Only The Goode Spy Forever

Chapter 77: The Argument

("Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against the other, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." -Colossians 3:13)

  Chase Goode sat in his covert operations class utterly bored. His grandfather was a fantastic teacher, but Chase had already had the same lesson. Solomon was talking about weapons, and how if you need one it's probably too late. Chase noticed that Bree wasn't paying attention. She seemed occupied with something else. Chase thought that she might have been reading.
  "Hey, Gallagher Girl," he whispered. She faced him. "You okay? You've been acting... strange lately." She shrugged.
  "I'm alright," she said. Chase nodded and slumped his shoulders. Things had been getting good between them. Now things were all different again. Solomon asked Bree what weapon she wanted to get good at.
  "Oh, I'd rather not use one," she said. Chase cocked an eyebrow. "What?" He eyed her carefully.
  "Don't you think that you should get good with one? Especially after what happened in Boston," he explained. Bree's mouth dropped and her eyes widened.
  "Wait, what are you talking about?" Nina asked. The girls were silent and stared at Bree and Chase.
  "Nothing," Bree said. She cut her eyes at Chase. "It was nothing." Chase frowned.
  "Bree you could have gotten killed," Chase reminded her. The Gallagher Girls in the room looked shocked. Chase sighed and looked at Chase with a pained look. It looked like she had no trust left for him. It hurt Chase to see her like that.
  When class was dismissed Bree raced out of the room. Gallagher Girls passed her whispering to each other and giving her strange looks. Bree looked down. She looked like she was getting ready to cry. She moved to run away, but Chase grabbed her arm.
  "Bree," he said as he turned her to face him. He grabbed her hands. "What's wrong?" Bree glared at him.
  "What's wrong?" She snapped. "Why did you do that, Chase? Why would you tell them?"
  "Why didn't you?" Chase asked as he raised his eyebrows. Bree groaned.
  "Because of that! They looked at me like I was different than them!" She exclaimed. She ripped her hands out of Chase's.
  "You are different," Chase said as he grabbed her hands again.
  "Why did you do that? You have no problem telling them all of my secrets, but you won't tell them yours!" Bree snapped. "Go ahead and tell them that I'm being hunted. It's not even your business anyways! Why don't you tell them what you are? Tell them you're a little assassin in training!" Chase felt like he had been slapped a crossed the face.
  "I'm not lying to anyone I care about," he snapped. "You preach about honesty, yet you're the one that's always lying. I'm not the one lying to a sisterhood!" Bree's eyes welled up with tears.
  "I did it because I've always felt like an outsider. I feel like I don't belong," she replied.
  "You're a honeypot! You're not supposed to belong! People are supposed to like the way you look, they're not supposed to like you!" He shouted. A tear fell down Bree's face and Chase desperately wanted to wipe it off. He felt terrible. He had gone too far.
  "Is that why you like me?" She whispered. "Maybe you couldn't ever tell me you loved me because it wasn't me that you loved. You only loved the way I look."
  "Gallagher Girl-" Chase began. Bree shook her head.
  "You know I don't have a place here! I'm not the best in my class. I don't have friends in my class. I don't have a family to lean back on like you. I don't know who I'm supposed to be. Excuse me for trying to belong. I finally thought I was. Now I'm an outsider again. Thank you, Chase," Bree cried.
  Chase looked at her with pain in his eyes. He reached out to wipe her tear, but she pulled away from him. She opened her mouth and looked like she was going to say something else. She must have changed her mind, because she ran the other way in tears. Chase slumped against the wall. His grandpa Solomon came out of the room and set a hand on his shoulder.
  "I messed up," Chase said. "I lost the only girl I've ever wanted." Solomon shook his head.
  "If she's the right girl then she'll come back," he replied. Chase locked eyes with his grandfather.
  "Did my dad ever do something stupid to my mom? Did they ever fight?" Chase asked.
  "All the time," Solomon said with a chuckle. "Arguing was what they did best. I always admired them. Despite all the things they disagreed on they always had one thing in common: the fact that they loved each other deeply. You've got something special, Chase. Don't let that go to waste."
  Chase nodded. "I won't."
* * *
It had been a week. Bree ignored Chase. Their fight had ripped a hole between them. Bree had been eating her meals in her room with Morgan. The girls were worried about her. Chase was worried about her.
Chase agreed to follow the girls to Bree's room after dinner on a particular night. He was stunned to see a black woman pinned against the wall making out with a man that looked like the hulk.
"Mom? Dad!" Adalind and Amelia cried. Rebecca and Grant looked up and winked at their daughters.
"Uh oh, we've been caught," Grant said playfully. The girls ran and hugged their parents.
"Auntie Bex!" Diana and Anna exclaimed. They ran to Bex and she hugged them.
"You girls need to stop getting so bloody big. Why couldn't you have just stayed babies forever?" Bex asked. Grant punched Chase in the arm.
"Well well well, if it isn't mini Zach," he said with a grin. He and Chase fist bumped. "How's my son?"
"Last I was there he was excelling in his classes. He takes things too far. He's a real charmer," Chase replied. Grant laughed and turned back to making out with his wife.
"That's so disrespectful of them. Making out in a school!" A woman exclaimed from behind them.
"Now Cammie, we all know that you and Zach constantly made out in the hallways and in passageways. Don't act so innocent," another woman said. Diana jumped and ran to hug her mother as Chase and Anna went to their parents.
"It was never my fault. Gallagher Girl always threw herself at me," Zach teased as he hugged his daughter.
"What is going on here?" Caroline asked.
Liz joined the group and smiled. "We're going to reminisce!"