd met me at Gordie's later that night. And it's not like we'd planned it to happen, it's not like he'd known I was there or I knew his old man would have beaten him up…

"So why in the fuck did he feel the need to come to Irby's today, huh?"

The question was still floating around in my mind too. Chris was a man of his word, Gordie had said, and it was true. You could trust Chis Chambers.

"I don't know? Male pride? Your stupid deal has made it fucking awkward for us both to be around Gordie. Maybe that's why he did it. Besides, you don't own me, Merrill. I'll talk to him if I want to. I'll talk to anybody I want to. I don't need your permission."

"If I find out you're screwing around on me-"

"Jesus, Ace!" I got up and headed for the door while he yelled after me:

"Where you going, huh? To find Faggot Chambers?"

Like a car that was cornered, I froze in the doorway. I had no option but to stay here with him unless I wanted him to think me and Chris were having some sordid affair. Running equalled guilt, didn't it? Which was dumb because I already felt as guilty as sin.

Gritting my teeth, I turned slowly back towards him and retraced my path to the sofa.

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Ace ignored the alarm in the morning and snored through the loud whirring sound of the shower. He slept in while i made coffee and got dressed, and I had to walk to the bus route to catch the school bus.

I felt a pang of loneliness as the bus pulled up at Gordie's stop. He wasn't back until Friday. Friday felt like a hundred years away.

When the bus rolled up at Chris' usual stop I wasn't sure what to do or where to look. Chris, however, didn't hesitate in hopping up the bus steps, strolling right up to my seat and sitting down beside me.

"Morning."

I gave him a quizzical look as he tucked his backpack under the seat in front of us.

"Nice day, huh?" He continued.

"Is it?"

He finally looked at me fully, concern etched into his face.

"He gave you a hard time, didn't he?"

I was so confused I actually felt frustrated. I stared at him, trying to gather my thoughts while he waited patiently for me to answer his question. I threw up my hands in exasperation.

"Well, of course he did. What did you expect would happen with you marching into Irby's like that? I been getting the third degree ever since."

I turned moodily towards the window, wishing I had the conviction to tell him to get lost, but even his arm brushing mine as we sat side by side was giving me chills.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay. But I didn't really have a choice."

"You didn't have to do what you did, Chambers. You and your stupid code of ethics."

I kept my eyes trained on the window as I felt his eyes on my face. He slid his hand onto my shoulder and I felt my legs begin to tremble slightly.

"I'm sorry, Nina, a deal's a deal, that's who I am. But I couldn't keep that deal anymore."

I dared a glance into his intense blue eyes and felt a shiver shudder through me. Holy Christ, he was so fucking handsome. The warmth of his hand felt like it was seeping through my shirt and turning my insides to mush.

"I'm still Ace's girl," I managed to gasp.

His hand dropped from my shoulder and he sat back in his seat, sighing heavily.

"Yeah, I know. I don't get it but I know that you are."

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Chris and I kind of gravitated towards each other at lunch. I'm not sure if I walked over to him or he walked to me but I remember us both standing over a lunch table and him nodding at it.

He had a peanut and jelly sandwich with him and I had a bag of potato chips. He wordlessly gave me half of his sandwich and we passed the bag of chips back and forth until it was empty.

"You want a glass of water?" He pushed back his chair to stand and I admired his height and build from where I sat. He was dressed simply in a navy sweater and jeans but he looked good. In fact, he always looked good and now I could see what all the other girls had been seeing for the last two years. Chris Chambers was hot. Hot, smart, sweet, honourable and totally off limits.

I nodded at the offer of water and he strolled away to grab two paper cups before he headed to the water fountain.

It was then that I heard the hushed voices behind me.

"I heard it straight from the horse's mouth. Jensen Brady is gonna kick Chris Chamber's ass. He reckons he still has a thing for Jennette. Apparently, Chambers couldn't keep his eyes off her Saturday night."

