3 Times The Charm

7.

The next day, I sit down in my seat in 2nd period. 

“Listen, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you need to stay away from Chase. He is MY boyfriend and you keep coming between us.” Yulicia starts yelling at me. 

Chase walks in and sees Yulicia yelling at me. 

“Leave her alone, Yulicia. And for your information, she is my girlfriend. Right Bailey?” Chase gives me a look saying to play along. 

“Ya, of course.” I answer quickly. 

“WHAT?!” Yulicia screams like she just got murdered. 

“Yulicia! Please go down to the principal's office! I can’t have you screaming at other students!” the teacher says. 

Yulicia walks out of the classroom furious. 

“Thanks for saving me.” I laugh. 

“No problem. That’s what friends do right?” Chase smiles at me.

We do our work for a few minutes and Chase sighs and turns back to me. 

“Listen, I can’t keep this from you anymore. I like you.” Chase says. 

“Chase, I think you are a really great guy, but I can’t like you. Not after what happened with me and Jordan. Plus, I know Hailey still likes you and I don’t want to hurt her.” I say sadly.

“I know, but I really like you. You don’t understand how much I have wanted to… It doesn’t matter. I just, I want to be with you” Chase tries to convince me. 

“I think I like you too, but I don’t want to hurt Hailey, and myself.” 

Chase’s face lights up. 

“What if… what if we kept this secret. Like a secret kind of relationship.” Chase suggests. 

“I… I guess that could work.”

“Great! We just need to hang out in secret. We can’t let anyone know about this.” Chase says. 

“Ok.”

We turned back to our work, and I felt guilty for all of this, but I also felt happy. 

After 2nd period we walked to 3rd period. But this time we took a different route so we could talk longer. 

“I think we should hang out today.” Chase suggests. 

“Sure. But how and where?” 

“Hmm…” Chase thinks for a bit. “What if we both say we have to stay after school for an assignment. And when we see your sisters leave, we can go on a walk or hang out here?” 

“That could work. We just can’t be together right after school. We will have to wait for a couple minutes.” 

“Alright. I can’t wait.” Chase smiles and holds me by my waist. 

I feel so guilty still, but I can't help myself from enjoying it. 

When we get close to our 3rd period class, Chase lets go of me and we pretend like nothing happened.

“Hey where were you guys?” Hailey asks. 

“We took a different way today. The usual way we walk was super crowded.” leave it up to Chase to make a great excuse. 

He’s so smart. And cute. And funny. And nice. And did I already say cute? I’m so happy we both like each other so I don’t have to hold myself back from saying all these things about him. 

“Oh, ok. Well let's head inside.” Shailey says. 

We sit down in our seats, but Mr. Rowe walks up to Chase and points to me. 

Uh oh. What if Mr. Rowe knows about me and Chase? What if he’s mad? What if-

All of a sudden, Mr. Rowe and Chase walk up to me and my sisters, but Chase has a huge smile on his face. 

Ok, so this must be good news. Thank goodness. 

“Bailey, Chase is going to be sitting next to you from now on. There were some complications with his old seat.” Chase sat down right next to me, still smiling, and I was so happy. 

“This will make it easier to pass notes.” Chase whispers so that only I can hear him. 

Shailey elbows me and smirks. 

I roll my eyes at her. “You know me and Chase do NOT like each other. I have told you many times I’m not liking anyone after Jordan.” I lie. 

“Righ, right. Sorry.” Shailey fake apologies. 

A few minutes through math and Chase already handed me a folded up note. 

I silently grabbed it and carefully unfolded it 

It was a little heart drawn on it. 

I drew another heart and handed it back to him. 

He opened it up and wrote something. 

It read, “Will you be my girlfriend?”

I wrote yes and handed it back to him. 

After 3rd period we all walked to lunch. 

“Isn’t it so lucky that you sit by all of us now Chase?” Hailey asked. 

“Yep. I don’t know why I moved, but I think It was because the kid I used to sit by hated me or something.” Chase replied. 

“How could anyone hate you?” 

At that moment I realized I messed up with my words. 

I quickly recorrected myself. “I mean, you’re such a good friend.”

“Ya…” Shailey said, as if she knew our dirty little secret.

We sat down at lunch and ate our food. 

“We should all hang out today.” Hailey suggests. 

“I can’t. I have to stay after school to finish some work.” Chase says. 

“That’s so weird because I have to stay after school too!” I act like this was just a coincidence. 

“Oh. Well maybe tomorrow.” Hailey says sadly and I feel more guilty than ever. 

I knew that Hailey still liked Chase. You can’t just get over someone you liked in a day.

I don’t want to hurt my sister, but I really like Chase. I mean we are secretly boyfriend and girlfriend already. 

The rest of the day I was so excited and nervous to hang out with Chase after school. 

It would be so much easier if Shailey and Hailey knew. 

But I don’t want to hurt Hailey. She literally told Chase she liked him yesterday, and I just decide to steal him? Oh no. I sound like Jordans new girlfriend…