Dreaming Big

Chapter 8: Hockey

A/N JUST A WARNING THAT THERE WILL BE SOME SWEARING FROM THIS POINT ON...ALRIGHT CARRY ON. ;)

Charlotte's P.O.V.

To say I felt bad about almost killing Chase was an understatement. I felt absolutely horrible. To make it worse, I couldn't stop apologizing, to a guy that I wasn't even sure I liked. I forced him to let me check him for injuries. I thought he had only had a few bumps and bruises...until he tried to stand up.

"OUCH!" Chase shouted and fell ungracefully onto his butt. "What's wrong?" I asked calmly, bending down to be eye level with him. I faintly see a sheen of sweat across his forehead, and his face looked paler in the darkness. "My ankle," He grunted out in pain. Sitting down, I gently put a hand to his right ankle. My hand had barley brushed his skin and he gave a howl of pain.

"It seems like's it's dislocated. I'll have to pop it back into place," I told him. His face whitened even more. I felt even worse for having to cause him more pain. "It's going to hurt...a lot." He nodded at my words and dug his fingers into the grass, preparing himself. "Alright, on the count of three," I told him, putting my hands over his leg.

"One," And I snapped it back into place. He screamed and pain and brought his leg to cradle into his chest. "What happened to two and three?" He snapped at me. I looked blankly at him. "I don't do two and three." He rolled his eyes and snorted at me. No matter how horrible I felt about all of this, I still wasn't going to take any crap from him. "I could've left it like that," I snarled back at him, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Fine. What do you want me to say? Thank you? Yeah thanks a lot for almost drowning me," He said, quite rudely. Just like that, I was back to hating him. "If you weren't being such a jerk, I wouldn't have left you in the first place!" I shouted, getting to my feet. "Well if you would learn how to take a joke, you would see I wasn't actually being mean!" He rose unsteadily to his feet. I noticed just how much taller than me he was.

I sputtered for a good few seconds in pure fury, before turning around and marching off into the night. "I don't have to put up with this!" I shouted back at him. Yet, he started following after me. No matter how mad we were with each other, I had a feeling that we wouldn't leave each other. I stomped a good few feet ahead of him for a while until I had blew off enough steam, then paused so he could walk beside me.

"Now what?" He asked, our argument already forgotten. At least we had one thing in common with each other; we weren't the kind of people to stay mad very long. "I guess we should try to make camp for the night," I sighed. We walked along in silence for a long moment, he was still limping from his leg. "So...I suppose we should try to get to know each other a bit, since it seems like we'll be with each other for a while," Chase said quickly. I snuck a glance sideways at him. He was looking straight ahead, clearly not wanting to make eye-contact with me.

"Alright....do you do any sports?" I asked, a bit awkwardly. "Hockey and lacrosse," he answered back at once. I was so surprised that I almost ran into a tree. "Really? You play hockey?" I asked in utter disbelief. "Yeah, why?" he asked, giving me a funny look. I shrugged, trying to gain my cool back. "No reason," I tried to sound nonchalant, but on the inside I was dying. I loved hockey. I had more jerseys than I could count, looked for any opportunity to go to any kind of game-professional or not-and prided myself in being able to swear like a hockey player at times. For the last few years, I had even flat out refused to date anyone who wasn't a hockey player...which was probably the reason I had never had a boyfriend.

Well, shit. This just got complicated.

"What about you?" Chase asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Oh, a little bit of everything. Soccer, basketball, softball, even horseback riding for a while. But swimming's always been my favorite," I replied, glad to hear that my voice was steady. "Cool," But I got the feeling he didn't really care. we walked along in an awkward silence, me still trying to grasp the fact that he played hockey. Flat out not paying attention, I didn't even notice the tent until I tripped over one of the ropes holding it up.

Chase caught me around the elbow. "Thanks," I gasped. He just nodded. No sound came from the tent, so I obviously hadn't woken anyone up. "Who do you think..." Chase trailed off. We shared one long look, before he pulled the opened tent door back. I blinked a few times, not really believing I was seeing my sister curled up-asleep-in some random guy's arms.

"What the hell?"