I spun in my seat to see the back of two letterman jackets behind me. Football players. They had seen Chris moving across the room and hadn't taken any notice of where he'd come from or who he was sitting with. In other words, they hadn't realised I was listening.
What they were saying was total bullshit. I hadn't noticed Chris look at Jennette once at the dance and i had spent a lot of the night looking at him. In fact, if anything, it had been the other way around- I still remembered the death glare Jennette had given me while I danced with Chris and he had said that Jeanette had done the same to Lucy. That, I then realised, was probably the problem. Jensen Brady's ego was wounded by the fact that his girl still had a thing for Chris Chambers. And he wanted revenge.

When Chris came back with the cups of water, I nodded at the exit.

"You wanna get out of here?"

He shrugged, downing his water, picking up his backpack and following me out into the hall. I kept my cup in my hand as I meandered through the corridors, under the staircase and out of the fire exit. The fire exit door was technically off limits but kids still used it to hang out at the back of the main building and escape the prying eyes of the faculty.

He knew I had something on my mind as his eyes searched mine.

"I just heard that Jensen Brady wants to fight you."

Chris looked amused.

"Again?"

"It's not funny. He's telling people you've still got a thing for Jennette." His face now grew serious and he stepped closer to me, backing me against the exterior wall of the school building.

"I don't have a thing for Jennette."

On one hand I was uncomfortable with him standing so close and on the other hand, he smelled so damn good.

"I know. But he's using that as an excuse. What if they all jump you again? What if-"

He put out a hand and squeezed my shoulder.

"Nina, I can handle it. Quit worrying."

"Well, maybe you should start worrying," I said. "You've got Ace Merril and the entire football team on your case. That ain't nothing to sneeze at."

He was giving me another one of his intense stares as though the words I were saying were going in one ear and out the other.

"We gonna talk about Saturday night or what?"

I opened my mouth and closed it again.

"You mean Sunday morning?"

"No, I mean Saturday night." He was sure of himself, so sure of himself that it made me uneasy. "We both know what happened Sunday morning. I kissed you. That was me kissing you, you got nothing to feel guilty about. But Saturday night…" He trailed off like he was expecting me to finish his sentence.

"Hey, Chambers. You got a smoke?" Teddy Duchamp seemed to appear out of thin air.

Chris pushed his hands into his pockets and stepped away from me.

"I quit, Teddy. You know that."

"Sure." Teddy shrugged. "But you're on the smokers patch. So either you're smoking or making out. And I don't figure you're making out with Willis here."

He let out one of his ear piercing hyena laughs and I don't know why, but it pissed me off that he was laughing.

"We were just talking," I snapped. "Chris here, has the whole football team on his back."

Teddy stopped laughing.

"Really, man? You know I'm here right, Chris? I'll fucking crucify the lot of them. Jock fucking shit fucks…"

Chris shot me a look of annoyance before he answered.

"Appreciate it, man, but I'm good."

"If you're sure, man, but don't be shy." Teddy was nodding furiously. "We're always brothers."

"Always." Chris repeated, reaching out to shakes hands then scrape palms. Teddy nodded at Chris and then me as a gesture of goodbye before he wandered away.

"What were we talking about?" I refocused on Chris.

We both knew what we'd been talking about but before either of us could speak, the bell that signalled the end of our lunch period rang loudly.

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When school let out at the end of the day, I hurried to leave the building. Neither of us had said it but I guess we had an unspoken meeting point at the old oak tree out front. It was where we both usually met Gordie.

He had his back to me when I approached and when I tapped his shoulder, he turned slowly and greeted me with a wide smile, like he'd been hoping I'd show up. Yeah, Ace gave me butterflies, but being on the receiving end of Chris' thousand watt smile was the biggest rush I'd felt in a while.

"Hey, Chambers." The angry words were spat from the ugly mouth of Jensen Brady as he dropped his arm from about Jennette Carmichael's shoulder and approached us.

I stiffened but Chris gave me a look of reassurance before hitching up his backpack and nodding at the approaching quarterback.

"Brady."

