One of the Guys (9 page)

In no time at all, the voice boomed
again.

“
Winner!”

Pike was worse than
Logan.

“
Shit! That was my favorite
character too.” He complained. “Again.” He challenged, but it was
in vain.

I beat him twice more when the
others came in.

“
Somebody
please
beat Chase.” Pike whined when the others sat
down.

Carl looked at me, and I knew he
wasn’t happy.

“
I’ll go.” He said.

If I thought he was unhappy with me
being there, he was furious when I beat him too; then Stu, then
Lex.

Logan laughed at their disgruntled
expressions.

“
Fuck, we should make a tournament
or something. Put money on Chase. We’d make a fortune!” Said Pike,
rubbing his hands together.

“
You’re kidding, right?” said
Carl.

Now
that
was something
I
would’ve said, more in
disbelief than anything, but Carl… He said it as if
I
were a joke. I
couldn’t stop myself before my mouth opened.

“
What
the
fuck
is your problem?”

I noticed Logan stiffen beside
me.

“
He’s just pissed he got beat by a
girl.” Lex laughed.

“
Fuck you, Lex.”
Carl spat. “I didn’t get beat by a
girl
.” He sneered at me.

“
Watch it, Carl.” Logan said, and I
could hear the threat in his tone.

“
It’s ok, Logan. His ‘manhood’
obviously feels threatened.” I said, holding my fingers up for
emphasis.

Carl’s eyes bugged.

“
I’m going to go before I do
something I won’t be able to take back.”

“
Yeah? Like what?” Carl asked,
snarling.

“
Like castrating you with my bare
hands.” I practically growled.

“
Chase…”

“
It’s ok, Logan.” I said before he
could stop me. “See you in school.”

I walked out, the other guys not
saying a word; just sitting there in shock.

*****

I’d gotten as far
as the front door when Matt showed his irritating self.

“
Going somewhere, cock-block?” He
asked.

“
Home. Not that it’s any of your
business.”

I moved to open the door, and he
stopped in front of me. I was already angry, and I felt it bubble
up, ready to explode.

“
Not so fast.” He looked me up and
down, and I automatically curled my shoulders forward, pushing my
back out to hide my body. I didn’t like his eyes on me.

“
Why don’t you
stay and keep
me
company? Maybe I can bring you out of that shell
of yours?” He said with a leering sneer.

“
Oh my God!” I
burst out laughing, which confused the hell out of him. “Do you
even
hear
yourself? That was pathetic, Matt. Even for you.”

I shoved him out of the way, my
catching him off guard by answering back allowing me to, and I
opened the door and walked out.

“
What the fuck, Matt?” I heard
Logan shout as I was halfway down the path.

The door opened, and Logan ran
towards me.

“
Chase, are you ok?” He
asked.

His hand reached to touch me, but
he stopped, as if realizing what he was about to do, and put it in
his pocket.

“
Yeah. Nothing I can’t handle.” I
said with a shrug.

“
I’m sorry about him.”

“
He’s a douche.”

“
About Carl too.”

“
Another douche.”

God, my language skills were
impressive… not.

“
I can get rid of them, you
know…”

“
No” I interrupted. I wasn’t about
to come between him and his other friends. Even though I was there
first.

Now, I sound like a
child!

I walked away from Logan and
listened to my music on the way back. It was only a fifteen-minute
walk to my house, and I didn’t want to call my Mom to get me. I
wanted to use the time to think.

Think about how things were between
Logan and me. Try to make sense of why Carl disliked me so much. I
mean, I hadn’t done anything to him at all. I also wanted to know
why Matt constantly picked at me too. It was as if he knew my
insecurities and were calling me on them; the fact that I often
felt like a tagalong, and that I was self-conscious about my body
and hid it away. He knew just what to say to get my hackles rising.
If his last comment hadn’t been so ridiculous, that it made me
laugh, I would’ve hit him.

Carl, on the other hand, made me
feel as if I were the outcast; the odd one out. The other guys
weren’t so bad, but Carl always had something to say, which usually
referred to me not being a girl or not belonging with
them.

I didn’t get it. In our school,
plenty of girls hung out with guys. Even the girly-girls did
sometimes. But, there
was
something I noticed. The others were in groups.
Even the tomboys, in a group, hung out with guys. I was the
only
girl in ours. I
suppose I
was
the
odd on out, but I hadn’t been made to feel like that until I
started hanging with the guys as a group. Possibly because I
usually stayed in the background, but I was getting tired of
it.

Yeah, I was the wallflower. The one
who, even at a small party, was overlooked. I was the one who was
forgotten about because I was so quiet and didn’t stand
out.

The further I walked home, the
more I became annoyed that I’d allowed that to happen; that I’d
allowed people to treat me that way. Mostly, I was annoyed that I’d
done it to myself. Maybe
that
was why Logan never saw me as anything but a
friend.
Maybe
he
wanted the opposite of me. Somebody like Sian or Carly. Somebody
who stood out and wasn’t afraid to let people see them for whom
they were.

I can’t.
I thought to myself, and I started to get upset.

I can’t just change who I am to
please someone else. It wouldn’t be right, and it wouldn’t be fair
on either of us.

