27. Alone Together, You & I (Part One)

After several more hours on the beach, Chase found himself sitting at the dinner table in the cozy, little bungalow Seth had rented out for the weekend. It wasn’t nearly late enough for dinner, but Michelle had made plans for everyone to go to Pacific Park, the amusement park out on the Santa Monica pier after the sun sets, and nobody in their right mind would go and challenge her.

Still full from wolfing down a couple hotdogs down at the beach, he sat across from LaCienega with unease and counted down the seconds until dinner was over and they could leave. Not that he needed to hurry out of her sight for the fear of running through another guilt trip – he had long realized she wouldn’t even glance in the direction of where he was sitting. Instead, Chase was more annoyed by the persistent display of affection she had for Jace, all dreadfully playing out right in front of him.

Every time she smiled at something he said, which was always some sort of dorky response to what Pete was raging on about, Chase wanted to roll his eyes. Every time she praised Jace for being intelligently superior and gazed at him like he was God’s greatest creation, he wanted to add in a smartass comment just to make Jace look bad, but bit his tongue and held back. After all, he had known Jace since they were both in diapers. It was hardly difficult to bring up one of Jace’s embarrassing childhood stories and Jace had many of them— even more than the average chubby kid who was always bullied in school.

Chase had no idea how long until his jealousy would get the best of him and in a fit of uncontrolled bitterness, let his tongue slip. All he knew was there was a timer on his bomb, and nobody was even attempting to deactivate it.

Grumbling quietly to himself, he turned his head to his left and watched in disgust as Krislynn stuffed her mouth full of cake. He couldn’t believe how much of a pig she was. Not only did she devour three plates during supper, now that dessert was served, she was hogging the entire layered cake all to herself while the rest of them were content with a tiny slice or opted out of dessert completely.

“Slow down,” he mumbled, giving her foot a sharp kick beneath the table. “You make it seem like I’ve been starving you at home.”

Krislynn chewed feverishly and swallowed before sighing in utter romance. “It’s so good,” she gasped dramatically. “I could live off of this stuff!”

Michelle snickered as Seth nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, the kiwi filling in that cream cake is to die for,” he said, “but it’s pretty fattening stuff.”

“Yeah,” Chase scoffed. “Trust Seth to be the one watching his figure.”

“You can’t blame him,” Pete teased. “He’s been looking a little fat on camera lately.”

“Oh ha ha! You guys are so freakin’ funny!” Seth rolled his eyes and flipped them the bird in a jest. “At least I’m good-looking enough to be on camera you fugs.”  

“That’s weak,” Chase shouted. “And obviously untrue. I mean, have you looked at this baby?” Jokingly, he ran his hands down his body from the top of his chest to the base of his abdomen and Michelle gagged loudly in response.

“Besides,” Pete added dramatically, “for someone to pay someone as good-looking as me to stand in front of the camera; isn’t that a form of prostitution?”   

“That’s not true,” Seth hollered, cracking up at his remark. “Chase is a freakin’ whore. Nobody ever pays him!”

Jace chuckled quietly at their playful banter which was getting louder and louder with every passing second, but stayed completely out of their vulgarity altogether. Tilting his head to the side, he directed his gaze to Krislynn and smiled. “Is the cake really that good?” He asked.

Krislynn’s heart stopped beating. Jace’s voice was like the sun breaking through a wall of dark clouds on a cold winter’s day. Its rays were infectious and embraced everything it touched with such warm gentleness that it could bring a wilting flower back to life.

Embarrassed, Krislynn’s shifted her eyes to the side. She had no idea that his voice alone could send her body into an ecstasy of frantic tingles. Or at least, she hoped it was his voice that made her heart stop beating and not the amount of cholesterol she had just inhaled in the past hour.  

Moving her gaze to the side, she found LaCienega staring at her curiously. Her face was expressionless as if she was deeply analyzing her every move like a lioness studying its prey, waiting for just the right moment of weakness to appear before she attacks.

“Didn’t you get a slice earlier?” Krislynn asked casually, careful not to start another scene like earlier that day at the beach. She wasn’t scared of LaCienega, though after everything that happened at the volleyball game, she probably should be. It was just that she had painfully realized her involvement with Jace, even on a very light and friendly level, may complicate things, and that was the last thing she wanted.

