Unmasked At Midnight

chapter eight

"Friends are the best remedy for all your troubles."

I stand in front of the bathroom mirror cleaning myself up. My makeup is smeared, but is fixable. I take in a few shaky breaths, and paint a smile on my face.

If you can't trick yourself, why do you think you can trick others?

My visage falls, but I walk out the bathroom anyways. Jules and the guys are probably wondering where I went off too, and I don't want them to have to search for me. Heading towards the stairs, I hear someone calling my name. I turn and Chase is there, football costume and all.

"Hey, Liz."

Wait, how does he know my name? Oh, right. Truth or Dare. Damn you, Amanda.

"Uh, hi Chase."

"Look, it's about the-"

"The kiss doesn't mean anything to you, does it?" I cut him off.

He stares at me quizzically before waiting for me to specify.

"Right," he says tongue tucked in his cheek.

"I'm sorry if it did for you, but I don't do relationships-" He puts a finger to my lips.

"I don't need an explanation, Liz. I was actually going to ask if you're all okay after the incident with Andrews. I didn't ask properly, just took you to the basement to chill."

"Oh. Oh. I'm all good now, thanks for asking though." I offer a small smile, despite my embarrassment.

"Yeah." He looks as if he wants to say something else, but he doesn't.

Chase is hard to face when he could be Charming. I need to leave. This air is toxifying.

"Well, I'm going to get going. Thanks for helping me again, Quarterback. I'll see you next week," I wave and walk to the front door.

"See you next week," his words are almost inaudible due to the discordance surrounding us.

Without a second glance, I sprint towards the door, holding in tears once again due to the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and accountability.

🎭🎭🎭

I wake up Sunday morning and find that I can barely open my eyes. After my encounter with Chase, I booked it back home and sulked until I fell asleep, not bothering to tell my friends I had left. I spent the night wallowing in my own sadness and liability.

I hate myself for being so selfish, for avoiding my feelings and playing Charming. Despite knowing I would end it at the final party, I keep leading him on, giving him and myself false hope.

He's nothing more to you than a rebound.

No, that's not true. My feelings for him are undeniable at this point.

It doesn't matter, Liz. Despite your so-called "feelings", he's your rebound and he'll never be anything more than that. Do you even see Charming? Or do you see him?

Shut up.

Shut up.

Just leave me alone.

I roll over, groaning. My hair's an absolute nightmare, and I'm probably breaking out because I didn't remove my makeup properly last night.

Suddenly, my dad knocks on the door, making me jump. "Liz, are you up?"

"Y-yeah," I croak, cringing at how dry my throat feels.

"Okay, make sure you come down for lunch soon."