Of Hotshots and High School

Chapter 7

Chase's POV

As I pulled up in front of Adelaide's house I took a deep breath. I checked myself in the rear-view mirror one last time. Adelaide was particularly picky about my appearance for dates. My hair looked good, and I thought I'd pulled off the "classy but casual" (Adelaide's words, not mine) look pretty well. I wore a nice pair of dark jeans and grey Nike polo that Adelaide said "brings out your eyes, and makes your muscles pop." I, on the other hand, chose it because it was comfy and meant I didn't have to wear a tie. Adelaide insisted on collars, but there was no way she could make me wear a tie to the movie theatre.

I shut off my truck's engine and walked up to her house. It was massive. Beautiful, but massive nonetheless. The walkway up to her house was at least fifty yards and lined with immaculately trimmed shrubs and flowers. They had a hired landscaper whose only work was to keep their yard perfect. Obviously he did a great job, but if you ask me that's to be expected when one has eight hours every day to work on it. I shook my head at that thought and knocked on Adelaide's imposing door. It was solid oak, hand crafted, and the workmanship was beautiful. With all of my interest in wood working it was something that I couldn't help but appreciate. After all, I'd spent plenty of time waiting for Adelaide on that doorstep to have had more than enough time to study it.

After I'd been waiting for a few minutes Adelaide finally opened the door. She was beautiful, of course. Her hair was curled, her makeup accenting her blue eyes to perfection. I smiled. Adelaide was right. This date was exactly what we needed to keep our relationship strong. She took my arm and we walked to the car, slowly enough so that she wouldn't trip in her ridiculously tall heels. I mentally rolled my eyes at that. Honestly, I'd never understand the thing about girls and heels. Adelaide even named hers. One day when I'd been pretty spaced out she'd been talking about "Stiletto," and it had taken me forever to realize she'd been talking about her shoes. But hey, they made her happy, so who was I to judge? Just like me and my soccer cleats, right? But no one had to know that I affectionately called them Joey and Leo when I was alone.

Adelaide's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Soooo," she drawled, turning in her seat to look at me as I drove. "I was thinking that we could watch the new Nicholas Sparks movie!" Of course. I stared straight at the road in front of me. So much for my hopes of watching an action movie for once. "I was talking to Daisy about it the other day and she said that it was soooo good!" I took my eyes of the road for a minute to look at her. Her eyes were shining, almost as bright as they used to be. She looked so excited. So I yielded. As always.

"Sounds good to me," I said nonchalantly, turning into the parking lot. I willed my words to be true. Oh well. Even if I hated the movie - and I knew from the reviews that at the least I wouldn't enjoy it - I could at least get some quality relaxation time just sitting in the dark. For a couple hours. In seats that were too soft. Listening to sniffles of all the "touched" women around me. With Adelaide squeezing my arm to death at all of the "scary" parts. Yeah. So I probably wasn't going to like it even a little bit. But Adelaide would love it enough for the both of us, so hopefully that'd be enough for me. I told myself that it would. Adelaide's happy squeal yanked me out of my melancholy.

"Thank you Chase!" I put my truck into park as Adelaide threw her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek. I smiled. Even though Adelaide was typically a bit cold and stand-offish, there were times when she could be just so cute that it'd make me remember what she'd been like growing up. I lived a block away from her and was always like a big brother to her even though I was only six moths older. When she was five and I was six she'd always played being a princess and I was the prince. Or the knight. Or the dragon. As we'd gotten older we'd hung out less and less, but Adelaide had always been there for me when I needed something to do in the summers or someone to get advice about girls. Even though she was always trying to flirt with me and it was obvious she liked me, I hadn't been interested. Not then. She was too much like a sister to me.

It was during those summer walks last year that I'd decided that maybe it was okay to like her. I mean, it wasn't as if she was really my sister, and we'd been getting so much pressure at the end of sophomore year by my friends as well as Adelaide's to be a couple.  We looked great together. Somewhere along the way as she grew up she'd gone from cute to beautiful. And she listened to me in a way that no one ever had for me before. She kept me from being lonely when I was missing my mom or my dad was away on business. And after what happened with my mom... he was always away on business. She'd been my only real friend and she knew more about me than anybody else did. So I'd asked Adelaide to be my girlfriend and she'd been thrilled. The first month had been great. We'd spent a lot of time together, just talking and watching movies.

As junior year started we'd spent less and less time together. We'd been officially together for about five months. Now we typically saw each other only at lunch. Even then all we did was sit by each other while she talked to her girlfriends about fashion and I talked with my soccer buddies about last week's game. We'd been growing apart, but I didn't want to lose her friendship. Adelaide was my first and longest friend that I'd ever had. I guess that that was the reason that I ignored the advertisements for the new Marvel movie I'd been dying to see and bought two tickets to the new Nicholas Sparks movie that just so happened to have terrible reviews and most critics said it had no plot and was full of mushy gushy nonsense that just felt canned. Yeah. I tried not to be at all bitter about the fact that I'd looked up the review hoping to ease my fears of it being a boring movie and they'd only been multiplied a hundred times. And the reviews for the new Marvel movie were fabulous. I wasn't at all bitter. Not even the tiniest bit. I took a deep breath and made a mental note to quit lying to myself. I would just have to go see the Marvel movie sometime next week.

The smell of popcorn attacked me as we walked into the theatre lobby. My mouth watered. I took Adelaide's arm and pulled her towards the concessions.

"Want anything?" I asked, my eyes already dialed in on the mountain of buttery popcorn. Adelaide pulled away from me a bit and I reluctantly tore my eyes away from salty golden heaven. You can't hate me for loving food. And somehow it always tastes better at the theatre. 

"You know I don't eat buttered popcorn, Chase." She looked surprised that I hadn't remembered. "All that fat is terrible for your body." She scrunched her nose in disgust. Personally, I thought that Adelaide could handle a little more fat in her diet. All she ever ate was salad and vegetables. From the perspective of a guy who loves food, I honestly don't think that a life without pizza and popcorn is a life worth living. But that's just me. "Water's all for me," Adelaide continued, "Why don't you get your stuff and I'll go save our seats. I want to be sure to get the best ones because we are going to love this movie!" She hurried off.

"Am I mistaken, or was she using the royal 'we', Chase?" A familiar voice queried from behind me. I turned to see brown hair and intoxicating green eyes. "Because I really can't see you being much of a Nicholas Sparks lover myself." An eyebrow was raised in challenge and she looked as though she could barely contain a laugh. Rory. Of course.