Chase

"You're really cute when you sleep."

What?

Panic coursed through my veins. My eyes opened in shock to realize that it was the sun was still down. I also realized that the voice was not a dream, or a random girl who find me when I snuck out (though I had absolutely no memory if it).

The events of last night came back to me as if I were watching a movie. It was only then that I remembered what I had done. I'd fallen asleep with Camila, alone, outside and with her in my arms. We'd broken at least three rules just by sneaking out. Or, she had. In my defense, you don't just put windows that are too easy to open and a guard who's too lazy to stay awake. You also don't put windows on first floor dorms if you don't want them to run away.

Suddenly my mind worked out the words that she'd said and a deep blush crept into my cheeks. Thankfully, it was still too dark to see.

"Did we fall asleep together?" She nodded.

"Apparently, but on the bright side, I didn't get any nightmares. Maybe talking to you helped me." She squeezed my hand, unaware of the electricity that she had caused to bolt from my fingers to my brain.

I smiled at her, not being able to shake the feeling that something was wrong. Something besides falling asleep with a girl I had no chance with, whatsoever.

"That's good to know. I'm glad I'm the person that helped you get a good night's sleep for at least a day. Now, I think we should leave. We're going to get in big trouble if someone catches us."

I looked at her, expecting her to answer, but she didn't. Instead, she stayed quiet and I could see a little bit of sadness creeping its way around her eyes. I wanted to ask her, but I knew it had been too much just telling me about her dream the night before.

"I think we should do something fun. My mom told me you could come to my house this weekend. My dad will probably still be in the hospital, don't worry. You'd think that after his last intoxication he'd learn something, but oh well. So, what do you say? We haven't had fun in a while?"

She laughed and then put her hand on her mouth to shut herself up. "We? Please, I laugh every time I look at your face. The only one who needs fun here is you." She started standing and put her hand out for me to reach.

"Ha ha. Very funny. You crack me up. So, will you go?""

She smiled and nodded. "Of course. Bye Chase, I'll see you at breakfast."

We went our separate ways in silence, not daring to make a single sound. I don't know about her, but I was even trying hard not to breathe.

I tried opening my bedroom window, but it was stuck. I cursed under my breath and desperately tapped on the window. I could hear footprints coming closer with each tap and none of my dorm mates opened the damn window.

Will, probably my only "friend" besides Camila and Taylor, finally opened the window. "What took you so long?"

He rolled his eyes and said, "Next time I can just leave you here to rot, or better yet I can leave you to save your own ass. The guard was just here asking if someone was missing, I had to tell him you were sick in the bathroom."

He took my crutches and helped me in. "Thanks, man." Will patted my back and we closed the window together.

"Anytime. What were you doing outside so early anyway? It's not even six and it's not like you can go on a run in that state."

I laughed and took off my shirt to change it. Sleeping outside on the floor can leave quite a mess on your clothes. "Breaking my own heart."

He laughed and shook his head. I'd never told him, but he was very much aware of me liking Camila. He said it was obvious to everyone except her, but I knew he just said it to piss me off.

"You were out with her? Hm, who would've thought? Did you see the Top 3 list yesterday? You and her were in it, maybe now you have a chance with her."

I shot him my famous "baby glare" and threw myself on the bed. "Wait, I was in it? Seriously?"

He nodded. "Who else?"

Will sighed and fished his phone from under his bed where he was charging it. "From the guys it's you, Leo and some junior called Jeremy. And from the girls it's Smoke, Rachel Brown and Taylor Wilson."

"Taylor? The sophomore?"

For some reason Will decided this was the perfect time to crack up and wake Arnold, our roommate, up.

"Huh?" The guy wasn't even completely woken up, so we did the natural thing. Both of us threw a pillow at him. "Go back to sleep, little boy. I'm laughing at Chase."

Arnold went back to sleep, filling the entire room with his amusing snoring. They sounded like a piece of scrap metal was stuck on a truck.

"Why did you laugh? What's so funny?"

He stopped laughing and raised an eyebrow at me. "You don't see it, do you?" I shook my head. It was too early to understand pointless laughs.

"Since I'm a love expert and such a nice person..."

"A humble one, too."

"Shut up. As I was saying, I'll give you my free services."

"That sounds so disgusting, no thanks." He threw me a pillow, but I dodged it and I once again landed on Arnold.

"If you don't let me talk, I'll leave you in the dark. Now, may I speak?"

I nodded and tried to contain my laugh. I made a gesture with my hand to signal him to keep talking. "Please continue, Mr. Love Expert."