"I don't know how many times you need me to beat it through your skull. Jenny's not interested in trash like you."

My eyes flickered to Jennette who was twirling her auburn hair and watching the exchange with wide eyes. She was actually enjoying this, the bitch. All because she hadn't been able to tempt Chris a second time around,

"I'm not interested in Jennette," Chris stated firmly.

Jenette's face flickered with anger, just for a second, but long enough for me to notice.

Jensen stood in front of Chris and I sized the two of them up. Their height was pretty much the same and though Chris was muscular, Jensen was a big hulking meathead. Still, Chris had beaten him fair the first time.

But as other players on the team drifted towards the conversation, I realised this fight, if it happened, was not gonna be fair. Panic began to stir inside me. Gordie would be inwardly panicked too if he was here. If Ace was in Chris' shoes, he would have attacked automatically. But Chris- Chris Chambers stayed calm.

"I saw you fucking staring at the dance," Jensen snapped, stepping forward so he and Chris were head to head. I shoved Jensen back a little.

"That's not true!"

Jensen narrowed his eyes at me and I was suddenly thankful he didn't seem the type to hit a girl.

"Nina, stay out of it," Chris said in a low voice.

"Tell him!" I turned and yelled at Jennette. "Tell your boyfriend that Chris isn't interested in you."

"But I don't know that for sure," she purred, flicking her hair over her shoulder.

I gritted my teeth and considered punching her square in the face.

"Yes, you do. Jensen thinks he was staring at you at the dance. Was he? Huh?"

"Well, I don't know," Jennette batted her eyelashes. "I wasn't looking at anybody but Jensen."

I made a gagging motion and was just about to tell her what I thought of her bullshit when I felt a rough hand on my arm.

Turning as I almost lost my balance, I saw Ace standing there, habitual toothpick in his mouth, and a pissed look on his face.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing," I said. "Just a couple of football players being jerks."

"To you?" Ace demanded, his eyes focusing intently on Jensen. Jensen was twice his size but still shrank back when he recognised Ace. Every guy in a football jacket avoided eye contact with him until Jensen answered.

"No, no, not to her, man. My problem's with Chambers."

Ace seemed to register this and shrugged. He actually seemed pleased, hi south settling into a small smirk.

"Jerk away then." He nodded at his plymouth, sat in the parking lot. "Let's go."

I hesitated. I knew I shouldn't have- the slightest hesitation was more ammunition than Ace's suspicions needed but I couldn't just leave Chris on his own.

"There you are." Lucy Rowe stepped in at that moment, cutting between Jensen and Chris and sliding her arm around Chris' waist. "What's going on?"

I think it was pretty obvious what was going on. The whole school had been talking about it all afternoon but Lucy continued to cling onto Chris and smile. Jennette frowned and Jensen looked more and more unsure of himself.

"Dude's scamming on my girl."

"He better not be." Lucy tilted her face upwards to smile at Chris. "Seriously Jensen, Chris and I are… together now. You and Jennette are the perfect couple. Everyone knows that."

Lucy used her debate team voice while tossing her long blond hair. I suddenly hated her. She made me feel plain and stupid.

"Well, well, well, Faggot Chambers got himself a chick." Ace looked Lucy over. "Nice ass too."

Ace was half taunting, half amused but Chris stopped focusing on Jensen and glared at Ace.

"Watch your mouth, Merril."

"Or what, faggot?"

When Chris said nothing, Ace tugged at my arm and I gulped back the unease in my throat and followed him towards his car.

My stomach was burning and I didn't know if it was anger or jealousy. Lucy wrapped around Chris was making my gut ache, And the way he had defended her honour to Ace- clearly he liked her.

As Ace pulled the car out of the parking lot, my eyes travelled back to the oak tree where Jensen, Jennette and the team had dispersed. The only two people left were Chris and Lucy. She had her arms wrapped around him and was leaning back to look up into his blue eyes. He was listening intently and he didn't look in my direction.

Not even once.

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