She had taken the time to think through her situation carefully during the last few hours and realized she had been too relaxed in welcoming this new lifestyle Chase had brought along with him. Although he was her benefactor, Krislynn was solely depending on him, and she knew that wasn’t smart. Her history with men had taught her better. A lot better.

First thing Monday, she decided, she would go out and look for a job. She couldn’t forget why she was here in L.A in the first place. She needed to find her best friend Ella and she needed to pay Chase back the money she owed him. Getting a job on top of cleaning up around the house for Chase would prove to be beneficial. She could save up some money on one hand, and on the other, she could pay Chase back which will no doubt lessen her debt and time.

She knew she had to get out of L.A before she started growing attached to everything that was here. She wasn’t like Chase or Michelle or the rest of them. She didn’t belong here. Her stay wasn’t permanent.

“I was full earlier,” Jace replied, “but watching you eat that is really tempting.” He turned to smile at LaCienega who smiled back weakly in response.

“Try it. It’s really good.” Michelle held up a knife from the other end of the table and smiled perhaps a little too fondly with the gleaming object in her hand. “I got the cake from that new bakery that opened up downtown. Their cheesecake is the best thing ever, but Seth has a massive obsession with this kiwi cake for some odd reasons.”

“Because it’s unique,” Seth interrupted, “and honey dear, would you mind not holding the knife that way? It’s sort of, just sort of, a little freaky. Here, I’ll cut Jace a slice if you like.”

Grumbling Michelle obliged and Seth served a slice of cake to Jace before sneaking another one for himself. Chase continued bickering with Pete until he overheard Jace persuading LaCienega to share the cake with him and watched curiously on the sideline. At first she hadn’t wanted to eat it, but then, after Jace scooped a bit up on his fork and brought it in front of her mouth, she couldn’t resist letting him feed her.

Krislynn caught Chase staring at them and copied Jace, taking a fork full of cake from her plate and holding it up for him. “Want?” She asked, tilting her head and waving the utensil in front of him to distract his gaze from the couple.

The corner of his lips curved upwards. “No thanks,” he muttered. “You’ll probably stick that thing all the way down my throat given the chance.” He grinned letting her know it was a joke and she responded with an eye roll.

“I probably would too,” she said. “Who would blame me?”

After what seemed like forever, dinner finally ended and all of them except LaCienega, who said she was too tired to go, drove down to the amusement park. Darkness had fallen over the Santa Monica pier and even from the distance, Krislynn could make out the lit up Ferris Wheel among a lot of other rides, marking down the location of the amusement park like a big, red X on a treasure map.

Almost as soon as they arrived, Michelle dragged Seth away to win her a teddy bear at one of the arcade stands leaving Chase, Krislynn, Pete and Jace, not quite sure what to do with themselves. While Krislynn wanted to hop on every single amusement park ride in sight, Chase and Pete just wanted to sit down and drink the bottle of Crown Royal they had cunningly snuck inside.

Krislynn grumpily followed the guys around the park as they tried to find a place to sit down. “You guys suck,” she hollered. “What’s the point of coming if all you want to do is sit and drink?”

“We didn’t really want to come,” Chase pointed out.

“Well, you guys still suck.” She took extra care in stomping her foot on the ground with each step she took to show her anger. “It feels like I’m at the amusement park with the seniors I used to do candy stripping for.”

Jace chuckled weakly beside her. “I don’t mind going on a couple rides with you,” he said.

Her eyes lit up like the rides around her. “Yeah?” She shrieked loudly, and then paused and shifted her eyes over to Chase. “Um... No it’s okay. Maybe a little bit later...”

Chase rolled his eyes and took a seat down on a wooden picnic table opposite of Pete. “You can go if you want,” he said. “I don’t mind.”

“Yeah?!” In her excitement, she let out a squeal of happiness. “Are you sure?” She asked. “For sure you’re okay with it?”

No. He wasn’t okay with it. Not completely anyways, but he had a hard time saying no to her when she smiled like that.