Something funny about Will is that he never seems to be able to control his middle finger from coming out at people who sometimes didn't deserve it, and this was no exception.

"Anyways. What I was saying before you interrupted me with your dirty joke is that, at least from my point of view, you have a lot of hormones."

"Oh wow, you don't say."

"What I mean is, I think you like Camila and Taylor."

This time I was the one who laughed like a moron, woke Arnold up and got hit with three pillows.

"Dude, I think you should consider another career besides love consulting. I don't like Taylor. She's nice and pretty good looking, but I don't like her. Not like that anyway."

Will grabbed his towel and headed to the bathroom. "You don't feel anything for her? Not even a tiny crush?"

My mind pondered over the question. I kept repeating the question over and over in my head. Was it possible that I liked her? No, I liked Camila definitely not Taylor. She was my friend and yeah I had been really weird about getting her number. But I didn't think that I actually liked her, maybe I just liked the thought of having more opportunities with her than with my actual crush.

I shook my head and checked my phone for messages, which of course I did not have.

"Sure. Nice song by the way, the one you wrote yesterday. I especially like the part about the 'blue eyed angel'. You know what's funny? Camila has brown eyes."

With that, he got inside the bathroom. I knew that a few things I felt for Taylor had slipped during my writing session, but I didn't think they were that big or obvious. I also had forgotten to hide the song like I did with most of the things that I write. I must have left on my bed, no wonder he read it. 

An hour later I was having breakfast in the cafeteria with Taylor. Neither of us had any idea what had happened with Camila. She wasn't answering calls, texts and she wasn't at her dorm when Taylor went to look for her in the morning. It's like she disappeared in a matter of hours.

"I heard you're in Valery's band. How is it?" she asked, with curiosity clear in her face.

"It's pretty cool. I mean, the only practice I've been to was great. I wrote a song." For some reason, this made her really excited.

"Really? What's it about?" At the moment, I didn't want to talk at all. I was worried sick that something had happened to Camila, and that it was all my fault for telling her to sneak out with me. But honestly, Taylor's eyes made me want to melt into a puddle. Yes, I liked Camila, but I was pretty sure I was falling for the small girl sitting in front of me.

"It's about a girl." My face flushed and I was instantly filled with regret and embarrassment.

She propped her chin on her hand and leaned forward slightly. Something about the smirk on her lips told me she knew the answer, or at least she thought she did.

"Oh? About who?"

I decided to use something Will had sort of taught me last year called 'flirting'. I'd honestly never tried flirting with anyone because my heart belonged to Camila and only her, but there's a first time for everything.

"Wouldn't you like to know? I guess you'll need to go to the concert and see for yourself."

Abruptly her face changed. She was no longer the confident sophomore flirting with a senior, now she looked like a twelve year old whose crush just called her pretty.

"If I go, will I see you afterwards?" The hope in her voice was unexpectedly noticeable. I wanted to play hard to get, just like Will had taught me, but when a girl like Taylor is looking at you with those eyes you don't play with her. At least, that's what my mom used to tell me when I was younger.

"I won't make any promises, but I'll try."

The smile on her face became wide and it made warmth travel through my whole body. Maybe the love expert was right.

Taylor opened her mouth to say something when Principal Sullivan appeared behind her. Nerves made their way through my whole body.

"Mr. Harding, may I please speak to you in private?"

I nodded quickly, afraid I'd do something wrong. "Yes, of course Mrs. Sullivan. Taylor, could you leave my tray where it goes, please?"

She nodded and gave me a comforting smile. "Yeah."

She stood up and whispered in my ear before I left. "Good luck."

•°•°•°•°•

Principal Sullivan's office was nice. It had white walls with multiple art projects from a few students hanging on them. Behind her, the best drawing I'd ever made was perfectly placed on the wall. It was an abstract landscape I'd drawn last year.

"Mrs. Sullivan, is there any particular reason why you called me here?"

Her face was kind of difficult to read. I guess it's the kind of face that teachers and important people at schools practice for when they have to tell the parents that their children failed a class.

"Yes, there is and it's something that concerns me very much. Would you like to explain to me why you were outside of your room after curfew with your fellow classmate, Camila Smoke?"

Crap.

I know I'm supposed to ship Camila and Chase, but I just love Chase with Taylor so much😭

I'm weird, I know. Hehe.

I never thought I'd say this when I literally started writing this two weeks ago but we're at 75 reads, what the frick! Thanks to the, like, two people who read❤