Love in Limbo

Chapter Twenty Seven

"How fucking dare you come here" I shout at Chase, who is gloating on Sarah's porch at the fact he has taken advantage of a drunk girl.

He laughs, and I feel rage building inside of me. I push myself up into a standing position, holding onto the porch rail. Blair instinctively goes to hold me and I push her away.

"So now I have kissed the girl of your dreams, uff, those sweet lips of hers, and still you haven't even touched her yet. Have I destroyed your fantasy of her? The perfect good girl that had never even kissed a boy" he asks spitefully.

"You could never" I begin, taking a deep breath and trying to soothe the anger spilling from every pore "you could never come close to destroying my image of her... because Sarah will always be what you are not, and not even a devil like you could taint her. Chase you are a fucking joke of a man."

Chases nostrils flare and his face turns red "and you Cassidy Colonel are a fucking lesbian"  he spits.

"She's actually Bi if you wanna be politically correct" Blair interjects "and even then she wouldn't touch you with a barge pole. Chase it's over...just walk away"

"I cant" he says through gritted teeth. "I love her" he says, changing his face to one of heartache.

"I don't love you Chase" I reply honestly "I don't know if I ever did" I add, hesitantly.

"I swear to god Cass if you keep pushing me away I'm going to do more than kiss that girl. I may go back in there right now and see if she wants to show me her bedroom. How does that make you feel?" He asks venomously.

Blair walks to the front door and places herself in front of it. "Over my dead body" she says angrily.

I look back through the window into the front room, and my eyes find her. She is sat with Maddie, and she is touching Sarah's hair tenderly. It should be me. I should be the one with her. But I was now the only thing that had caused her any danger. She could never be tainted by Chase, never to me, but I was tainted by him. I was the reason he was out to harm her, and that was the reason I had to leave and let Sarah live a life in peace.

"Chase it's time to leave. I'm leaving town tomorrow for the summer too. So guess what?! You've wasted your entire evening trying to make me jealous and mad. Sarah Cooper isn't even on my radar. She was a little distraction when I woke up, but nothing more. I won't even see her again. So take yourself home and forget she exists."

"I saw your phone" he reminds me "I know what you really think of Sarah" he argues frustratedly.

I don't hear the front door open, or see Sarah as she appears from behind Blair.

"Listen to me. I'm not sure how else I can say this...I have zero interest in Sarah Cooper. She is nothing to me. Nothing! I don't fancy her, I don't love her, and I don't even like her that much as a person. Whatever you have told yourself is wrong. She was a distraction. A fun distraction, and that is all. I won't spend another second of my life even thinking about her. But Sarah is Blair's friend, and I need you to leave her alone Chase. Leave her out of this mess or I will call your college in the morning and report your behaviour. I don't think they favour sexual harassment"

"You wouldn't dare" he says in retaliation.

"Try me" I say through gritted teeth.

"Fine" he says turning towards the house "Sarah, I hope you heard all that" he says with a smile, glancing behind Blair with a wicked grin that even I couldn't wipe from his face.

I turn, mouth open in shock to find Sarah like a deer in headlights, a single tear rolling down her cheek. Blair looks at me with a look of absolute anguish as she tries to stop Sarah from pushing the door open behind her.

"Sarah she didn't mean it" she begs, but she pushes Blair aside and disappears inside the house.

"Good thing you didn't really like her, or I bet that would have hurt like a bitch" Chase said cheerily, coming up beside me and watching as I did, as Sarah vanished.

"Pretty sure she liked you though. Poor girl" Chase whispered vindictively "did you see how her heart broke into a million pieces as you thrust that knife in deeper"

Tears filled my eyes, and a rolling nausea began coming in waves. My heart got so quick in its beat, that it sounded like a bird flapping its wings against an object repeatedly. I slid slowly down the porch until I hit the ground, pulling my legs tightly against my body, my black skinny jeans becoming unbearably tight at the knees with the force in which I am clinging to myself.

Blair let's out a whoosh of air and frustration and runs at Chase pushing him hard from the porch, he flies backwards landing on his back on the grass.

"You bitch" he shouts, standing in an aggressive manner and racing back towards her.

Cameron appears just in time to jump between them, and pushes Chase away. They get into a fist fight before Chase finally takes off up the road, with a black eye to remind him in the morning what an absolutely awful human being he is.

"He's such an asshole" Cameron says, stepping back onto the porch and pulling Blair into his arms. She kisses him briefly, then returns to where I am sat, tears falling down my cheeks.

"Cass it will be okay" she whispers whilst rubbing my legs repeatedly, and trying to soothe my racing mind. "She knows that what you said isn't true"

She doesn't though, Sarah believes me and there's nothing I can do to undo what's just been said. The pain in her eyes was something I could have gone a lifetime without seeing. I was a terrible person, and I had brought danger and pain to her door. I had to remove myself and my presence from her life before I made permanent damage. I thought I could do that, to leave and let her live her life. I thought I was new in her life and whatever moment we had shared in the coffee shop, no matter how that had felt, I thought it could have just been fleeting and she would get over it, get over me. I had no idea that the moment meant more than that. It had been a small piece of Sarah that had returned to me, a small piece that would soon become a mosaic of pieces that would be pieced together and reveal the heartbreaking truth.

I had abandoned the love of my life.