I reached my house and went
straight to my room.

“
Chase? Did Logan drop you?” My Mom
shouted up the stairs after me.

“
No. I walked.”

“
Chase! I told you to call
me!”

My Mom got worried if I were out
alone, even if I were only a few minutes away.

“
I needed to be alone,
Mom.”

I tried to block out my Mom’s rant
about personal safety and being responsible for it.

“
Yes Mom.” I answered
her.

I was to call her if I needed a
ride. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to for much longer.

My parents were going to get me a
car before senior year. They wondered why I hadn’t wanted one
sooner, what with my Dad being high up in a car manufacturing
company. I guess I just wasn’t all that interested, even though I
could get a really expensive one because of the heavy discounts
through the company. I wanted a motorcycle, but my Mom had almost
blown a fuse at that request, but I
really
wanted on. I finally agreed
to get a car so it would be easier to get about for my studies and
going to visit colleges when my parents couldn’t come, not that I
wanted them to, and when Logan couldn’t take me. I didn’t like how
my Mom relied on Logan always being there. It wasn’t as if we’d
been friends all our lives.

Then, it hit me.

I felt a pain in my chest when I
realized that Logan
wouldn’t
always be there. That there would come a day when
he found somebody and he’d have no time for me. Sure,
I
could meet someone,
but I didn’t see that happening soon. Not with the way I was,
and
certainly
not
with the way guys saw me.

I shook my head to clear
it.

I was thinking like a moody brat,
and being so self centered, that I was annoying
myself
. I was going to stop doing
that. I was going to suck it up and take each day as it came. I
just hoped that being in love with Logan wasn’t going to jeopardize
our friendship. I wasn’t about to tell him or anybody
else.

My phone beeped, and I had a text
from Logan.

L: Did you get home
safe?

C: Yeah. A few minutes
ago.

L: Sorry, again.

C: Not your fault, forget it.
CU2moro.

L: Ok. CU2moro. I’ll pick you
up.

C: K

Tomorrow was another day and I was
going to start fresh. Right then, I decided I wasn’t going to take
Carl’s crap anymore.

Chapter
5

I looked in the
mirror at my reflection. I was wearing a pair of ‘boyfriend’ jeans
that were loose everywhere, and they hung on my hips. If I were to
wear a normal T-shirt, or a vest top, I would show skin.

So I did.

I tried on one of the vests, that
my Mom had bought for my birthday just before the start of the
school year. They were fitted and showed my full chest and my slim
waist.

I looked ok I guess, if I were
comfortable, but I wasn’t. Too much attention would be drawn to
places I wasn’t confident in showing. My lower stomach & hip
bones peeking out the bottom, and my chest was hugged
tightly.

I took it off and replaced it with
my black Batman T-shirt. I covered the essentials, and I felt
better.

I applied a thin coat of mascara
and tied my hair into a mid ponytail. A little higher than usual,
and more girly than I had worn it in the past.

“
Logan’s here!” My Mom shouted, so
I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs.

Logan was in the hallway, and he
looked as though he was blushing nervously as I jogged down the
stairs to meet him.

“
Are you ok?” I asked as I
approached him.

“
Um…” He cleared his throat. “Yeah,
I’m fine.” He couldn’t keep eye contact with me, and I wondered
why.

I heard a laugh from the living
room, and I turned to see my Dad leaning against the door frame,
chuckling.

“
What’s going on?” I asked,
confused.

”
Nothing, sweetheart.” My Dad
chuckled again and turned back into the room. I watched him go
in.

“
Ready?” Logan asked, seemingly
back to normal.

“
Yeah.”

We got into his car and a thought
occurred to me…

After the race, Logan looked uneasy
when my Dad was there, and just now too.

“
Is something going on?” I asked
him.

“
Like what?”

I told Logan about what I’d
witnessed. He blushed again.

“
No. Your Dad just makes me uneasy
sometimes.” He laughed, nervously.

“
Huh.” I said, narrowing my
eyes.

I didn’t believe him, but I didn’t
want to push him, either.

“
Are you getting Bren’s groceries
today?” He asked, changing the subject.

One of my neighbors, Bren Wicks,
was an old lady and she couldn’t get by on her own very much. So,
when her care giver came over to look after her, I went grocery
shopping for her. I liked to help. She was always sweet to me
growing up.

“
Yeah. I need to pick up her meds
too.”

“
Cool.”

I knew what that meant. He was
coming with me, as usual, and I loved that he did.

On the way to school, I wanted to
ask what had happened after I’d left his house, but I really didn’t
want to know the things Carl, or Matt, had said about
me.

Instead, we just talked about what
we were doing that weekend because we weren’t going to the junior
prom. We decided on a movie, at my house, Chinese takeaway, and
cards. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing with Logan when we
were alone, but I accepted that
that
wasn’t going to
happen.

We got into school with Lex and
Pike meeting us at the door.

“
Hey dudes!” Pike
smiled.

Let it go, Chase!
I thought to myself.

“
Hey guys.” We both
said.

“
So, what’s up?” Pike asked as we
walked towards our classes.

“
Nothing.” Logan answered
him.