Trust

✍ Concepts

A/N WARNIG! THERE'S A TFIOS SPOILER IN THIS CHAPTER :)

Also, thank you to everyone who's reading this story! I love writing and your votes and comments always go a long way to encouraging me to keep on doing what I love. If you do like this chapter, go ahead and hit the 'vote' button and/or comment!

Percy

*****

The next time I saw Chase was at lunchtime on Monday.

March had fallen ill on the weekend with strep throat and I was left in school without my best friend. When the bell rang, I had two choices- sit with Russell and a bunch of people I didn't particularly fancy or sit by myself. I chose the latter.

Solidarity didn't scare me. In a school as prestigious as Parkford Grammar, students were usually from powerful families and I didn't fit in with the crowd. March's father was the deputy District Attorney (DA) and it was rumoured that he was going to take the top job as the next DA by next fall. Russell's mother was the ambassador for our country to England and spent most of her time in the land of the poms. Russell himself flew over once in awhile to see his mother and twice, his parents had sponsored for March to go with him.

Over time, I'd learned to blend in among these people- kids who were children of the big shots in the world and who both expected and were expected to be big shots later on in their lives. Their attitude, their way of speaking, their way of looking at the world- I would never be one of them, but I had grown to know how to pretend that I was.

Today, I didn't feel like pretending. I was tired. I was tired of acting and having to play the role everyone wanted me to be- a good daughter, a caring sister, a perfect student. I felt like I was fighting, but the problem was that I wasn't even sure who I was fighting. Maybe the greatest enemy of all was myself.

I found a quiet spot in the corner of the cafeteria that wasn't as noisy as the rest of the spaces, and opened my history book. I was in the midst of reading The Gettysburg Address when someone said, "You never called me."

I didn't look up from my page though my eyes had already lost interest in the words. "I didn't know you were waiting for my call."

"I wasn't." Chase slid into the seat opposite me. I looked up. His eye was still swollen shut and the bruises had become purplish-black. Still, despite all that, he managed to look, well, handsome.

"Nice look," I said, "Really brings out the colour of your eyes, aids in your bad-boy persona."

A dark eyebrow rose up his forehead. "Bad-boy?"

"Gossip, rumours, nothing important," I said dismissively.

Chase looked amused. "Why are you by yourself?"

"I'm not by myself. There are about three hundred other students here." I gestured to all the other tables in the cafeteria currently occupied by other people.

"Cute," Chase said, "but you know what I mean."

I didn't say anything as I closed my history book. I picked out an apple from my bag and rubbed its skin against my shirt.

"What do you want, Chase?" I bit into the apple.

"I wanted to talk about the project. I read The Fault in Our Stars again yesterday."

"You did?"

"Yeah," Chase said. "There's a whole lot of okays in that book."

That made me laugh and Chase smiled. I noticed then what his real smile looked like. His whole face would smile, not just his lips. Every part of his face would pull upwards in the most spectacular display of smiling.