26. A Roll in the Sand

It was going to be the classiest catfight of the century: a volleyball showdown of death. Krislynn gripped the ball in her hands and dug her fingers into the white sphere with determination. For an instant, her gaze met LaCienega’s, and the rest of the world faded into whiteness as the two shared a moment of understanding – this was war – and one of them was not going to come out alive at the other end.

Her breath accelerating, her blood rushing, her heartbeat racing, and her skin slowly perspiring under the Californian sun, Krislynn threw the ball high in the air and spiked it over the net in LaCienega’s direction. This wasn’t just about being attacked by her anymore. This was about Jace. Damn that lucky freaking girl for having him! She was definitely going to get an ugly taste of her own medicine!

Except... life rarely works out the way you want it to and instead of standing over LaCienega’s body with her foot pushing her face into the sand, Krislynn only suffered more injuries from an enraged LaCienega. As much as she hated to admit it, LaCienega moved like an angel even during rough play. Every movement of her body was graceful, her face filled with delicate elegance, and the entirety of her anger channelled completely through the path of the ball. The only thing that would ever give her away was the small bit of emotion in her eyes – set out to destroy.

Dropping to the ground for the second time, Krislynn pounded her fists into the warm sand as she felt both frustration and the pain of the last strike, a direct hit to the stomach, charging up to her nerve endings and making her feel nauseous and dizzy all over. “Why is life so unfair?!” She whimpered as Michelle dashed over to hush her.

“I don’t think you should be worried about it being fair at the moment,” she muttered as she knelt down beside her and frowned. Her eyebrows creased in concern before she waved to Seth in the distance with her hands in a ‘come here’ gesture. “You should take a break,” she whispered. “Make sure your organs aren’t bleeding.”

Krislynn looked up, about to protest. She wasn’t satisfied! She was used to her own fiery, short-fused temper causing all sorts of problems, but it always worked miracles during competitions. If she couldn’t skate before she was angry, she could skate after. If she couldn’t jump that high before, she could jump inhumanly high after. Her anger worked like a rocket booster, but no matter what she did, it seemed like LaCienega was just slightly out of reach.

“Are you okay?” Jace shouted from across the net as Seth and Pete quickly jogged over. “Maybe you should take a break for now.”

In the end, despite multiple objections, Krislynn was sent off court and found herself wandering back to Chase while Michelle stayed to cheer for Seth and Pete in a new match. She passed through the crowds of people scattered around the beach and found Chase sitting on a lounge chair where Michelle and the others must have previously set up their stuff.

Chase of course, during the four minutes that Seth and Pete had left him alone, had already found a new friend, and she was blatantly giggling with him as she sat on top of his lap in the skimpiest yellow bikini. Krislynn’s jaw dropped at the sight. There she was getting beaten up by LaCienega and here he was whoring himself out when he, as her boyfriend, should have came to her rescue. How utterly typical of him!

“So your name’s Olivia, huh?” He was saying to the blonde sitting on his leg with her back facing Krislynn. “I’ve always wanted to date a girl named Olivia.”

She giggled as Krislynn inwardly puked. “Oh have you?”

Chase smirked openly at her, still ignorant of Krislynn’s nearby presence. “It would be such a shame,” he said in a smooth purr, “to pass up on an opportunity like this.”

Before Krislynn could think things through properly, she pinched herself hard on the side of the arm where it was already swollen from the volleyball match, and internally laughed as tears leaked out of her eyes from the pain. “Chaaaaaase!!!!” She cried and immediately fell down beside his chair when she reached him, clutching onto his leg as if her life depended on it. “Please don’t leave me and the kids!!! We need you! Please don’t do this to us!!!”

She looked up through her tearstained eyes and met a noticeably distraught Chase with eyeballs edging out of their sockets. His jaw hung low and he stared speechlessly at her as the blonde quickly got off his lap. “Eww...” She sneered. “You have kids?”

