The Debt 10 (Club Alpha) (8 page)

That was a little unnerving, however,
because Jena loved gossip and was somehow a natural at getting people to talk
and spill their guts, even though the entire town knew she couldn’t keep a
secret to save her life.

Faith sighed deeply as she got up and
went to the bathroom to shower and get ready.

This
is good
, she told
herself.
 
This is fun.
 
You need to
spend time with friends and take your mind off Chase Winters.

But Faith also knew that going and
spending time with her two close friends at the neighborhood sports bar wasn’t
going to completely take her mind off of him.
 
Quite the opposite, in fact.

Face
it.
 
You want to think about him,
you need to be exposed to him one way or another.
 
And this is just the quickest, easiest
way to feed your Chase Winters addiction
.

She told herself it wasn’t that
simple.
 
Stepping into the shower,
as the hot water spilled onto her head and shoulders, she thought about the
fact that Haley had been the one to invite her out and suggest that bar.

You
could have named a different place and Haley would’ve gone.
 
She didn’t care what bar you went to.
 
But you wanted to go there!
 
You can’t stand being away from him, and
you know it.
 

No.
 
She was going to stay strong, at all costs.

Determined, Faith finished her shower,
got out and started readying herself for the night out with her friends.

She decided to really get dressed up, to
wear her best outfit and look good.
 
Who knew?
 
Maybe she’d meet a
cute guy, somebody normal and nice that wouldn’t try and play with her mind.

As she thought of this faint possibility,
Faith’s heart sank.

She knew, even as she tried to tell
herself otherwise, that the idea of a nice and normal guy didn’t really stir
her emotions anymore.

You
don’t want nice.
 
You want bad.
 
You want dark.
 
You want dirty.

You
want two words—Chase Winters.

***

By the time Faith pulled up outside the
bar, the entire lot was crowded with cars.
 
She sat in her car and stared at the all-too-familiar building.

Many familiar faces would likely be
inside—not just Haley and Jena, but other guys and girls who she’d grown
up with.
 
Lots of whom she probably
didn’t even like very much.

Yet, at the same time, there was
something comforting about being back in Newburg, amidst the familiar,
especially after the head-spinning week she’d just experienced.

Faith got out of her car and slowly
approached the front entrance, and as the door opened, the sounds of raucous
laughter and music spilled outside.
 
She peered in as two people walked past her, arguing about something to
do with a babysitter that needed firing.

Inside the bar, she could see plenty of
people drinking, talking, and watching the television screens above.

Faith already spotted a familiar face
over by one of the pool tables.
 
It
was Haley’s brother, Todd, who was a big New England Nationals fan.
 
He usually went to three or four games a
season, which was saying a lot, considering he had to beg, borrow and steal to
do it.

I
wonder what Todd would think if he knew about me and Chase…

Probably
he’d just want me to ask if Chase would give him a free ticket or two.

That made her smile, and seemed to give
her enough courage to go inside, finally.
 
Once inside, she heard her name being called loudly, over and over
again, by a pair of familiar voices, and saw Jena and Haley sitting in a booth
down the other end of the room.

They were sitting alone, thankfully,
although their table wasn’t very far away from Todd, who was shooting pool with
a few of his friends that Faith knew by sight more than by name.

She walked self-consciously, sensing some
of the stares that accompanied her hips swaying in her tight skirt.
 
Her legs felt cold from the fall air
outside, and she aware of just how much skin she was showing off.
 
Not to mention, the plunging neckline of
her sweater.
 

But after a beer or two, the
self-consciousness would be gone and she’d be enjoying some laughs with her two
friends.

At least, that was the plan.

“Hey hottie,” Jena said, her eyes
mischievous and wide as Faith sat down next to Haley, giving her a hug and a
quick peck on the cheek.

“Hey,” Faith said, grabbing a plastic cup
and the pitcher that was sitting on the table, and immediately pouring herself
a full drink.

“Wow, someone’s in a hurry,” Jena
laughed.
 
“Are you on a
schedule?
 
Is this some kind of beer
challenge you signed up for?”

“Just thirsty,” Faith said, as she took
her first sip.
 
Already, she’d
spotted two large posters featuring Chase Winters by the bar.
 
And a few people hanging out, wearing
his jersey with his name in big letters on the back.

“So good to see you,” Haley smiled.
 
“We missed you around here.”

Jena’s eyes narrowed.
 
“Yeah, why’ve you been avoiding us?”

“I haven’t.
 
You know, work’s just been so busy…”

“Don’t let her give you a hard time,”
Haley said.
 
“We’re happy for you
that you’re in Boston living the high life.”

“Hardly.
 
I’m just a temp.
 
Or—well—I was a temp.”

“You get shit-canned?” Jena asked, using
her index finger to smudge the liquid on the table that was left over from the
cups of beer.

“Sort of,” Faith said, “but then they
hired me back and promoted me.”

“Ooooh, sounds juicy,” Jena said, looking
up with that smile that let you know she’d locked her jaws on a tasty morsel of
gossip.

