You Scared?

Chapter 9: That Way.

*Rory's POV*

I woke up the next day and felt sick. Wiping my eyes, I commanded myself not to think about last night. I sat up, all the other sleeping bags were packed so I guessed they were just waiting for me to get up. I slowly stepped out of the warmth, wrapping up my sleeping bag and shoving it into my backpack.

I really thought Chase had changed. I really hoped that Chase changed I told myself. Clearly my hoping was going no where. 

I walked down the stairs to see everyone there, talking. About last night and what happened? Probably.

"Alright lets go." I said leading the way out the door. Rachel and Andrew stayed a little behind while Chase caught up to my fast pace.

"I-" 

I held my hand up, telling him to stop talking. "I don't want to hear it."

"But-"

"Nope, shut up, Just keep walking, I really don't want to listen to you right now."

"Rory-"

I stopped walking and turned to face him, "Don't test me Chase." 

Turning on my heel, I quickened my pace and walked right out of town. 

 I guess that was pretty mean of me but I wasn't exactly in the mood to listen to his lame excuse about how he does care for me but not in THAT WAY. I didn't want to hear that he could never love me and I definitely didn't want to hear his rejection. It would probably start out like "Oh, Rory" I faked his voice out loud, 

"How could you think that someone like me could EVER love you," Kicking the dirt on the road I continued my rant. "It was just supposed to be a one time thing."

I picked up a rock off the ground and tossed it from hand to hand, "You know? Like a silly tally by my bed post. The old Hump and dump."

 I made a sour face. "It was never going to turn into something..." I tightened my hold on the poor rock.

"How could you be so foolish Rory?" I threw the rock, quite hard actually, into one of the signs. It fell off it's post and tumbled to the ground. I walked over to the fallen sign.

Reading it, I smiled. Finally, some good news.

"10 miles guys." I yelled to the others.

They were trailing quite a far away back. 

Grumbling, Andrew pouted, "Can we stop for a rest?"

"Nuhuh, we want to get to the next town by sunset."

They all said curses and I just laughed at their grumpy tones. Some people need to get into shape. I could give Rachel points though since she was keeping up just fine with the guys and she had a twisted ankle.

It took about another hour to get to the outskirts of the town, and I had broken 3 signs so far. We got there right before sunset so we were looking at good places to stay the night.

"How about we walk father into town and a tall building so maybe we could pinpoint where a mall is?" 

"Yeah, but malls aren't normally taller then any other buildings or look any different from the top. So I don't think it matters much for the height of our camping place."

"Guys," I held up my hand to stop their arguing, "lets just find a house that can look in all directions so we can keep it safe if we are attacked and can escape easily if worst comes to worst." 

They all nodded and I pointed to a house that was right off a fork in the road.

The house was a little tougher to break into which was fine, good actually. There were 4 rooms that had a window that faced one specific direction. Everyone picked one and settled into it before we met in the kitchen to find food.

Chase picked North, Rachel wanted west and I preferred south, leaving Andrew with east.  No one wanted east since the most clear window pointing that way was the living room. It was the least secure and also if there was an attack then the living room person would most definitely be eaten first. 

"Alright, what do we have?" Rachel said looking at all the food we found.

Chase had found 3 cans of peaches, twizzlers, and some skittles. Andrew had found 8 bottles of clean water, Rachel found absolutely nothing.. and we all had laughed at her since she looked so down because that's just what friends do.... I had found the most, which included Peanut butter, crackers, cereal, and 1 red powerade.

"The powerade will be split between us and we can eat a little bit of the peanut butter and crackers. We need to save the water." Andrew said leaning on the counter.

We all nodded and packed up the rest of the food we would save. Sitting in the living room, we all ate in silence.

"You know what I miss?" Rachel asked randomly, "Toilet paper."

We all laughed. "Really?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, I really miss toilet paper, I haven't been able to use it in forever."

"Eww that's so gross." I said, making a disgusted face.

She snorted and her food got everywhere. "No, no, no, I use other stuff other then toilet paper, no drip dry."

We all busted out laughing.  

"I miss gamming." Chase said leaning his head back on the couch 

"Me two bro, me two." Andrew said nodding his head.

"I miss only having to worry about what I was going to wear tomorrow, not if I would get eaten alive and turned into, one of those things." I shivered.

"Me two bro, me two." Andrew replied sadly. 

We all stayed silent again before Rachel stood, dusting her hands off on her pants. "Alright, I'm heading to bed. Night guys." 

We waved her off and sat there in silence again. 

"I should sleep as well, Night Andrew and Chase." 

Andrew nodded at me and Chase looked surprised. Maybe since I did include him this time. Whatever, I really didn't want to have to ignore him. 

Walking out of the room and into the hallway, I knew someone was behind me. Stopping and having my back facing the person, I sighed. "Chase I really don't want to talk about it."

"Alright, then just listen. I was scared, I've never got close to anyone and that scared me."

Taking a deep breath, I turned to face him. He was avoiding eye contact and shuffling from foot to foot.

 "It, was a stupid thing to say but I didn't know how to react. I've never have been in a relationship where I honestly cared about the other person, I'm really sorry, you mean a lot more to me then a friend." He said finally looking at me straight on.

I was silent, thinking it over for a second.  

"I think we shouldn't be anything more then friends, clearly this relationship is difficult on both of us and will end up with one of us hurt. It's just, a lot easier on both us if we just....stay, friends." I said, proud that my voice didn't shake or tremble.

He was silent, really silent. At one moment I thought he wasn't breathing until he nodded. "Ok." his voice was so quiet that I wasn't sure that I even heard it. 

"Uhh, night Rory." Turning around quite fast he hurried to his room and slammed the door.

I took a deep breath and walked to my room, scolding myself, I sat on the bed.

Rory, what the fuck have you done?

Protecting myself, I remembered. 

Making sure I wasn't going to be hurt.