“Go,” he groaned. “Before I change my mind. And Jace, you have my full permission to just leave her somewhere if she starts acting like an embarrassment.”

Jace chuckled and Krislynn stuck her tongue out at him as they left. “Let’s ride the Death Machine first,” he heard her shouting at Jace as they left.

“I wonder if he’s really going to be okay babysitting that psycho,” he muttered, turning his head to face Pete who smirked at him knowingly. “She’s going to destroy him... What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Oh I don’t know.” Pete’s smirk only grew as he swung his arm around Chase. “I’m assuming you can see it though. I mean, you’ve been friends with Jace since forever right? You can’t not see that – the way he acts around her.”

Chase only snatched the bottle of whiskey from Pete’s hands and took a swig. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he lied.

***

Krislynn hopped off the Tagada and waved her arms in the air taking in a deep breath of the cool ocean breeze. “That was so much fun,” she screamed. Smiling, she turned around to look at Jace who was wobbling about the crowd of people getting off the ride. “Hey, are you okay?”

Forcing a smile, Jace nodded. “I’m okay with riding rollercoasters,” he said, “but I’m not really good with things that jolt back and forth while spinning at random velocities during random intervals.” He chuckled nervously as he raised an arm and scratched the back of his head. “I can’t see a thing now,” he laughed. “Everything in front of me is blurry.”

Krislynn bit her lip and tried to restrain herself from bursting out into laughter as she took his glasses out from the tote bag she brought along. “That’s because I have your glasses,” she murmured. “Remember I took them off before the ride since you always have to hold onto them so they won’t fall?” She walked up to him, slid his glasses back into their rightful place and then blushed when his eyes focused and stared right into hers.

For a few seconds, they just smiled shyly at each other, but then the awkwardness sunk in and they both turned away and started walking aimlessly through the park. “Well, we’ve been on a bunch of different rides already,” Jace mumbled. “Is there anything else you want to go on?”

“Um... The Ferris Wheel, I guess.” Her hands darted inside the pockets of her pants and she suddenly felt nervous, like she was about to stand in front of a stadium full of people to sing. “But I sort of want to ride that with... you know... that stupid donkey.”

Jace’s face went from excited, to confusion and then to what almost seemed a little sad to Krislynn. “Oh...” He murmured. “You mean Chase. Of course you would want to ride something like that with Chase.” He paused for a moment before adjusting his glasses and smiling at her. “We’ve been gone for a long time. Do you want to call him and ask him if he wants to meet up? Then you guys can go ride the Ferris Wheel together.”

Krislynn met his cheerful expression with one of her own. “Okay,” she said. “But I broke my phone last week and haven’t replaced it yet. Do you think you can call him?”

“Sure.” In a few seconds, Jace had his phone pressed up against his ear listening to the ringing from the other end until Chase’s voice resonated through the line.

“Hell–”

Krislynn watched his eyebrows scrunch up in distress. “Hello?” He shouted into the phone. “Hello? Chase? Hello? Oh dear.” His eyes went big as he sucked in a deep breath. “Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.”

“What is it?”

Jace stared at her apologetically. “My phone. It’s run out of batteries. I’m so sorry Krislynn!” Groaning, he buried his head in his hands. “What are we supposed to do now? We have no way of contacting any of them. What are we going to do?!”

“Don’t– Don’t worry.” Krislynn quickly offered him an energetic smile. “It’s not your fault. Don’t worry. Let’s just walk back to the picnic table and see if Chase and Pete are still there. Worst case scenario, we can’t find any of them and head back to the house by ourselves, right?”

“Oh okay. You’re right. It’s not that big of a deal when you put it that way.” Jace sighed in relief before the both of them headed back in the direction of where they first came from. Ten minutes later, they found their way back to the picnic table, but Chase and Pete were unfortunately nowhere in sight.

Deciding to end the night early, they started moving towards the parking lot where Jace had left his car. “Too bad you guys all parked in different places and I can’t remember where Chase left his truck,” Krislynn muttered. “Otherwise, we could wait for them there.”

“Unfortunately,” Jace agreed, nodding his head fervently. “By the way Krislynn, do you remember how to get back to the house?”

Krislynn took a deep breath. “Oh dear,” she said.