All that I Want

Literal Hell

The past two weeks of school has been hell without Chase. We haven't had much time to talk since our schedules don't line up as much as we'd like. He's in Miami now, meaning he's three hours ahead of me, so while I'm at school he's exploring the city, and when I'm home he's either rehearsing or getting ready for his concert to start.
My bracelet lights up blue and vibrates, and I quickly touch it to let him know I'm thinking about him, too. That seemed to be our main interaction, anymore. I can't exactly blame him, though. He's living his dream, and I'm not going to stop him.
Charli struts over to my lunch table with a wicked grin on her face as she fakes a trip and dumps her strawberry milkshake all over me, soaking my hair and one of Chase's hoodies.
"Oh my god, I so didn't see you there," she fakes sympathy and her girl crew laughs with her. "It's too bad your boyfriend," she puts air quotes around the word, "isn't here to protect you, huh? At least it tastes like strawberry ice cream." She shrugs before walking away, laughing with her friends.
I wipe the strawberry milkshake out of my eyes as I struggle to run across the cafeteria into the bathroom, where I find Gwen.
"Oh my god, who did this to you?" She says as soon as I walk in.
"Charli," I struggle to not cry as I gather as many paper towels as I can and start wiping my hair and face off. "She's been out to get me since Chase and I started fake dating and she finally has her chance." My bottom lip quivers as I eye my very pink reflection in the mirror.
I sigh and meet Gwen's eyes in the mirror, "I can't do this anymore."
"Come on, let's go to the office and I'll drive you home," she says as she finishes wiping the sticky milkshake off of my face and walking out with me to the office.
Without much of an explanation, the office lets me out for the rest of the day and allows Gwen to give me a ride home, as long as she goes right back to school afterward.
"Are you sure about driving me? I don't want to get strawberry milkshake all over your interior," I say.
She waves me off, "I'm sure, don't worry about it."
As soon as we get into her car I say, "thank you."

***

I'm able to hold myself together until I get up to my room and burst out crying. The first thing I do without thinking is FaceTime Chase.
"Hey," he answers almost immediately, "aren't you supposed to be at school?" He looks up and takes in my appearance, "oh my god, what happened? Are you okay??"
"Charli happened," I said through a sob. "She's been out to get me ever since we started fake dating and this time she finally had a chance and dumped an entire strawberry milkshake on me in front of the entire cafeteria!" I try to catch my breath, but the sobs make it nearly impossible to breathe.
"I'm going to come home, I need to be there with you," he says in a rush.
"No," I say and forcefully shake my head. "It's less than a week, I just- I just needed to hear your voice and see your face. It's hard not being with you."
His eyes soften and I can tell he really wants to be here for me, but he also really wants to finish his mini tour. "I know, it's been hard on me, too. It might not seem like it, but it is. The only thing that's keeping me going right now is knowing I'll be holding you in my arms in less than a week time."
I nod, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you, you don't need the extra stress while you're..." I can't finish the sentence.
"No," he shakes his head, "I'm glad you called me, please don't ever hesitate to call. I love you."
I nod again, "I love you too. I'm gonna let you go."
I hang up before he can say anything else because I know I'm seconds away from begging him to come home.