Chase

The week went by surprisingly fast. It was just a blur of kissing Taylor, laughing with Camila and trying to convince Leonardo and Camila to go on a double date with Taylor and me. In all honesty, I didn't want to go out with them. It was already hard enough to convince myself that everything I was feeling was for Taylor and not my best friend, but the task was proving to be more difficult than I expected and seeing her with another guy would not help my situation. I knew it was unfair what I was doing, but every time I thought about it I found myself not caring as much as I should.

My mom had successfully convinced Principal Sullivan and Camila's parents of letting her come home with us on Saturday. It was a little hard to convince her dad since he had his mind made up about me, but in the end he caved. As soon as Mr. and Mrs. Smoke had taken away Camila's punishment and spoken to Sullivan they all came to an agreement, she could come with us and be back at school by nine. It was the perfect plan, it was everything Camila and I had planned since freshman year.

When my mom arrived I wasn't sure who was more excited, her or Camila. They acted like they were lifelong friends even though they'd met only once before. The whole way to the car they spoke and laughed about God knows what. Now more than ever I wished having guy friends.

Usually I was used to silent car rides with my mom; it was not like there was much to talk about when our lives sucked. But for some reason that time my mom wasn't as quiet as she usually was and she even turned the radio on.

"Oh Mrs. Harding, could you please turn the volume up?" My mom smiled and did as she was told. I was surprised to hear the song on the radio since it was so old, but what surprised me even more was to hear my mom singing along to Cake By The Ocean.

"Mom? You know this song?" I frowned. It wasn't like her to like music like that. She laughed and nodded.

"I listened to it the other day at the grocery store. Very nice song."

Once upon a time my mom was a music teacher. She and my uncle Aaron met and became good friends, bonding over their love for music. Later on, he introduced her to my ass of a dad. She kept teaching music for a few more years until yours truly was born and she decided to become a stay-at-home mom. I basically ruined her life by taking away her passion, but watching her sing along to a pop song on the radio was enough to make me feel happy again, as if there was nothing wrong with us.

The three of us sang the song until it ended, but when it did there was no time to be disappointed. Mom was pulling over in front of an ice cream shop. A frown took over my face, never in a million years would I have guessed to stop there. Ice cream was forbidden at home because "no one in the Harding family will be remembered as a fat ass". It was a stupid rule, but as everything else in my life it was controlled by my dad and what he said stayed.

Mom unlocked the car and gave me some money. "Buy me a vanilla milkshake and you two buy whatever you want. Bring me the change back, okay? I'll be in the pizzeria. You both want pepperoni?" We nodded and I got out of the car with Camila following. We walked in silence to the store.

"Hey! Are you okay? You've been very quiet." I nodded and went over the different flavors of ice cream in the menu. "See? That's what I mean. Why won't you talk to me?"

I turned around to face Camila. She had a look of concern on her face that I had nearly forgotten she had. I sighed as a sign of giving in. "Yeah, I'm okay. It's just weird that she's like this. Usually she's really quiet and follows the rules. I haven't eaten ice cream in ten years and suddenly she stops to buy ice cream? I don't know, it seems sketchy."

She shook her head and raised her shoulders. "Maybe she's just happy to see you. Don't think too much about it. Be happy instead! Now, about the ice cream..."

We bought the ice creams and headed back into the car like to find my mom singing once again to the radio. This time, instead of frowning and wondering what happened to my mom, I smiled at the sight of her and handed her the milkshake which she gladly took.

The rest of the ride was as fun as in the beginning and to top it all off my dad wasn't home which meant we could put music and eat the things we bought. I don't remember a time that I was happier.

But my happiness was short lived when Camila excused herself to go to the bathroom and I was left alone with my mother who had no idea that I had a girlfriend. "You should ask her out," she blurted out of nowhere.

I stared at her in surprise, not knowing what I could respond. "What? She's a good girl and she seems to like you."

"Mom..." I started. "No, sorry. I mean, once upon a time I would've liked going out with her, but not right now. And besides, she has a boyfriend and I have a girlfriend. She's also my best friend, I can't."

She eyed me and a small smile spread on her lips. "A simple "I don't like her like that" would've been enough, you know? And since when do you have a girlfriend, mister? Why did I not know about this?"

A nervous laugh escaped my mouth. Perhaps I'd underestimated the power of being a mother. I told her about Taylor until Camila came from the bathroom. She then helped me tell the story of how we ended up together saying that "it was so cute" that I wrote her a song.

When we were done my mom seemed like we hadn't said anything at all. She just took a sip of her coffee and said, "Chase, honey, why don't you show Camila that playground you love so much? The one you go to every time he..." She didn't have to finish the phrase, I knew which one it was. My thinking place, I went there always after a beating.

I led Camila to the park through the long way, she had about another hour or so until she had to leave and I wanted to spend every minute I could with her. I'm a bad boyfriend, I know, but in my defense I hadn't spent time with her as a best friend.

We walked to my favorite part of it all – the swings. Camila smirked as I said, "I'll race you."

The thing about Camila is that not only is she an amazing artist and has great working brain; she's also amazing at everything that involves physical activity. I, on the other hand, am not. She was the first one to arrive and she stood there like a hero while I didn't even have a breath to spare. I put my hands on my knees and breathed in heavily.

"How are you not tired?" She laughed and got on the swing.

"Because I do exercise once in a while. Don't be such a baby and get on the swing!" I gave her my famous baby glare and stood up.

Silence took over the whole park. Surprisingly there were no more kids in the park; it was just the two of us swinging in silence. We had a silent game of who went higher. We were tied for most of the game, so Camila became bored. She threw herself off the swing, but she flew with way too much force and fell on her back, hitting her face as well. I did my best to stop my swing with the cast still on my foot. I ran up to her as fast as I could and kneeled next to her.

"Are you okay? Did you hit anything?"

She rolled her eyes and said, "Besides the floor? I hit my face and every single thing on the back side of my body. But nothing hurts, don't worry."

For a moment my overprotective instinct took over. I checked her to see if she was okay, but the only thing she had was a scratch. I put my thumb over the small scratch and for a moment I forgot about everything. At the moment not only did my overprotective instinct take control but my guy instinct too. Without a single thought I started to lean in.