Chase turned his head away from Krislynn and just stared at the blonde for a moment before his ability to speak finally came back to him. “N– No!” He screamed. His eyes switched to Krislynn and glared at her. “No!!! I don’t have kids! I don’t have– Just what the hell are you playing at, you stupid pig?!”

The blonde didn’t seem convinced. “I can’t believe you have kids,” she shouted.

“I don’t!” He retorted, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Are you deaf? I just said–”

“I’ll do anything if you don’t leave,” Krislynn cried, rubbing her face on his leg so her mascara would run a little. Thank God she had decided to put a bit of makeup on today for the sake of seeing Jace – who knew it would end up being so useful? “Please don’t go! What is Lil’ Johnny going to do without his father figure? And what about Lil’ Suzy and Lil’ Tim? And the triplets, Chase! What are they going to do?! Think of the children!!!”

The blonde’s face morphed into a look of absolute horror. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “Just how many kids do you guys have?!”

“Ten!” Krislynn burst out. “We started early!”

“Ten?!” Chase screamed. “We’ve got ten?!”

“That’s why you can’t leave us,” she sobbed.

“Seriously?” The blonde cried. “Ten?! That’s more than Angelina!!!”

In a swift movement, the blonde spun around and walked away without any explanation – though the reason she left was more than obvious to both Chase and Krislynn. “Ten?” He kept asking once the blonde left. “TEN?!?!” The angry expression left his face after a second as his entire face darkened and his eyes lit up with sadistic intentions. The corner of his mouth tilted into a demonic smirk and Krislynn knew he was going to get her back for what she just did.

“Wha– What do you want?” She murmured, quickly jumping to her feet and stumbling back as he followed her with outstretched arms like a deadbeat zombie. His smile widened, showing his pearly whites, and it reminded Krislynn of a man trapping a wild animal. Unfortunately, she happened to be his animal.

Carefully wiping the tears off her cheeks, she grinned nervously at him as he spoke. “Ten, huh?” He said raising one eyebrow in mischief. “We should really get started on that then, eh?”

“It was– It was a jok–” But before she could finish her excuse, his arms launched forward and Krislynn let out a playful scream as she tried to make a run for it. Unfortunately, it was already too late, and Chase’s body had flung itself against her, his arms latched around her waist as the both of them tumbled onto the soft sand below.

Krislynn really wasn’t sure what Chase was trying to do to her. He half tried to tickle her, half tried to pin her hands to her side, but nonetheless she played along and rolled around in the sand with him before finally wrestling him down. She sat triumphantly on top of him as Chase laid in amusement beneath her.  “It’s not my fault,” she declared in a matter of fact tone. “You totally deserved that little prank.”

“And how so?” His body stayed motionless, unmotivated in removing her from his body.  

“Well not mentioning that last bit with the Malibu Barbie there–”

Chase coughed and interrupted her ranting. “Actually, Olivia there, happened to be a lawyer. Harvard graduate too.”

“Seriously?” She shrieked. “How the hell does that work?”

Chase laughed and offered a lousy shrug. “Money. A ton of blow jobs. It’s not impossible.”

Krislynn shook her head and led the conversation back on topic. “Did you see me out there?” She growled, waving her arm carelessly in the direction of the volleyball court.

“Of course,” he replied, his silver-like eyes glittering. “Pete and I were betting money on the game. Trust me, I was paying attention.”

“So you saw me get murdered out there and didn’t even try to do anything about it?” She grunted. “Thanks a lot!” Chase answered her remark with a simple shrug and Krislynn, dissatisfied with what happened, gave out a long, drawn-out sigh. “Well, at least you lost a whole bunch of money. How much did you guys bet?”

Chase, apparently, found her comment extremely entertaining and burst out into laughter when she finished. “Are you kidding me?” He exclaimed. “I won five hundred bucks! Pete’s the loser here.”

Krislynn’s throat tightened. “Wait. You went ahead and bet against me?! I’m supposed to be your girlfriend!”

“And LaCienega was supposedly the captain of the varsity volleyball team throughout university. Of course, I would bet against you. Don’t be silly Piggy.” His arm stretched out in a lazy attempt to ruffle her hair, but Krislynn promptly pushed it away.

