One of the Guys (29 page)

Stu and Carl sat down and, for
once, Carl didn’t comment. He looked to me, and he had the grace to
look at least a little sorry for what he’d done.

“
Where’s Pike?” Stu asked, looking
round.

“
He went to do something. He should
be here soon.” Lex asked, tucking into his fries.

I looked around, and I spotted
Pike.

Oh yeah, I spotted the
motherfucker.

He was talking to Chase, and she
was smiling at him.
Smiling
!

My anger grew when I saw him hug
her. His arms around her, holding her, and she were hugging him
back.

“
Dude.” Lex said, drawing out the
word when he turned to see just what I was glaring at. “I doubt
there’s anything in it, Logan.”

Pike walked towards us, sitting
down.

“
What. The fuck. Was that?” I said,
snarling at Pike.

“
What?” He asked, looking
confused.

“
You hugged
Chase. She smiled at you. What the
fuck
Pike? I’ve been trying to get
her attention all week, and now you get to
hug
her?”

“
Whoa, chill.” Pike said, holding
his hands up. “It’s not what you think.”

“
Ok, so fucking enlighten me then.”
I growled.

“
My Dad lost his
job.” He began, and told us all about Chase helping him out in the
store. He’d told her about the job and then that night, her Dad had
called him asking for
his
Dad.

“
Larry got my Dad an interview. He
went yesterday, and this morning…” Pike looked at me with a huge
smile. “…He was offered the job. Chase got my Dad a job working at
the car company.”

I felt sick. Chase had helped
Pike’s family, and here I was, jealous that he’d hugged her in
appreciation for her help.

I wasn’t hungry anymore.

“
I need to go. I’m happy for you,
Pike.” I said, rising from the bench and walking away.

Leaving the guys watching after me,
I quickly swiped the lone tear that fell down my cheek. I couldn’t
let anybody see me like that.

I sat by myself in my car. Taking
deep breaths to calm down, I closed my eyes.

Bad decision.

All I saw was Chase and how she
smiled at Pike.

I shouldn’t,
couldn’t
, be jealous. She’d helped
him; he was saying thanks. That was the kind of person Chase was.
Always thinking of others.

Playing with the beads on the
bracelet Chase had bought for me; I thought back to the time I’d
massaged her in the kitchen. Feeling her body under my hands; her
toned muscles under my fingers.

The growing pain in my pants
rapidly increased the more I thought about her.

Taking another breath, I pulled
myself together and walked back into school. Chem class was next,
and Chase was in the same class with me. I only hoped I didn’t fall
apart and beg her forgiveness in front of everybody.

Finally getting into class, Chase
had already taken her seat. To my disappointment, Charlotte had
taken the seat next to her, and the table next to them was occupied
also.

Fuck!

The teacher, Miss Ebbs, was handing
out a pop quiz to do. She looked to be in her fifties with graying
brown hair and a thin physique. Her lab coat was much too big, and
her black skirt poked out at the bottom.

Great, just fucking
great.

I took my seat as she placed the
paper in front of me. I didn’t think the first week of senior year
was going to spent doing tests when we’d already done them before
the end of junior year.

“
Ok class, get to work. You have
fifteen minutes.” Miss Ebbs said.

Pulling my pencil from my bag, I
got to work. Attempting to concentrate on the questions. Glancing
to Chase, I saw that she was sailing through hers with no problems.
That was confusing. She’d always asked for my help with chemistry,
as it was my strongest subject.

Getting to work, I answered the
questions, putting my pencil down just before the time was up.
Chase had finished way before me.

“
I’ll take these away, and we’ll
get to work on making nylon!” The teacher said, happily. “We’ll
need…” We watched as she wrote the chemical ingredients we’d be
using:

2.2g of
1,6-diaminohexane

1.5g of decanedioyl
dichloride

50 cm3 of cyclohexane

50 cm3 of deionised
water
.

“
Also some metal tweezers, and a
glass rod to wrap the nylon around.” She added.

Miss. Ebbs collected everything
together, and we retrieved our beakers, solutions, and instruments.
Making the nylon was easy, watching Chase work effortlessly with
Charlotte was hard.

Four times, I’d let the nylon slip
from the tweezers and back into the beaker.

“
Squeeze harder, Logan.” The
teacher said, coming over to my table. “Sam, work together with
Logan.”

I’d barely registered the guy
sitting next to me. We hardly spoke as we worked the rest of our
experiment.

I breathed out a frustrated
breath.

I couldn’t go on like
this.

Putting my things down, I walked
over to Chase’s desk. I didn’t care that the others were staring. I
needed to talk to her.

“
I need to talk to you.” I said to
her, standing so close I could smell the blackcurrant on her now
tied back hair, due to the experiment.

“
I don’t need to
talk to
you
.” She replied without looking at me.

“
Chase, please. Just let me
explain” I protested.

“
I think you’ve done enough
explaining, Logan. I’m not listening to it anymore.”

“
Mr. Blackwood. Please go back to
your station.” Miss. Ebbs called out.

I looked at Chase once more before
turning to my seat. Chase was done, but I wasn’t going to let her
give up on us so easily.

Chapter
14

Chase

Hearing logan’s voice again caused
a shiver to run down my spine.

I didn’t want to have that reaction
to him, and I barely controlled myself enough to stop from looking
into his blue eyes. I knew he was upset, but that didn’t excuse
what he’d done at the party, and later.

