Choices

Part 3: Always Know When to Walk Away

Across town, Chelsea quickly exits her house. No one is there, and she knows why. They are at the church, finishing wedding details, and she is already late. When she awoke in Bryce's arms, for a split second she debated on staying there, but then she realized she didn't want that. She quickly left, headed back to her house, and changed clothes, so the other girls wouldn't know she had stayed the night with him. She knows they would blow the situation out of proportion, even though nothing happened.

A few minutes later, she is walking in the church doors. She instantly spots Lucas, the groom and soon to be husband of her best friend. He waves at her, and she sluggishly walks over to him. "Someone is late this morning. I thought you declared you would be the first here?" His eyebrows are raised, like a protective older brother, but also with that orneriness of a big brother as well.

Chelsea sends him a mock glare. "My alarm didn't go off. Sorry I am late." They both laugh and he seems to let the excuse stand, for now. "Where are they?" She asks. He points lightly to an open door down the hall. "Thanks, Lucas." She calls while running off toward the door, sending a wave of her hand behind her. She likes Lucas, more than the other husbands of her friends. Ronnie chases his dreams, which she admires, and Sean isn't afraid to go after what he wants, but Lucas is there for Kristine. Katarina moved to live with Sean in Chicago, and Cheyenne moved in with Ronnie in Wyoming, but Lucas came here, to live with Kristine. Chelsea likes that about him. She never knows what to expect from him either. Ronnie and Sean are predictable, and follow the rules, but not Lucas. She can see why Kristine fell for the blonde-hair, blue-eyed, pretty, British boy.

Chelsea takes a deep breath before entering the room. She hopes and prays that her friends won't mention the date. She can't lie to them, and she knows they won't stop until they know everything. "Well look who decided to show up!" Cheyenne's voice calls as Chelsea enters the room.

"Sorry I am late. Alarm didn't go off." Chelsea replies back, starting to work on a project.

"You expect me to believe that?" Katarina questions, wiggling her eyebrows.

Chelsea shrugs. "Believe what you will. I am stating the truth." They didn't ask where she had been when the alarm went off, so technically it isn't a lie.

"The date must have gone well." Kristine giggles, as she finishes trying a ribbon on a balloon. Chelsea mentally groans. She hoped and prayed but she knew better than to think they wouldn't ask. They always do.

"What makes you say that?" Chelsea gives her friend a curious and innocent look anyway, though she knows exactly what she is talking about.

Kristine points to her phone, lying on the table across the room, which vibrates, signaling she has gotten a text. "Because Bryce doesn't text, and he has been blowing up my phone for the last thirty minutes, asking where you are."

Surprised by her friend's words, Chelsea accidently lets a balloon go and she reaches out to grab it, but it was no use. It is long gone. "What did you tell him?" She tries not to show how much this affects her, but she knows she was losing.

"Nothing yet, I haven't had a chance." Kristine teases, trying another ribbon, and letting the balloon roll across the table. Right at that moment, Kristine's phone starts ringing. She leaps for the phone and grabs it before I can. "Oh look who it is!" She calls, after reading the caller-id.

"No, please." Chelsea is going to tell her friend not to answer it, but it is too late.

"Good morning, Bryce." Kristine chirps into the phone, while sending a wink at Chelsea. She can hear him, but doesn't know what he is saying. She holds her breath. "Why, yes. She just arrived a few minutes ago. Would you like to stop by to say hello?" She asks. Meanwhile, Chelsea is using her hands to say no, as if she is flagging a plane. Kristine's face falls, and she glances away from Chelsea. He doesn't want to come. "Oh, well that is too bad. Yes she made it here alright." Kristine sends a glance Chelsea's way, and she knows her friend knows what happened. Kristine sends her a glare. "I guess I will see you then tonight. Goodbye Bryce." She hangs up her phone and suddenly drops it on the table. "You little liar." She scolds Chelsea in a bridezilla sort of way.

"What?" Chelsea questions while glancing at the other two women who are more than zoned in to this drama.

"That was Bryce, calling to make sure you made it home okay, after you skipped out on him this morning." Chelsea can tell Kristine is beyond ticked-off. Katarina snorts back a laugh, clamping a hand over her mouth and nudging a jaw-dropped Cheyenne with her elbow multiple times.

Chelsea holds up her hands, whether to block something from being thrown, or to surrender, she isn't sure. "It wasn't like that. It isn't what you think."

"Did you, or did you not, spend the night with Bryce last night?" Kristine asks, taking slow steps in Chelsea's direction, and she hesitates with answering. "Yes or no." Why didn't she just ask if Chelsea slept with Bryce, it would have been easier to answer. She could have said no easily, but by asking if she spent the night with Bryce, that had double meaning.

Technically. "Yes, but..." Chelsea tries to explain, but Kristine goes off on her.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Kristine throws her hands in the air, before pointing a hand at her. "You slept with Bryce."

"Kristine! It wasn't like that. I swear!" Chelsea shouts. She has never shouted at her friends before, and that seems to be enough of a wake-up call, because they flinch away from her in unison, and Kristine stops shouting at her. "I fell asleep. That is it. Nothing, and I do repeat nothing, happened. I was so worn out from work and all the wedding details and the song we were listening to was so slow and quiet, I couldn't help it. I didn't mean to." She knows she is rambling off an explanation but she doesn't care, as long as the right meaning came across to them.

"I see." Kristine starts, more calmly. "Then if nothing happened, why skip out on him this morning, without telling him you were leaving."

Chelsea rubs the back of her neck, which still hurts from the way she had slept against him. She can still feel his body against hers, and it give her goosebumps, and not the good kind. Kristine caught her in this question. "I panicked, okay." She throws up her hands in anger, defeat, and slight humiliation, and sits down in a chair. "I was late getting here, and I knew it, and besides I didn't even want this." She finds herself confessing.

"Want what?" Cheyenne asks, glancing between Kristine and Chelsea as if it is an episode of her favorite night time drama show.

"Him! The date. Dating in general. I didn't want it. I was done! I don't have time for this!" Chelsea's anger and frustration that has been held in all these years is starting to come out. "I regret even going on the date! I regret agreeing to it. I regret going to meet him. I regret everything that happened that night. So, I am sorry, but if you make me talk about it anymore, I will leave, and I won't come back." Her three friends stand there, stunned in silence, not knowing what to say. Chelsea glances at the three of them, before shaking her head in disbelief at what has just happened. "I'm going to go see how the guys are doing." Without even waiting for them to say anything, she leaves, slamming the door behind her. She feels bad for slamming a door in the church, but she feels she won't get her point across if she doesn't. If only her friends would listen to her and trust her to make her own decisions in life, then things might have been different. However, they are to controlling of her life.

After Chelsea leaves, Katarina is the first to speak though their shared shock. "Something must have happened."

"I agree." Cheyenne admits, biting on her thumb in nerves and confusion. "Chelsea is the most romantic one of us all. She wouldn't just give up. Something definitely happened." She agrees.

"You are right." Kristine nods, agreeing with both of them. "And I know just who to confront about it."