“So you knew I was going to get KO’d,” she shouted, “and you still let her trample me?”

“Well... yeah... But I didn’t really know she was out to get you.”

“Well, you’re not that dumb. Anyone could have figured that out after the first quarter of the game.”

Chase’s reply was hesitant and his eyes evaded her gaze. “Yeah... Well... I guess.”

“And so, knowing that, you still didn’t attempt to rescue me.” Krislynn narrowed her eyes and watched Chase shift nervously as she cornered him with her words. He nodded after a moment – once. “Jackass! Do you know how much it hurts to get a volleyball going whatever miles per hour flying straight into your face?”

“You seem fine to me,” he said, lifting up an eyebrow in criticism.

“Well I’m not fine,” she snapped. “My body’s sore all over!”

Chase stayed quiet for a moment before directing his gaze at her, the intensity of stare and the suddenness of it, sending electrical volts throughout Krislynn’s body. Her back straightened in alarm. She hadn’t expected that, or put into a better way, she hadn’t expected him of all people to make her feel that – though lately, and especially after spending last night with him, she wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. “Well, what do you want me to do about it?” He asked.

“D– Do what about what?” She managed in subtle disarray.

Slowly, he pressed both his elbows down on the sand and raised his upper body by a few inches. “About your body,” he replied, his eyes still locked onto hers in that same serious, passionate gaze. “And how it’s sore all over.”

Feeling her cheeks heating up in flames, Krislynn bit her lower lip and pulled her eyes away from the intoxication of his gaze. In a feeble attempt, she tried desperately to steer the conversation back on topic. “Well, I wouldn’t be sore if you had stopped the match because you knew there was no way I’d be able to land a single hit on LaCienega,” she grumbled. “Why didn’t you stop it?”

He shrugged and again, shifted his eyes away before meeting hers once more in a flirtatious manner. “You know,” he suddenly cooed, “this is my favourite position.”

Krislynn stared at him in confusion and when he winked at her, she looked down and realized she had been straddling him this entire time, and in a very suggestive pose, with her chest arched and the palm of her hands placed neatly over his well defined pecs. Embarrassed, she let out a soft squeal before scrambling off of him in disgust.

Chase didn’t miss a beat, and jumped to his feet when she got off. Krislynn sat on the sand and watched him walk back toward his lounge chair without a care in the world. “So,” she pressed. “Why didn’t save me? Why didn’t you stop–”

Her words were quickly cut off by an irritated tone. “Stop what?” Chase suddenly grunted angrily. He turned around just enough for her to see the darkness that had abruptly shadowed his face. “Stop the two of you guys from fighting over Jace?” He let out a small snort of bitterness before settling down on the chair. “Sort of out of my jurisdiction, don’t you think?”

“Well I...” Her words trailed off inelegantly and Krislynn let out a deep sigh. He was mad. He hadn’t really been showing it, but he was mad, and it was partially her fault. That didn’t came as a surprise to her, but what did was how heavy her heart felt inside her chest – like it had gained a twenty pound tumour.

The most shocking part though, wasn’t even that. The most bizarre part was that she felt guilty. Pity she could understand, but guilt? It wasn’t like she wasn’t allowed to have a crush on Jace. Chase’s rule had only been that she wasn’t allowed to throw herself at Jace, and she certainly hadn’t done that, so why did she feel guilty about it?

“You know, for a moment there I actually thought you guys were fighting over me,” Chase said, his lips curved in a faint smile. “But then Pete had to go and be an ass and point out things that I didn’t notice.”

“Look, you’re not Jace, but after getting to know you, you’re not–”

“Save it. I don’t really care.”

But he did care, and Krislynn knew it, but she also realized her words weren’t the ones that mattered to him the most, and after that delicate recognition, her heart only grew double in weight. Silently, she watched his wounded expression as he stared quietly into the distance, and for the first time since meeting him and coming up with the replacement girlfriend mess, she realized that it might not have been that great of an idea.