“It wasn’t really,” Faith lied, drinking
more beer and hoping the damn butterflies in her stomach would subside.

Haley turned to her.
 
“Is that you buzzing?” she said.
 
“Or is it me?”

“What buzzing?” Faith asked.

Haley pulled out her cell phone and
looked at it.
 
“Must be yours,” she
said.

And then Faith heard it and realized
someone had called or texted her a few times.
 
She felt her purse rumbling and opened
it, pulling out her cell and quickly checking it to see who had been contacting
her.

“What’s wrong?” Haley asked, seeing
Faith’s eyes grow wide with shock.

“Huh?” Faith said, looking up as she
stuffed her cell back into her purse, as if to banish it from existence.

There had been a missed call and then a
text from Chase.

“I’m fine.
 
Everything’s fine,” Faith said aloud.

Jena was watching her.
 
“You don’t look fine.
 
You look cray cray, honey.”

“Don’t be mean, Jena,” Haley said.

“It’s fine,” Faith repeated, and then
downed the rest of her drink.
 
“I
just…I need to use the ladies room.”
 
She stood up, wobbling for a moment, and then headed towards the
restrooms.

She heard Jena laughing behind her, as
she went past the pool tables, and suddenly her hand was grabbed by none other
than Todd—Haley’s sports loving brother.

“Hey, Faithy!” he yelled.
 
“Long time, baby!”

“Oh, hi, Todd,” she smiled, trying to
pull away from him.
 
“I’ll be back
in a second.”

He held her wrist firmly with one hand,
his other holding the pool stick like a staff as he peered into her eyes.
 
“You drunk or high or what?”

“None.
 
Neither.
 
I’m just tired.
 
Long week.”
 
She laughed, and then finally yanked her
arm free.

“We got to catch up, you and me,” Todd
said, winking.
 
“You’re getting
hotter and hotter every damn time I see you.”

“Please,” she rolled her eyes, backing
away.

“Don’t tell Haley I said that, now!” he
yelled as she began running towards the restrooms.
 
Her heart was pounding furiously in her
chest.

Why
didn’t you block Chase’s cell number?
 
You should delete his text now without even reading it.

As she slammed her palm against the door
to the bathroom, flinging it open and rushing into a stall, Faith was already
digging into her purse to pull her cell phone out once more.
 
She wasn’t going to delete his text
without reading it first.

She was slightly buzzed from the beer,
and she was so weak.
 
Days had gone
by without any contact, and Faith knew that her resolve had finally
snapped.
 

And so she stood inside the grubby stall
and read Chase’s text message, her hands shaking with excitement and
nervousness.

There were two missed calls and then one
brief message from him.

I
need to see you.

Faith tried to calm down.
 
She was trying to decide what to write
back, and how much to let down her guard.

You
can’t let down your guard at all
,
she thought.
 
This is the time you need to be even more firm, and hold your ground.

Finally, she wrote something back that
was equally brief.

You
betrayed me,
she wrote,
and then hit send.

It was the truth, and if it made him
angry—if it made him run away—then so be it.
 
Faith wasn’t going to just let this
slide, let the whole Club Alpha thing go by the wayside as if it didn’t mean
anything.
 

And then her phone was ringing and she
saw that he was calling her already.

“Shit,” she whispered.

Her mind told her not to answer.
 
Make
him wait.
 
Get your head together
and call him back tomorrow, when you’re sober.

But she couldn’t do it—she couldn’t
resist the thought of his voice in her ear, and so without even quite realizing
it, Faith answered the phone.
 
“Hi,”
she said softly.

“I need to see you,” Chase told her.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“Because,” she sighed.
 
“I don’t think we’re very good for each
other.”

“We’re very good for each other,” he
growled.
 
“And you know it.”

Faith hated him for saying that, and for
the fact that his words made her heart sing and her stomach dance with happy
butterflies.
 
“You’re not an honest
person,” she said, despite the desire she had to just give in and tell him that
she wanted to meet up right away.

“I know I screwed up,” he said.
 
“But I want a chance to make it
right.
 
I’m going to see you
tonight, Faith.
 
I’m not taking no
for an answer.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Do you really want me to go away and
leave you alone?”

There was a long silence as she pondered
what to say next.
 
“I don’t think I
can forgive you for what you did.
 
I
don’t think I could ever trust you.”

“That’s not an answer,” he replied.
 
“Tell me you don’t want to see me right
now.
 
That would be a lie, Faith.”

“It doesn’t matter what I want.
 
What matters is that you’re dangerous,
and I need to protect myself.”

“I don’t want you protecting yourself,”
he said.
 
“I want that job, Faith.”

His words struck her to her very
core.
 
She wanted it to be true so
badly, and it felt so good to hear him say it, and yet Faith knew it was just
another manipulative tactic.
 

“I can’t do this,” she said, and it
physically hurt to say it.
 

“Why not?” he asked, and now she could
hear the emotion in his voice, and the frustration, too.
 
“Why can’t you do it?”