“
Don’t worry, Chase. Next time,
I’ll tell him where to go.” Charlotte said from beside
me.

“
Thanks Charlie.” I said. I’d
called her Charlie before, and she’d smiled when I said it. “I can
do that. He needs to know that I don’t need anyone to fight my
battles.”

I didn’t even glance to Logan, who
I knew was watching me from his table.

I didn’t know why he was
continually trying to talk to me. Yeah, he’d been a royal ass, but
the other thing with… He had to know there would be no way I was
going to speak to him after that.
Especially
after he’d told me that
he would never go there.

“
Hey, Sian and Carly wants us all
to meet tonight for a last minute run through.” Charlotte said,
quickly putting her phone away after reading a text.

“
No problem.” I said. Nervous
butterflies dancing inside me once again. It was almost time to don
my costume and perform.

Yikes.

“
That was
fucking amazing!” Carly squealed when we finished our routine. “The
guys are gonna cream their pants!” She clapped her hands, her smile
threatening to break her face.

“
I think the other team are going
to be jealous when they see us.” Said Sian.

“
Damn straight.”
Added Poppy. “I can’t wait to see
all
their faces. Every one of
them.”

I knew what she meant. She wanted
to see the reactions of Logan and Carl. Logan because of what he
did, and Carl because she now knew he had a thing for her. Poppy
wanted to tease him. Show him what he could’ve had if he hadn’t
been such a douche to me.

“
I think we should go through it
from the top. One more time.” Said Carly. “Just to make sure it’s
gonna be tight every time.”

The new juniors groaned, but we
were ready to go. Homecoming was tomorrow, and I couldn’t wait to
get it over with.

Working with the girls had been fun
and, in a way, I was sorry to see it end. I was only helping out
this once, after all. We were still going to hang out, but I was
going to miss this.

Wow. I didn’t think I’d ever say
that!

“
Chase, hold up.” Sian called out.
I waited whilst she and Kate walked over. “I wanted to ask you
something. On behalf of the girls. I thought it was best coming
from me since… well… our history.”

“
What is it?” I asked, seeing her
nervousness.

“
Um… well… Carly will be out of
action for a while and… we were wondering…”

“
If you’d stand in for her.” Kate
finished for her, giggling.

I liked Kate. She was nice and
always had a smile for everybody. I could see a little resemblance
between her and Lex. They had the same brown eyes and hair, and
both liked to have fun.

“
Not just as a
cheerleader, but as the head, working
with
her. Carly can’t demonstrate
what she wants us to do, and with your skills, what you’ve already
done for us… you’d be awesome.”

“
Um…” I looked
to both of them and saw the pleading in Sian’s eyes. In Kate’s I
saw pleading for me to help her girlfriend. Something told me that
if Sian was happy, she was
very
happy. “Sure. Why the fuck
not?” I said, with a shrug.

“
Yay!” Sian squealed, throwing her
arms around me in a hug. “Oh, sorry.” She said, her face full of
shock. “I didn’t mean…”

“
Sian, calm down.” I chuckled.
“We’re friends now. I’d expect the occasional hug.”

I knew what she was afraid of.
Afraid I’d thought she was trying something with me.

“
Oh, ok.” She looked to Kate, then
back to me, lowering her voice she continued. “Sometimes, I get
scared that if the other girls knew, they’d think I was feeling
them up in the routine.” She said, her face falling.

“
You shouldn’t care what they
think.” Said Kate.

“
That’s their
fault.” I assured her. “Does a straight girl find herself attracted
to
every
guy she sees?” I asked rhetorically. “Exactly. You’re no
different, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”

I was then gripped like a vice by
Sian, followed by Kate, and then they both turned to deliver the
news to Carly and the rest of the girls.

To say I felt a little deaf
afterwards, from the screaming, would be an
understatement.

“
I’m so glad you’re staying with
the squad.” Poppy said on our ride back.

“
Just helping until Carly’s
better.” I corrected her.

“
Yeah. That’s what you think.” She
said with a wink, laughing when I groaned.

“
I’m in for the long-haul, aren’t
I?” I asked, with dread in my tone.

“
You sure are, Chase the ace.” She
beamed. “You’re stuck with us now. One of the girls.”

That was different, and I liked
it.

Driving down Logan’s street,
because of the damn road works, I tried to keep my eyes forward as
I went past his house. Poppy noticed that I’d seen Logan on his
driveway, talking to Matt.

“
I think he’s gonna bust his pants
tomorrow.” She giggled.

I smiled.

Logan was definitely gonna see what
could have been his.

*****

Logan

I’d seen that sweet black Mustang
again, when I was talking to Matt, and he’d turned to see me
staring.

He whistled.

“
Whoa, sweet ride.” He said,
nodding in appreciation. “GT Fastback. Nice.”

“
Yeah, it’s cool, now back to the
topic. What are you doing about Cassie?”

“
There’s
nothing
to
do, Logan. We hooked up a few times. Big deal. If it makes
you feel any better, I’ll take her to my place in the
city.”

“
You should’ve done that before.” I
said through my clenched jaw.

“
I stayed here because she lives
close by. I have to bring her back if we go to my place.” He
whined.

“
So bring her back. If not, let her
stay over. Just stop bringing her here.” I demanded.