You were laying across the bed and thinking long and hard about Josh. You tried to ask the real question… if you didn’t care as much about being popular would you feel different? You couldn’t bring yourself to face the thoughts that came with that question so you jumped up and ran downstairs.
You: “I’m going for a drive, I’ll be back in a bit.”
Mads: “Can I come wi-”
You were already out the door and starting your car before she could finish. You tried to tell yourself that you just wanted to go for a late drive with the windows down to clear your head but before you could think twice about where you were headed you found yourself in the Starbucks parking lot.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
You watched him for a minute through the glass from your car. He was working with a young girl about your age and you wondered if she went to your school too and you were just too stuck up to notice. You hung your head in shame and contemplated heading home, but you heard the door to the coffee shop open. You looked up just in time to see the young girl jogging over to her car across the lot.
Chase looked at you and tilted his head in confusion. There was no escaping now. He’d definitely seen you stalking him from the parking lot. He waved you over and without hesitation, you hopped out and followed him back inside.
You: “If you’re closing, I can come back. I guess I was just craving a late night coffee.”
Chase: *locking door* “Nah, I close alone most nights. No one will know if you wanna keep me company while I clean up.”
You: “To be honest, I could use the company too.”
Chase slid your favorite coffee drink across the counter and it made a warmth spread out from your heart that he remembered something so small. He started wiping the counters while you worked up the nerve to apologize for how you acted at school earlier: “Chase… I’m sorry for what happened in the hall. I don’t know what I was thinking-”
Chase: “Hey, it’s cool. I know your friends give anyone a hard time for straying from the pack. I get it.”
You got reached across and put your hand on his to stop him from scrubbing in hopes that he’d really hear you: “No. Don’t do that. Don’t let me off the hook. It wasn’t okay. Let me make it up to you.”
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He didn’t pull his hand away and you couldn’t bring yourself to either. You sat there hand on his as he tried to find words that wouldn’t ruin the moment. Suddenly he tossed the rag at you and said with a laugh: “Fine, wanna make it up to me? Help me clean.”
You spent the next hour laughing harder than you ever had while helping Chase clean up the store for the night. You were in denial about any feelings you were catching, but they were there regardless. All you knew is you didn’t want the night to end yet: “You have to let me make up to you- well- everything.”
Chase: “You already did. You helped me clean and your boyfriend more than paid for the wallet thing.”
You stepped between him and the register he was reaching to shut down and found yourself inches from his face: “I mean it.”
Chase: “I promise we are okay.”
You knew you shouldn’t be putting yourself in the position to be so close to a boy who wasn’t Josh but you couldn’t help it. Chase stood with his lips, eyes, hands just inches away from yours all being magnetically drawn closer to you. Suddenly reality hit you and you scrambled to slide out from where you were pinned.
When you got home the lights were all out so you hurried to your room as quiet as you could be. As you passed your parents room, you saw your Mom’s face wide awake in the flickering light of the TV: “You are awfully late don’t you think?”
You: “I’m only 5 minutes late for curfew, please don’t make it a thing. I promise it won’t happen again.”
Mom: “Okay sweetie. Straight to bed thought, okay?”
You nodded and hurried to your room, changed to pajamas and crawled into bed. You couldn’t sleep so you started scrolling through tiktok. You decided to scroll through your fyp until you got tired and decided after a few videos to search Chase’s name to see if he had an account. You found him right away. He had a few thousand followers and dozens of videos. You watched them each one by one not realizing you were drifting off to sleep.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
